Episode #117: Attack on a Meditation Center
“The army believed democratic fighters were hiding in my center, so they moved very aggressively. They entered my meditation center! They shouted, ‘Hey, I will kill you. I will kill you!’ Their soldiers knocked in the door of the female kūtis. Oh God, everyone is very scared. Very afraid. They are shooting; they are firing in the air. But when they came to the female Dhamma Hall, they saw the female yogis are practicing in the Dhamma Hall. So, they are very surprised and shocked, and they see that this is a meditation center, and see we are practicing. So, they calm down their anger.”
Sayādaw U Jatila trained under Venerable Sumańgala, a well-known holder of the Pāli Canon. After years of monastic education, he went on to spend time practicing meditation intensively, and was later appointed to teach meditation at Panditārāma Meditation Center. Later, he was invited back to his home village, Kyun Pin, in Wetlet township in the Sagaing Division, to open a meditation center there.
The first portion of this interview contains a play-by-play narrative of the direct and personal experience of war, as experienced from the confines of a silent meditation retreat. Myanmar’s military bombarded two neighboring villages with mortars and rockets for two days, and at one point barged into the meditation center itself. Calmly and in great detail, the Sayadaw relates the screaming, the burning of houses for days on end, and the purposeful decimation of animals and of basic resources for daily life. He describes soldiers who have lost their minds on alcohol and drugs, yet who are bound by higher military officials to carry out orders of brutality against their own people.
The account departs from a story of mere terror when Sayadaw notices that the soldiers are tired, hungry, and that there are more than a few of them who privately confess that they just want the conflict to end. Rather leaving his village in search of supporters or resistance fighters, Sayadaw U Jatila instead convenes a remarkable Sangha meeting at his meditation center. The ensuing discussion calls together 64 monks and four nuns from neighboring villages, and they discuss how to share resources to better support the villagers in their respective district. This leads to the creation of the “Welfare Program of the Wetlet Sangha.” The group promises to find a way to provide food and clothing for other monastics in the area, as well as requisites for lay people, including senior citizens, the injured, and families in need. Better Burma is assisting in this effort, and any donations provided for this purpose will be sent to this newly formed committee.
The second portion of the interview evokes the classical training experiences of a traditional Buddhist monk, touching upon the view that informs U Jatila’s activities in the face of ongoing atrocity. Perhaps calling on his background in investigative contemplation through his meditation practice, Sayadaw emphasizes seeing conflict from more than one perspective. As risky as it might be, he actively encourages his fellow monastics seek wholesome dialogue with the holders of the guns. “When you see the soldier, don't go; don't run away! You have to see him, talk to him. But if you are very afraid, very scared to talk, please inform us. That’s why we made the Sangha group.”
Well-versed in human history, Sayadaw U Jatila speaks to the seeming inevitability of conflict. More specifically, since the coup was launched he seems to have accepted some inevitability that the violence would one day find his rural village. On the question of how to seek a peaceful resolution, U Jatila chooses his words very carefully. “If you really want to have freedom, then you have your own choice,” he notes, “because when the Myanmar military controlled, then everyday suffer: food, clothes; also they don't have their very good relation with their international government. They only want to have their power.” He then goes to say:
“I will not encourage people to fight back to the army. I don't support the PDF. But I asked them, ‘So you want to suffer for many years, or you want to suffer for a few years?’ They said, ‘We want to suffer only for a few years. We don't want to suffer for many years.’ It’s dependent on your understanding to your choice. If you have this kind of understanding and you want to be free, then you have to try. If you’re scared every day then you have to stay quiet. The army, they want to control the power for many years. Myself, I am not involved supporting the PDF or accepting the PDF, or so on. But the people want to be free from the army; so, this is the right things to do it.”
Engaging in social action is nothing new to U Jatila. He frequently met with senior NLD leaders, and regularly had tea with Aung San Suu Kyi. He also took time to meet with army leaders over the years, and is struck by how different their perspectives are concerning the future of the country. His meetings were not only based on worldly issues, but also intersected into the spiritual as well. For example, he recalls Aung San Suu Kyi learning under his same teacher, Sayadaw U Pandita, and spoke about her practice.
“I don't believe Aung San Suu Kyi’s meditation is very high or advanced meditation. Of course, when she was under house arrest, she did meditation. So it might helped her depression. But if he if she really had a very good advanced meditation, she will not be politician anymore right? It may help her for depression or for her loneliness, but I don’t think her meditation reached quite higher level.”
In the face of great scarcity and enormous fear, Sayadaw U Jatila points to the bigger picture. For example, he calls for greater inclusivity towards Muslims in the country. He sees through the military’s anti-Islam propaganda and espouses good relationships not only with other ethnic and religious peoples, but also with other countries. Sayadaw encourages education, and he invites local monks to speak up about military action in their regions. He says, “Mostly the monks, they have their compassion; they have their bravery, but ... torturing the monks or torturing the people, that's why... many monks are still afraid to talk.”
Sayadaw U Jatila holds the rising and falling of humanity with wisdom, a view perhaps influenced by his own intensive personal meditation practice, for he understands how observing the rising and falling of the abdomen leads to a different sort of freedom. “For me, I am a Buddhist monk. My understanding is that I am to support the citizens of Myanmar with meditation. Dhamma. To provide the Dhamma services. But if you really want to have freedom, then you have your own choice.” He says, “If you have this kind of understanding and you want to be free, then you have to try.”
While some renowned monks have left Myanmar during the violent and near-complete unravelling of social systems caused by the Myanmar army, Sayadaw U Jatila remains at his center, both to teach meditation as well as to create jobs in the garden and kitchen of his compound. He says, “I believe I need to stay in Myanmar to support the Myanmar citizens with the Dhamma, with food, and with other provisions.”
Sayadaw recounts a parable of an angry old man who showed up at a monastery. “The Buddha explained to his disciples, ‘He is very hungry. If you do not give the food, he has no energy to listen to the Dhamma talk, to practice. That's why I have to give him food first. After he gained the energy, then he gained the Dhamma knowledge. This is the right thing to do.’ So the Buddha himself encouraged doing for your own benefit, doing for the benefit of others, but first, to be a good human being.”