 
# The Karma of Mao

## The Incompatibility of Socialism and Marxism with Buddhist Principles

## Susanna Godoy Lohse

## Copyright ©2013

## Published on Smashwords by LibertyBelle Publishing, Inc.

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# Copyright

LibertyBelle Publishing, Inc., 332 Westway Drive #4, Kerrville, Texas 78028, _www.libertybellepublishing.com, sglohse@libertybellepublishing.com_

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Text copyright ©2012, ©2013 by Susanna Godoy Lohse, Cover Design copyright © 2012, by Susanna Godoy Lohse

The Karma of Mao: The Incompatibility of Socialism and Marxism with Buddhist Principles

ISBN No. 978-0-9778157-0-8

LCCN: 2013902989

Publisher's Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lohse, Susanna Godoy.

The karma of Mao : the incompatibility of socialism and Marxism with Buddhist Principles/ Susanna Godoy Lohse.

p. cm.

ISBN: 978-0-9778157-1-5 (pbk.)

ISBN: 978-0-9778157-0-8 (e-book)

1. Buddhism. 2. Communism. 3. Socialism. 4. Marx, Karl, 1818-1883. 5. Social values. I. Title.

HM681 .L65 2013

294.3—dc23

2013902989

Published in the United States of America

# Chapter One - History, Principles and Myths

This book is based on the teachings of the Buddha, as well as the prolific writings of a 13th Century Japanese Buddhist monk named Nichiren (1222-1282).

Buddhism is the name given to a collection of teachings first introduced by Gautama Buddha approximately 2500 years ago, although the exact year of the Buddha's birth is not known. Buddhist scholars in the 13th Century had the Buddha's birth much earlier, at 949 B.C. Through the centuries, Buddhism branched in an easterly direction from India into China and surrounding Asian nations, arriving from Korea to Japan in the 6th Century.

It is also a religion that is based on the Buddha's enlightenment to the truth of all phenomena. In other words Buddhism is about seeking the truth, whatever it may be. Even non-Buddhist scriptures can be considered Buddhism.

The Buddha left the life of being a wealthy and sheltered young man to seek an explanation for what he witnessed when he looked over the wall of his family compound. As the story goes, he saw one person dying, another being born, another sick, and another old. These came to be known as the four sufferings.

At the age of 30, he became enlightened to the ultimate reality of all things while sitting under a Bodhi (fig) tree. Although there is disagreement among scholars as to what he awakened to in his final stage of enlightenment, whether it was The Four Noble Truths, or The Twelvefold Chain of Causation, the law of causation (cause and effect), or 'Mystic Law' is at the core of all the Buddha's teachings. Nothing can exist independently of this law.

To attain enlightenment is also to become aware of one's own Buddha nature and the Buddha nature inherent within all sentient beings, as well as a deep understanding of karma within one's own life and the lives of others.

Karma is the result of our past causes. The causes we make will eventually redound to us, if not immediately, then at some point in the future. The lotus flower is a metaphorical representation of this law because it is a kind of plant that flowers and seeds simultaneously.

Within every cause lies a dormant effect. It may lie dormant for seconds, minutes, days or years, or even until a future lifetime. That our causes redound to us is explained by the storage of all that we do in what is known the Alaya conscious, the eighth level, or the second to the deepest level of the sub-conscious mind. This karma storehouse is akin to a permanent non-erasable computer hard drive. Wherever you go, your Alaya conscious goes with you, storing every one of your actions, your thoughts, and your words, including everything you observe with all of your five senses. It is thus what you carry in your subconscious mind that affects your future behavior and circumstances. You are the sum total of whatever you have loaded onto your mental hard drive, and that includes all the television shows and films you have watched, everything you have ever said, or thought.

As to why some of the most evil among us, like Mao Zedong seem to escape their karma (I get more specific about Mao's karma in Chapter Nineteen), according to Nichiren, "if a person is inevitably destined to fall into hell in his next existence, then even if he commits a grave offense in this life, then he will suffer no immediate punishment. The _icchantika_ , men of incorrigible disbelief are examples of this." Nichiren further elaborates on the definition of _icchantika_ as "scorched seeds," "dead trees or stony mountains" that can never bring forth life, and "Icchantika of the most evil type will invariably fall into the hell of incessant suffering at the time of their successive rebirths." [ _On the Opening of the Eyes (II)_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 2, p. 199).

With regard to people who are not as evil as the _icchantika_ , karmic retribution comes quickly to a good person; this is what the Buddha taught—"although a person might slander the True Law, if he is not an unspeakably evil person, he will be warned at once in a dream and will have a change of heart." [ _On the Opening of the Eyes (II)_ , Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 2, p. 199).

Buddhism is divided into two major schools, Hinayana (Lesser Vehicle) and Mahayana (Greater Vehicle). Hinayana Buddhist beliefs come from the Buddha's earlier teachings, or pre-Lotus Sutra sutras. Both provisional and essential Mahayana Buddhism is derived from the Lotus Sutra and subsequent sutras, such as the Nirvana Sutra. It is not so much about following the precepts (rules of conduct) of the Hinayana teachings, as it is about faith, practice and study in the Buddha's most essential teaching, the Lotus Sutra.

In the early years after the Buddha attained enlightenment under the Bodhi (fig) tree, he taught his disciples to follow two hundred and fifty precepts. Following the precepts is at the core of the Hinayana path. Some precepts are still sound and reasonable to this day, regarding acts such as not killing, not lying, not stealing, inappropriate sexual conduct, refraining from greed, anger and wrongful thinking. However, after following the Buddha's advice for forty years, his disciples were stunned, when at the age of seventy, he told them to discard his earlier teachings, that he was about to reveal the essential truth of his enlightenment. Many of his disciples protested, refused to listen to him and walked out on him. but he was not disturbed, remarking that those who left "had deep and grave roots of sin and overweening pride" [ _The Beautiful Sutra of the Lotus Blossom_ , Leon Hurvitz, Chapter 2, Expedient Devices, p. 29].

The Lotus Sutra was revolutionary in that the Buddha taught that it was possible to attain enlightenment in one's present form, that it was possible to lighten, or lessen one's karma, that even evil people could eventually attain enlightenment, and that even women could attain enlightenment, without first having to be reborn as men. The Buddha also expounded that in an evil age to come, two thousand years after his death, it would serve as the one essential vehicle for enlightenment. Instead of believers having to make the effort of following the eightfold path of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right effort, right livelihood, right mindfulness, and right concentration, these all became the effects of following the one essential path. All of a believer's thoughts, words and deeds are determined by one's reverence for the law of causation and belief in the Lotus Sutra, which result in right views, right actions, right efforts, etc.

The Lotus Sutra is also the sutra where the Buddha revealed that his life spanned from the infinite past to the infinite future, making it clear that all of us have existed since the infinite past and will continue to exist into the infinite future. He also revealed that he had first attained enlightenment, not under the Bodhi tree in India, but in the infinite past.

This means that our lives, the causes that we make, and the effects that we receive, span from the infinite past to the infinite future, and that it is one's own thoughts, not the thoughts of others, one's own words, not the words of others, and one's own deeds, not the deeds of others that are the ultimate deciders of one's fate.

The Buddha also spoke of how he traveled through many world systems, appearing to teach people according to their level of understanding and their needs, and that he would continue appearing in the world into the infinite future.

## * * *

Adherents of Nichiren's teachings number in the millions and comprise one of the largest segments of all practicing Buddhists in the world, with the greatest growth in believers coming after World War II.

Nichiren left behind seven volumes of writings in the form of letters to his believers and scholarly essays. At the age of twelve, he observed that other Buddhist sects, including his own, all claimed to have the one path to enlightenment, so he determined that he would read and study all the Buddhist sutras and then make up his own mind as to which of the sects were correct.

In the year 1253, he came to the conclusion that the Lotus Sutra was the Buddha's most essential and superior teaching, and so, he began to denounce and criticize one sect after another for dismissing the Lotus Sutra as being inferior to other sutras. He was critical of monks who believed that the Buddha's teachings were not needed, that one could attain enlightenment simply by staring at a wall and meditating. And he was also critical of a sect that worshipped statues of an imaginary Buddha named Amida.

These criticisms led to many trials and persecution by the Japanese Shogunate. Nevertheless, he was adamant that the practices and beliefs of the Buddhist sects he considered heretical would only bring misfortunate upon the nation of Japan. He believed that Japan was an evil nation, and that if its people did not follow the correct path they would be beset by pestilence, famine, and eventually be invaded by outside forces. Persecuted and exiled more than once, he was nearly beheaded by a group of soldiers but for a large meteor that flew over their heads. Its crater remains today. Fortunately, he had enough strong and supportive Samurai followers to help him through some of his worst trials and tribulations.

In the years leading up to World War II, Japanese citizens mostly utilized Buddhism for funereal matters, and instead relied on Shinto beliefs for their daily life. During the war, Shinto religious zeal grew to its peak when the Japanese government forced Buddhist monks to build Shinto shrines on Buddhist temple grounds. The followers of Nichiren Buddhism often suffered persecution at the hands of government officials.

Nichiren Buddhism came to the United States by way of American military personnel and their war brides after World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, along with Japanese immigrants who arrived after the war.

## * * *

That not all Buddhist sects are alike is evident in Nichiren's teachings, and the many variations in what different sects believe has made it difficult for non-Buddhists to get a grasp of what Buddhists do and do not believe.

One myth is that Buddhists do not believe in the existence of gods. Buddhists are free to believe in heavenly deities if they wish. They are not worshipped, per se, but are viewed as protective forces. Nichiren Daishonin asked a god named Hachiman for protection just before he was nearly executed by soldiers of the Japanese Shogunate.

The second myth is that Buddhists won't eat meat, nor will they kill a fly. These precepts are derived from the Buddha's earliest teachings (Hinayana--Lesser Vehicle), and some Buddhists practice the precepts, however, other sects do not. Nichiren Daishonin did not eat meat from his days as a T'ien T'ai monk-in-training, but being a consummate scholar, he took to heart the words of the Buddha when the Buddha told his disciples to discard his provisional teachings, or "frankly cast aside my expedient devices," [ _The Beautiful Sutra of the Lotus Blossom_ , Leon Hurvitz, Chapter 2: Expedient Devices, p. 45] when it came to strict adherence to the precepts as a path to enlightenment. For this reason he was quite critical of Buddhist sects whose monks and lay believers continued to practice and believe in the Hinayana (Lesser Vehicle) path.

The third myth is that the main goal of Buddhists is to extinguish all desires in order to reach nirvana. This belief was a goal of Hinayana Buddhism but was a practice that the Buddha included when he asked his disciples to discard the provisional pre-Lotus Sutra teachings. What good was a disciple who had attained nirvana to those here on earth? According to the Buddha, those in the worlds of Learning and Realization as described above, although they work hard to attain nirvana "fall into the pit of nirvana and can neither benefit themselves or others." [ _The Opening of the Eyes (I)_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 2, p. 88]. Nichiren understood that desires, when channeled through faith could fuel enlightenment [ _Earthly Desires are Enlightenment_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 2, p. 227]. In other words, it is possible for a parent to gain wisdom in the process of praying for a sick child. For followers of Nichiren, who based his beliefs on the Lotus Sutra, the goal is to gain an understanding of the difference between good desires and destructive ones. Through faith, and practice, with the strict adherence to the belief that all causes one makes redound back to one's self, one learns to avoid making the destructive ones. The Buddha's own desire was to help all people attain enlightenment.

The fourth myth is that the primary practice of all Buddhists is silent meditation. Some sects practice meditation, however, others do not. Nichiren Buddhism consists of faith, practice and study in the Lotus Sutra, and its inherent concepts, especially the belief in the Mystic Law (of karma). Faith is nurtured and achieved through an assiduous practice that consists of morning and evening recitation of portions of the Lotus Sutra, and chanting of the Sutra's title.

The fifth myth is that there is only one Buddha in the world. The Buddha himself spoke of other buddhas, and also taught that we all have the potential to become buddhas.

The sixth myth is that all Buddhists worship statues of Gautama Buddha, or other buddhas. This is true in the case of some Buddhist sects, however, the Buddha, himself, told his followers not to worship him, but rather, revere the 'Law,' within his teachings. In his day, Nichiren suffered great persecution for criticizing a Buddhist sect (the Pure Land Sect) for worshipping statues of an imaginary buddha called Amida. A large statue, built during Nichiren's time, of Amida Buddha remains in Kyoto and is pictured in many travel brochures.

Buddhism is an old religion with many branches and shoots that have differing viewpoints and paths to enlightenment.

# Chapter Two - It's Not Your Fault Verses Looking Within

"It's not your fault," is a common belief held on the left. It's not your fault that you are poor and cannot rise above your circumstances. It's not your fault that you don't have a job. It's not your fault that you are unable to support your children.

Progressives blame the rich for the circumstances of the poor, much in the same way Karl Marx claimed that workers were exploited by the bourgeoisie, Adolph Hitler blamed the Jews for the state of the German economy, or a recent California teacher's union cartoon (on YouTube) faults the rich for the state of the California economy. This is clearly depicted with words and imagery where a rich man (wearing a hat similar to that of a Hasidic Jew) urinates on poor people. If only they raised taxes on the rich, then poor people wouldn't be so poor, so the message goes. The poor, themselves, are never to blame for their own situations. It's never their fault.

A similar argument is made on behalf of the poor when it comes to crime statistics. Political pundits and politicians, alike, try to explain away higher and higher crime rates by associating them to poverty, even though the number of crimes during the Great Depression of the 1930's was far lower per capita than it is now.

This tendency to blame others is in direct contradiction to a primary tenant of Buddhism. To look outside oneself for the causes of one's own suffering is also to slander the law of cause and effect, and to dismiss that we, ourselves, create our own karma, good or bad, as a result of the causes we make.

"If you wish to free yourself from the sufferings of birth and death you have endured through eternity, and attain supreme enlightenment in this lifetime, you must awaken to the mystic truth which has always been in your life . . . "If one does not perceive the essence of his own life, his past heavy sins cannot be blotted out" . . . "You must not seek any of Shakyamuni's 80,000 sutras or the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the universe outside yourself. Your mastery of the Buddhist teachings will not relieve you of mortal sufferings in the least, unless you perceive the essence of your own life." [ _On Attaining Buddhahood_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Volume One, p. 4].

