A Plea

Yesterday, two Buddhist nuns were brutally attacked by soldiers. They were beaten without provocation and offered no resistance, and were hit until their eyes were bleeding and they could not move. Soldiers beat the elder Abbess of the nunnery, as well as the mother of the nuns. Blood stains the walls, and they were arrested.

I personally know these nuns and have been to the nunnery. They are kind-hearted, soft-spoken practitioners who wouldn't harm a living being. They offer free Dhamma programs to poor youth in the summer, grow a garden in their backyard, and improve their English to the point of attempting scholarly papers on Buddhism. They consistently help any foreign meditator who ventures into the Sagaing Hills, generously offering their time and resources to those on the spiritual path.

Even knowing how dark these times are, it is hard to contemplate the image of armed soldiers dressed in battle fatigues storming into a nunnery where most would remove their shoes before entering, and then proceeding to beat female renunciates to a bloody pulp. But this is how fascism works, and it is playing out in front of us not from a history book, but here in 2021. The fascist thinking of discipline and order provides a justification to these soldiers why such violence is not only allowable, but also needed. This is the evil regime the Burmese people are pushing against, and they need all the support we can manage.

This particular incident is still ongoing and so I cannot provide any further details at this time. I do want to thank all of our past donors for any contributions you have made to our fund. While there are projects that we share for fundraising, such as IDPs or COVID relief, there are also sudden emergencies that happen without warning, leaving no time and providing no safety for being able to share as they are unfolding in real time. There have been many sleepless nights filled with attending to these emergencies, many of which I cannot reveal at all until we are in some place of safety. But your donation fund gives us the ability to respond with urgency when disaster hits, and intervene to protect lives when this evil strikes them. So please, if you are able, and if you trust the integrity of our work, consider supporting our fund to be able to respond to the next crisis.