Dharmic Law

The Justice of Future: Dharmic Law

The Maitriyana opens a window to the future of humanity, revealing that the revolution goes beyond the economy and politics to also penetrate in the culture. Thus the Buddhist Socialism also reflects and theorises on issues such as Law, initiating a revolutionary vision of Justice. This libertarian meditation of the spiritual master is coated with a practical, theoretical and historical interest in the hardly cultivated and unexplored field which is the Buddhist conception of Law. The historical interest of this revolutionary contemplation (kakumei-zen) is derived from a work which has the Purpose (Dharma) of gestation and definitive elaboration of the libertarian socialist civilization of the future, at which time the peoples emerged from the post-capitalist insurrection will try to conform the social life on the new bases of peace, justice, education and ecology. In this way the Maitriyana forges a practical and theoretical New Way (Navayana) of Law.

The revolutionary function of the Buddhist Socialism redefines the Law as an Intelligent and Organic Order of social relations which should never respond to the interests of the dominant classes, but rather it should protect through the power of kindness and the compassionate wisdom (karuna-prajña) to those who suffer. In accordance with Marx, the Maitriyana considers that the current traditional Law is nothing more than the legal expression of the relations of capitalist production.[1] From the approach of the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) it is claimed the need for a Dharmic or Spiritual Law that responds to the libertarian socialist revolution. This is due that the creation of a new Law is a skilful means of the social reorganization of every revolution which works for the interests of a better world.[2] In the wide-open eyes of the spiritual master, the future of humanity along with its very survival and Salvation cannot escape the revolution of this Dharmic Law. Although in the future society it is probable that the State ceases to exist and the capitalist juridical institutions disappear, inevitably it will continue to exist as an intuitive Law, being a set of kind and compassionate ideas that exists as nature of the human mind. This psychic nature which is the Dharmic Law of the compassionate wisdom (karuna-prajña) is repressed by the principle of justice of the dominant classes, which transmit an ideological and dualistic form of Law that is fundamentally unjust and unequal. Just like Reisner,[3] this distinction between the false justice of the legal ideology and the True Justice of the Dharmic Law makes the Buddhist Socialism holds that in the future civilization, the illusory Law will cease to exist as an ideological thinking, although the Justice will continue to exist as a real Law of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

The fundamental work of the Maitriyana produces harsh criticism of the juridical institutions, showing the need for a new practice and theory of Law so that the world can achieve the Cure (Nirvana) from suffering. Thus the Awakening (Bodhi) is like a ray of light that opens a revolutionary sense for the existence of the individual, beyond the oppression of the State and religion. However, this radical critique that performs the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) makes he may be blacked out as an enemy of the Power, leading inexorably to that the spiritual master may suffer government repression. The ideas of Buddhist Socialism sabotage the status quo, denouncing and condemning the oppressive methods of capitalism, which turns it into a movement that is friend of the people. By showing the erroneous nature of the ideas of traditional Law, the fundamental theses of Maitriyana are separated from the juridical ideology to get close to the experiences and relationships experienced by human beings, studying the reality of the inner and outer world without falling into a static and non-objective ideology. Consistent with Pashukanis, the Buddhist Socialism raises the question of Law as an objective problem of social (economic, political and cultural) relations, but requiring investigate the Spirituality of that social objectivity. This research is absent in traditional Law, which means that the ordinary justice is a juridical ideology that is not anchored in Good and in reality. By departing radically from the State institutions, the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) conceives that Law can be changed and transformed like any other social relationship, redirecting it towards defending the interests of the people. The Maitriyana is then the fundamental task of transforming social relations, whether economic, political, cultural, religious or juridical.

Obviously, by anchoring the Law in the spiritual life and by the emphasis on the revolutionary way of its true applicability, the Buddhist Socialism is situated in opposition to the capitalist point of view that usually explains Law as a set of norms independent from the social relations and domination of the ruling class. Thus, the spiritual master denounces that the norm has become the logical and factual basis of the juridical institution, when it should actually be the spiritual values of the Justice and Truth. Thus, the Maitriyana proclaims that the capitalist theory of Law does not solve anything, but rather it returns its back to the real facts of society,[4] dedicating itself to norms without worrying about those who suffer or worrying about the social relations that attempt against Liberty, Equality and Fraternity of the people. This is because the capitalist civilization does not address the Law as a social and spiritual phenomenon. The juridical thought of the Buddhist Socialism is then about the fundamental principles of Marxism, criticizing the bourgeois Law of capitalist society for not being more than the set of social relations of a society that is producer and accumulator of goods.[5] In contrast, for the Maitriyana the true nature of Law is the spiritual values of Justice and Righteousness, so that it may only be expressed by the libertarian communist society of the future of the world. Thus, to get the most pure and true expression of Law one must initiate a process of purification and detachment from normativism for being a system based on illusions. Indeed, there is a perverse relationship between the state legal field and the capitalist economic Power, product from which it emerges a conception that degrades the human life to a mere exchange of goods: the juridical-capitalist fetishism. This economism clearly overrides the intrinsic Liberty of the apprentice, which is the mystical value of the human being. For the Buddhist Socialism the relationship with Justice is really a spiritual relationship between human beings, as it is a link between society and the perennial values of Kindness and Compassion. In this sense, the libertarian meditation leaves the abstract level of the norm to fall within the pragmatic level of Justice, trying to convert the subject into a Fair Being or a Being of the Universal Law. Thus, the object of study of Maitriyana is Justice as an indispensable social and spiritual value for the Cure (Nirvana) from the evils of the world.