Unlike the Buddha who became enlightened to the phenomenon that we are the sum total of all our past causes, lifetime after lifetime, that one must look within to find the causes of ones suffering, socialists prefer to lay the blame for the economic circumstances of one class of people onto another class of people.

The law of causation, or Mystic Law applies to everyone, rich or poor. ". . .the Lotus flower symbolizes the wonder of this Law." [ _On Attaining Buddhahood_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. One, p.4]. Just as the Lotus flower produces seeds at the same time it blooms, within every cause there is an inherent effect, whether it manifests now or later.

To not take personal responsibility for ones own support can lead to disastrous and tragic results. Those who go through life without ever becoming self-reliant may one day find themselves in dire circumstances in old age. When the Soviet Union collapsed, retired workers who had depended on the government for their needs, and expected the state to provide them with a pension, found themselves ruble-less.

# Chapter Three - The Fuels of Socialism - Hunger, Anger and Animality

As Buddhist scriptures spread into China and eventually Japan, scholars continued to refine and systematize the Buddha's teachings. A Chinese scholar named T'ien T'ai listed ten states of mind that a human being can experience, which comprised a portion of a greater concept known as the Three Thousand Worlds of Momentary Existence, or Ichinen Sanzen. These are known as the Ten Worlds of (1)Hell, (2)Hunger, (3)Animality, (4)Anger, (5)Tranquility, (6)Rapture, (7)Learning, (8)Realization, (9)Bodhisattva and (10)Buddhahood.

The World of Hell is the helpless feeling of being trapped in a miserable situation. A prisoner, trapped in a jail cell, with no chance of getting out, is most likely, in the World of Hell.

The World of Hunger, the root of avarice, or greed, and envy, is the state of one who never seems to have enough, always seeking more—more food, more wealth, more power, more of anything that a human being desires and can never get enough.

The World of Anger is not simply being in a constant rage, it is the state of all consuming egotistical, arrogant selfishness without regard for the feelings of others. It is a common state of cruel and ruthless dictators, or politicians who believe they have the right to micro-manage and dictate the behavior of all citizens, through mandates, rules, regulations and laws. Nevertheless, there are times when anger is justified, as long as it does not lead to actions in which we hurt others and later regret.

Animality is the state of reacting without thinking, or pondering consequences. Sometimes this can serve us well, but many times it does not. When a baby reacts to food he doesn't like and spits it out, this is an example of a person in the World of Animality.

In the World of Tranquility, a person is in control of one's behavior and tolerant of one's circumstances and surroundings, as one goes about one's daily business.

The World of Rapture is what a person feels when he or she is in love, or has just purchased a new car, or home. Parents welcoming a newborn baby into their lives for the first time are in the World of Rapture.

The World of Learning is the state where one learns from the teachings of others, orally, through books, or other media.

To be in the World of Realization is to learn from observation and connect the dots from what we see in the world.

The World of the Bodhisattva is to manifest compassion and forbearance towards one's fellow human being, with the desire to help them attain enlightenment. The quickest way to enlightenment is to follow the bodhisattva path of teaching others about the law of causation, and other teachings of the Buddha.

We all possess the Ten Worlds, including the World of Buddhahood. Throughout the day, some worlds manifest themselves in our state of mind, and some stay in the latent state. Some people spend most of their lives vacillating between one or two worlds. Perhaps you start out your morning in the World of Tranquility as you go about your daily morning routine, but by the time you are out in traffic, you may switch to being in the World of Anger, having to deal with bad drivers.

T'ien T'ai also theorized that one can be in one world within another. This is what he meant by the mutual possession of the ten worlds. For example, if you are in the middle of morning traffic, but haven't had your breakfast, you might be in the World of Hunger within the World of Anger. When you multiply the ten worlds by another ten worlds, it results in one hundred possible states of mind (10x10=100) that one can be in at any given time in one's life.

Marxists and strict socialists do not believe in private property ownership. "In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property." [ _The Communist Manifesto_ , II. Proletarians and Communists, Karl Marx, para. 12]. Instead, they believe that all property ought to be shared equally among citizens. However, in transferring property from the hands of individuals to the hands of the state, property is still under some kind of ownership, and that ownership is by the state. We are told that a national park belongs to all of us, but you will never find your name on the property deed, so, in fact, it belongs to the government, and is under the control of bureaucrats and government employees who would arrest you if you dared to establish a domicile within its boundaries.

A land grabbing capitalist may have an insatiable hunger to own more and more land, but the rulers of Marxist nations, like Vladimir Lenin and Fidel Castro, who outlawed individual property rights, and confiscated all property to be placed in the hands of the state, were, and/or are, even more grasping and greedy than a never satisfied land grabbing capitalist. Fidel Castro was listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the wealthiest billionaires in the world [ _Fortunes of Kings, Queens and Dictators_ , Forbes Online, Luisa Kroll, May 5, 2006].

Both a Marxist and an insatiable capitalist are in the Buddhist World of Hunger, but there is a major difference between the two. The capitalist may be just as grasping as the Marxist, but he knows that he must legally purchase the land, and goes through the proper channels to do so. This puts him in the Buddhist World of Realization within the World of Hunger. A Marxist who follows the teachings of Karl Marx or Vladimir Lenin, believes he is within his right to confiscate the property of others, outright. This puts him in the World of Hunger within the World of Anger, and he creates the karma of a greedy, insatiable thief. "One who robs another of food and clothing is sure to fall into the world of Hunger." [ _Letter from Sado_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, p. 40] Of course, if a land grabbing capitalist is not an ethical businessman, and egotistically uses trickery and deception to get what he wants, he, too, is in the world of Anger within the world Hunger, and will eventually get his own comeuppance.

Since all property belongs to the state in a one hundred percent socialist society, where the government owns the means of production, this would include everything, including the clothing on one's back, which is why citizens in such a state might as well be the same as denuded, but for the desire of the state to clothe its citizens.

According to the Lotus Sutra, property ownership is not considered evil. It is how property is obtained that matters. Property obtained through force, or theft, of course, carries negative karmic consequences.

Nichiren Daishonin had a disciple named Lord Ueno who controlled a large tract of land near the base of Mt. Fuji. After both Nichiren's and Lord Ueno's death, Lord Ueno's descendants donated a portion of the land to Nichiren's disciple, Nikko Shonin to establish a temple. To this day, the descendants of Lord Ueno continue to live on the remaining land and are prosperous. Had the Japanese Shogunate confiscated Lord Ueno's land holdings, he would not have been able to donate a portion of his land to the establishment a Buddhist temple.

Whether they call themselves socialists or not, those who believe all citizens are entitled to a certain level of material well being, health care, education, or whatever else they believe ought to be provided for them by the state, are not only in the World of Hunger and Anger, they also go in and out of the World of Animality.

The World of Animality is an infantile state where a person only reacts to his circumstances as each situation arises. He sees a child living in poverty on television, and he becomes outraged as to why the government isn't doing something about it. Like a child throwing a temper tantrum, he cries that it's the government's fault, or that it's the fault of wealthy people, or large corporations.

There is nothing wrong with being outraged at the sight of a child living in poverty, but the knee jerk reaction of demanding action from the government is different than the reaction of wanting to commit one's own time and money to remedying the situation however one sees fit.

Unlike a responsible adult who independently and of his own accord, commits his own time and money to alleviating the misfortunes of others, a socialist operates at an infantile level, like a child who sees candy in the grocery store, becomes angry when their parents don't buy it for them, and throws a temper tantrum. Just like children demanding candy, socialists demand free things, things they have not earned, have not worked for, and are not entitled to have. Notice how socialists never demand equal happiness for all. Their focus has always been on the wealth and property of others, and the inequality of those who are wealthy and those who are not.

# Chapter Four - Dependency Delays Enlightenment

The Buddha lived a sheltered life for the first 19 years of his life. It wasn't until he looked over the walls of his family's estate and saw his fellow human beings in the four stages of suffering: birth, sickness, old age, and death, that he set out to answer why there was so much suffering in the world.

With a strong desire, and seeking mind, he left the comforts of his home on a quest. In other words, he exchanged a dependent life for an independent one. Even in begging for alms from others, he still had to work, in a sense, for those alms.

Aspiring socialists, like overprotective parents, want to keep human beings sheltered from having to survive on their own, or live, and get by, in a manner of their own choosing.

When a parent encourages and assists a child in his or her effort to walk, the parent is enabling the child to travel on his own two feet independently. Under socialism citizens are made to be dependent on the state for all of their needs. Socialists seek to alleviate people from having to experience the consequences of their actions, inherently facilitating a lack of connection between the causes one makes and the effects one receives. When the state picks up the tab for the behavior of it's most irresponsible citizens, it prevents people from experiencing the consequence of their actions, keeps them in an infantile state, and removes incentives to make themselves into better people, thus thwarting their growth.

It is no coincidence that more new inventions originate in the United States than in any other nation on earth. Every day, scientists and ordinary citizens, alike, come up with new innovations or scientific breakthroughs. In other words, they have worked at enlightening themselves in ways that enable them to create new methods, new drugs, or new gadgets. Henry Ford, and Walt Disney would not have become so enlightened as to how to create and build what they built had they been dependents of a socialist welfare state. In socialist nations, innovations on the same level as produced by these great men do not exist. Socialism does not foster directors like P.T. Anderson, and the Coen Brothers to make brilliant films. Films made in nations just as civilized, but under more socialistic constraints, like the U.K. or France, for instance, rarely come to the level of films made by American filmmakers.

In stifling independence, socialism delays the growth and enlightenment of the individual on all levels. Had the Buddha never left the walls of his family compound, and struck out on his own, he would have never attained enlightenment.

# Chapter Five - The Enlightened Individual Verses the Unenlightened Collective

In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha spoke of a prior reincarnation of himself as a bodhisattva who made a commitment to tell everyone he met that he believed they would eventually become buddhas, no matter how shabbily he was treated. His name was Bodhisattva Never Disparaging. "I profoundly revere you all! I dare not hold you in contempt. What is the reason? You are all treading the Bodhisattva-path and shall succeed in becoming Buddhas." [ _The Beautiful Sutra of the Lotus Blossom_ , Leon Hurvitz, Chapter 20: The Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, p. 280] Even though Bodhisattva Never Disparaging was reviled and beaten with sticks and stones, he maintained forbearance and continued to tell those he met that he believed they would one day become Buddhas.

Fundamentally, to regard all people as potential buddhas is to respect their individuality and dignity as human beings who have the right to make their own choices. It is a belief that gives us the liberty to be the masters of our own destinies, with the understanding that there are consequences to every one of our thoughts, words, and deeds. Even children, who must temporarily live under the authority of their parents, must be taught to understand that it is they who will ultimately be responsible for themselves.

Naturalists and animal lovers believe that animals should be free to pursue their own happiness and survival, surrounded by their natural habitats. And yet, the central idea of both Marxism and socialism, 'from each according to his ability to each according to his need,' that the individual must serve the collective, does not support the belief that human beings should be allowed the same freedoms, to live as they choose, so long as they don't harm others, and to make mistakes and suffer the consequences of their own actions, just as animals do in nature.

In the eyes of some, it may seem selfish to pursue one's own happiness and provide for his own needs over and above the needs of the collective, but an individual who is robbed of the chance to provide for himself and his family is also robbed of his dignity. And to force an individual to be dependent on a government against his or her will is akin to capturing a bird, placing it in a cage and providing it with food. This is true for even those who have the misfortune of not being able to care for themselves due to illness, old age, or other reasons, and must rely on the charity of others. There is far more dignity in being independent, even in old age. Imagine forcing the Buddha to work against his will on a collective farm, because of there being a rule that everyone must pull his weight and that individual aspirations must be sacrificed to the greater good.

When the state owns the means of production, workers are expected to contribute as much as possible to keep the collective producing. Unauthorized slacking is not tolerated. Everyone must do their fair share of work to the best of their ability. The decision of how much time a worker gets to take off, and when, is not in the hands of the individual. It must be approved by the collective, lest there be those who take advantage of others. Inherently, having to ask permission to quit or change jobs robs the individual of his or her own dignity as a human being and as a potential Buddha. Workers are placed in a similar position as a child who must ask his mother for permission to do anything. It is patronizing and condescending. Married couples under Chinese communist rule were often forced to live and work in different cities, due to the many restrictions placed on workers who wished to switch jobs. Instead of revering the individual, as did Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, the state looks upon individuals as components of a machine, all made to serve the collective and greater good.

Under capitalism, a person can work hard and live on a tight budget for years, or work at a second or third job to save for a dream vacation, purchase a boat, take time off to pursue a hobby, or even move back home to live with Mom and Dad and start a business in their garage or basement. That luxury does not exist under socialism for the average worker. If a worker puts in extra hours, the fruits of his labor belong not to him, but to the collective. As for a vacation home, only those with high up inner party connections are allowed to spend time in a resort setting. The average Cuban citizen is barred from entering the grounds of resorts where foreign tourists stay (unless they work at a resort). Under communism, the Buddha would have been arrested and thrown in jail for being a slacker.

Most adults are enlightened enough to their own needs and aspirations to understand and determine their own individual paths in life, and sometimes that does not mean a job that serves the greater good, or the collective. Sometimes it simply means living out ones own personal dream, such as that of being an abstract painter. Many people pray to find out their true mission in life. Some people meditate or chant for hours to clarify their minds and make the right the decisions in their daily lives. The state does not commune with a heavenly being, or worship the essence of the universe which Buddhist call the Mystic Law, for the welfare of any one individual. This is something only the individual can do for himself.

As for pursuing a calling such as that of being an abstract painter, do socialists really believe that a government is so enlightened that an appointed bureaucrat can decide if a budding Renoir should be allowed to spend the rest of his life painting, and live off the largess of the state?

Everyone has the potential of attaining enlightenment, but people will never be equal in their aspirations, or equal in fortune. Not everyone will have the opportunity to live in a home with an ocean view. There is no equality when it comes to living in a home with a beautiful backyard vista of fourteen thousand foot mountain peaks, which is just one of many ways that it is impossible to make everyone equal under socialism. (In the chapter on Oneness of Person and Environment, I will discuss how a Buddha's land and surroundings are distinctively different that those of an unenlightened man).

