A Lifetime of Cultivation, When it is Needed Most
The role that Buddhist practice is playing in the most critical, tense moments of the current uprising across Myanmar cannot be overestimated. This is the story we are trying to tell on this platform, and it came up beautifully in my talk with Sayalay Chandadhika. In the following excerpt, she cites a specific moment that the power of mettā took over what could have been a very tense situation.
“Mettā and love, and sometimes these words are used interchangeably. You don’t have to be Buddhist, Muslim, or Christian.”
Sayalay Chandadhika: What I remember is [the protesters] are including the police. Like they are just asking, ‘Who do you work for? Do you work for the people? You have to protect the people!’
And but what touched me is some people, they bring the water. Water is a sign of mettā!
Water is very important not just for Buddhists, but is like a kind of public love. This is collective human closeness, even though somebody is pointing a gun [towards you], and then another person is still feeling close to that person, to be able to walk towards this police…
And then they bring water and maybe a rose, which is very important to show this sign, before you can say anything, you can kind of convey something else. But people can see something, there's a token with this water, and it is touching because whoever is bringing the gun or whatever weapon, they are only made of flesh and blood. And they also have a heart that feels, and then this softens the energy. Not only to the police, but the overall energy becomes less intense. And there's more room for communication or whatever.
Interviewer: That's really beautiful what you said. I'm thinking a couple of things now. One is that I just want to put in some context for those that have not been to Myanmar, the significance of water. Myanmar is a very hot and humid country, and shade, trees, fans, and water play an outsized role in comfort, health, even safety, given how you have to protect yourself from the intensity of the heat. And all over Myanmar there's this practice of putting water in clay pots for any passersby to pick up.
This is done on street corners. It's done in front of homes and businesses and government offices. Monasteries, of course! This purified water is just placed in these pots, and there's a collective cup that is open for one and all to come and just get a drink of water on a very hot day. Maybe it's too dramatic to say it means the difference between life and death. But it certainly plays a greater role than water in a Western country where the conditions are a bit more less intense, you can say.
So, imagining these police officers and their full uniforms on a hot day and their own passions and worries and fears… and then they have a cool cup of water brought to them! That's having a calming effect.
And I have heard Burmese frequently refer to mettā practice as being like a taste of cold water. So there is this analogy already built in, which is connected to the hot climate and the role that water plays there.
The second thought I have, is you're talking about mettā in action, this is really powerful! So sometimes in the West, when you just speak about sending good thoughts, there can be this kind of like, well, ‘these guys have have guns and money and power and everything else, and what are our good thoughts going to do?’
But what you're describing are people who have developed a practice and belief in the power of these good thoughts, and after having developed in this practice, are capable of walking up to a police officer with all of the good feelings in the world.
And that energy is something that you can't fake! It's something that you can't develop overnight. It's the fruits of a practice that has been going on for a long time. So that by truly developing this kind of mettā mind, you're able to walk the walk, and legitimately, authentically bring a sign of peace and an actual physical thing that will help that person in their condition on that hot day. And do it with a truly pure intention.
And that's something that you can only do if you have been working in that practice and believe in that practice. It's not an action you can just say, ‘now I'm going to do this because it's the political strategy of the of the moment, of how we can kind of gain leverage or something.’ It's actually built of years of mental inner spiritual work, that is manifesting at that moment.
Sayalay Chandadhika: This is also what I want to emphasize, is that in the middle of this anger, [they think], ‘I will do it anyway, because they might be hungry and thirsty or hot or whatever.’ But when you mentioned this, what came to my mind, is that ‘metta-water’ is a very common phrase in Myanmar. We call it mettā-ye (မေတ္တာရဲ); ye is just water. This is in our daily usage and also metaphorically in our songs.
Mettā and love, sometimes these words are used interchangeably. You don't have to be Buddhist, Muslim, or Christian, because we are brought up in this society, in this language. It has a lot of impact and influence, this metta-ye. Ok, let somebody be cooled down and move past the heat of this fire energy!
But that this could also happen in in the demonstration! They are in a group and then it’s like, ‘Okay, I'm bringing my water or even dana, to share what I can.’ But now they even share to the people who they are fighting, who basically go against them. ‘But ok, I still share.’ It is something coming up. This is the time, this situation challenges what you really have inside of you.
I'm not talking from a practitioner’s point of view now, not only like nuns or monks. But even now, it is something coming out from the non-practitioners. What I'm saying now in this situation of being in the middle of anger, and then some things they come up and this is beautiful, it is bringing a lot of light. And you see the power of the small things, the power of small mettā mind, which is coming up as an action with a token, which is so important, so powerful.
Interviewer: This is really powerful. Yeah, so this is like, ‘love will triumph,’ this belief has some connections back to the Civil Rights Movement in America to Gandhi in India. This nonviolence of confronting the problems that are happening in a way that are not causing more pain and more problems and more harm.
And I've also seen an enormous amount of dana in action as well. In my casual reading and knowledge of protest movements around the world, I have never in my life seen the kind of dana and service that is going on this week, people that are assigned to pick up trash, people that are handing out free meals, free water, free food, rest stations that are set up so people can take a nap and have something to drink, people who are very young and very old and are coming out, but who are also being taken care of and supported.
And usually when you look at protest movements that involve millions of people, you have a fear of a mob mentality and some kind of energy taking over and doing things where people lose control. And what I've seen from these pictures that are clearly showing dana, a sense of service, and a sense of non-harm. These are really powerful emotional forces that are coming, not to combat but to offer a another option of what's possible.