Seeking liberation while imprisoned
It was an extraordinary tale to hear how Ma Thida used her time as a political prisoner in one of Myanmar’s worst jails, Insein Prison, to dedicate herself to meditation. In this following excerpt, she describes what led to her decision to transform her prison cell into a meditation cell, where she would go on to meditate there for up to 18 hours daily, while following a self-imposed code of Noble Silence.
“Freedom from samsara is far harder than freedom from prison!”
“Well, what I believe is freedom is by choice… not by chance. So almost all the time [in Insein Prison], I was thinking, ‘Okay, as a prisoner, what can I do? I cannot get myself released from prison. I also cannot make any other good activities for the movement or to save the others, like before.
A lot of people were saying that religious activities [like meditation] are more like individual freedoms. So if you focus on individual freedom, you don't care about others. But for me, I think if we are not free, how can we make others free? Spiritual freedom for me is more meaningful than physical freedom.
So, I was just thinking in the prison cell, what can I do? I kept asking myself and I thought, ‘Okay, freedom is guaranteed according to the Buddha's teaching, but only when you make an effort. And freedom from samsara is far harder than freedom from prison! I can be released after 20 years imprisonment, but I cannot be released from samsara. In order to be free from samsara, what should I do is meditation. For that, I don't need anything more, I already have my body and my mind!
But for release from prison, it might need cooperation with the guards, or making an apology to the military, or something like that. I couldn't do that, because I took part in [revolutionary] activities, even though I knew I very well might be in prison one day, but I did it anyway. So for me, I cannot apologize, I cannot stop resisting the military!
That's one thing. But on the other hand, making myself free from samsara was very practical to me, because I have my body, I have my mind, and I can do meditation almost every day, because I have no other commitments to do in the prison. So take advantage of it!
That's my point. And I also really had a big fear of samsara, or the cycle of lives. So I thought, here is my chance, so let’s take it. That's why I did it. And that transformed me.”