Great harm can come to an individual who must live under the rules of a collective that is not as enlightened to his or her needs as is the individual. For instance, in the matter of health care, forcing citizens to obtain cures within the parameters of a health care system decided upon by the state is at times detrimental to their health. This happens all the time in Canada and the U.K. where people must often endure excruciating pain or discomfort while waiting for months to have operations, such as hip surgery. Wealthier Canadians travel to the U.S. to get the health care they need, if they do not wish to wait their turn for an operation, or they fly to countries like India or Singapore to state of the art hospitals where surgical procedures are provided at a fraction of the cost compared to the U.S.

In a one hundred percent socialistic society, citizens do not even have the funds to pursue cures outside a government health care system. Flying to India to consult with a renowned herbal medicine man is out of the question. If you believe this cannot happen, for many years, the average Cuban worker living under communism earned the equivalent of about fifty cents a day.

In the United States many people prefer to take natural supplements to address their specific health care needs, such as flax seed oil for arthritis, instead of pharmaceutical drugs that can cause damage to the lining of the stomach. Cuban citizens living under the Castro brothers' dictatorship, in a time when strict socialist policies were enforced, would have had to work for at least two weeks just to purchase one bottle of flax seed oil capsules, if it were possible for them to purchase them at all.

One more example has to do with how local governments are more efficiently run than governments based on central planning, or at the national level. Just as the individual is more enlightened to his or her own needs, local government officials are more attuned to the needs of their municipalities and counties than federal government officials, which is why the U.S. federal government often bungles government programs like when taxpayers dollars are used to pay dead farmers millions in subsidies [ _Dead Farmers Get Millions in Federal Crop Insurance Payouts_ , Charles Abbott, InsuranceJournal.com, July 2013]. Sometimes, decisions made by the dictatorship of the proletariat at the highest levels can kill people. In the Ukraine, between 1932 and 1933, when Joseph Stalin ordered that all grain produced in the Ukraine be taken away to be redistributed throughout the Soviet Union, and sold to non-Soviet nations, 10 million Ukrainians were left without food, and starved to death. China, under Mao Zedong, was also exporter of food during the time of the Great Leap Forward while millions of Chinese died of starvation and torture on collectives.

If Bodhisattva Never Disparaging had been a socialist, instead of dignifying all human beings as future buddhas, with the right to seek out their own path to enlightenment, he would have instead told those whom he met that it was their duty to sacrifice their aspirations and needs to the needs of a collective, and the greater good, like the Ukrainians and Chinese sacrificed their needs to the needs of their respective governments.

# Chapter Six - The True Bodhisattva Way Verses the Pretense of Charity by the State

There are two kinds of bodhisattvas: Bodhisattvas of the Buddha's provisional teachings (which include Hinayana and provisional Mahayana), and bodhisattvas of the essential Mahayana teaching. Hinayana bodhisattvas mostly practice the Buddha's 'expedient devices', or precepts for their own salvation. Mahayana bodhisattvas of the provisional Mahayana teaching (the first fourteen chapters of the Lotus Sutra) practice both for themselves and others, exhibiting and guiding others in the way of things like virtue, courage, or engaging in charitable acts.

The second kind of bodhisattvas, or bodhisattvas of the essential Mahayana teaching (the last fourteen chapters of the Lotus Sutra) are those whom the Buddha predicted would rise up out of the earth in an evil age, 2000 years after his death, or Bodhisattvas of the Earth [ _The Beautiful Sutra of the Lotus Blossom_ , Leon Hurvitz, Chapter 15: Welling Up Out of the Earth, p. 225]. Unlike the bodhisattvas of the Buddha's earlier teachings, their manifestation of compassion for others would be to teach others about the Lotus Sutra and the Mystic Law. In contrast to the job of a bodhisattva who selflessly dedicates himself to charitable acts, which is more akin 'giving a man a fish, and feeding him for a day,' the job of a Bodhisattva of the Earth is more akin to 'teaching a man how to fish, and feeding him for a lifetime.'

To impart the importance of having a deep reverence for Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra, that one's thoughts, words and deeds are the determinants of one's own fortune, be it good or bad, is ultimately the most valuable piece of knowledge one person can impart to another for a life of happiness and well-being. A believer need not worry about adhering to individual components of The Eightfold Path of Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration, because by having reverence for the one law, and living one's life accordingly, one automatically does the right thing in all aspects of one's life.

Socialists, at first appear to be like the bodhisattvas of the provisional teachings, with their lofty aspirations to take care of the needs of their citizens by providing everyone with free food, free housing, free medical care and free education. However, behind the mask of caring and compassion, socialist-minded politicians can never get enough of what they are seeking, be it more tax dollars, or more control over citizens and businesses. Their hungry, grasping nature is so all encompassing that they tirelessly work, one incremental step at a time, towards a one hundred percent socialist state. Even if they are not able to nationalize companies and place the ownership of the means of production into the hands of the workers, they strive to socialize the results of production. In the words of W. Allen Wallace: "[Socialism] intellectually bankrupt after more than a century of seeing one after another of its arguments for socializing the means of production demolished—now seeks to socialize the results of production. " [ _Free to Choose_ , Milton and Rose Friedman, Chapter 4, Cradle to Grave, p. 95]. Each new tax is a small, but important victory whereby the results of production are socialized. Each new rule and regulation imposed on businesses is one step closer toward crippling and breaking the backs of businesses (especially those they aspire to nationalize), and destroying the incentive of anyone who would wish to become an entrepreneur.

In contrast to socialist legislators and appointed government officials who claim to have the welfare of all citizens uppermost in their minds, and use other people's money to carry out their lofty goals, an individual who gives his own time and money to a charitable cause of his choosing, more closely follows the path of a bodhisattva of the provisional teachings.

When he was exiled to a remote island off the coast of Japan, Nichiren was not expected to survive, however, some of his followers went to great lengths, risking their lives to take him food and supplies from their own personal storehouses. Without their charity, he would not have lived. They not only took great risks to their own safety, they defied the intention of the government who expected Nichiren to die from starvation, or lack of shelter in exile. However, Nichiren, himself, believed that some charitable acts could actually lead to misfortune: ". . . if one should give alms to those who slander the Lotus Sutra, then the land in which this happens will invariably be visited by the three calamities and seven disasters, and the persons who give such alms will surely fall into the citadel of the hell of incessant suffering." (the three calamities are war, pestilence and inflation, and the seven disasters are foreign invasion, pestilence, internal strife, unusual occurrences in the heavens, unseasonable droughts, solar and lunar eclipses, unseasonable storms) [ _The Teaching, Capacity, Time and Country_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 4, p.11]. In other words, he felt there was a big difference between giving alms to a good person and giving alms to an evil person.

Ironically, many dedicated socialists and communists have a particular loathing for the charitable acts of individuals, especially the charity of Christians, and the charity of wealthy philanthropists. They cannot stand the idea of less fortunate recipients of charity being obliged to express gratitude to those whom they loathe and abhor.

Even back in the 13th Century Nichiren Daishonin recognized the flaws of socialism in his observations of a priest named Ryokan. In his essay entitled Conversations Between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man, placing himself in the position of the story's sage, he tells of how Ryokan, an eminent priest and contemporary of Nichiren, lauded for his charitable activities became renown throughout Japan. One of Priest Ryokan's accomplishments was to set up road barriers along seven highways to stop travelers, collect rice from them, and use the rice as currency to fund the building of bridges.

The unenlightened man thought very highly of Priest Roykan and his charitable endeavors. However, during the course of his dialogue, the sage admonished the unenlightened man for his praise of Priest Ryokan: "And as for this matter of building roads and constructing bridges, it only causes people trouble. The charitable activities at Ijima-no-tsu and the collecting of rice at Mutsura Barrier have brought unhappiness to a great many people, and the setting up of barriers along the seven highways of the various provinces has imposed a hardship upon travelers. These are things that are happening right in front of your eyes. Can't you see what is going on?" [ _Conversations Between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 5, p. 49]. We think nothing of taxing citizens to build roads today, but building roads that are funded by taxpayers are neither acts of compassion, nor are they acts of charity.

Another comparison one can make is to compare a socialist professor with a Bodhisattva of the Earth, the noblest kind of bodhisattva. Both see it as their job to impart knowledge. The socialist professor teaches students that in a perfect Marxist society, there should be equal outcomes in the way of material wealth and benefits for all citizens, and that the ideal citizen must place the collective , or greater good, above his or her own needs, thus relegating the individual to a subservient position.

In contrast, a Bodhisattva of the Earth teaches others that each person is responsible for his or her own well-being, that it is the law of causation that will determine one's fortune for better or worse. Each person is at his own level on his path to enlightenment. Equality of outcome goes against the law of causality, because different causes produce different effects, and we are all on varying levels on the path to enlightenment. The Buddha often singled out certain bodhisattvas and either reprimanded them for their wrongful thinking, or lauded them for their actions, often predicting their futures as buddhas in their own right. He did not see his disciples as being equally deserving of equal outcomes, regardless of their actions. However, he did see them all as potential buddhas.

The Buddha told his disciples to "frankly cast aside my expedient devices," [ _The Beautiful Sutra of the Lotus Blossom_ , Leon Hurvitz, Chapter 2: Expedient Devices, p. 45], and prophesized that there would come an evil era 2000 years after his passing, that the act of teaching others (the specific job entrusted to the Bodhisattvas of the Earth) would have more efficacy for the purpose of attaining enlightenment than a strict adherence to the precepts (expedient devices), such as alms giving. However, what socialists do is adopt the Hinayana and provisional Mahayana precept of alms giving, and make it mandatory. Alms giving by force becomes the rule. There is nothing wrong with being charitable to those who are truly in need, and who do not take advantage of charitable people. However, when a progressive minded educator teaches that it is more important to place the greater good above one's own needs, and that we are all entitled to the fruits of other's labor, it is a form of bullying, much like the present day rhetoric where progressives are attempting to vilify wealthier citizens for not paying even more in taxes than what they already do.

The most obvious distinction between socialists and genuinely charitable individuals or organizations is that the former operate mostly in the World of Hunger within the World of Anger, with only a pretense of being on the bodhisattva path, and the latter are people who truly act as bodhisattvas, be they the bodhisattvas of the provisional teachings who 'give men fish,' or the Bodhisattvas of the Earth who 'teach men to fish.'

# Chapter Seven - The Oneness of Person and Environment

"Environment is like the shadow, and life, the body. Without the body there can be no shadow. Similarly, without life, environment cannot exist, even though life is supported by its environment." [ _On Omens_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 4, p. 146].

In the Peanuts comic strip, there is a character named "Pigpen." Wherever he goes, Pigpen is followed and surrounded by his own personal cloud of dirt. In a way, we carry with us our own invisible environmental blueprints that dictate where and how we live our lives.

A Chinese Buddhist scholar named Miao-lo (711-782) derived a concept from the Lotus Sutra he called the "Oneness of Person and Environment." Like Pigpen, we are inseparable from our environment and one's inner mind is always reflected in one's environment. This is what the Buddha spoke of when he mentioned a bodhisattva named Kasyapa and described how Kasyapa's land would appear once he attained enlightenment: "I see that Kasyapa, in ages to come . . . shall become a Buddha . . . His land will be pure, with lapis lazuli for soil, and with many jeweled trees lining the roadways, and with the roads set off by golden cords . . ." [ _The Beautiful Sutra of the Lotus Blossom_ , Leon Hurvitz, Chapter 6: Bestowal of Prophecy, p. 121].

Socialists and Marxists, however, believe they can control a person's environment by relocating less fortunate citizens to newer and improved housing facilities, and conversely, force wealthier citizens to have a lower standard of living by confiscating their property, money, and forcing them to live in less luxurious surroundings.

In the 1960's two similar experiments, one conducted in the United States by Democratic President Lyndon Johnson, known as 'The Great Society,' and another conducted by Fidel Castro in Cuba, both ended up with the same results: bleak and depressing living conditions for the participants of the experiments.

Fidel Castro relocated many of the wives and children of thousands of farmers, whose privately owned tiny parcels of land he confiscated, and merged into large collectives, into the abandoned homes of wealthy and middle class Cubans, who had escaped with nothing but the clothes on their backs in order to avoid living in a communist/socialist state. At the time the farmers were first moved into the mansions, the mansions were in lovely condition. Now, many are dilapidated messes. A side note: before they could be forced into collectives, many of the farmers took up arms against the government, and died, in what is called 'The Secret War,' because outside journalists were banned from going into the Cuban countryside to find out what was really going on [ _Unvanquished: Cuba's Resistance to Fidel Castro_ , by Enrique Encinosa, 2004].

The tenants who moved into government funded housing projects, President Johnson's symbols of progressive caring, managed to destroy, and devalue their domiciles to resemble the same conditions of the shabby, dilapidated Havana mansions. They not only defaced and damaged property, they created an environment for children and adults alike of misery, fear, and despair, the very thing from which President Johnson's Great Society programs were supposed to have rescued them.

Both Dr. Castro and President Johnson toyed with human lives, by attempting to control the environmental conditions of their citizens, and both failed in their experimentation. Why did they fail? Judging by how these citizen's homes became shabby and dilapidated beyond what would be expected from normal wear and tear, they failed because both groups of citizens grew to have the mental outlook of people who have been robbed of their dignity, placed in a helpless, dependent state, and have no pride of ownership. In other words, to make people dependent is to change their state of mind from that of proud, self sufficient, self-governing free people, to that of people who are ashamed to be dependent on others, much like an adult man who feels ashamed at having to sleep on his mother's sofa because he cannot afford his own home.

In exchange for government welfare in the form of subsidized rent, the tenants in Lyndon Johnson's public housing projects traded in their self-respect and dignity. Public housing projects were degraded into such ramshackle conditions that many have since then been torn down. In Havana, some mansions have just crumbled and collapsed onto the ground. "...If the minds of the people are impure, their land is also impure, but if their minds are pure, so is their land. There are no two lands, pure and impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds." [ _On Buddhahood_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, p. 4].

Havana was once a gleaming city, and known as "The Paris of the Western Hemisphere," but under communist rule, it has continued to decay. The dilapidated mansions of Havana are not the only indicators of how socialistic policies destroy and damage the environment. Even though both capitalists and socialists have caused pollution, dirtied the water and harmed the land, there is a major difference in how these harms have been remedied through the years by the citizens who lived under each system. As a result, Marxist nations have done more damage to land, water and air than have ever been done by capitalist industries.

