ABSTRACT
Marx believed that the capitalist’s share of the proceeds of production is unearned and represents unpaid labor. Marx also believed that at the point where the worker creates surplus value, the proletarian works for nothing, just as slaves and peasants performing unpaid labor services do. This book argues that there is a difference between nothingness and emptiness. In Chan Buddhism (as well as Pauline Christianity), Pai Chang’s Chan monastic rule of one day of not working is one day of not eating and resolves the problem between monasticism and ordinary life, between monasticism and Protestantism, and between empty surplus production and work for nothing, the former adding to the spiritual and material prosperity of the nation. Service and work become identical forms of activity.
