Episode #60: The View from France
The last time Thiri Nandar tried to listen to music, she couldn’t get to the end of a single song. From the safety of her home in France, all she could think of while trying to relax to the music was that her family and friends back in Myanmar only heard the sound of gunfire.
In more normal times, she would look for a way to balance that mundane enjoyment with her spiritual practice, applying the ānāpāna meditation instructions given by the monk who has advised her since childhood. But these are not normal times. Just as Thiri has been too upset to fully immerse herself in sense diversions, there has been too much upheaval for her to pursue observations at the sense doors either, as one does in formal meditation.
Instead, she has poured all of her efforts into doing whatever she can for her home country. She has become an active member of La Communauté Birmane (CBF), where she works tirelessly to fundraise, with all donations going to support the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), as well as providing food and medicine to impoverished communities.
Additionally, she works to raise the awareness among those in her home away from home in France about news of the terrible situation in Myanmar—no easy feat, as most do not see the relevance of events taking place so far away to their own lives. And even just knowing what the “news” really is has become no easy task. Where and how can she get the real story? Independent journalism itself has been declared illegal by the regime, and many reporters are now arrested or in hiding, so she is left to sift through military-sponsored fake news on one side, and the false hopes regularly shared by protesters on the other. Thiri is particularly worried about supporters who manage to become privy to confidential information of some kind, and then share it online as a way to boost their own image or standing, which immediately places people at risk. She cites the recent bloodshed in Mandalay as an example of this reckless behavior.
Thiri also has grave concerns with how the military is coopting Buddhism, among other things combining it with various superstitious beliefs intended only to keep them in power at all costs. This has had an especially disastrous impact on the young generation, many of whom are now rejecting the Buddha’s teachings entirely, unable to separate them from the junta’s perversions. She is grateful that she was not raised to be a “traditional” Buddhist who faithfully participated in ceremonies and practices but with little understanding, instead benefitting from a personal monastic tutor who encouraged her to question every part of the teachings. This led to her having a different overall relationship with the practice, something she continues to greatly value and treasure to this day—which makes the effects of the military’s spiritual corruption all the more painful.
Being so far from home is not easy, and sometimes Thiri experiences a sense of disassociation, such as when she sees her father’s face in her father-in-law’s at the dinner table. And although she has as yet been unable to return either to music or to meditation since the coup started, she has found some relief in gardening. The simple, daily ritual of watering plants has brought some measure of calm. But sleep still comes hard, as does being separated from her family and homeland in these challenging times. Her phone is a constant source of reassurance, yet also trepidation, as news from home continually pours in.
Many thanks for the wonderful Burmese indie band Side Effect generously offering their song “Meikhtila” for this episode! They wrote this song last year following the violence between Buddhist and Muslim communities in this central Burmese city.