What is my “Code”? Jai Bhim!
Three years ago on Netflix my wife and I watched all five seasons of The Wire, the TV show about drug-dealing in Baltimore. Have you seen it?
I don’t actually remember any of it, except one scene, one sentence. Omar, my favorite character, says, “A man’s got to have a code.” Who remembers that? Omar said “A man’s got to have a code.” He implied, with that sentence, that I, personally, I HAVE GOT TO HAVE A CODE. But I didn’t. I did not have a code at that time.
I was a code-less man - but - I wanted a code, I was worried about it, I wanted a code very badly. So I went hunting, after Omar told me that, I went hunting for a code, for myself.
Do you - my dear audience - do you all have a code? A personal code that you guide your life by? A code that gives you purpose and direction? A code that makes you proud of yourself? A code for yourself, with vows you say every morning, vows that you can mumble and focus on when you are confused?
I imagined, at first, that I actually did have a code, I imagined that everybody has a code, but we just don’t know what it is. Right? Right? We all have unconscious codes. Correct? But then I realized, NO - that’s just stupid, really really stupid. If we don’t know what are code is, we can’t be inspired by it, we can’t be motivated by it, we can’t live up to its high ideals, its moral principles.
I did have, I realized, I did have a lazy, groovy, sloppy half-code I picked up in the 1970’s. The code was from a Carlos Castaneda book. The code was “Follow the path with heart.” That’s all it is. “Follow the path with heart.” That code drives my wife crazy because I keep quitting jobs. It is the perfect code for anyone with ADHD. You never have to finish or commit to anything. You just say, “that path has no heart - so - I quit!”
I needed a different code, a bigger and better code that would make me attach myself and absorb myself into life’s difficulties instead of just running away. I looked for that bigger, better code, everywhere, and one day, after eating a chicken taco on International Boulevard in Oakland, I walked by storefront called the Tzu Chi Foundation.
The nice Asian ladies inside gave me a pink and blue mobile that had a code on it. The code said, “Think Good Thoughts, Say Nice Words, Do Good Deeds.”
I thought the code might work so I took the code home. I taped it up so I could see it all the time and think about it. But - my teenage daughters hated it. “Dad,” they said, “take that stupid thing off the refrigerator. It looks like you joined a cult. We don’t like it. It’s weird.”
That code “Think Good Thoughts. Say Nice Words. Do Good Deeds.” is simple Buddhism, Right Thoughts, Right Speech, Right Action.
I thought it would work for me and it did for a while, I started handing out more compliments. I thought less about hating so many things. I tried to be more positive. The code worked for about a year and a half but by the end of 2023 its power and influence collapsed.
Benjamin Netanyahu and the genocide of Gaza ruined the Tzu Chi Code for me. When I thought about Netanyahu, I didn’t want to think nice thoughts. I went to protests and yelled angrily. When I was occasionally harassed by Zionists, I didn’t say nice words. I said, “Fuck off, fuck off.”
Did I fail the Code, or did the Code fail me? Either way, I was code-less once again. I was a man without a code. I felt like I was missing an organ, or a chunk of my brain wasn’t born.
I knew I needed something rougher, tougher and meaner than the Tzu Chi code. A code of fire and blood. For better or for worse, I am motivated by anger. I might seem goofy to you, but inside, I am generally quite pissed off. I wanted a code that had rage in its stomach, a code with knuckles and thorns.
My code finally arrived in India - that sounds cringy woo-woo, I know, sorry. India enlightenment, cringe cringe. But I wasn’t meditating at all. I wasn’t doing yoga, or bathing in the Ganges or adoring a guru. What happened was simple. A man gave me a book. His name was Arun. He was a dark-skinned Dalit. Dalits are the lowest caste, previously known as “untouchables.” The book Arun gave me was called The Annihilation of Caste by Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
Have you heard of him? BR Ambedkar is often voted in surveys as the most popular person in the history of India - India: the most populated nation on Earth. But still, most Americans have never heard of him.
Ambedkar was the 14th child in an untouchable family, his caste was the lowest of the low. At school, his caste didn’t sit in chairs, Ambedkar carried a gunny sack to school and sat on it in a far corner of the room. But still, Ambedkar excelled academically anyway. He became the first person from his caste to attend the University of Bombay. He got two Masters there. He also went to London School of Economics and got a Master’s and Phd there. He also went to Columbia University and got a PhD there. Ambedkar was the primary writer of the Indian Constitution. He became a lawyer, he worked successfully for women’s rights in India, and he worked successfully to reduce the work day in India from 12 hours to 8 hours. But primarily, he worked all his life to end untouchability, he was the messiah of the marginalized.
I thought I’d just skim his book The Annihilation of Caste, I’d just fake-read the book, to be polite so I could tell Arun “hey I really enjoyed that book you gave me, thanks” and then I’d move on to doing something more fun. But when I started reading the book, time stopped. I was on a path with heart. The book had direction - and it seemed to have a code. When I finished the book I started reading another book by Ambedkar called The Buddha and His Dharma.
Ambedkar wrote that Buddha book because he believed Hinduism was fundamentally cruel, because it promoted the caste system. Ambedkar decided everyone in his untouchable caste should exit Hinduism. Leave it. Abandon the religion that was persecuting them. In October, 1956, he publicly left Hindusim and converted to Buddhism, in Nagyar, Maharashtra State, he converted to Buddhism, accompanied by 500,000 untouchables. A mass exit from Hindusim to Buddhism.
