Web Review: "Life's a Bitch"
Thabarwa Monastery has long pushed the boundaries of how a Burmese Buddhist monastery is expected to operate. Existing within a traditional, conservative, Burmese Buddhist society that is steeped either in age-old religious conventions or centered around post-war, highly structured, teacher-centered meditation retreats, Thabarwa is re-inventing the very role that a monastery can play in society.
The interview that we conducted with Thabarwa Sayadaw on the Insight Myanmar podcast examined this point in detail. During it, Sayadaw explained that he saw vast segments of society being left behind from these more traditional approaches. For this reason, he created a meditation center— and movement— in which no one was to be left behind, with Dhamma going to the mentally disabled, physically infirm, the diseased and dying. Easy as it may be to criticize what is not working with his approach, one cannot deny the courage in his innovative attempt.
This short video is stunning for several reasons all at once. First, it unveils the work of the newly formed Thabarwa Media Department, tasked with the incredible task to capture the breadth and depth of the vast Thabarwa mission. Second, well, the production value. This is good stuff! From bilingual subtitles to drone shots to sit down interviews to archival footage, the viewer is treated to an unprecedented and sweeping view, and the ten minutes just flies by. Third, we are treated to the unconventional aspect of the Thabarwa mission in detail. Not only does Thabarwa wish to leave no human left behind, so too does it wish that our animal friends are also not denied the Dhamma. What other monastery in Myanmar, or for that matter religious/spiritual organization in the world, would attempt such a far-ranging and challenging task as herding together feral cats, rabid dogs, with a host of monkeys, bears, goats, and other animals, into a compound with little funds to sustain it?
Fourth, and perhaps most stunning, is the truth-telling on display here. This is no typical reverential clip of an aged Burmese Sayadaw whose every word and movement is treated as a gift to humanity. Courageously, and shockingly, the viewer is thrown immediately into a rather jarring confrontation between a long-term Thabarwa volunteer from New York, with the Sayadaw himself. We see the New Yorker jabbing a finger in the Sayadaw’s face and denigrating his plan to shelter animals, and our revered Sayadaw is left literally backsliding and defending his reasoning.
In an age where in-house media departments— not only of religious organizations but also of companies and corporations— function more like feel-good PR units shaped to spin their narrative, the courage, transparency, and access on display here is stunning. Agree or condemn his actual mission, what cannot be denied is that Thabarwa Sayadaw truly walks the walk with his detachment teachings. Furthermore, the absence of fear and protectionism he displays in permitting and even encouraging other voices to share their own truth and reality— including his own media department in the story it tells— stands alone from nearly every other major monastery in Myanmar today.
Following this post, the documentarian who produced this clip shared the following reflection. After finishing the episode, she showed it Sayadaw to ask his permission before posting. She writes:
I couldn't believe how cool he was. I asked him a second time, is that ok, will the beginning create wrong understanding and he just nodded and said, yes, yes all is ok... Like watching water flow over rocks. He's so gentle and detatched in every way