Of course China, being a state-run economy, its society, the very life of its peoples, dictated by the needs of the state to make its economy prosperous, finds Buddhist monks subversive.  Of course Buddhism itself is subversive.  No wonder, the tangle over Tibet, a principal stage for the great state's conflict with humanity.  All the Chinese state must consider important, the making, selling and buying of things (far more important than any pressing environmental concerns and human rights), is completely unimportant to the Buddhist.  And to China, Buddhist thought is completely unimportant and wrongful.

The modern economy must sell its stuff, must sing the great importance of stuff.  And so, through every conceivable chink in our personal mind's armor and boundaries, in creeps the emails, the pitches, the advertisements, the suggestions, the common mindset, the call to be entranced and subservient to it all.  "You need this.  You need that.  You will feel better if you go and do this."  And this is all, to the thoughtful Buddhist, who has thought long and hard about everything, completely inconsequential when compared to the evolution of consciousness that the human being is naturally capable of and headed toward.

Buddhism and the modern economic state, to the extent that state is all-reaching, are largely incompatible, when the state reaches beyond attempting to organize the basics for the health of humanity and the planet with all its creatures.  In the free market economy, the full court press against human consciousness is done by private entities, who are, of course, profit minded.  The lines begin to blur between the corporation and the system of government, and when the two combine, we have Fascism.  Corporations get their way, deregulating;  the government system gets more entrenched by allying itself with corporate power, etc.

Of course, it is hard for us to consider the various cults we fall into to varying degrees, the cult of the state, even the cult of individual personality as defined by popular culture as that culture is based on consumption, the cult of a media which tells us what is happening 24/7 but does not go beyond the corporate mind-set in its questioning.  Buddhist thought is an alternative, and it seems a healthier one more every day.



It's interesting to stop and look at the growth of egotistical acts done by large impersonal powerful entities.  The Patriot Act, the erosion of privacy.  The approval of torture, detainment at Gitmo Bay.  The imprisonment of whistle blowers.  The power of giant corporations to influence politics, the allowing of big banks to do whatever they want...  Where will it end?  Tibet?

Wayne LaPierre, he strikes one as a perfect sign of the times, with his 'more, more, more...'  More stuff, more guns, more consumption, more pollution.  Environmental costs, human costs, and the crazy with the gun wouldn't have been there in the first place if it weren't for his side in the battle for the earth.

But fortunately, once you get the hang of it, Buddhist thought is pretty intuitive and easy to use, and its even a good barometer by which to measure the danger and the morality of any issue, as simple as 'do unto others...'  And isn't the morality of any issue pretty much the main and lasting thing about it anyway.