What kind of Buddhism did Ambedkar want the Dalits to join?
Zen? NO. Theravada? NO. Jodo-Shinshu? Tibetan? Nam Myoho Renge Kyo? NO NO NO
Ambedkar DID NOT WANT his Dalit followers to believe any old-fashioned Buddhism. He wanted them to follow a new Buddhism that he created, called Navayana Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism, today its often known as Indian Buddhism or Ambedkarite Buddhism.
Old Buddhism has that code, “Think Good Thoughts, Say Nice Words, Do Good Deeds.”
Ambedkarite Buddhism’s code is “Educate, Agitate, Organize.”
Ambedkarite Buddhism is constructed for social revolution. Ambedkarite Buddhism rejects all heirarchies - it demands every human be treated as an equal.
Old Buddhism believes in karma, reincarnation, and salvation - nirvana - in another world.
Ambedkarite Buddhism is agnostic or atheistic. Ambedkar says prayers to God are a futility. Ambedkar didn’t believe in the soul or the supernatural or the infallibility of books.
Ambedkarite Buddhism says nirvana - salvation - is our goal in this world. Nirvana is the egalitarian society that we can create here, on Earth, a society of justice, equality and compassion for all.
Are you wondering, why is Hank going on and on about these concepts from distant India? Are you thinking “Caste is a Hindu problem that has nothing to do with me!”
Ambedkar’s answer to that would be “The fight against caste discrimination is the same as the fight against all forms of oppression.”
So now we’re going to do an Audience Grim History Nerd Quiz - I am going to name an oppressed people and then I’ll pause and I want you to shout out, or write down, the name of the oppressor.
Ready? We’ll start with ancient history and then move forward chronologically.
Sumerians were enslaved by? —- Akkadians
Cannanites were deported by? — Babylonians
Thracians were enslaved by? —- Athenians
Helots, also known as Messanians, were enslaved by? —- Spartans
Carthaginians were annihilated by? — Romans
Gauls were enslaved by? — Romans
Christians were crucified by? — Romans
Slavs were enslaved by? there’s multiple answers - Arabs, Byzantines, Venetians (everyone)
Africans were enslaved by? (two answers) - Arabs and Europeans
Gypsies were enslaved by? —- Moldavians and Wallachians
Irish were first enslaved by? - Vikings. Then they were massacred, starved, enslaved by? - British
Koreans were enslaved by? - Mongols and Japanese
Serfs were enslaved by? - Russians,
Albanians were enslaved by? - Ottomans
Armenians were genocided by? - Ottomans
Balkan and Slavic women forced into harems by the? - Ottomans
Fante in Ghana were enslaved by? - Ashanti
Herero in Namibia were genocided by? - Germans
Jews were genocided by? - Germans
Gypsies genocided by? - Germans
OK we’re going back in time again briefly to review oppression of women and childen
Women were forced to painfully bind their feet until the late 19th century in? - China
Widows were burned to death in sati in? - India
Women were burned as witches in? - Europe
ISIS enslaved women who were? - Yazidi
Children were sacrificed to the god Baal by the? - Carthaginians
Children were sacrificed to the rain gods by the? - Aztecs
Little children were forced to be chimney sweeps in? - England
Boys and girls were forced to be child soldiers in? - Uganda, Sudan, ISIS
Thirty thousand women and children killed and starved to death in? — Gaza
that’s the end of that quiz, for now.
I’m going to return to something I mentioned earlier -
Buddhism generally defines the word Nirvāṇa to mean liberation from one’s own suffering
Ambedkar rejected the definition of Nirvāṇa as a metaphysical escape. He believed Buddha wanted to end suffering here in this world. The goal of life, Ambedkar says, is not mystical release via meditation but the DESTRUCTION OF OPPRESSION.
Instead, it aims to end all suffering caused by social inequality, exploitation, and oppression. Ambedkarite Buddhism is a vow for social revolution.
What are some present day oppressions that Ambedkarites should strive to end? Let’s return to the quiz:
People are occupied, displaced, dehumanized, starved, and massacred in what nations?— Hint - one answer starts with a “P” — Palestine
Where else? - who is oppressed in Myanmar? — Rohingya
Who is oppressed in Turkey, Iran Iraq? — Kurds
Anyone oppressed in China? — Uighur
here’s a tugh one - who is oopressed by Morocco? — Sahrawi People in Western Sahara
Dalits are still oppressed in India, but where else? —Nepal, USA
Girls are forced into early marriage, where? — India
Slavery still exists and it is very prevalent in this northwest African nation? - Mauritania
Wage slavery, caused by exploitative capitalism - still exists — just about everywhere?
that’s the end of that quiz, again. Let’s review:
The Ambedkarite Buddhist vow can be defined as: I vow to end all suffering caused by caste, class, racism, sexism, oppression. I vow to help those in chains. I vow to build a society of liberty and equality. I vow to walk with all who struggle, until justice belongs to all.
——
that is my vow, what I just said. I’m a white guy Ambedkarite. That’s my Code. I am here to end suffering caused by humans mistreating humans. The Ambedkarite path is a path with heart.
I don’t have to think Good Thoughts or Say Nice Words, but I do have to do Good Deeds to create salvation on Earth.
Jai Bhim! This means, Hail Ambedkar. It means I fight against social injustice. That is my Code. I unite myself with the poor and the marginalized, everyone who is oppressed Jai Bhim! Jai Bhim! Jai Bhim!