Although this detachment from the capitalist field is an attempt to approximate the way of Law to the way of Spirituality, it is certainly indisputable the close relation between the value of Justice and the ethical Being. Moreover, the Buddhist Socialism establishes the controversial thesis that public Law - as relationship between the individual and the State - is a false Law, while the communal Law is the true one. In fact, Penal Law and Civil Law - with normative codes unknown by most of the people - are presented as illusory when the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) shows the libertarian socialist conception of Law that is practiced in Buddhist communes (Sanghas). Since the bourgeois Law corresponds in form and content to the capitalist society, the Maitriyana coincides with Pashukanis and comes to the logical conclusion that this kind of Law will not exist in the communist society of the future. This means that the normative juridical regulation, which is based on personal interests, should be replaced by the spiritual ethical regulation that has as its foundation the Unity of Purpose (Dharma) of the members of the Commune (Sangha).[6] Thus, in the libertarian socialist civilization there will be no juridical norms but ethical rules to bring peace, justice, wisdom and compassion in the relationships between the apprentice and the Commune (Sangha). Therefore, just like Pashukanis, the Buddhist Socialism shows that in a developed communist society there will be an Evanescence (Nirvana) of the State and of the bourgeois Law (which is a Law of inequality), pointing to a new social organization with a communist Law (which is a Metalaw or Dharmic Law), provided it has been definitely overtaken the poisons of greed, hatred and delusion. Thus, only transcending the oppression and injustice of the State and the bourgeois Law the subject will be able to live in Liberty, Equality and Fraternity with the fellow beings. Even great Marxist authors agree with the thesis of the disappearance of the State and Law raised by the Maitriyana, characterizing the new libertarian communist society as the very fate of Justice. However, the spiritual master considers that popular dictatorship and the period of transition to this future model should be very short, because its duration would represent a theoretical, practical and historical problem. This is due to the human nature, that is Liberation and Awakening (Bodhi), with which every social condition that is contrary to that must last the shortest time possible. The Cultural Revolution of the Buddhist Socialism is facing this problem of how to build a society of True Justice, evidencing that the Maitriyana goes beyond being a new economic policy aimed at build a system of wealth redistribution. The Buddhist Socialism is not against industrialization, but it proposes measures aimed at carry out the necessary transformation so that humanity is raised to a Superior Age. Precisely, in the concrete historical situation the Maitriyana poses itself the vital question of Salvation, which is related to the fate of Evanescence (Nirvana) of the bourgeois Law to give way to the stage of the Dharmic Law. Actually, in the libertarian socialist civilization or evolved communism there will be no State nor Law, as Pashukanis has noted, because the Law is essentially bourgeois and its replacement by the new categories of the libertarian socialist Law implies a genuine Metalaw. Indeed, in the Dharmic Law or Metalaw the limited horizon of the bourgeois Law has been overcome, but it has also gone beyond all Law as a norm, because this is the Cure (Nirvana) or Evanescence of the juridical moment in social relations.[7] Certainly in the Buddhist Socialism it is about a gradual disappearance, while in Anarchism is an abrupt disappearance. In accordance with Marx, the Way towards the libertarian socialist civilization or evolved communism does not technically presents a new legal form but the very extinction of any juridical form, being a Awakening (Bodhi) or Liberation in relation to that bourgeois heritage that seeks to survive beyond capitalism.[8] According to the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva), Law is not something perennial as the Dharmic Law certainly is, and therefore assuming a new libertarian socialist content does nothing more than being destined to be extinguished gradually and definitely. The field of the norm only catches the human being in a limited time, until its horizon is overcome or exhausted by the apprentice in the experience of the Cure (Nirvana).

