Sukha Dukkha
Sukhassānantaraṃ dukkhaṃ, dukkhassānantaraṃ sukhaṃ
(Pleasure is followed by pain, pain is followed by pleasure)
Jātakapāḷi, Jātaka 423 v.61
An essay by Albion Noise
Sukha: Meditation. Breathing in, breathing out... That’s been my main task and focus for over a year now as a forest monk in Myanmar. I’m getting a thorough brainwash – but of the most freeing kind! (There’s no guru around here.) Every day I do my best to wash away deep-seated defilements, to “purify the mind” as the Buddhist teachers say. Some days, not an easy undertaking… when the mind revolts and wants to escape from its unpleasant bath!
To be able to walk on the path of the Dhamma as a monk, has probably been the nicest gift I ever received in my life. By now, hundreds of people have supported me with the four requisites, the basics for survival as a renunciant and human being. The trust and responsibility that follows receiving these precious gifts, make sure that I don’t just waste my time over here, and really try to put in all the effort in the practice. And for sure, it has made me want to give something back as well! Now and then an opportunity arises, when the situation outside the monastery permits. I feel lucky being a part of a monastic education network here where I live, which makes it quite easy to help teaching and reaching out. Actually, we just created a new organization together, during the auspicious Vesak full moon. I’m quite excited about that. Let’s see what more we can do!
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Dukkha: The danger seems to go in waves now, ever since the virus thing started last year. Sadly, the dictatorship and its oppression is back in Myanmar, at the moment in all its brutality, turning the whole situation into an unfathomable and horrifying mega crisis.
Should the monastics once again step into politics, as they did during the successful Saffron Revolution 2007? The pressure is, as you might imagine, there. No united response seems to have crystallized this time, allowing each monastery to make their own decision about the violent takeover. Knowing that it took four years of underground activity to effectively mobilize support from all the monks 2007, a deep-rooted revolution and resistance against the junta seem to be a slow process and build-up.
The odds for the military junta to give back the power to the people after this coupe is, according to some friends here, most unlikely. It’s already the third coupe they’ve done in history, and they’ve never changed their minds before. Many people have now given up on civil disobedience and demonstrations (they will just shoot you), and are instead arming themselves and creating militia groups in defence of the military’s raging bull, still trying to crush all open resistance by force. The downward spiral that so many warned about in the beginning of this coupe – when the whole world was watching but too afraid to act, to really help – is now sadly in motion.
When the situation is escalating into more and more violence, I can’t see any other real option than to step back a bit, to pull the plug for the hatred to get out of control. I know the monks and nuns can contribute to this. But the question is: How to do that, when violence seem to be the only language the military use and understand? A small number of the military’s soldiers gets killed. Their response? Making air strikes. Burning villages. Causing tens of thousands of refugees. It’s heart-breaking, and totally useless and detrimental as a method to rule and unite (?) a country. But sure, for a dictatorship, anything goes – as long as they obey.