“Pour la Vie” (1901): Alexandra David-Néel‘s Forgotten Anarchist Philosophy of Life

Alexandra David-Néel’s importance as an early explorer, student and translator of Sanskrit and Tibetan Buddhism cannot be overstated. Her books remain today some of the clearest and most intimate expositions of Tibetan Buddhism as it was practiced in Tibet at the start of the 20th Century. She was perhaps the first European to write about […]

Buddhist Anarchism and Divination Beliefs in Shin Chae-ho’s The Fierce Strife Between Two Dragons

English machine translation of Kim Yong-Ha’s article Buddhist Anarchism in Shin Chae-ho’s “A Tale of Strife Between Two Dragons”

Buddhist Anarchism in the Dharma-Ending Age

Commentary on the Cakkavatti-Sihanada Sutta By Shaku Shin Gi Retrieved from https://contra.net.br/buddhist-anarchism-in-the-dharma-ending-age/ I originally discovered this piece through the Spanish-language blog MAITRI, which hosts a number of articles on radical and anarchist Buddhism. I highly recommend checking it out: https://maitridharmacomprometido.wordpress.com/ This article in particular is interesting for a number of reasons. 1. Introduction Mahayana Buddhism […]

Circling the Ⓐ: Revolution in a Single Syllable

Let us therefore trust the eternal Spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unfathomable and eternally creative source of all life. The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too. — Mikhail Bakunin 1. Love it or hate it, the “Circle A” — scrawled on walls, carved in bathroom stalls, printed on […]

Nondominational Buddhism

Several years ago I wrote a post about the expected scope of this research project. I wanted to clarify what kind of operation I was performing in studying the intersection of Buddhism and anarchism. In that post, out of a healthy abundance of skepticism, I concluded that a reasonable outcome would be to find an […]

White lotus, red turbans, black flags: revolutionary buddhist heretics

“The bodhisattva practices emptiness, but he does not realize emptiness…He considers peacefulness but does not seek extreme peace.” – Vimalakirti Sutra By way of (re)introduction Hello, my patient readers. Believe it or not, the work continues behind the scenes. It took me some time to come back around, but I am back on this project […]