The Oxford Collective is a leftwing Assembly of the People - founded in Oxford in 1965. It advocates the practice of Buddhist meditation coupled with the study of the Classical works of Karl Marx (1818-1883). Its original members comprised eminent Oxford academics, learned lay people, ordained and lay Buddhists, and other interested parties. Membership has usually remained local to Oxford before the advent of the internet, with only the occasional international member, but today the Oxford Collective reaches out to the world through its main website and Facebook pages. The Oxford Collective endorses the work of Eric Fromm whom compares Marxist philosophy to that of Zen Buddhism:
The number of people who understand Marx today, really understand Marx, is very small. That may sound arrogant if I say that just about everybody is wrong except for me and a few others. I don’t mean to be so sweeping in my judgement, but I do feel most Marx experts overlook the fact that Marx’s thought is essentially religious, though not “religious” in the sense that it posits any faith in God. Buddhism isn’t religious in that sense either. Buddhism does not recognise a god, but it is religious in its central belief that we have to transcend our narcissism, our egoism, our inner isolation, and open ourselves to life, that we - as Meister Eckhart would put it – have to make ourselves empty so that we can be made full, so that we can become whole. That belief, expressed in different words, is at the heart of Marx’s work. I’ve often had a little fun reading selections from Marx’s economic and philosophical manuscripts to various people. I recall a meeting I had with Dr Suzuki, an eminent figure in Zen Buddhism. I read him some passages without telling him who had written them, and then I asked him: Is that Zen? Yes, of course, he said. That’s Zen. Another time I read some similar passages to a group of very learned theologians, and their guesses ranged from all kinds of classical authors, such as Thomas Aquinas, to the most modern theologians. Not one of them suspected that the author was Marx. They simply didn’t know Marx.
(Fromm, Eric, For The Love of Life, The Free Press (1986), Pages 103-104)
Today’s membership is diverse and is spreading across the world. Although membership details of the Oxford Collective are confidential, through the development of the BMA (UK) - (officially founded in Oxford on Saturday the 20th of July 2013) – members can exchange details, compare thoughts, and ask questions of one another. Central to the thinking of the Oxford Collective is that meditation is the highest form of revolution. This is a perfect method of progression, as gross materialists view the practice of meditation as being of no consequence. Materialists are neither interested in its method nor its adherents, and therefore mount no direct action against its practice. It is obvious that Karl Marx was not a materialist as some have tried to portray him, but was actually a deeply spiritual, albeit non-religious person. As Buddhism does not accept a god-head as a personal saviour, but rather advocates the development of insight through the training of the mind, it is rational and correct to assume that Buddhism and Marxism share exactly the same goal, namely that of personal liberation. The freeing of the personal mind from the illusion of individuality creates the conditions for a new society and a new way of living. The ancient City of Oxford is the epicentre of this movement and the membership of the Oxford Collective want to share this with the world.
The number of people who understand Marx today, really understand Marx, is very small. That may sound arrogant if I say that just about everybody is wrong except for me and a few others. I don’t mean to be so sweeping in my judgement, but I do feel most Marx experts overlook the fact that Marx’s thought is essentially religious, though not “religious” in the sense that it posits any faith in God. Buddhism isn’t religious in that sense either. Buddhism does not recognise a god, but it is religious in its central belief that we have to transcend our narcissism, our egoism, our inner isolation, and open ourselves to life, that we - as Meister Eckhart would put it – have to make ourselves empty so that we can be made full, so that we can become whole. That belief, expressed in different words, is at the heart of Marx’s work. I’ve often had a little fun reading selections from Marx’s economic and philosophical manuscripts to various people. I recall a meeting I had with Dr Suzuki, an eminent figure in Zen Buddhism. I read him some passages without telling him who had written them, and then I asked him: Is that Zen? Yes, of course, he said. That’s Zen. Another time I read some similar passages to a group of very learned theologians, and their guesses ranged from all kinds of classical authors, such as Thomas Aquinas, to the most modern theologians. Not one of them suspected that the author was Marx. They simply didn’t know Marx.
(Fromm, Eric, For The Love of Life, The Free Press (1986), Pages 103-104)
Today’s membership is diverse and is spreading across the world. Although membership details of the Oxford Collective are confidential, through the development of the BMA (UK) - (officially founded in Oxford on Saturday the 20th of July 2013) – members can exchange details, compare thoughts, and ask questions of one another. Central to the thinking of the Oxford Collective is that meditation is the highest form of revolution. This is a perfect method of progression, as gross materialists view the practice of meditation as being of no consequence. Materialists are neither interested in its method nor its adherents, and therefore mount no direct action against its practice. It is obvious that Karl Marx was not a materialist as some have tried to portray him, but was actually a deeply spiritual, albeit non-religious person. As Buddhism does not accept a god-head as a personal saviour, but rather advocates the development of insight through the training of the mind, it is rational and correct to assume that Buddhism and Marxism share exactly the same goal, namely that of personal liberation. The freeing of the personal mind from the illusion of individuality creates the conditions for a new society and a new way of living. The ancient City of Oxford is the epicentre of this movement and the membership of the Oxford Collective want to share this with the world.