"Sitagu Sayadaw's position is very complicated."
Bhikkhu Cintita, an American monk who was ordained by Sitagu Sayadaw and then spent years researching and writing his biography, is not holding back. As Burmese people continue to live in a state of dictatorial control and military-sponsored terror, he doesn’t know why his preceptor isn’t doing more. In an extraordinarily open interview with the American monastic, he opens up. Referencing his personal experiences with Sayadaw, his research into his life, and his analysis of his recent actions both before and following the coup, he pushes back against some of the common criticism of Sayadaw while also asserting his deep disappointment that he has not chosen to stand on the right side of history. The following excerpt illustrates how he has come to dissect this delicate issue, and readers are encouraged to listen to the full discussion to understand the depth of Bhikkhu Cintita’s feeling.
“There is probably an information deficit from Sitagu Sayadaw’s side, and very poor judgment.”
“I'm quite frustrated by it myself. One thing that's important is to keep a clear head. There's so much division and people want to create black and white with what they see, like who are the friends and are the enemies. We see so much division in American politics where there's no middle ground. People don't look at complexities either. ‘You're with us or you're against us,’ so people are demonized. And I think given the situation in Myanmar, people are going to think that way. People who empathize with the Burmese people tend to think that way. They don't look for subtleties.
So I think that Sitagu Sayadaw's position is very complicated. He's been navigating this balancing act that he's been involved in now for 40 years with the generals, not to get out of favor with them. And yet to provide some benefit to the Burmese people, and a lot of the monks are not able to manage a similar balancing act. Other monks that are directed towards public service, they end up being shut down by the generals. The generals sometimes take over a monastic college they wanted to run.
And so this [current moment] is another instance of Sayadaw trying to keep a very delicate balance. I kind of question his judgment. He's 84 years old now. He's always been unusually sharp. You can tell by his sense of humor, he understands my jokes even! But I think he's wearing out. U Osada thinks that he's also getting very bad information.
There is the wider question of how much of the Sangha is supporting military. U Osadha actually estimates, it's probably about 30% of the Sangha. So this is a further issue. But he doesn't include Sitagu Sayadaw in that. Another monk here, I asked him how many he thinks support the military, he says about 10%, which is a figure I like better!
U Osada also says that some of the monks close to Sitagu Sayadaw are pro military, and he named a couple that are monks that I know personally. They take pro military positions, and he thinks that these monks are actually giving him distorted views of what's going on in Myanmar. So there is probably an information deficit from Sitagu Sayadaw’s side, and very poor judgment. And perhaps factors that we just don't understand. But what I don't see is him ever advocating violence, even if he does have some anti-Muslim tendencies, which we can talk about and that I'm aware of, but they're not violent. And his behavior has indicated that.”