"I must love all beings, even when they beat me."
It’s hard for most of us to even begin to contemplate what we would do if we were in Linn Thant’s position. Sentenced to 20 years in prison, including 8 years on Death Row while awaiting his execution, confined in a cell so small he couldn’t even stand, he turned to his one refuge: vipassana meditation. Yet the military’s prison guards wouldn’t even permit this, and no matter how he attempted to explain his reason for practice, they still beat him after every meditation session. The irony is sickening, of a regime that partly justifies its existence as a means of protecting Buddhism, actively assaults Buddhist practitioners in the act of meditation! Despite enduring these two decades of beatings, Linn Thant swears he has never harbored ill will towards his aggressors for even a day in his life. And yet despite holding this ethos, he is currently supporting the current PDF groups to kill Tatmadaw soldiers as effectively as possible. It is often noted that Myanmar is a complicated country full of contradictions, and nowhere does that come to light more than in this interview with Linn Thant. Yet at the same time, nowhere does it make as much sense, either.
“They feared, and then they were angry, and then they beat me again and again. Still I did meditation, and I told them that this meditation is not for the revolution.”
Linn Thant: It's really difficult for me, because, I wanted to catch a peaceful and quiet life. But, there is a Burmese saying that we can’t choose the history, so the history chose me. I had to choose the opposite. I didn't want to, but I had to, for the country’s sake, not for the person. So I became a student armed group member.
Host: So, then, when you're in the prison, you're practicing meditation every morning, and then you're getting beaten after meditating. I can't even you think what to ask, just thinking about that, I'm breaking up.
Linn Thant: Yeah. They are saying that they are Buddhists, you know, the jailers. But when I was meditating, they were angry with me! ‘Why are you doing the meditation?’ Well, the problem was, when I was meditating once, one of the prison guards took me out from the cell room, and then I was beaten. Then, three days later, he was dead. He was in a car accident. So some of the prison guards, they were angry with me. Like, he beat me so bad, and then he was dead, so they call me “pinnya.” They were so angry with me and especially if I do meditation, that means that they are afraid they are getting something bad for them. They feared, and then they were angry, and then they beat me again and again. Still I did meditation, and I told them that this meditation is not for the revolution. ‘This is just for peace of mind! If I do meditation, you will get it too!’ I explained this to the jailers and the prison guards, that they will get the very good results as well. I said, ‘You don't need to watch whenever I do,’ because every 15 minutes, they are writing down the notes of what I'm always doing, like 24 hours per day they are recording this. Actually, it was really funny. But I think they just hate someone doing good.
Host: It’s just a terrible image to have in the mind. To think that your you're locked alone in a cell with no access or daylight. And you're doing this activity which is the least harmful activity that humans can do on earth: you're sitting with your eyes closed! And sitting with your eyes closed, your practice may be mettā, like you may be sending goodwill to all beings, you may be becoming aware of the relationship between the mind and body, you may be examining the mental contents, you may be looking at the sense doors and observing sensations, any number of these things, depending on the practice. But it's opening the body, it's relaxing the mind, it's becoming at peace and being vulnerable with examining what's within. Anyone who's done meditation or yoga can attest to that feeling of openness and vulnerability that comes after a session, and to think that after that time that you're doing this practice, you are then violently beaten in that state, well, I just get choked up even trying to imagine how that would be. I've had this question in my mind and part of it seems kind of stupid, and part of it seems kind of offensive, and I don't know exactly the right way to ask it. So I'll just come out and say it: after doing that kind of after doing meditation for as long as you were doing, and as intensively as you were doing, and then those beatings happen. What were your feelings towards those that were beating you? Did you hate them? Were you able to forgive them? Were you able to wish them compassion and goodwill? Or was it all of the above? Were different meditation sessions and different beatings bringing out different responses in the mind?
Linn Thant: Honestly, I was never angry with them, even until now I never used the very bad words on them either. After I was released from prison, I discussed with my family members, and they didn't agree with me. I told them that we are fighting against only the sins, not the sinner. But my father told me that our whole family lives were damaged and destroyed by the military leaders. We were broken, he told me. But I told my family that we are fighting against just only the sin, not for the sinner. This is my belief. When I did the meditation, I found that I shouldn’t hate others. I must love all beings, even when they beat me. They will have to pay back for the actions for the beating and their bad deeds. But I'm doing good. They are doing bad. When I was in prison, I had many experience. But even Mr. Khin Nyunt and the former military generals, I never hated them, until now. I never hate! If I say this words, many of the activists will hate me. I don't care. This is my perception. My pillar. Right now, I am a representative of the National Unity Government to fight against a military dictatorship in Myanmar. Still, no, I don't hate the military personal. I just hate the actions. This is my belief. Very simple.
Host: And so how do you reconcile this personal view you hold of not hating them and not wishing them bad, with the decision both then, as well as now, to take up and support and armed resistance?
Linn Thant: Honestly, I'm supporting the armed resistance in Myanmar right now. It means it's the end of the violence. For the innocent people in our country, there are thousands of people being killed in the past seven decades. Thousands of people! All innocent villagers, children, women, the elderly being killed. Still now, the violence is being accelerated by the military. That's why in the last year, with the results of the 2020 general election, the CRPH announced the military is a terrorist group! This military is not a military. And the police department, also a terrorist group. Because they are terrorizing our civilians, innocent people who have the right to protect their life. That's why I support, politically, the armed resistance. Not in my personal life, only politically I support.