Episode #84: Sitagu Sayadaw, The Coup, and Burmese Buddhism
“My own feelings would be that it would be good for Sitagu Sayadaw to leave the country and then speak out [against the military]. If he speaks out now, he would probably be arrested immediately.”
Thus says Bhikkhu Cintita in a statement that sums up his feelings regarding the controversies now swirling around Myanmar’s most famous living monk, whose words and deeds since the coup have caused so much angst among the Burmese people. A long-time American scholar monk, author and dedicated practitioner, Bhikkhu Cintita was ordained in Myanmar by Sitagu Sayadaw, and stayed at his monastery in the Sagaing Hills as well. During this challenging interview, Bhikkhu Cintita comes across as honest, open, nuanced, empathetic and even-keeled, and to a degree that is quite remarkable.
Bhikkhu Cintita begins by sharing about his own life of study and practice. A professor of computer science, he decided in his 40s to radically change the direction of his life. In 2001, while in Austin, Texas, he became a Zen practitioner, and ordained as a Zen priest in 2003. But over time, he became interested in the Vinaya, and finding the monastic code lacking in the Zen tradition, started visiting various Buddhist monasteries. He found one right in his local neighborhood, a forest monastery in the lineage of Sitagu Sayadaw, where four Burmese monks were living. Developing an easy rapport with them, he decided to become a Theravada monk in 2008. It was recommended that he ordain in Myanmar, and the following year he did just that, with Sitagu Sayadaw. He describes the time he has spent as a monk in Myanmar since then, a time which he treasures.
As for Sitagu Sayadaw, Bhikkhu Cintita describes him as a kind of “Renaissance Man,” known in Myanmar as the “monk who gets things done.” Sitagu has overseen the construction of forty hospitals, and founded three monastic colleges and a meditation center. His humanitarian work spans social service projects as well as Buddhist education. He has helped provide running water to monasteries over much of the sprawling Sagaing Hills and has supported disaster relief work, most notably after the destructive Cyclone Nargis. To achieve as much as he has, Sitagu is a remarkable fund-raiser, and he also has a reputation for being a skilled public speaker, one who might attract 10,000 people to a Dhamma talk.
To better understand Sitagu Sayadaw’s present political entanglements, one has to go back to 1988 and the first major protests against military rule. Predictably, the army responded with excessive brute force. Sitagu Sayadaw gave a sermon referencing the ten virtues of rulers in response, which chastised the generals. This talk was picked up by the BBC, and later broadcast on their Burmese language programming, so the entire country quickly knew of it. Because the military then—as now—was extremely unpopular with the Burmese people, and especially because of the widespread sympathy towards the student protesters, Sitagu Sayadaw enjoyed increased popularity as a result this ethical stand, and seen as a voice for the people. And in a brief period of hope, the military did enter into negotiations towards allowing democratic elections in 1990, and stopped arresting people for a time. However, following an overwhelming victory in the 1990 elections on the part of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the generals followed their familiar pattern in refusing to recognize the results, and overt military rule descended again over the country. Word also went out that Sitagu Sayadaw would be arrested for that sermon he gave two years earlier. At the time, Sitagu Sayadaw was overseas—coincidentally, founding that same monastery in Austin, Texas, that would eventually attract Bhikkhu Cintita some fifteen years later. So Sitagu remained away, quietly, in a kind of exile. Because he continued to be such a prominent and popular monk, and his supporters began to get concerned that he might have been captured by the military, the junta sent out peace feelers to lure him back in order to defuse the situation. An agreement was reached where he had to agree to not criticize the military anymore in exchange for being able to continue implementing his humanitarian projects. Sitagu accepted these conditions, returned to Myanmar, and thus began his growing entanglement with the military. As he goes on to explain, this background context of Sitagu Sayadaw is very important to keep in mind in trying to understand the very controversial choices the latter has made and continues to make, since the coup.