When it came to the attention of concerned citizens that industries here in the United States were causing pollution in rivers, and in the air, the voices of the people rose up and protested, and industries were made to respond by politicians who enacted new laws against it. In other words, the people took it upon themselves to do something about their own surroundings.

When there was a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the company responsible was made to clean up the mess and compensate those who were affected, by the United States government. However, there is no such oversight under socialism.

If the United States were to nationalize all the oil companies, and place control and ownership of all oil production in the hands of bureaucrats, and there was another oil spill, who would be there to clamp down on the government's careless actions? The bureaucrats? Even if the people protested, any penalties would be a joke. They could penalize the supervisors of the oil production, but how? Put them in jail for something they did at the direction of bureaucrats? A government run oil industry is nothing more than an all-encompassing mega-corporation with no oversight. This is what took place in communist Iron Curtain nations. According to Florida State University scientists ". . . the green revolution died quickly at the borders of the Soviet puppets. For obvious reasons, the "polluter pays" principle didn't sell well in systems where all industry is owned by the government. As a consequence, whole regions of what was then East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria resumed a descent into environmental hell." [ _Europe's Environmental Nightmare: Hard Road to Recovery_ , Research in Review, Florida State University, Summer 1996 Issue, by Frank Stephenson].

Placing ownership of just about anything into the hands of a government goes against the law of causation, especially because it relates to Buddha's belief that each individual must take personal responsibility for his own actions. It would be like being so foolish as to place your bank account into the hands of a thief, or an alcoholic, and expecting him to manage your finances for you. If the worst happened, then you would have only yourself to blame. Instead of purchasing a home with money you have worked hard to earn, you could work just as hard for a government, and yet find yourself living much like a slave on a plantation in the Old South who was provided with a 'free' shack to live in, 'free' food, 'free' medical care, and even a 'free' coffin to be buried in.

The Buddha pointed out that one's environment is a reflection of one's mental state. Try as they might, proponents of socialism and communism cannot deny the bleak, oppressive and miserable environmental conditions that arise under socialist policies.

# Chapter Eight - Respect for Natural Hierarchies Verses the False Pretense of Equality

"The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about the hallowed co-relation of parent and child, becomes all the more disgusting, the more, by the action of Modern Industry . . ." _[The Communist Manifesto_ , II. Proletarians and Communists, Karl Marx, para. 45].

Socialists like to dream of a society where everyone receives equal pay, housing and other benefits in equally metered amounts. They abhor hierarchal relationships such as that between a parent and a child, which is in direct contradiction to what goes on in nature, to what the Buddha taught, and even to what happened, and continues to happen in Marxist nations in a hypocritical contradiction to the Marxist ideal.

Although the Buddha taught that all people have the potential to become buddhas, regardless of their position in society, his teachings also reveal his acknowledgement of hierarchies that occurred both in nature, and among his disciples. He spoke of those who had achieved different levels on the path to enlightenment, such as ordinary human beings, bodhisattvas and other buddhas. The Buddha also pointed out a distinction between bodhisattvas of the provisional teachings (Hinayana and provisional Mahayana) and bodhisattvas of the essential teachings (essential Mahayana), the latter being the only bodhisattavas to whom he would entrust the teaching of the Lotus Sutra two thousand years after his death.

When predicting what would happen to those who slander Buddhists, or Buddhist teachings, the Buddha described the different possible states of rebirth they would experience: "they shall fall into the rank of beasts," "if they are dogs or yeh-kan (jackals), they will be hairless and emaciated, "if they are born among asses, on their bodies they shall ever carry heavy loads," "they shall be endowed with the bodies of monster serpents," indicating that to be born as a lower form of life was a result of negative causes from past lifetimes [ _The Beautiful Sutra of the Lotus Blossom_ , Leon Hurvitz, Chapter 3: Parable p. 77]

After the Buddha's passing, Buddhist scholars continued to elaborate on the importance of a hierarchal structure in society, including Nichiren who taught his followers the importance of the relationships between parent and child, teacher and student (or master and disciple), sovereign and citizen. In discussing the Chinese people's readiness for the teachings of Buddhism, as a result of their familiarity with pre-Buddhist scriptures, such as Confucianism, he believed that "[Confucians] taught the ideals of ruler and minister so that the distinction between superior and subordinate could be made clear, they taught the ideal of parenthood so the importance of filial piety could be appreciated, and they explained the ideal of the teacher so that men might be taught to follow." [ _The Opening of the Eyes (I)_ The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 2, p. 74].

Ironically, socialist university professors, who profess equality on the one hand, enjoy the superior verses subordinate hierarchy, and power they wield over students, utilizing the grading system to keep students subordinate.

Socialism supplants the hierarchal relationship between parent and child with a hierarchal relationship between the state and the individual, where the individual becomes subordinate to the collective. Welfare checks paid to single mothers have become substitutes for financial support from fathers, thus contributing to the destruction of the hierarchy between father and child. Day care centers, a product of the movement to make women equal with men, are supplanting the hierarchal relationship between mother and child for a large segment of a child's waking hours. Instead of being in a traditional marriage between a man and wife, where both parties have mutual respect for one another, a single mother on welfare must suffer the shame and humiliation of subordinating herself to a social worker that regularly scrutinizes her behavior as if she were a criminal reporting to a probation officer.

To claim that all people are more equal under socialism is hypocritical, because in destroying old hierarchies, which are more noble and honorable, newer hierarchies that demean the individual emerge, such as it was in the Soviet Union, or still is in Cuba, where those who are not of the apparatchik class are excluded from having certain privileges.

# Chapter Nine - The Principle of Tenju Kyoju - Changing Heavy Karma into Light Karma

Progressives aspire to provide cradle to grave entitlements to citizens in their attempts to prevent citizens from suffering hardships of any kind. This way of thinking goes against the Buddhist principle of _Tenju Kyoju_ or changing heavy karma into light karma.

"If one's heavy karma from the past is not expiated within this lifetime, one must undergo the sufferings of hell in the future, but if one experiences extreme hardship in this life, the sufferings of hell will vanish instantly." [ _Lessening One's Karmic Retribution_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, p. 17].

All sentient beings must endure the consequences of their past actions from one life to the next. In other words, the law of cause and effect that permeates all existence is absolute. "One who slights another will in turn be despised. One who deprecates those of handsome appearance will be born ugly, one who robs another of food and clothing is sure to fall into the World of Hunger . . ." [ _Letter from Sado_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, p. 40].

Even saints and sages have their troubles. "It is impossible to fathom one's karma. Iron, when heated in the flames and pounded, becomes a fine sword. Wise men and saints are tested by abuse. My present exile is not because of any crime. It is solely that I may expiate in this lifetime my past heavy slanders . . ." [ _Letter from Sado_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, p. 37-38]

There are ways to change heavy karma into light karma and one of those ways comes from a sincere and devoted Buddhist practice, developing a deep understanding of the workings of cause and effect in one's life, and in following the Bodhisattva path, as spelled out in the Lotus Sutra, of teaching and helping others understand the law of causation, and other Buddhist principles, to the best of one's ability. This includes grasping the importance of what it means to repay debts of gratitude to others. Able-bodied adults who have made it their lifestyle to be on the receiving end of welfare programs have little or no chance of repaying their debts to society. If one is too tempted to remain dependent on benefits provided by the state because of a false sense of entitlement, it becomes all the more difficult for one to repay one's debts of gratitude, and create better karma for one's future.

It is one thing for a society or community to help out those who are disabled, however, the rest of us should be allowed to fail, allowed to pick ourselves up, and allowed to find ways to feed and house ourselves, otherwise, we might as well be at a plantation master's beck and call, snared into a new and repackaged form of slavery.

Progressive programs like the massive distribution of food stamps may seem compassionate, but they rob people of the incentive to provide for themselves, suffer the lessons they need to learn, and expiate their bad karma. Food stamps make more money available for food purchases, which create a higher demand for various food products. When a product is in higher demand, it tends to go for a higher price, which means that food stamps contribute to higher grocery prices for even hard working people who pay for their own food, thus, food stamps become a way of making everyone pay more for their food, which, of course, has karmic consequences to those who use food stamps. And the more acceptable it becomes to be on the receiving end of subsidies, the more likely recipients are to develop a sense of entitlement (see more about entitlement in Chapter Sixteen). Even those who vote for political candidates because of their wish to 'get something for nothing,' who make it possible for more and more people to be dependent on the state, are not free from the karmic consequences of doing their part to enslave others in a vicious cycle of dependency.

One hundred years ago, an average lower working class family would have liver for their Sunday dinner and live on vegetables and gruel the rest of the week, or soup made from bones. It was meager faire, however, there is one thing they had that food stamp recipients of today don't have—dignity. They had the dignity of being self-sufficient. [ _Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan_ , Edmund Morris, Chapter 3 - A Dark Form Hidden in the Snow, p. 25].

In contrast to a system where Peter is robbed to pay Paul, there is no bad karma that comes from accepting charity in a true time of need from those who truly want to help, so long as one does not needlessly take advantage of that charity.

# Chapter Ten – The Sutra That Fulfills One's Wishes Verses Sacrificing for the Collective

The founder of the Honda Corporation converted to Nichiren Buddhism shortly after WWII and used his Buddhist practice as a springboard to expand his company into one of the most successful corporations of the Twentieth Century. He fulfilled his personal desires beyond his wildest dreams, and along the way created jobs for thousands both in Japan and abroad.

Mr. Honda did not spend his life sacrificing himself for the greater good. Instead he worked to fulfill his own personal desires and along the way affected the lives of millions.

The priest Nichiren, however, was willing to sacrifice himself for the Lotus Sutra, because he believed that the Lotus Sutra was the Buddha's most superior teaching and that the wisdom contained within would both fulfill the personal desires of believers, and be the salvation of the nation of Japan.

He was persecuted with sword and stone, and yet, along the way he received many miraculous benefits. When government officials attempted to behead him, a meteor flew over their heads and frightened them from carrying out the execution. They exiled him, instead. In exile, however, he was expected to die from starvation and the harsh, cold winters on Sado Island, and yet he defied his enemies, not only by surviving, he ended up writing some of his most important essays on Sado. After returning from exile, he spent the final eight years of his life undisturbed and left to continue his writings, leaving his disciples a wealth of writings for the foundation of a new and revolutionary Buddhist sect.

For him, sacrifice was a personal choice. He did not mandate his followers to do the same. Being critical of those who continued to adhere to the Hinayana belief that desires should be extinguished, he, instead, encouraged his followers that their belief, study and practice of the teachings in the Lotus Sutra would aid them in elevating their life conditions and lead to the fulfillment of their own personal desires. The goal of Nichiren Buddhism is not to extinguish all desires, but to suppress the negative ones and focus on the good ones. Desires and determinations, especially those expressed in thought at the time of prayer, are the catalysts for change.

In one letter he wrote while in exile to the parents of a sick little girl named Kyo-o, he tells them, "Kyo'o Goze will have her misfortune changed into happiness. I hope you will be resolved to pray to this [ _mandala_ ]. Then what is there that cannot be realized? 'This sutra fulfills one's wishes just as a cool, clean pond satisfied the thirsty (The believers of the Lotus Sutra) will be happy in this life and be born in good circumstances in the next.' " [ _Reply to Kyo'o-dono_ , Gosho Reference, p. 52].

In the matter of personal sacrifice, for what or whom would you be willing to sacrifice your life? Your spouse? Your children? Your nation? Your religion? "Collectivism holds that the individual has no rights, that his life and work belong to the group . . . and that the group may sacrifice him at its own whim to its own interests. The only way to implement a doctrine of that kind is by means of brute force—and statism has always been the political corollary of collectivism"-Ayn Rand. [The Virtue of Selfishness, p. 128]

Aspiring Marxists, if they are true believers, certainly must believe that to sacrifice the needs of the individual for the greater good is a perfectly sound and acceptable way of thinking, and this way of thinking has permeated modern society on all levels. Children are now made to feel guilty if they do not participate in some charitable cause, or do their part to "save the planet." Charitable acts are all well and good, if done from the heart, and with a sincere attitude, but to make a child feel guilty if he or she would rather pursue a self-interest instead of contributing to the cause of the day is the same kind of thing socialists in the Soviet Union did to their own citizens.

Nichiren Daishonin wrote of how human beings often sacrificed themselves to "insignificant secular matters," and rarely did they sacrifice themselves for Buddhism. Under socialism in its purest state, an individual would not have the freedom to sacrifice himself to his religion, because he would be remiss in not sacrificing himself to the collective at large. Those who lived under Soviet communism or under Mao Zedong can tell you that even sacrificing oneself for one's own children over and above the needs of the state was not acceptable.

People should be free to sacrifice their lives for whatever cause they wish, but under pure socialism or communism, sacrifice occurs not by choice, but by force. Citizens are not just drafted into military service for a limited period of time. Conscription is for life. They are taught to serve the state as children, and, later, are drafted into civil service, as workers, just as Karl Marx spelled out: "Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture." [ _The Communist Manifesto_ , II. Proletarians and Communists, para. 79].

Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sutra closes with the Buddha asking the question of how he can cause as many people to attain enlightenment as quickly as possible [ _The Beautiful Sutra of the Lotus Blossom_ , Leon Hurvitz, Chapter 16: The Life-span of the Thus Come One, p. 237] The Buddha did not ask the question: How can I teach people how to sacrifice the fruits of their labor to the government so that alms may be given to those who are not always worthy of alms.

There is a profound difference in the way the Buddha addressed the inequalities of the world and the solution that was offered by Karl Marx. The Buddha's solution was to teach people that they, themselves, were responsible for their own suffering and misfortune, but that they could greatly lessen and change their bad karma through faith, repentance, teaching others, and a deepening of their understanding of the law of causation in their lives. This is why there is a stark contrast in the bodhisattva practice of teaching people about the Mystic Law of cause and effect, and the progressive mindset of blaming the suffering of the poor on the rich and then implementing a system where all citizens are forced to sacrifice their own needs to those of the collective.

