"We understand that no individual becomes enlightened; enlightenment is collective."

Written before, during and after the Vietnam war, this short, modest text fights against Buddhism as religious ritual (voided of social critique) and Buddhism as individualist insight (voided of interbeing). Such transformations will be obvious to anyone who's been to South Korea or the United States. In South Korea, the temples are, essentially, tourist traps that boost the economy. Buddhists eat meat and drive around in million dollar sports cars. In the United States, Zen self-help books can be found on every bookshelf. CEOs go on thousand dollar mindfulness retreats every few months.

This book, however, depicts mindfulness as a prefigurative politics. Insight exists, not as a palliative, but as a force to engender compassion, social engagement and consciousness raising, to the creation of a communal life without starvation, resentment, fear or sexual violence.

Additionally, it historically situates a number of Buddhist teachings, such as sexual abstinence, as arising out of conditions of mass starvation and war. Buddha was only a doomer because he lived in a catastrophic time, a stance increasingly adopted by us in relation to climate change.

Surely though, in recognising Buddhism as a historically contingent artefact, we should further deconstruct it to better serve our needs and desires?