The conversation then turns to the specific controversies surrounding Sitagu Sayadaw’s words and deeds regarding the military, both before and after the coup. They have caused a great deal of confusion and angst among the Burmese people, and given rise to the extremely unusual situation of the laity publicly calling out this senior monk who was once so revered. Bhikkhu Cintita picks his way through this minefield with honesty, openness, and skillful discernment. In some cases, he frankly expresses astonishment at, and outright disappointment in, his preceptor, Sitagu Sayadaw. In other cases, he talks about how Sitagu’s actions might have been misconstrued by those who haven’t followed him as closely. In yet others, he describes a mix of the two. Even in those cases where he feels Sitagu’s actions or words might have been misunderstood, or their context not sufficiently taken into account, Bhikkhu Cintita empathetically acknowledges how and why the Burmese people have become so disappointed and angry, and how people might not be so interested in these nuances explain or why this or that particular thing was said or done.
As just one example of a nuanced view, Bhikkhu Cintita is asked about Sitagu Sayadaw’s now infamous 2017 speech to a garrison of soldiers in Kayin State, including officers, who had carried out some of the terror campaigns in Rakhine state against the Rohingya. Sitagu’s sermon was based on the Mahavamsa, a rather odd text that serves as a quasi-scriptural chronicle of Sri Lankan history. Though composed in Pali, the Buddhist scriptural language, and dates from the period when the Commentaries were composed in Sri Lanka, it is not considered a Canonical Buddhist text. The most challenging portion of the Mahavamsa is a short passage embedded in Chapter 25, which describes the victory of the Sri Lankan Buddhist King over two rival armies in a big battle, and its aftermath. In the offending passage, the king feels remorse because all of the soldiers he had to kill, and is convinced that he will be reborn in a Hell realm. But eight Arahants (fully enlightened beings ) appear and tell him not to worry because he was not fighting the war for his own wealth or glory, but rather to preserve Buddhist tradition in Sri Lanka, and that the enemy were evil people. As Bhikkhu Cintita says, “So it’s kind of justification for a Holy War, which you will never find in any of the Buddha's talks.”
Bhikkhu Cintita first became aware of Sitagu’s speech after it was written about by two Western authorities on Myanmar, both Buddhist scholars. The first article was by Paul Fuller, who wrote in New Mandala about the implications of Sitagu’s speech. Then, in an article in Foreign Affairs, Matthew Walton expressed his shock that Sitagu Sayadaw was floating the idea of a Holy War and an evil enemy—and even worse, that this message was delivered in the middle of the on-going violence against the Rohingya, and to soldiers actually involved in that campaign. Bhikkhu Cintita, himself a Vietnam-war protester in his earlier years and no fan of any military, was very troubled by what he read about the speech, and even considered leaving the Sitagu tradition in protest. However, he was also confused, because as he says, “I had never known Sitagu Sayadaw ever to advocate violence.” Moreover, the other monks and even the respected Abbot of his current monastery did not seem disconcerted by the speech at all, so he held off, figuring there must be more to the story if these trusted figures were not bothered. And indeed, he eventually learned that, in fact, many monks have delivered this same sermon to the military for decades, as Chapter 25 of the Mahavamsa is a frequent request by the generals. This is not such a surprise, as the military leadership naturally wants its soldiers to believe that their violent actions will not lead to a low rebirth.
Bhikkhu Cintita also learned that some monks who give this talk emphasize that it is not a canonical Buddhist text, and that it’s the Arahants in the tale who justify the violence, and not the monk himself who is giving the speech. In the case of Sitagu Sayadaw, however, he simply delivered the speech without hedging in that offending section, which exacerbated the already poor optics of giving such a speech amid the anti-Rohingya campaign in the first place. When asked why he gave that talk without taking pains to emphasize that he, himself, did not sanction violence, especially amid the terrible anti-Rohingya campaign, Sitagu Sayadaw just replied that he had delivered that same talk so many times that he wasn't even thinking about the Rohingya, and in fact being far away from that situation, wasn’t even that aware of what was going on.
In his description of this incident, Bhikkhu Cintita doesn’t justify what Sitagu Sayadaw said or excuse it, he merely explains the dynamics involved. He doesn’t project his own thinking about the situation onto what Sitagu Sayadaw should or should not have said, or onto listeners as to how they should process the information. One might certainly still say that Sitagu Sayadaw should have known better, that he should have added the caveat that some other monks are sure to do, but Bhikkhu Cintita at least provides a much fuller context, so the controversial event becomes more comprehensible. And as has been mentioned, Bhikkhu Cintita does so with honesty, empathy, integrity and skill. The conversation covers several of these fraught and challenging situations.