You've Got A Friend
In a couple of days we’ll be releasing the fourth episode in our emergency response series to the crisis, entitled “Active Days, Restless Nights.” This is a very powerful interview with a front-lines demonstrator who explains how the Buddhist teachings of nonviolence have animated his work. Before this, he had been a monastery attendant for many years, and being a fluent English speaker, was primarily charged with taking care of foreign meditators.
There are many parts of his interview which have been resonating within me this past week, some of which have actually shifted and deepened my understanding of this current moment. So I’m really looking forward to its release.
But there is one thing he said that I simply cannot stop thinking about, and so I want to make this specific post emphasizing this point. I explained that many foreigners like myself wished to help out, but that we felt so limited and helpless in terms of what we could actually do. So I asked him what people in my position could do to help at this moment, understanding that it might not be much.
His answer was emphatic. Protest work is tiring, he told me, much more exhausting than he could ever have imagined! His face browned from the sun and his voice hoarse from speaking all day, he had to sleep at a different monastery every night, often with no bed. The only break he would take every day was just a few minutes for eating, often while standing up. The killings and terrorism sapped his emotions, and sometimes he simply had no more gas in the tank to keep going. So, what he told me that he and his friends need most, and which foreigners outside the country are so primed to provide, is this: Emotional Support.
Just knowing that people out there are informed and care about the issue they are risking their life for gives them a little more energy to proceed, makes them feel a little less alone, and gives them a little more courage.
The answer stunned me because, honestly speaking, it just doesn’t feel like enough for me, from my side. But it’s not about me. It’s about him, and it’s about them. And when we give them a chance to speak and if we want to hear their truth, this is what they are saying: they want to hear from us, and they want our emotional support. It helps them stand in the heat, respond nonviolently to aggression, and reaffirm their commitment to freedom.
I have never written any post asking you to do anything. But I am now. If you care about this current moment, reach out to Burmese people right now in Myanmar. If you have friends, check in on them every day. If you don’t have friends, make some. There are no people in the world easier to form a friendship with, so do it now! Go to your social media platform of choice and strike up some online friendships. This is super easy to do. If you’re on Facebook, just search groups with “Myanmar” or “Burmese” or “Yangon” or anything else in them, and join. If you’re on Twitter, look under #whatshappeninginMyanmar. If you’re on Instagram, search recent photos posting in different geographical placed in Myanmar. Be creative on other platforms.
Take on a half dozen, or a dozen, and adapt them into your care. Check in on them every day. Let them know they can talk to you whenever they want, even when they feel terrible. Let them know they can cry if they need to. Let them know you’re a safe person for them to be vulnerable with, and then be that safe person. Talk about funny things too. Tell them about your day, and hear about theirs. Keep letting them know how much you support them, and that their movement and them specifically are in your mind, and that they are in your metta.
So when you start to get overwhelmed by the news and helpless with your limitations, remember that this is something very easy that you really can do, and it makes a big difference.