"Today I Make Art in Peace."
This is one of the many beautiful pieces of original art being produced by Burmese artists all over the world, and then placed in the public domain for all to use freely. This particular one is made by Kyaw Thiri Nyunt, who adds this note:
"My heart has been heavy every single moment. Anger, rage, disgust, sadness, fear, frustration— I feel like I had every single negative emotion. It felt like a family member has died. It felt like something so important to me was taken away. But today I make art in peace."
As I try to understand this crisis better myself, and then to bring a more nuanced framing to readers, I am constantly curious about what aspect I may be still missing, or not quite understanding as deeply as I can. In the past week, two issues become predominant, and in this short quote by Kyaw Thiri, both are present.
The first is the crippling presence of trauma. We need to remember these are not just political events playing out in front of us, but also to keep in mind how profoundly they are impacting many Burmese, in ways we can't really fully understand if we're not tapped into a collective historical consciousness of past injustice and suffering.
The second issue relates directly to this, and involves an experiential understanding of just how dark and hopeless life was in the regime before the 2012 reforms. The sense of terror and fury that arise in recalling life under such a state of stifling oppression is something beyond many of our understandings. And yet, as Kyaw Thiri demonstrates here, he is able process these emotions and then just as nonviolently as the millions of protesters today in Yangon, to “make art in peace.”
I want to start using our platform, and especially our podcast, to delve deeper into this connection between living trauma and the darkness of a recurring oppression. As foreigners, there is much we can't quite understand, partly because we haven't lived it, and partly because so much is suppressed and hasn't properly surfaced, leading outsiders to minimize how serious and horrific the danger is, and how fierce and urgent the struggle.
I also hope that these discussions can find a way to connect spiritual wisdom from the Dhamma to interact with the messy realities of Samsara. We are aiming for the middle path-- not to drown in the waters of these hopeless emotions without spiritual support; and yet not to offer Buddhist platitudes that don't connect with a practical reality.
If you would like to contribute or offer ideas, please be in touch.
