Contemplative praxis and the political economy of capitalism

The chapter proposes a conception of contemplative resistance within capitalism that avoids positioning contemplative practices as either purely for or against the system. It critiques Humanistic Buddhism for lacking structural power analysis and anti-capitalist Buddhism for relying on binary opposition. Instead, it advocates an endogenous, nondualistic approach that allows practitioners to hold space for ambivalent political possibilities, navigating capitalism while negotiating alienation and docile bodies. Drawing on the author's academic experience, it illustrates this practice within neoliberal higher education.

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Abstract

This chapter advances a distinct conception of contemplative resistance in relation to the political economy of capitalism, grounded in nonduality, nonattachment, and endogenous critique. This conception resists the temptation of absolute purity that positions contemplative practices as either for or against capitalism; instead, it situates them existentially within the capitalist political economy, understanding them as intertwining capitalist and noncapitalist elements, as well as instrumental and noninstrumental orientations. The chapter first critiques two routes of contemplative engagement in the transnational landscape of Buddhism: Humanistic Buddhism, which lacks a structural analysis of power inequity, and anti-capitalist Buddhism, which challenges capitalism but only through a binary-oppositional lens. Next, it proposes an endogenous and nondualistic understanding of contemplative resistance that empowers practitioners to “hold space” for ambivalent and paradoxical political possibilities. This approach enables practitioners to navigate life within capitalism, securing what they need for survival and well-being while negotiating, subverting, and redirecting two systemic effects of capitalism on minds and bodies: (1) alienation and “false consciousness” per Marx; and (2) docile bodies per Foucault. Drawing from the author&s;s academic experience, the chapter illustrates how this nonbinary and nonlinear form of contemplative resistance can be practiced within the intensely neoliberal environment of higher education.