Ashin Sarana: Tatmadaw is the biggest threat to Buddhism
Where do the worldly and the spiritual meet? This is the essentially the question that was put to Ashin Sarana during my interview with him, when I read him a passage that one foreign meditator had written asserting that, as far as the survival of a Buddhist society in Myanmar, there was no difference between a military or democratic ruler. Ashin Sarana did not hold back, openly expressing his disgust for such a hypothesis even being suggested, and then going on to dismantle it piece by piece. Take a moment to read his thoughts below, and if you have more time on your hands, check out the full interview.
“The idea that the military poses no threat to Buddhism... is a very clear display of lack of knowledge about history in Myanmar.”
Host: There's this kind of feeling among some foreign practitioners that Burma is a Buddhist country, and no matter who rules it, they've always been Buddhist, and always will be. And this is the case with dictators and kings and presidents and everyone else who has ever ruled, and so the natural order of things is going to continue going on. There was one foreign meditator who wrote something on social media I want to read to you that really illustrates the thinking behind this view very specifically: ‘Buddhism was founded grew and thrived under the governments of emperors and kings, who were much more much more autocratic than the current military rulers of Myanmar. Therefore, as far as Buddhism is concerned, I do not see any problem whether Myanmar is governed by the Tatmadaw, or the National League for Democracy. Members of the Myanmar military are themselves Buddhist, and the coup has nothing to do with suppressing Buddhism. Buddhism is not in any way threatened in Myanmar, there was no suppression of Buddhism or any religious freedom there.’ So my question is, how do you see Buddhism and the Sangha and Dhamma practice overall being impacted, if the coup were to succeed? Do you buy into the logic of this argument that it's going to persist and thrive under any condition? Or do you see the practice of Buddhism and meditation and the nature of the Sangha changing under different types of rule in the country?
Ashin Sarana: You know, we have a chicken farm here close to the monastery. And at times, they somehow neglect the cleaning of the chicken feces. Now perhaps I create a disgust in many of those who made it to this point and are still listening to us. But when you're reading this to me, it's as if you took the chicken feces, put it into one cart load, and then threw it on my head!
That's how it feels to me. I had been worrying that somebody could have this thought, but I thought, ‘No, no living being in the world would ever think like this!’ And then when you're reading, it, now it is like the worst nightmare ever became a reality.
I believe that this is caused by a lack of knowledge about history, because we need to understand the circumstances, like the idea that the military poses no threat to Buddhism, or that it is basically the same for the Buddhists whether there's a military or whether there's democracy. This is a very clear display of lack of knowledge about history in Myanmar, about history in Cambodia, and history in the other Buddhist countries as well.
So there's a lot of historical knowledge that this person is missing, and that the person may like to study. There are beautiful, detailed articles on the 2007 revolution and 1988 revolution in Myanmar, which the person may like to read and learn from, because they contain very important details that show us why the military role is not appreciated.
1962 was the start of military rule in Myanmar. And the real problem was in 1988, why do you think that? Why do you think 1962 is not the year of the problem? Why is it 1988? It is because exactly what the person thought is what many people may have thought in 1962, like they said, ‘Hey, who cares? Okay, so the military took control, we wish them to be happy, and we will continue to meditate.’
But then in 1988, one big thing happened. And it's called poverty. When people have nothing to put into their mouths, they also cannot support monks, and in our scriptures it is written that this is exactly the reason why the Buddha's teachings will disappear. It will disappear when the people have not enough food to eat, and therefore they don't have enough food to support monks. Then because monks are not supported, they will not accept students, when they don't accept students, they will not teach students and therefore teaching will gradually disappear. This is exactly written in our Pāḷi scriptures. So the poverty caused by the 1988 government, whatever were the details, and the same poverty again in 2007 were the reasons for people's disappointment. It's not because people would love to have internet 24 hours, which they don't have anyway. And the person who wrote this thing, I suppose has internet 24 hours a day!
It's not because not more than five people can be allowed to go outside their home, which I'm sure that the person you're talking about is allowed! It's not because the people would not be allowed to go outside of their house at all after eight or nine o'clock, which the person who wrote this thing is most certainly is allowed!
And, again, these are not the reasons for the demonstrations today. The main reason is that the military will again put people into poverty, and take the people's money for their own purposes.
Another reason is, there's poverty in eating, but there's another poverty, and that is in education. People are very clearly aware how the military has basically destroyed the educational opportunities of the people. The way how people learn today is extremely simple. That's why it's very easy for us to come to Myanmar, speak with the people and find out that their intelligence and their knowledge are much different than in the West, and it is exactly because the military has destroyed this education. Not only that, they have decided the manner of education, which is rote learning. They have to memorize. They're not allowed to think or to question or to ask anything. The military does not support education. Military support for education is one of the least in all of the world!
So education has very little support, and very little financial support from the government. So the schools are very poor. Learning is very poor. Instead of teaching the children that what they know, teachers instead ask the children to follow so-called tuitions, which are extremely expensive. If the parents do not pay the tuitions, which they cannot afford when they are poor, then the children cannot pass the exam, because the teachers usually will give a better mark to somebody who's following their own tuition class. So if the students don't come for the tuition, they will not get a good mark, and may not pass at all.
So there is poverty in food, poverty in life, and poverty in education. And people know this. With poverty in education and food, we are going back into the same vicious cycle. There is poverty in food today, without education and without knowledge. How do you want to make good money? How do become successful in business or in anything that makes a safe amount of money? So that's why the people don't like this military rule. And that's why it's very important to study on the circumstances of the environment that we are talking about before saying such things.
And this is exactly what I'm afraid of, that I will sometimes write or say something like this quote, which is such a clear display of lack of knowledge.