In this way, consistent with Pashukanis the theses of Maitriyana about the Law can be summarized as follows: 1) All Law is capitalist Law until it is completely transcended or faded into a Meta-Law; 2) A socialist Law does not admit traditional juridical forms, so that it is not technically a normative Law; 3) During the process of gradual or sudden extinction of the normative Law, this latter must be used to benefit the people.[9]

Like Marx and Engels, the Buddhist Socialism takes care of the Law to show how it must be passed from the savage capitalist society to the evolved communist society, by banishing economic, political and cultural vestiges belonging to the old society from whose entrails comes the revolution.[10] In this regard, all that the Maitriyana teaches about the Law thus relates to the Future Justice or Dharmic Law as a means of banishing consumerism, dualism and egoism, because this is the most important thing to build a superior society with a supra-economic, trans-academic and meta-juridical structure. According to the spiritual master, the Law is fundamentally an inequality Law because it assumes there is a social elite with Power while it accepts to maintain the oppression and suffering endured by the rest of society, reason why Marx himself has recognized that even in the authoritarian communism or dictatorship of the proletariat the Law still remains bourgeois.[11] Therefore, the definitive future of Law will be its own extinction or Evanescence (Nirvana), disappearing together with the State so that a higher phase of society emerges with a pacifist politics, economics of social justice, progressive culture and engaged ecology. Therefore, the Buddhist Socialism proposes a Meta-Law or Dharmic Law which avoids the disadvantages of applying supposedly egalitarian measures but which in reality do nothing but nullify the different abilities and needs between each individual. Thus, this Dharmic Law – which would imply the overcoming of itself as Law - should go beyond the dualism between equality and inequality, by exceeding the narrow horizon of the bourgeois Law for undertaking the existential uniqueness of every Being. In a higher phase of the evolved communism or libertarian socialist civilization the enslaving subordination of the individual from the machine of oppression of State disappears, and with this one the illusion of normative juridical form of bourgeois Law also disappears, making the apprentice considers Love and Work (intellectual or manual) as the primary necessity of life and not as mere worldly practices. Thus, with the integral development of the subject in his psychological, philosophical and political aspects the productive forces which materially and spiritually nourish the people also grow, completely exceeding the limits of the bourgeois Law so that the society is capable of distributing according to the ability and necessity of each human being.[12]

In accordance with Marx, the Maitriyana clarifies that the bourgeois Law which totally prevails in capitalist society – both with private property, with the representative democracy as well as with religious moral - still persists in the first stage or degree of the authoritarian communism because it still has no full economic maturity,[13] nor a political and cultural maturity. In fact, the survival of the narrow horizon of the bourgeois Law during the phase of authoritarian communism or Dictatorship of the proletariat does nothing more than demonstrating factually that the form of bourgeois State Power is still in force at this stage, since the bourgeois Law does not exist without the presence of a system of Power capable of forcing the subject to respect the norms.[14]

In contrast to the authoritarian communism and its self-contradiction in believing that there may be a bourgeois State without bourgeoisie,[15] the Buddhist Socialism believes that the State and Law should be banished for being both an apparatus of coercion, in order thus to give way for the observance of the ethical guidelines of coexistence without any coercion, which implies that the Law ceases to exist as a system of coercively imposed norms.[16] However, only in the conditions of the spiritual commune (Sangha) the apprentices have been able to build this ideal of organization without the State and without Law, gradually getting used to observing and following the elementary rules of coexistence that were repeated over thousands of years as ethical precepts without coercion, violence and domination of the State.[17] Although the redistributionist and postcapitalist principle is usually accused of utopianism, it is undoubtedly possible to build a libertarian communist society where individuals learn to directly work for the social good without relying on any norm of Law, because this has already happened with the spiritual communes (Sanghas ) in which the narrow horizon of bourgeois Law was totally overcome.

In accordance with Marx, for the Maitriyana there is a big immaturity in the economic, political and cultural structure of the transition period of authoritarian communism or Dictatorship of the proletariat, reason why in this introductory phase there still remains both the bourgeois Law and the apparatus of State coercion to ensure the observation of the norms. However, the Buddhist Socialism demonstrates, in theory and practice, that when spirituality is deployed in the commune (Sangha) a new trans-state and trans-juridical structure is created. This is the Future of Justice or the Dharmic Law, following ethical rules not imposed by any Power, but consciously chosen as the most correct way of living. Consequently, the proletariat Law still remains bourgeois Law, whilst the libertarian socialist Law, which Maitriyana proposes, is undoubtedly a Metalaw, by being the incarnation of Justice in the here and now without the presence of the illusory and oppressive juridical norm.