As for the business of sacrificing, no one forced more people to sacrifice their lives to the cause of creating a glorious Marxist society than Mao Zedong in China. Following the blueprint spelled out by Vladimir Lenin to bring about China's great leap forward into a communistic society, his directives led to the deaths of seventy million people. And for those who continue to admire Mao even if only in their thoughts, they are fusing with evil. It would be no different if one were to secretly admire Adolf Hitler and fuse with him as an object of worship.

# Chapter Eleven - The Undying Obsession of Socialists Verses The Magnificent Obsession of the Buddha

Capitalists, of course, can be obsessed with making money and/or creating wealth (wealth creation being when something is created that never existed before to which a monetary value can be attached, like when Henry Ford began to mass produce Model T's). Ironically, more than anything, those on the left seem to have an undying obsession with the material wealth of the wealthy. Being in the World of Hunger within the World of Anger, they are far more concerned about confiscating the wealth of the rich than just about anything else. This obsession trumps all other concerns of the progressives. To them, wealth inequality is the greatest social injustice. They have a particular hatred for those who make their living in lucrative fields like the oil business, and base many of their actions on this obsession. Progressives have singled out rich people and successful corporations as their chosen villains, much in the same way Hitler singled out the Jews as his object of hatred. The root of their hatred is envy, and like Karl Marx they see fit to blame the wealthy for the ills of those who have less, which, of course, violates the sin of looking outside of oneself for the causes of one's own suffering.

The object of worship for a Nichiren Buddhist is a _mandala_ inscribed with the title of the Lotus Sutra, and Chinese characters that represent other aspects of sutra. To go into what it represents would take another book, but in a nutshell, to worship this _mandala_ is to fuse with the supreme law and inscrutable essence of the universe, or Mystic Law, and with the enlightenment of the Buddha, and the eternity of life. It functions not as a talisman, or idol, but as a mirror of one's own inherent Buddha nature, which we all possess. Through faith and practice, it helps believers better understand how their sufferings and joys are the result of their own past and present causes.

All religions and sects have an object of worship of some kind. Some, like Christians, worship a heavenly deity. Tibetan Buddhists worship a living person, the High Lama. Hindus worship more than one deity. Communists in the Soviet Union era revered Lenin. Visiting Lenin's tomb was equivalent to a Muslim's pilgrimage to Mecca. Even Zen Buddhists meditate to a blank wall. American progressives, too, have an object of worship, and a mantra, so to speak, even though many claim to be atheistic. Their main focus, and thus, their de facto object of worship, is other people's money and property. Tax the rich is their mantra. However, the priest, Nichiren, wisely said: "A poor man cannot earn a penny, even if he calculates his neighbor's wealth, day and night." [ _On Attaining Enlightenment_ (by Nichiren Daishonin), Gosho Reference, p. 13].

Of course, there are obsessively greedy capitalists who make money their object of worship, but the difference between an overly greedy capitalist and a socialist, is that most capitalists understand the importance of the exchange of money for something of value, while socialists completely dismiss the act of exchanging anything. Rather than exchange, they believe they have the right to out and out confiscate the wealth and property of others. This belies the depth and breadth of their hunger and greed for wealth and control over those with wealth.

Socialists might argue that they care about more than just wealth inequality, that they want equal health care benefits for all, and equal education opportunities for all, but even these require the confiscation of other people's money to build hospitals, pay health care providers, build schools and pay educators.

As for the happiness factor relative to the income factor, progressives don't take into account that there are poor people who find happiness without the attainment of great wealth, and conversely there are people who have great wealth who are miserable. They don't seem to comprehend that some people choose to be poor, only working part time so that they can have more time with their family, or to pursue a hobby. By focusing on the inequalities between the rich and the poor, they reveal, by implication, their belief that to be poor is to live an inferior life. The Buddha did not set out to equalize everyone he saw on a financial plane. He set out to find the causes of people's suffering.

As for wealth inequality being the greatest social injustice in the eyes of aspiring socialists, I can think of a far worse social injustice than the inequality between a rich man and a poor man. Ironically, progressives find this particular social injustice perfectly acceptable. Not only is it acceptable to them, they wholeheartedly embrace a lifestyle that has brought incalculable suffering to millions of the most vulnerable of human beings. Progressives pride themselves on fostering the lifestyle of the single unmarried mother, a lifestyle that is doing untold damage to millions of children. One need look no further than the lyrics of Hip Hop artists to understand the anger and pain of having to grow up fatherless. Karma is karma. If a child is born into a fatherless home, yes, it is his or her karma. However, the karma of fostering a lifestyle that makes growing up more difficult also redounds to the parents, and to those who encourage the practice.

Just as Hitler fostered and encouraged a hatred for the Jews, socialists and Marxists foster and encourage hatred for the rich, all the while encouraging and fostering one of the greatest social injustices ever foisted upon children in the history of mankind with their support of single motherhood and public welfare, and the way it replaces the father for the state as the chief family provider.

Winston Churchill rightly said: "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Envy (the World of Hunger) is what fuels the socialist's desire to equalize everyone's material circumstances. Socialists are about as far from being enlightened as one can possibly get, making it, indeed, the creed of ignorance. They don't seem to have even the most rudimentary understanding of the law of cause and effect, or what their policies have done to ruin millions of human lives.

In Buddhism, being born beautiful, or ugly, is no accident. Neither is being born rich, or poor. Whatever karma one creates in one life is carried to the next. Some people have the karma of being rich and happy, some have the karma of being rich and miserable, but all karma stems from the causes one has made in a past lifetime, if not in this one. Those who believe that they can equalize everyone regardless of the variations in individual karma, are doomed to fail.

While socialists foster hatred of the wealthy, the Buddha never deprecated people of wealth. His constant desire was to help as many people attain enlightenment as quickly as possible. "I, ever knowing the living beings who tread the Path and those who do not, in response to those who may be saved, preach to them a variety of dharmas, each time having this thought: how may I cause the beings to contrive to enter the Unexcelled Path, and quickly to perfect the Buddha-body" (one's own inherent Buddha nature), [ _The Beautiful Sutra of the Lotus Blossom_ , Leon Hurvitz, Chapter 16: Lifespan of the Thus Come One, p. 244], and the only chance a person living in poverty has of rising up and breaking the cycle of poverty is to become enlightened to what causes he or she must make.

The lifestyle of the single mother has done more harm to more human beings than any harm the bourgeoisie Karl Marx spoke of ever did to workers of the 19th century.

# Chapter Twelve - The Three Proofs

Buddhist scholars, even before the 13th Century, developed a system to validate the efficacy of a Buddhist sect or another religion known as "The Three Proofs."

The first proof is documentary proof. Do the ideas of a religious sect's beliefs concur with the original and true written documents of that religion? Buddhists rely on the sutras, but over the years Buddhist scholars have come to realize that there are inferior sutras and superior sutras, and many sects still continue to follow the inferior sutras. This is why documentary proof alone is not enough to prove the validity and efficacy of a religion.

Theoretical proof means that the teachings of a religion must concur with sound reasoning, and verifiable facts to the fullest extent possible. If it cannot be verified with facts, or completely goes against sound reasoning, then it collapses in theory. So far, even though scientists have proven that certain causes lead to certain consistent effects, none have been able to either prove, or disprove the existence of karma to the fullest extent, or that our lives span from the infinite past to the infinite future as the Buddha taught in the Lotus Sutra. This is why theoretical proof alone is not enough to prove the validity of a religion.

Actual proof is akin to verifying a scientific theory with experimentation and testing. If, at any point, a religious belief or principle is proven to be false, then that belief or principle cannot be relied on. "In judging the relative merit of Buddhist doctrines, I, Nichiren, believe that the best standards are those of reason and documentary proof. And even more valuable than reason and documentary proof is the proof of actual fact." [ _Three Tripitaka Pray for Rain_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 6, p. 111]

If a considerable number of followers of a religion or a sect within that religion are not happy, and are not eventually able to establish prosperous states or nations, no matter how enticing the religion (or religious sect's beliefs) sounds on paper, or in theory, it cannot be considered a valid and true religion. The same can be said for a political system, and this is where the seemingly well-intentioned ideas of socialism begin to unravel. Socialism appears to be reasonable on paper and in theory, but in actual proof, it is replete with unintended consequences.

The United States was founded by protestant Christians, whose religious beliefs influenced the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Those who inherited the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and who, since then, devoted themselves to studying, believing and living the teachings of Christianity to the best of their ability have had the biggest hand in creating the most prosperous nation on earth. It is undeniable proof that a republic based on the rule of law and based on Christian morality and principles is a valid and efficacious political system, in that it facilitates the happiness and prosperity of its citizens.

In contrast, in the years leading up to and including World War II the rulers of Japan, who took their belief in the Shinto religion to a fanatical height, and imposed a theocracy on their own people, brought nothing but tyranny, death and destruction onto their own and other nations. Shinto is a set of practices that center on Japanese nationality and its past heritage, with rituals, precepts of all kinds, and shrine worship. Belief in Shinto enabled a fierce sense of ethnocentric nationalism and willingness to die for Japan's Emperor who was worshiped not quite as a god, but with a patriotic fervor, nevertheless.

During the war, many Japanese citizens suffered persecution at the hands of government officials, like the leader of a Nichiren Buddhist lay organization, Tsunesaburo Makaguchi who spent nearly all of the war years in prison where he died. His disciple, Josei Toda, was also imprisoned, but was freed near the end of the war, and went on to convert 750,000 households, attracting followers such as the founders of the Honda Corporation and the Sony Corporation, whose contributions helped bring about Japan's postwar prosperity. When General MacArthur arrived, Nichiren Buddhists were not alone in calling MacArthur, Bonten, the name of the Japanese god of the moon.

Both the U.S. and Japan operate under a capitalist system, and both nations have large numbers of citizen who are sincere devotees of Christianity or Buddhism. Nevertheless, even with their relative levels of prosperity, both nations are experiencing an economic malaise from having to carry the burden of socialistic entitlement programs. The cause and effect relationship between excessive taxation, burdening businesses with oppressive regulations, and the lessening of productivity is difficult to ignore.

Socialists refuse to see the cause and effect relationship between the implementation of socialistic policies and their disastrous results. They always make the excuse that it just hasn't been "done right." or has never been carried out under the "right people," as if the Russian people, or the Chinese people simply weren't benevolent enough to confiscate private property and force people to work for the state in a nice way, without violence. If only Stalin, Lenin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, Castro, and Kim Jong Il, had been benevolent dictators, communism would be working beautifully all over the world. Just ask a small business owner if he or she believes that the many and various taxes they must pay, and regulations they must follow make them feel as if they are being well taken care of. Or ask the small business owner if he or she would consider it a benevolent act if the government confiscated and made their small business the property of the state, but that they would still have all the responsibility and headache of running the business, but without the profit.

If socialists and Marxists truly believe that it can be "done right," and if there are so many of them, they need to prove this to the rest of the world by starting their own collectives in large numbers. Milton and Rose Friedman touched on this in their book, _Free to Choose_. Where are all the successful, established communes, farms and communities throughout the world? Where did all the communes started in the 1970's go?

Most who call themselves progressive, socialist or communists don't live up to their beliefs. For example, most communist university professors prefer not to share their property or money. The communal, collective lifestyle is not for them, which goes with the old adage, "watch what they do, not what they say." Thousands of highly paid and tenured communist university professors prefer instead to enjoy the fruits of capitalism, and in fact, are often elitist about their food choices, and their creature comforts. Those who prefer Mephisto or Birkenstock shoes, for instance, are shelling out a great deal more money for shoes than the average pair of shoes would cost. In other words, they are living a lie, which creates negative karma. They may say they believe that wealth should be shared "from each according to his ability to each according to his need," but what they are living is "from my own ability, to the satisfaction of my needs according to my own elite and expensive tastes."

To live a lie is in direct contrast to the actions of a bodhisattva. True bodhisattvas don't tell others about the benefits that come from faith in the Buddha's teachings, without first manifesting proof of their faith and practice. If they, too, lived a lie, like aspiring communists who enjoy the fruits of capitalism, it would put them into the World of Anger, as egotistical, selfish people who believe they have the right to tell others how to behave, but don't follow the same code of behavior.

Just like the line in the movie, Jerry Maguire, "show me the money," socialists need to show the rest of us proof that the Marxist collective lifestyle can be "done right." Surely, if they were successful at establishing hundreds of communes throughout the U.S, hundreds more would spring up until America was one big happy Marxist nation.

The Buddha could have never taught others about enlightenment had he not first attained enlightenment himself.

Even those who live in the homogenous Kibbutzim of Israel have failed in manifesting a true socialistic system, because they require regular infusions of capitalist dollars from the outside, through the operations of capitalist businesses like McDonald's franchises. [ _Pay-as-You Go Kibbutzim_ , Karby Leggett, The Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2005].

This is also true for socialistic nations like Germany and France. If they were deprived of regular infusions of United States capitalist dollars through trade, along with high tariffs they impose on our goods, their quasi-socialistic systems would collapse.

Fidel Castro has been blaming the trade embargo with the United States for years as the source of his communist island nation's difficulties, and he is partially right. For years, the Castro brothers traded the fruits of the Cuban workers' labor, and Cuba's natural resources, with dozens of nations like Germany, France, and Spain, but without capitalist trade with a strong capitalist nation like the U.S., Cubans have never returned to the high level of prosperity they had before they became a communist nation, try as the left might to skew the facts (for more data on just how prosperous Cuba was before the Castro brother's dictatorship the revolution see _Cuba: Foreign Policy & Government Guide_, by International Business Publications, USA, Vol. 1, p.271, can be found on the internet).

Not all nations with capitalist systems are prosperous, but those with a high degree of freedom, are ever vigilant against corruption, protect their citizens, and have both a government and citizens with high ethical standards are the most likely to succeed. No one, including crooked businessmen, corrupt politicians, and those who hold religious beliefs that slander the law of causation, escapes their karma.

# Chapter Thirteen - The Fallacy of the Marxist Precept Verses the Superiority of an Enlightened Belief

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need," is a precept, or code of conduct, akin to any one of the precepts of Hinayana (Lesser Vehicle) Buddhism. As sound as many precepts are, throughout history, they have always proven to be an inferior way of controlling human behavior. No one likes to be controlled. It's the "do this, don't do that" method, and it only works up to a point. Of course, the most egregious evil acts people commit must be controlled with enforceable laws, like murder, robbery, burglary, etc., but if all codes of conduct became laws, it would be impossible to enforce them all.

