Capitalism as Charnel Grounds

Turning critique of capitalism into a tantric practice of view

You are trapped in a cruel social experiment. You will be oppressed and exploited. What is worse, you will have to participate in oppression and exploitation of others. There is no way out, non-participation is not an option. In the end, you will die without getting any justice.

What are you going to do next?

I recently came across yet another article [1] discussing modern Buddhism’s relationship with capitalism, where the author was wondering whether it is ethical for Buddhism (consensus/Sutric/Mahayana) to be politically neutral and “participate in capitalism” (there is a very similar discussion in the AI ethics domain). And capitalism, as assumed to be self-evident, is very bad. What stood out for me was the following phrase in [1]: “Capitalist and consumerist structures haunt our expectations and horizons of understanding in ways that are often concealed, unless brought to light by sustained reflection.” This strikes me as a description of a practice of view, which means developing the habit of interpreting the world in a particular way. To see Capitalism in everything, one has to sustain a specific interpretive frame. 

To me this looks like a variation on the Charnel Grounds view, where the yogi interprets the world as infinite charnel grounds (graveyard, but with piles of corpses instead of graves). This view (from Vajrayana perspective) is very well summarised here [2] and I recommend you check it out (this note is strongly inspired by it). 

In this note I will turn the critique of capitalism into a practice of view, building on the Charnel grounds practise in Vajrayana. 

Capitalism

The world of humans is fucked. All power is corrupted, every relationship is exploitative, technology and progress only increase inequality and empower the wicked and destroy the environment. Law is but a way for perpetuating privilege and true justice is impossible. Oppression and discrimination is paramount. Every historical figure has done something terrible. Society is an evil, tyrannical monster. Put simply, we live under Capitalism.

The practice would be to interpret each and every social interaction and relationship as some form of oppression, exploitation or coercion (discrimination, domination, etc.). Marriage–a way for couples to exploit each other. Education–oppression of students. A waiter is smiling at you—they are being coerced into it. World is a negative sum game—everybody loses. Importantly, there is no escape. There is simply no way of acting that would not lead to someone being oppressed, exploited, dominated and so on. One could read some critical theory (news from the right outlet would do as well) as a support for the practice, but as long as they do not offer any hope for escape. Because there is no salvation, no escape, no alternative, and no hope. This is the central part of the practice.

The fruit of the practice is utter hopelessness. You see, hope is not regarded as something useful in Vajrayana. It wastes our time and turns us into whiny muppets chasing ghosts. Having abandoned hope of escape, we can discover freedom and openness, precisely because there is no hope of escaping. Whatever you do, you will end up being oppressed and exploited and will oppress and exploit someone else. So you might stop sitting scared and anxious in the corner, trying not to swallow a bug while breathing, and do something interesting with your time. 

This world is fucked, but there is plenty of room for celebration, beauty, generosity, curiosity, and good old fun. Capitalism is actually a fascinating place. Toxic wastes have a beautiful glow at sunset and the oppressed often throw cool parties with heavy bass. You can also get a singing and dancing poop-hat with a flower delivered the next day. And check out that image of a cat practising chöd that I made using genAI, isn’t it awesome?

You can also do a lot of good once you stop worrying that it might do some bad somewhere down the line of causality—it surely will, but it makes it no less good. One might mistake this view for hedonism, but hedonism is impossible under Capitalism by construction—you will get oppressed and exploited no matter what! Remember—there is no escape. But it also means you can relax about it and be free to enter into relationships. Get married, if you want to—in between the exploitation and domination you might also find care, love and romance. Get a job, while being exploited for the meagre (or not) wage you might actually learn something interesting.

Dualistic mistake

The dualist mistake in the original article [1], which this practice exposes, is separating the good and the bad in the consequences of one’s actions. This is impossible in the same way as it is impossible to separate emptiness from form. As heart sutra states—“Form is emptiness and emptiness is form”. Struggle to do so is both pointless and frustrating. 

Help is the sunny side of control, freedom is the sunny side of neglect, duty is the sunny side of coercion, merit is the sunny side of inequality. The list can be expanded.  Whether you are being exploited or provided with gainful employment, coerced or incentivised is in many cases a matter of interpretation. What is considered good or bad, fair or unfair, just or unjust is constantly changing. Human society is dynamic and re-articulates itself and what such words mean all the time. It is simply impossible to act, so that somewhere, someone wouldn’t judge one’s actions oppression, discrimination or simply “wrong”. 

In Sutric Buddhism, the answer to this condition is an escapist dream of Nirvana. In Vajrayana (tantric Buddhism), the answer is engagement with experience without hope or fear. Samsara is Nirvana.

Mirror view

There is also a mirror view, which is the opposite side of the same non-dual coin. For Charnel grounds, the mirror is the pure land view [3], which is a practice of interpreting the reality as a pure land, a paradise populated by enlightened Buddhas. To mirror Capitalism, we can imagine a view where society is a benevolent being nurturing and caring. The fruit of this practice is no fear. Put together, the stance we arrive at is that of no hope and no fear.

Relative improvement 

I want to make a note that I’m not denying the possibility of relative improvements. There is always a possibility of making something better in some parts of a specific society. Progress is possible and is happening. What is impossible is separating the good and the bad of society. There will never be any Revolution that changes social relationships in such a way that only good follows from one's actions. There is no code of conduct or constitution that delivers us from this condition. 

It is also good to keep in mind that Capitalism, not as a view, but as a socio-economical concept, is a reified generality (as most other -isms). It is not real in the same way as your house, British parliament, the US constitution, gravity, pain or the colour red are. Decontextualized from the actual, specific social circumstances and dynamics, the concept loses predictive power and descriptive clarity. It is probably not the best tool for understanding human society and its history. I highly recommend the first chapter (Assemblages and Human History) of Assemblage Theory [3] by Manuel DeLanda. I find the following quote particularly insightful:

“[..] it should be clear that eliminating a society-wide system and replacing it with a population of organisations [..] is necessary to explain economic history. This population may indeed be coextensive with an entire country, in the sense that the reach of national corporations coincides with the jurisdiction of its central government organisations, but this does not imply that they are all part of an overall system, much less that the nature of this system can be understood using reified generalities like the Market and the State. Much of the academic left today has become prey to the double danger of politically targeting reified generalities (Power, Resistance, Capital, Labour) while at the sametime abandoning realism. A new left may yet emerge from these ashes but only if it recovers its footing on a mind-independent reality and if it focuses its efforts at the right social scale, that is, if it leaves behind the dream of a Revolution that changes the entire system.”

Manuel DeLanda

1. https://tricycle.org/magazine/western-buddhism-individualism

2. https://vividness.live/charnel-ground

3. https://vividness.live/pure-land 

4. DeLanda, M. (2016). Assemblage Theory. United Kingdom: Edinburgh University Press.