Free in Mind, Not in Body
“As a devoted Buddhist, I see mind and body as different phenomena. Every person, obviously, has a body and a mind. So, any dictator, any government, any aggressor, can only imprison your body, but not your mind. That is, unless you allow them to imprison your mind. We had to see our minds as free and unshackled, even though we were confined in a tiny cell. We had to see that only our body was imprisoned. But not our mind. And the most important thing in keeping our mind free was to never regret our actions. Why? Because we never committed a wrongdoing. To the contrary, we acted in conscience. We acted from compassion. We tried to liberate our people from injustice, cruelty, and unfair treatment.”
— Ko Ko Gyi, as recorded in an interview with Alan Clements from Volume II of Burma’s Voices of Freedom. The former political prisoner is a prominent activist who helped to lead the student movement’s protests of the dictatorship.