It has always proven to be difficult to enforce precepts without creating a mass police state, where neighbors are reporting on neighbors and citizens live in constant fear. The days of tarring, feathering, head and limb chopping are long gone in truly civilized societies. Any society that still continues to tolerate such barbarity, of course, cannot call itself civilized.

People lie and covet one another's things. Soldiers break the precept of taking life in the course of defending their nation. Even Nichiren, a devout Buddhist monk who would have never broken the precept of taking life, himself, felt there were cases in which it was justifiable to break the precept of never taking a life. ". . . the sin of killing an evil person is minor compared with the sin of killing a good person, which is grave [ _Letter to the Brothers_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, p. 133].

The Marxist precept didn't work in the Soviet Union because it goes against human nature. One example of this was pointed out by author Oleg Atbashian in his book _Shakedown Socialism_ , and has to do with the relationship between parent and child. Parents naturally want the best for their offspring. They go to great lengths to aid their children in getting the best education possible, or the best possible clothing they can buy them. However, to exhibit favoritism towards one's own offspring is an act of self-interest that interferes with the progressive dream to give all children equal benefits. Like socialist leaning Democratic politicians who claim to be proponents of the public school system, but turn around and send their own children to private schools, apparatchiks of the Soviet Union era were no different, because, they, too, would often seek out whatever extra benefits they could provide for their own children, even if it meant violating the rules. So, sometimes, actions based on care and concern for ones loved ones can exceed what the socialist system allows.

In communist countries, the "from each according to his ability" portion of the Marxist precept provided an excuse for Marxist dictators to draft adults and children, alike, into work brigades. Copying the Soviet model, for many years, selected adult workers in Cuba, many of them descended from African slaves, were conscripted to work on plantations harvesting tobacco leaves, cutting sugar cane and picking cotton against their will, for years at a time. Children over eleven were made to live in barracks and work fourteen-hour days for two months every year on plantations. Many of the prisoners, known as the _Marielitos_ , whom Castro let out of his prisons in 1980, and allowed to immigrate to the United States, weren't criminals, but innocent citizens who had chosen prison over slavery.

In the Buddha's early years of teaching, he had his disciples follow the two hundred and fifty precepts (or five hundred, if you were a woman) as a path to enlightenment. At the age of seventy, when he told his disciples to discard the provisional teachings, that they need only take faith in the wisdom and truths expounded in the Lotus Sutra, and the Mystic Law within its depths, he may have caused outrage among those disciples who got up and walked out on him, but he gave his remaining disciples, and the rest of the world, the most powerful means yet for attaining enlightenment. He had replaced the two hundred and fifty precepts (for men) and five hundred precepts (for women) with a simple, but profound, enlightened belief system. He urged his followers not to doubt him, believe in his words, and also to believe in the superiority of the Lotus Sutra over his previous teachings. However, unlike simple precepts like that of not eating meat, or refraining from improper sexual behavior, he spelled out a path to enlightenment that required faith and belief in one universal law which would influence all actions of the believer.

The United States system of government is based on an enlightened belief, rooted in Judeo-Christian morality, to which people of all religions owe a debt of gratitude. It is a system founded on the belief that all people are born with inalienable God given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. From the time of it's inception, and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this belief and the laws that came after, provided American citizens with a blueprint for self governance, and the freedom to pursue one's own path to happiness. In contrast, 'from each according to his ability to each according to his need' is nothing more than a people controlling precept. Sadly, lawmakers in the United States have begun to lose sight of the true meaning of the Declaration of Independence, and as a result, the path to happiness is becoming more constrained as the years go by.

Instead of keeping laws to a minimum, governments the world over, be they socialist or not, now see fit to burden their citizens with more laws, rules and regulations every year. Rarely do politicians throw out archaic laws that no longer apply to the present day. In fact, there are so many new laws being created every year, that citizens are now placed in the position of being lawbreakers to laws they may not even know exist. The current president of the United States has signed over five thousand new rules and regulations for businesses to follow. In continuously creating new ways to tax businesses, forcing them to follow thousands of rules and regulations, anti-business, anti-capitalist socialists behave more like the precept obsessed Hinayana school monks that Nichiren Daishonin disapproved of [ _Teaching, Practice and Proof_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 4, p. 111].

One of the most egregious violations of the belief that all U.S. citizens are born with God given inalienable rights is the fact that the Marxist precept has crept into our thinking, and our law making. It is evident in the tax code, where those who work harder and/or make more are taxed more, and those who have worked less and/or earned less, are given tax credits (a euphemistic way of defining money that was never earned by the recipient in the first place). And it has made the United States a quasi-socialistic system, and continues to incrementally enslave the most productive American workers with each new tax and tax increase.

The infiltration of the Marxist precept into our thinking has angered many citizens, and those who claim it is fair, are often hypocritical in their actions, because U.S. citizens are breaking both the "from each according to his ability" and the "to each according to his need," halves of the Marxist precept by the millions in the United States, and think nothing of it. It is not only the wealthy who try to find ways to avoid income taxation. Middle income and lower income alike find ways to cheat the system, either by underreporting taxes, or by fraudulently obtaining government benefits. In other words, when it comes to implementing the Marxist precept into what used to be a free market system, criminality is rampant.

Food servers and pizza delivery workers often don't claim all of their tips even though the Internal Revenue Department attempted to remedy the cheating when they changed a rule to force workers to pay a certain percentage over their wages. Even Grandmas and Grandpas are guilty of working the system when they place all of their assets into their heirs' hands, in order to cheat states and the federal government out of Medicaid funds to pay for their long-term nursing home care. The entire medical industry has been turned into a multi-billion dollar racket whose participants who compete for Medicare and Medicaid dollars. Big pharmaceutical companies charge exorbitant prices for drugs because they are not subject to selling their drugs for what the market will bear, but with the assurance that the government or insurance companies will pick up the tab. We are fast becoming a nation of hucksters, cheaters, liars, and scammers, and the bad karma is piling up.

There are basic laws that must be in place in order to maintain a certain level of order, and civilization, especially laws that keep people from harming one another. These laws differentiate from precepts in that they are not just rules of conduct, they are punishable by fines or jail time. However, many laws now have nothing to do with protecting others from harm, but instead reflect personal beliefs, be they religious or secular. They are a reflection of differing agendas among different groups. These control freaks have the audacity to believe they have the right to control the behavior of all citizens. They have imposed a health care mandate forcing citizens to purchase health insurance to support an already corrupt medical industry. They have passed legislation to phase out incandescent light bulbs, only to be replaced by bulbs that contain mercury. They can't seem to see the infringement on freedom that would result from allowing law enforcement officials to monitor the behavior of citizens who simply want to be left alone. Such restrictions go against the enlightened belief that we all have God given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The business of legislating more and more laws must be reigned in, lest we become a completely fascist nation. U.S. legislators need to turn away from the business of controlling citizens, and return to basing laws on the enlightened principle upon which this nation was founded.

As for the Marxist precept, Karl Marx, himself, did not live what he believed. As an able bodied man, instead of working at a regular job to provide for the needs of his children who were often half starved, and poorly clothed, he chose to selfishly indulge himself with a fantasy of what he imagined the world would be like in the future. Perhaps the only way Karl Marx would have lived up to his own precept would have been if he had been rounded up like millions of other workers by Mao Zedong's Red Army, and forced into a Chinese collective, or drafted into one of Fidel Castro's work brigades to pick cotton or cut sugar cane.

# Chapter Fourteen - A False Prophet and a Faulty Dogma

The Buddha made many accurate predictions about the future, but how accurate was Marx when it came to predicting the inevitability of workers rising up, and taking over the means of production from the bourgeoisie?

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels developed a concept (first originated by a man called Moses Hess) called dialectical materialism. It comes from the merging of a concept called materialism--or as Mao Zedong put it: "There is nothing in the world except matter in motion," and another concept called dialectical reasoning--that from the conflict between two forces or ideas, a new idea or force is born.

Materialists believe that no individual can change his or her destiny because no one can resist the external forces upon them. This fatalistic view is a tough luck scenario for all. In the mind of the materialist there are no prophets, who can telepathically communicate with heavenly deities, heal the sick, or lead others to eradicate their bad karma on the path to eternal bliss. And if all we are is matter in motion, and there is no such thing as an Alaya conscious where all of our thoughts, words and deeds are stored, and no law of causation to which we all must answer, then there is no need to be moral and upright in one's actions. Surely, Mao Zedong's belief that human beings were nothing but matter in motion, must have helped him rationalize the loss of life under his mass executions, and mass starvation. And he was no exception in his approach because his fellow communist dictators all seemed to have no qualms about killing any citizens they deemed useless or were obstructive to the creation of a perfect Marxist society.

Dialectical reasoning, a process whereby two opposing forces struggle (a thesis and an antithesis) until a new force or idea is born (a synthesis), is how Karl Marx explained the emergence of capitalism. First there was a struggle between serfs and landowners, and later, there was a struggle between the bourgeoisie and landowners, and from these struggles emerged capitalism. Never mind the fact that while serfdom was going on in Europe, capitalist trade had long been going on in the Middle East and Asia.

To be considered a theorist of foresight, one must have a clear comprehension of the possible effects of one's theories. Without this, one cannot accurately predict the future. However, when a man is blinded by his own desires and fantasies, he is not always able to see the cause and effect relationship between an action and a possible outcome.

Karl Marx prophesized that the next step, the next struggle, the next great leap forward would come as a result of workers clashing with the bourgeoisie, and that no one could do anything to prevent it, that it was an inevitability. Progress was the inevitable result of the change caused by the struggle of opposites. "The proletariat goes through various stages of development. With its birth begins its struggle with the bourgeoisie. At first the contest is carried on by individual labourers, then by the workpeople of a factory, then by the operatives of one trade, in one locality, against the individual bourgeois who directly exploits them. They direct their attacks not against the bourgeois conditions of production, but against the instruments of production themselves; they destroy imported wares that compete with their labour, they smash to pieces machinery, they set factories ablaze, they seek to restore by force the vanished status of the workman of the Middle Ages." [ _The Communist Manifesto_ , II. Proletarians and Communists, para. 35]. This belief, all Marxists must take on faith. Karl Marx said it is so, therefore, it must be true.

The faith of the Marxist in the inevitability of socialism and communism eventually overtaking capitalism is every bit as strong as the faith of a believer in any religious prophecy. The key word here is inevitability. To them, the world's future as a socialistic world is inevitable, and so there is no sense in fighting it. No matter what the enemies of socialism and Marxism do to stem the tide, their actions are futile. The word forward also has a special meaning for Marxists. To move forward is to move forward towards socialism. Soviet era propaganda posters often contained the word forward with slogans such as "Forward to Communism," "Forward for our Brothers," and "Under Lenin's banner let's go forward for the Motherland, our victory!" And, of course, there was Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward, the forcing of millions into agriculture collectives (see Chapter Nineteen). So, for the truly faithful Marxist, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. The wave of communism is the wave of the future. And, there is one more thing that all Marxists must take on faith, and that is that the majority of human beings are willing to sacrifice their own desires and fruits of their labor to a controlling government.

In his essay The Opening of the Eyes, Nichiren quoted some prophecies made by the Buddha, such as " 'There will be many ignorant people who will curse and speak ill of us, and will attack us with swords and staves, with rocks and tiles.. . 'One hundred years after my passing, a ruler known as the Great King Ashoka will appear.' 'Six hundred years after my passing, a man named Nagarjuna will appear in Southern India. . . .Sixty years after my passing, a man named Madhyantika will establish his base in the Dragon Palace.' All of these prophecies came true. Indeed, if they had not, who would have faith in the Buddhist sutras?" [ _The Opening of the Eyes (I)_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 2, pages 118-120] The Buddha also predicted that two thousand years after his death his provisional teachings would no longer be efficacious, that only the Lotus Sutra would serve the people as a vehicle to enlightenment.

Even though communism was implemented in many different nations, has Karl Marx's prophecy of a communist society as the result of a struggle between the bourgeoisie and the workers ever really come true the way he prophesized it would? Not really. So far, the only way it has ever been accomplished was not by disgruntled workers, themselves, who rose up in anger, of their own accord, but by outside instigators who were so hell bent on making his prophesies come true that they forced them upon workers and bourgeoisie, alike, with violent revolutions, carried out by well-organized militias, like the Bolsheviks, or Mao Zedong's army who eventually wielded control over a vulnerable population through terror and force. Their next step was to brutally force workers, landowners and business owners, alike, at gunpoint, with the constant threat of being imprisoned or killed, into the horrific and depressing existence of collective farming and manufacturing jobs. Simple peasants might have had a better chance at staying alive, but workers in collectives were treated with just as much cruelty as agriculturally successful land-owning Kulaks, who were more likely to be killed, outright.

Karl Marx had no foresight whatsoever when it came to predicting how horribly the working class would be treated under the implementation of his system.

By Nichiren's standards, Marx's theory falls flat, because his predictions of what he wrote would happen and what actually happened are not one in the same. When discussing the theories of renown philosophers as Lao Tzu, and Confucius, and others whose teachings were known in China before Buddhism, Nichiren wrote, "These are theories that are cleverly argued but which fail to take cognizance of the either the past or the future." And "the Confucians declare that one should abide by the principles of benevolence and righteousness and thereby insure safety and order to oneself and peace and order to the state. . .although the wise and worthy men who preach this doctrine are acclaimed as sages, they know nothing more about the past than an ordinary person unable to see his own back, and they understand as little about the future as a blind man who cannot see what lies in front of him." [ _The Opening of the Eyes (I)_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 2, p. 73.]

Not only is the prophecy that workers would wish to own the means of production, as a natural course of events, questionable, Karl Marx's idea that all workers and the bourgeoisie were down for a struggle with each other is also suspect to this day, despite the fact that some workers have organized into unions and gone on strike for better working conditions, or wages.