The fundamental aspect of the Buddhist Socialism is seeking the abolition of the private ownership and the socialization of the means of life, but it is also the abandonment of the traditional Law and the detachment from the State. In this way the Maitriyana fulfils the dream of Marx in all the spheres of the social life, but without losing a communist human rights practice. By receiving a new content of a libertarian socialist nature, Law overcomes the bourgeois limitation to become a Neo-Law or Dharmic Law where the juridical norm has disappeared to be replaced by a constant fair practice and revolutionary contemplation (kakumei-zen). Therefore, the Buddhist Socialism must not be limited to the mere transformation of the old Law, but it must to create a beyond Law, thus avoiding the violation of human rights that the juridical institutions generate and which enter into contradiction with the aims and essence of the libertarian socialist civilization of the future. The supreme fate of the doctrine of Maitriyana is to transmit the fundamental theses of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity to everyone, reason why the Dharmic Law introduces a critique of the bourgeois Law, proposing transcend it and even fade it into the wise and compassionate society. Like Pashukanis, the theses of the Buddhist Socialism pose a threat to the centralization and bureaucratization of the political and economic Power, whose sociocultural bodies are undemocratic and based on the cult of personality.[18]

In the analytical, existential and libertarian framework of the revolutionary process of Maitriyana, the theory and practice of Law experiences a radical transformation that is manifested in the severe criticisms towards the theses of capitalism and towards the repressive aspect of the juridical norm, which also impacts on the authoritarian communism to make it see the erroneous and anachronistic aspects of its economic policy. The practical and theoretical building erected by the Buddhist Socialism shows the cracks of the illusory Discourse of Power, reason why it denounces to dictatorial regimes as an involuted communism that is fully attached to the oppressive machinery of the State and the bourgeois Law, such as the USSR was. Given that the Buddhist Socialism seeks the gradual or sudden Evanescence (Nirvana) of the State, the authoritarian movements may come to accuse to Reconciliatory Spirituality of being counterrevolutionary, although the Maitriyana is rather a transrrevolucionary Pathway. The ideas of the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) lead to a world of peace, social justice, education and ecology, so that the Buddhist Socialism is the maximum spiritual exponent in theory of Law and the State, whilst it is the maximum responsible for the practice of libertarian meditation as an Attorney of the Dharmic Law. Therefore, the metapolitics of Maitriyana is about a post-Marxist and metascientific theory which recovers the vision of Marx of a classless society and with an evolved communism.

In criticizing the Law as a bourgeois Law, the spiritual master establishes the groundwork for a development of Justice under the guidance of the Buddhist Socialism, by pointing at banishing the normative Law and the juridical science as oppressive elements of the State machinery. Naturally, such a Purpose (Dharma) represents the beginning of a profound debate against the prevailing ideologies, leaving the field clear in order that humanity can leave the illusory and useless juridical practice for developing the conception of Justice as a transcendental spiritual value in the project of Salvation of the world. Although the Maitriyana may be prosecuted, repressed or thrown into the oblivion for dramatically denounce the capitalist State as an unjust system and the bourgeois Law for being a perverse system, it certainly plays a decisive role in mental and social evolution of the human being. This implies that the work of the Buddhist Socialism will continue to have an extraordinary vitality whenever the people want to achieve Liberation and Awakening (Bodhi). Although the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) does not occupy the centre of attention in the bourgeois civilization of the social networks and media, its merits are registered in the attempt to rescue the best knowledges of the history of humanity which have been silenced by dogmatism. By being the incarnation of the peak knowledge (Satori), the spiritual master is purely and simply the most powerful Being in the world, his entire existence being a serene and critical reflection on what is Justice.

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[1] K. Marx, Contribución a la crítica de la economía política.

[2] P. L. Stuchka, La función revolucionaria del derecho y del Estado.

[3] M. A. Reisner, El derecho, nuestro derecho, el derecho extranjero, el derecho general.

[4] E. B. Pashukanis, La teoría general del derecho y el marxismo.

[5] E. B. Pashukanis, La teoría general del derecho y el marxismo.

[6] Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez, Pashukanis: teórico marxista del derecho.  Prólogo al libro de E. B. Pashukanis, La teoría general del derecho y el marxismo.

[7] E. B. Pashukanis, La teoría general del derecho y el marxismo.

[8] E. B. Pashukanis, La teoría general del derecho y el marxismo.

[9] Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez, Pashukanis: teórico marxista del derecho.  Prólogo al libro de E. B. Pashukanis, La teoría general del derecho y el marxismo.

[10] K. Marx, Critica del Programa de Gotha.

[11] K. Marx, Critica del Programa de Gotha.

[12] K. Marx, Critica del Programa de Gotha.

[13] V. I. Lenin, El Estado y la revolución.

[14] V. I. Lenin, El Estado y la revolución.

[15] V. I. Lenin, El Estado y la revolución.

[16] Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez, Pashukanis: teórico marxista del derecho.  Prólogo al libro de E. B. Pashukanis, La teoría general del derecho y el marxismo.

[17] V. I. Lenin, El Estado y la revolución.

[18] Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez, Pashukanis: teórico marxista del derecho.  Prólogo al libro de E. B. Pashukanis, La teoría general del derecho y el marxismo.