In a Burmese Garden

Photograph by Alfred Molon (www.molol.de)

In a Burmese Garden

Under an ancient Buddha's Gaze-
white hibiscus
a blaze of bougainvillea
and majestic moths play.

The geckos are calling
above teak slats of the
monastery
and banana trees wave
their giant sleeves
in the hot wind

I have my fill
to stand with them-
my tall friends in the garden,
to praise the last ember of sunset
while the rats run free
and the stars cavort
in the skies
beyond Your laughing eyes.

Ayya Medhanandi (From "Tomorrow's Moon," 2005 Aruna publications)

Like Thailand and Sri Lanka, Burma, (Myanmar), is a country that has a long and rich Buddhist tradition. Although Buddhism had become firmly established in Burma by the fifth and sixth centuries CE, a significant development was the conversion of King Anawrahta to Theravada Buddhism in the eleventh century. Today, about 89% of Burmese people practice Buddhism and every town and village in Burma has a pagoda and a monastery, the traditional places for worship and education. The country is often called "the land of pagodas" of which the most famous is the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.

Young monks studying at a monastery in Burma

Although Burma is a land rich in natural resources, its people are poor. The levels of poverty in some of the city's poorer districts are shocking, public transport is overcrowded, and for most of the population, electricity remains intermittent.

Burma is ruled by one of the most brutal military dictatorships in the world. The military regime is repressive and has been charged by the United Nations with “crimes against humanity” for its systematic abuses of human rights, denying freedom of expression and crushing any movement towards democracy.

Demonstrations against the dictatorship are not new. A national uprising on 8th August 1988, resulted in hundreds of thousands of people marching to demand a change of government. Today it is the Pro-democracy activists who are leading the demonstrations. On 19 August, Rangoon, (Yangon), saw the largest demonstration for several years when 400 protestors marched in the city. Now it is thought that thousands of protesters are dead or have been jailed and tortured for participating in earlier protests. The monks have asked civilians not to join them for fear of provoking reprisals by the security forces. Many monks have been savagely beaten at a sports ground on the outskirts of Rangoon, where they were heard crying for help and a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta revealed that the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle.

The body of an executed monk floating in the water.
(Picture taken from the Evening Standard web site
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/ 09/10/2007)

So where do they go from here? In his teaching on the Four Noble Truths the Buddha reminds us that:

1. Life means suffering. To live means to suffer, human nature is not perfect and neither is the world we live in. During our lifetime we have to endure physical suffering, pain, sickness, injury, tiredness, old age, and eventually death; and we have to endure psychological suffering like sadness, fear, frustration, disappointment, and depression.

2. The origin of suffering is attachment, attachment to transient things and the ignorance thereof. Transient things do not only include the physical objects that surround us, but also ideas.

Burma’s military junta is led by three generals and they wield absolute power. The most senior is General Than Shwe, 73. Maung Aye is also a career soldier and the second most powerful man in the country and Lieutenant General Soe Win, 58. Life too, for them is transient; they too suffer pain, sickness, tiredness, old age and death they too live in fear, fear that their lavish lifestyles and tyrannical ideology will end.

The natural law of cause and effect is called Karma. There is no higher instance, no judgement, no divine intervention, and no gods that steer man's destiny, but only the law of karma itself, which works on a global time frame. Deeds yield consequences either in the next second, in the next hour, day, month, year, decade, or even in the next lifetime, or in another distant lifetime. This applies to all of us monks, laypeople, and generals alike, but for as long as the Generals feed their delusion, greed, and aversion, they will generate bad karma.

Thich Nath Hanh, wrote in the Five Mindfulness Trainings, that we should be “aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life”. We should be committed to cultivating compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. We should be determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life.

Thich Nath Hanh recently gave an interesting interview to Time magazine regarding Burma and about the issues regarding Global warming I have included the link below:

http://www.plumvillage.org/HTML/pressrelease/time_alreadyasuccess.html

The Four Noble Truths state that “The cessation of suffering is attainable.” (The Third Noble Truth) and states: The cessation of suffering can be attained through nirodha the unmaking of sensual craving and conceptual attachment. This means that suffering can be overcome through human activity, simply by removing the cause of suffering. The Fourth Noble Truth says that the path to the cessation of suffering is attained through a gradual path of self-improvement, which is described more detailed in the Noble Eightfold Path.

Chapter 10 of the Dhammapada is a verse on Violence which we should all remember.

10. Violence

All beings tremble before violence.
All fear death.
All love life.
See yourself in other.
Then whom can you hurt?
What harm can you do?
He who seeks happiness
By hurting those who seek happiness
Will never find happiness.
For your brother is like you.
He wants to be happy.
Never harm him
And when you leave this life
You too will find happiness.
Never speak harsh words
For they will rebound upon you.
Angry words hurt
And the hurt rebounds.
Like a broken gong
Be still, and silent.
Know the stillness of freedom
Where there is no more striving.
Like herdsmen driving their cows into the fields,
Old age and death will drive you before them.
But the fool in his mischief forgets
And he lights the fire
Wherein one day he must burn.
He who harms the harmless
Or hurts the innocent,
Ten times shall he fall -
Into torment or infirmity,
Injury or disease or madness,
Persecution or fearful accusation,
Loss of family, loss of fortune.
Fire from heaven shall strike his house
And when his body has been struck down,
He shall rise in hell.
He who goes naked,
With matted hair, mud bespattered,
Who fasts and sleeps on the ground
And smears his body with ashes
And sits in endless meditation -
So long as he is not free from doubts,
He will not find freedom.
But he who lives purely and self-assured,
In quietness and virtue,
Who is without harm or hurt or blame,
Even if he wears fine clothes,
So long as he also has faith,
He is a true seeker.
A noble horse rarely
Feels the touch of the whip.
Who is there in this world as blameless?
Then like a noble horse
Smart under the whip.
Burn and be swift.
Believe, meditate, see.
Be harmless, be blameless.
Awake to the dharma.
And from all sorrows free yourself.
The farmer channels water to his land.
The fletcher whittles his arrows.
The carpenter turns his wood.
And the wise man masters himself.