Do you go to work every day with a bitter and resentful attitude toward the owner/and or management of the company that hired you, or do you have a mutual understanding and a cooperative relationship? Even if you were, or are, in a union, say a public teacher's union, would you go to work everyday with a seething hatred and suspicion of the school administrators, or the taxpayers who fund your salary? Why is it that when union dues are voluntary, the majority of union members don't pay them? What about the interchangeability of workers and business owners? During their summers some teachers take off their worker hats and put on the hats of business owners, for example, with a wood chopping business. Some business owners sell off their businesses and take on jobs with corporations. In turn, some workers leave the corporate world to start their own business. If a worker is a potential member of the bourgeoisie, and a member of the bourgeoisie is a potential worker, then aren't they more alike than they are in opposition to one another?

I wonder if it ever occurred to Karl Marx that there are people who prefer to work for others because they don't want or believe they can handle the responsibility of owning a business? Well, perhaps, since Karl Marx spent most of his life writing, and allowed his wife and children to live, half starving in miserable squalor, he had little experience as a worker, and no understanding at all of the albatross that all business owners wear around their necks. Most workers today don't have any comprehension of what it feels like to be a small business owner who may be so short on sales that he must obtain funds from a credit card to pay his employees their wages.

In the United States, if union workers really wanted to take over a company, why haven't they funneled their own savings into purchasing the company's stock? About all unions have accomplished with their greed has been to successfully drive companies into bankruptcy, or forced them to set up operations in countries where labor is affordable. There are two instances, however, where they were handed over partial ownership, but it wasn't their own doing, but rather the criminal maneuverings of a United States president, who proved beyond a doubt, his Marxist aspirations, his lack of morality, and lack of belief that he or his co-conspirators will ever suffer any karmic consequences from his actions. It has to do with the 2009 government bailout of the two car companies, Chrysler and GM, over which he presided.

Both Chrysler and GM were on the brink of bankruptcy, heavily in debt, under the burden of union wages and benefits. Both companies should have been either left to fail, or greatly downsized, and made to go through the same bankruptcy proceedings that every other bankrupt company in the United States has had to endure. Nevertheless, the socialist-minded president, used his own power and the taxpayers' hard earned money, to circumvent normal bankruptcy rules, and micromanage a bailout. In the process, he violated the U.S. Constitution when he robbed and transferred portions of stock ownership from citizens who had purchased stocks with their hard earned money into hands of the GM and Chrysler union workers, with Chrysler workers being handed a majority share of ownership with 51% of Chrysler stock. He also transferred portions of stock into the hands of the U.S. government. His actions revealed without a doubt his socialistic aspirations and belief that the Auto Workers Union, and/or the government, were entitled to be handed ownership of at least a portion of the two car companies' means of production.

Many people were robbed of their entire investments, including, ironically, a group of Indiana public union workers who had purchased Chrysler debt bonds for their pension fund who ended up suing the government. Their lawsuit went all the way to the Supreme Court and made history, when against all odds, they won their case, validating their belief that what was done to them was a criminal and unconstitutional act equivalent to highway robbery. Under normal bankruptcy proceedings, these bondholders would have received a fairer compensation, even if not the full amount of what they originally paid for the bonds. On the bright side, even though the Indiana public union workers never received any compensation, the next time an aspiring Marxist president tries to do it again, thanks to the Hoosier state, he will be prevented from doing so because of their lawsuit.

For the most part, any promise of Marx's theory of progression from capitalism to socialism to the wave of communism as an even higher, more sophisticated form of government is collapsing all over the world. The Berlin Wall fell. Soviet communism fell. It is now easier to start a business in the People's Republic of China than it is in the United States. At this time, young French rebels are declaring a war on the socialist system of government in France. In Cuba, the Castro brothers have ended the Cuban version of food stamps, and are allowing entrepreneurship and property ownership on a small scale.

The disastrous results from communist experiments are proving Karl Marx to have been a false prophet with a faulty dogma. He was so certain that communism would inevitably replace capitalism. And yet he never foresaw the collapse of communist dictatorships all over the world, or how his system, when implemented, would bring such misery to those who had to live under it. It seems that he had no ability to see a cause and effect relationship between the establishment of his progressive, fantasy utopia and the horrific suffering that it caused millions. Nor did he understand how strong the human desire to be free was within the hearts of men. Why did he have such a lack of foresight? Was it perhaps that he was blinded by less than noble motives, like the monks the Buddha described would appear in a future evil age? "Outwardly they will seem to be wise and good, but within, they will harbor greed and jealousy."[ _Rissho Ankoku Ron_ ¸The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 2, p. 16]. One thing is for sure: karma has run all over Karl Marx's dogma.

As for the 51% stock that was handed to the Chrysler Automobile Worker's Union that made them the majority "owners of the means of production" of Chrysler, the union has since then sold off a sizable percentage of the stock, which begs the question: how much, really, did the union wish to own the means of production of the Chrysler Corporation? With GM, the union was assigned less than 51% of the stock in GM, however, it has also sold down its original stock holdings in GM as well. At the time of this writing, the government, at the behest of a grasping president, still owns a good portion of GM stock.

# Chapter Fifteen - Eddie Haskell and Devadatta

Only the truly faithful followers of Marxist dogma wholeheartedly believe Karl Marx's claptrap, in its entirety, but their faith and belief in the communist system is as fanatical as that of any cult follower. And to accomplish their goals, they have conveniently discarded any belief in a higher power, which frees them to accomplish their goals in whatever manner they wish without paying heed to consequences. Vladimir Lenin ridiculed the morality of the middle class, and would have likely laughed at the concept of karma, as well. This gave him and his disciples the license and freedom from anguish over the criminal nature of their actions in accomplishing their goals, whether it was deception, thievery, or murder.

Since Marxists and aspiring socialists often resort to deception to achieve their goals, it places them at the opposite end of the spectrum from a bodhisattva. They are more like the Buddha's cousin, Devadatta. Devadatta was so jealous of the Buddha that he not only tried to kill him, he also spread lies about him. He lured hundreds of the Buddha's followers away and claimed to be more pious than the Buddha. He is said to have spent an entire _kalpa_ (aeon) in hell after falling into it, alive. "As a result, the great earth, which is 168,000 _yojana_ thick and rests on a windy circle as hard as a diamond, nevertheless split open, plunging Devadatta alive into the hell of incessant suffering." [ _The Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 3, p. 17].

A modern day version of Devadatta is a fictional television character named Eddie Haskell, who would often resort to lying and mask his true intentions. Eddie was in a show called Leave it to Beaver back in the late 1950's and early 1960's, brilliantly played by an actor named Ken Osmond. Eddie was a sneaky, creepy, cruel, mean liar, who put on a phony smile in front of the protagonist's (Beaver's) mother, Mrs. Cleaver, but once out of site of all adults, Eddie deprecated, mocked, and played tricks on 'the Beaver.'

Eddie's behavior is the perfect way to describe an aspect of dialectical materialism whereby dedicated Marxists sometimes step back from their brutal, violent and forward march toward creating a perfect progressive paradise, often fooling people into thinking they are backing off their communist goals, and have no plans to go forward again. Australian author and lecturer Dr. Fred C. Schwartz likened it to the action of pounding a nail into a board with a hammer, in that one does not lightly tap the nail, one lifts the hammer high and away from the nail before coming back down on it. "The dialectical pathway is different. It consists of a resolute forward advance followed by an abrupt turn and retreat." "Lenin wrote the textbook, _One Step Forward, Two Steps Back_. Chinese Communist schoolchildren are taught to do the dialectical march, taking three steps forward and two steps back." [ _You Can Still Trust the Communists to be Communists_ , Fred C. Schwarz, David A. Noebel, p. 187-188]. This is how Marxists temporarily put the people's minds at ease, before once again hammering the nail of 'progress' down on them.

One persistent goal of socialists is that of nationalizing oil companies and banks as a first step towards creating a socialist state, however, it would be nearly impossible to carry this out in a nation ruled by laws and not dictators, like the United States. To work around the rule of law, aspiring socialists have been instructed in the book Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky (who dedicated his book to Lucifer) to take incremental steps towards achieving their goals. Like Eddie Haskell, the current administration seems to be taking such steps whenever and wherever they can possibly get away with it. Only when they come under scrutiny by the press and dedicated bloggers, do they back off, and reverse their course. One example is how U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife suddenly, in late 2010, became interested in placing a tiny lizard, the sagebrush dune lizard onto the endangered species list just at a time when its habitat, the Permian Basin, located between Texas and New Mexico is where oil companies have stepped up drilling since the British Petroleum oil spill that took place in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. The Fish and Wildlife Department and those drilling for oil have since then come to an agreement, with some restrictions on where they drill for oil, and the lizard has yet to be placed on the endangered species list, however, the Wildlife Department threat to place it on the list still looms [ _Conservation deal keeps Sand Dune Lizard off endangered list_ , June 13, 2012, Jim Forsythe, Reuters].

If the government were to ban oil companies from drilling in the Permian Basin, it could well force many of the region's landowners, who depend on oil revenues from the drilling, into foreclosure. Taking the Permian Basin over as protected national wildlife refuge would be a clever, bloodless way to transfer private, oil-rich land into government hands. It may sound far-fetched, but why is it that the government, after so many years, gave more serious consideration than ever to placing the lizard on the endangered species list?

Other ways of describing Marxists would be as aliens from outer space who invade and occupy the bodies of attractive humans, and then proceed to wreak havoc. Appearing, at first, like bodhisattvas of the provisional teachings, they come bearing the gifts such as free housing, free education, free health care, and guaranteed wages, but along the way of making a minor tax cut for the middle class (one step backward) so they can appear magnanimous (as was done by the same president who handed GM and Chrysler to the unions). Inevitably, they start making a case for raising taxes on the wealthy, pretending that they have no intention of ever raising taxes on those in the middle and lower classes.

Just like an evil alien character in a film or book that occupies the body of a beautiful human, the underpinnings of Marxism are rotten to the core. It provides a rationality to rob an individual of the fruits of his or her own labor. It takes away one's incentive to invent something brilliant (like the iPhone or iPad) that would bring monetary rewards in the marketplace, and beats down the hopes and aspirations of creative individuals.

No cause is without an effect, whether it manifests itself immediately or later. There is a cause and effect relationship between the collective greed of the union workers, and the fact that so many U.S. companies are outsourcing their labor to China and other countries. In the case of socialist dictators like the Castro brothers, although they have yet to truly experience all of the consequences of their actions in this lifetime, they have discovered the difficulties of forcing people to work for nothing, i.e. the collective, even under the threat of death or imprisonment, like the Cuban workers who refused to work when they were drafted into one of Castro's work brigades, and chose jail or death instead. There was a saying in the Soviet Union by the workers in the latter days of Soviet communism: "We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us."

And what about the GM and Chrysler workers I mentioned in the previous chapter, and the fate of the companies they came to own? ". . . if you want to understand results that will be manifested in the future, look at the causes that exist in the present." [ _The Opening of the Eyes (II)_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 2, p. 198]. Applying the law of causation to predict the future, their day of reckoning will come. It is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when. The same goes for the president who robbed the Chrysler and GM stock and bondholders. A United States president is supposed to uphold the laws of the land and the Constitution, however, the Supreme court ruled that what was done to the Indiana public worker pensioners violated the U.S. Constitution. He had no right to rob the legitimate stockholders and bondholders, nor did he have the right to use the taxpayers' money to carry out his Marxist dream for the Automobile Union Workers. If the president, or dictators like the Castro brothers are _icchantikas_ , or scorched seeds, they may not experience any misfortune in this life. "If a person is inevitably destined to fall into hell in his next existence, then even though he commits a grave offense in this life, he will suffer no immediate punishment." [ _The Opening of the Eyes (II)_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 2, p. 198]. However, an _icchantika_ will eventually experience his karma after death, and in a future existence.

# Chapter Sixteen - Repaying Debts of Gratitude Verses a Sense of Entitlement and the Offense of Complicity

I recently heard a story of a white man in East Texas who befriended and aided a poor black family when no one else would help them. In his dying days, a member of the family remembered this kindness, and told the white man that she would volunteer to take care of him without pay.

"The old fox never forgets the hillock where he was born, the white turtle repaid the kindness he had received from Mao Pao. If even lowly creatures know enough to do this, then how much more should human beings!" ( _Repaying Debts of Gratitude_ (The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 4, p. 171)

Instead of gratitude and a sense of obligation to pay one's debts, progressives have fostered a sense of entitlement, especially among young people. They have encouraged younger citizens to feel it is their right to a free education, free health care, etc. A sense of entitlement is what spoiled rich people, welfare recipients, and criminals all have in common. They feel entitled to other people's money and property. Their criminality is often reflected in their children. Instead of becoming decent, contributing members of societies, welfare dependent children and children who have been spoiled by their parents with gifts of money and other material things, in place of love and guidance, often find themselves on the wrong side of the law, with a disproportionate amount of them ending up in prison, or in rehab centers from chronic drug use.

"Ever since I began to study the Law handed down from Shakyamuni Buddha and undertook the practice of the Buddhist teachings, I have believed it is most important to understand one's obligations to others, and made it my first duty to repay such debts of kindness . . . One who understands this is worthy to be called human, while one that does not is no more than a beast." [ _Conversations Between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 5, p. 94].

Repaying debts of gratitude need not be reciprocal. "While waiting for the moon to rise, one must rely upon a torch, and when there are no true gems or treasures at hand, gold and silver must serve for treasures. The debt of gratitude one owes to a white crow may be paid to a black crow, and the debt one owes to the holy priest may be paid to the ordinary priest." [ _On Prayer_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Volume 7, p. 47].

American hero Colonel and Congressman Davy Crockett, once returned to Tennessee after a session in Washington, and took himself by horseback throughout the Tennessee countryside to meet his constituents. When he met one man, a farmer named Horatio Bunce, Mr. Bunce, who regularly read newspapers, confronted Congressman Crockett about money Congress had appropriated to women and children who were victims of a fire near Washington, D.C. "Well, Colonel, where do you find in the Constitution any authority to give away the public money in charity?" During the discussion, Mr. Bunce told Congressman Crockett that instead of using taxpayer funds to help the fire victims that wealthier citizens of Washington D.C. could have easily afforded to donate the money to the victims as a charitable act.

"To see evil and fail to admonish it, to be aware of slander and not combat it, is to go against the words of the sutras, and to disobey the Buddhist patriarchs." _Conversation Between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Vol. 5, p. 109]." "If, while personally knowing that my lord will fair badly in both this life and in the next, I were to remain silent in fear of my fellow samurai, or of the world at large, then would I not be guilty of complicity in your offense?" [ _Letter of Petition from Yorimoto_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 5, p. 226].

In a novel some consider to be the best Western novel ever written, The Time it Never Rained by Elmer Kelton, there is a protagonist named Charlie Flagg. Charlie is a West Texas rancher who must endure a drought that lasts many years. Where he is looked upon as the 'odd-man-out' when he refuses to take any government subsidies, his neighbors believe they are entitled to receive them. He truly believes that government handouts aren't his to receive. Throughout the story, he stands firm in his belief that the government owes him nothing, and that it would be immoral to accept monetary, or any other kind of assistance.

Unlike Charlie, many farmers and ranchers, nowadays, in their acceptance of money they have neither earned, nor are entitled to receive, have developed a false sense of entitlement, and are complicit in an evil scheme that robs taxpayers and often contributes to artificially inflated food prices.

# Chapter Seventeen - Immeasurable Benefits and an Infinite Life Span

In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha revealed that his lifespan was infinite, without beginning, or end. He also spoke of the existence of numerous 'world systems,' throughout the universe. He also proclaimed that he would continue to re-appear in different forms, and preach according to the people's differing needs in the future.

The Buddhist belief that our lives span from the infinite past to the infinite future also implies that there have always been and always will be enough natural resources in the universe to sustain our successive rebirths in the physical form all the way into the infinite future.

When the priest Nichiren first inscribed the title of the Lotus Sutra on a _mandala_ called a Gohonzon he described it as a cluster of blessings, that believers in the Gohonzon would be able to eradicate their bad karma, and fulfill their desires. He believed in the words of the Buddha: "This scripture can save all living beings. This scripture can enable all living beings to separate themselves from pain and torment. This scripture can greatly benefit all living beings, fulfilling their desires. Like a clear, cool pond, it can slake the thirst of all. As a chilled person finds fire, as a naked person finds clothing, as a merchant finds a chief, as a child finds its mother, as a passenger finds a ship, as a sick person finds a physician, as darkness finds a torch, as a poor person finds a jewel, as the people find a king, as a commercial traveler finds the sea, as a candle dispels darkness, this Scripture of the Dharma Blossom also, in the same way, can enable the beings to separate themselves from all woes . . ." [ _The Beautiful Sutra of the Lotus Blossom_ , Chapter 23: Former Affairs of the Bodhisattva Medicine King, p. 299]. In their daily prayers, Nichiren Buddhists show gratitude for the immeasurable benefits received from their daily practice and belief in the teachings of the Buddha as represented in the Gohonzon.

The Marxist belief that wealth re-distribution is the only answer to ending poverty and suffering, implies that there is only so much wealth to go around. It is the same mentality of two or three dogs fighting over a bowl of food, each one nosing his way into the bowl to get his fair share. So, one can only conclude that where the Buddha saw abundance for those who believed in his teachings and lived their lives according to the Mystic Law, Marxists behave as if wealth, and whatever else human beings need to live a happy life, is finite in quantity, and perpetually scarce. Whatever loot they are able to confiscate from the haves must be divvied up equally among the have-nots. Everything must be apportioned lest there are those who will end up with nothing.

Karl Marx once said that religion was the opiate of the masses. He did not believe that positive religious practices could be the foundation of a nation's abundance. He would be hard put to explain the prosperity of the United States, a capitalist nation founded by protestant Christians. Nor would he have been able to explain how Japan was able to climb out of the ashes of WWII mass destruction and become the world's second strongest economy until they were overtaken by post communist China in 2011.

The same dictators who scoffed at religion all had chronic problems when it came to producing abundant food supplies. They always seemed to be in short supply no matter how rich the agricultural lands were over which they ruled.

Another example of the contrast of how a nation thrives under capitalism verses under Marxist rule is to compare pre-communist Cuba with post communist Cuba. Contrary to the myth that Cuba was run by a small oligarchy of wealthy people who oppressed the peasants, Cuba had the largest middle class of any Latin American nation. It was much like what Costa Rica is today, and was even more attractive to U.S. citizens than Costa Rica is now, with fifty thousand Americans a year making Cuba their permanent residence. Before communism, Cuba was an exporter of beef, but Castro and his revolutionaries soon depleted the cattle population by half. They went from being an exporter of beef to an importer of canned horsemeat from the Soviet Union. At the time of this writing, most Cuban citizens are not allowed to own, buy or sell property, but out of desperation, many now sell their own bodies to sex tourists from the U.S., Canada, Germany and other nations.

Where the Buddha saw immeasurable benefits and abundance, Marxists see wealth as being so limited that it must be evenly distributed, lest the supply run short before all get their 'fair share.'

# Chapter Eighteen - The Goal of the Buddha Verses The Goal of Karl Marx

Both the Buddha and Karl Marx questioned the inequalities among mankind. Both came to very different conclusions and solutions, as to how to remedy them.

Karl Marx perceived what he felt was an unjust inequality between the bourgeoisie and the working class. He prophesized that one day the working class would rise up, take over the ownership of industry and businesses, establish a dictatorship of the proletariat, and create a workers' paradise where everyone would contribute gladly "from each according to his ability to each according to his need."

The Buddha, who had lived a sheltered life in a wealthy family was so affected by the sufferings and inequalities he saw in the world that it became the springboard of a journey that culminated in his becoming the founder of a long respected religion with millions of followers over the course of time.

In contrast to Karl Marx's beliefs that workers were victims, and through no fault of their own, were exploited by the bourgeoisie, the Buddha revealed that each individual is responsible for the suffering in his own life, that no one escapes the law of causation, that all actions have consequences, and redound to the originator of the cause. He had a reverence and respect for all living beings, taught the importance of compassion and forbearance, and also revealed that our lives span from the infinite past to the infinite future, and that one's karma is carried from one lifetime to the next. He believed that all people were potential buddhas no matter what caste they belonged to.

Karl Marx, a materialist who scoffed at religion, was a vocal racist, and did not believe in the sanctity of life. Instead, he viewed human beings as being no different than animals. This was evident not only in how he treated his wife and children, but also in his writings. "The classes and the races too weak to master the new conditions of life must give way. They must perish in the revolutionary holocaust." -Karl Marx (Marx _People's Paper_ , April 16, 1856, Journal of the History of Idea, 1981).

When the Buddha entrusted the mission of saving mankind in the evil age that would come 2000 years after his death to the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, he did not incite hatred in one class of people for another (the World of Anger), nor did he advise them to achieve their goals through a violent revolution (the World of Anger), and not by greedily confiscating the property of others (the World of Hunger), nor to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat (the World of Anger). Instead, his goal was to provide people with a path to enlightenment, and the understanding that they would never be relieved of their sufferings unless they could clearly see how the law of causation affected their own lives.

The Buddha's teachings have lead millions on the path to enlightenment. Those who have practiced and revered his teachings sincerely, and correctly, have received countless benefits, lessened their bad karma, and in doing so, have made the world a better place. In contrast, Karl Marx's teachings have fostered hatred on a grand scale, and have brought suffering and misery throughout the world.

# Chapter Nineteen - The Karma of Mao

Nichiren wrote a lengthy essay entitled Rationale for Submitting the Rissho Ankoku Ron, on how a nation whose citizens became debauched, corrupt, slanderous of one another, and were complicit with twisted laws and practices and heretical beliefs would be beset by calamities, invasions from external forces, and suffer under evil rulers [ _Rationale for Submitting the Rissho Ankoku Ron_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 2, p. 3]. He believed that Japan was an evil nation and blamed the famine, pestilence and attack from Mongol forces that befell the Japanese people during his lifetime on the erroneous practices and beliefs of the people.

Benjamin Franklin also understood this causal relationship between a people and how they were governed: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

The nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, taking up two halves of the tiny island of Hispanola, provide contrasting portraits of two nations, one with widespread poverty and misery, and another that fairs far better.

In Haiti, the people's misfortune cannot be blamed on anything but the impurities of their own minds. Voodoo is widely practiced. It's adherents look outside of themselves to rituals and spells to remedy their problems. Corruption is an acceptable way of life. No amount of money poured into Haitian government coffers has fundamentally changed their circumstances, and the Haitian people have suffered one corrupt government after another.

"If you wish to free yourself from the sufferings of birth and death you have endured through eternity, and attain supreme enlightenment in this lifetime, you must awaken to the mystic truth which has always been in your life." [ _On Attaining Buddhahood_ , The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Volume One, p. 4].

In the era leading up to World War II, many Japanese people were caught up in fanatic Shinto religious zealotry. Many Buddhists were persecuted, with the government forcing Buddhist monks to build Shinto shrines on Buddhist temple grounds. Surely, had Nichiren been alive at the time, he would have once again proclaimed Japan to be an evil nation.

China was also spiritually floundering, a giant, corrupt, rudderless vessel, whose people were mired in countless superstitions. Buddhist influence there had long ago reached its peak during the T'ang Dynasty, from the years 618 to 907, with the Emperor Wu-tsung, in 845, instructing his soldiers to suppress Buddhism, which resulted in the destruction of more than 4,000 monasteries and 40,000 temples and shrines. Just as in pre-World War II Japan, what remained would be nothing more than superficial rituals with no deep understanding or practice as a foundation of belief. During the 19th Century and beyond, opium would become the higher power of many.

Not realizing the importance of self-governance, and self-defense against outside influence by other nations such as the British, and the Japanese, their karmic fate was sealed. Once American forces helped clear out the Japanese occupiers, Mao Zedong and his troops moved in to do as they wished with the Chinese people.

Even though he had been raised as a Buddhist, one can only presume that Buddhism and a belief in karma did not play a role in Mao Zedong's life. No matter what he said, or wrote, his actions belied him. Mao traded in his family's religion for a new one, the church of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. _The Communist Manifesto_ became his most essential sutra, and Karl Marx's most devout votary, Vladimir Lenin, was his inspiration. Mao had thousands of Buddhist monasteries destroyed in Tibet, just like his Chinese predecessor, Wu-Tsung of the T'ang Dynasty.

His morality mirrored Lenin's morality: In Lenin's words: "Freedom is a bourgeois prejudice. We repudiate all morality which proceeds from supernatural ideas, or ideas which are outside the class conception. In our opinion, morality is entirely subordinate to the interests of the class war. Everything is moral which is necessary for the annihilation of the old exploiting order and for uniting the proletariat. Our morality consists solely in close discipline and conscious warfare against the exploiters."

Unlike the Buddha and Bodhisattva Never Disparaging who believed that every individual human being was a potential Buddha and deserved to be revered, Mao Zedong saw people as components in a machine, guinea pigs in an experiment.

It meant nothing to him to force workers onto collectives against their will, or for militias to torture and beat to death unarmed millions who did not comply, or to order mass executions of intellectuals, and others he deemed an obstacle to his agenda.

According to Mao's personal physician for many years, Dr. Li Zhisui, in his memoir of Mao, _The Private Life of Chairman Mao_ , Mao Zedong was a selfish, licentious, decadent man who saw everyone as a subject, or slave, not an equal. Those who weren't obedient and attempted to be his equal stood to be purged.

For Mao, the establishment of agricultural collectives was a great leap forward into a glorious worker's paradise, but for them, it was a great leap forward into hell, torture, oppression, starvation and death. In abolishing private property, Mao, the grasping, greedy, thief, might as well have stripped the Chinese people naked of their clothing as well as their property. Workers who managed to stay alive were terrorized daily, while Mao's needs were satisfied, including his sexual desires, where young women were proffered to him regularly to satisfy his whims. He not only deceived his people, he deceived himself. His life became one of deception.

His attempts to turn China into a glorious workers' paradise, with equality for all, resulted in the deaths of 70 million people [ _Mao: The Unknown Story_ , Jung Chang, Jon Halliday, Part One, p. 1] He was an _icchantika_ , a scorched seed, who took his Marxist belief that human beings were no higher than animals, had no possibility of becoming buddhas, that there were no such things as heavenly deities, no Alaya conscious where all of our deeds, good or bad, are stored, no law of causation, no such thing as karma, and made himself into the Chinese people's living deity and highest power, their 'Dear Leader.'

As for Mao Zedong's and the karma of his fellow communist dictators, one can only guess, but considering their crimes against humanity, and in their disrespect for the supreme law of the universe, I would venture to say, it is what the Buddha described would be the same fate as those who slander the Lotus Sutra:

"These men shall enter the Avici Hell, where they shall spend one Kalpa.

When the Kalpa has ended, they shall be reborn there, in this way spinning around, throughout Kalpas unnumbered [and then] from hell emerging, they shall fall into the rank of beasts.

If they are dogs or yeh-kan, their forms shall be hairless and emaciated, spotted and scabbed, things from which men shrink.

They shall also by men be detested and despised, ever suffering from hunger and thirst, their flesh and bones dried out and decayed.

While living they are pricked by poisonous thistles; when dead they are covered with tiles and stones.

It is because they have cut off the Buddha-seed that they suffer those retributions for their sins.

If they become camels, or if they are born among asses, on their bodies they shall ever carry heavy loads, and suffer the blows of rods and whips, thinking of only water and grass and knowing nothing else . . ." [ _The Beautiful Sutra of the Lotus Blossom_ , Leon Hurvitz, Chapter 3: Parable p. 77]

# About the Author

Susanna Godoy Lohse has an intimate knowledge of both communism and Buddhism. Born to a Latin American father and an American mother, she spent her early childhood between New York City, pre-Castro Cuba, and a small Colorado mining town. Her father had come to Havana from Lima, Peru as a young man, and, with his brother, started a business from the ground up, but was confiscated in the communist revolution in 1960. He eventually moved to Madrid, Spain where he died a broken man, having lost his home, his business, and his adopted country.

She has maintained an assiduous daily Buddhist practice of reciting portions of the Lotus Sutra, and its title--Nam (I take refuge), Myoho (Mystic Law), Renge (Lotus Blossom), Kyo (Sutra), or Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo since 1976.

Before finalizing her first novel, _The Peerless Dulcinea_ , she adapted it into a screenplay, winning an award at the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival in the family/children category of not yet produced screenplays.

She now lives with her husband in the Texas Hill Country.
