Lost Lessons: The Battle for Minds in Myanmar's Shadows
Bhikkhu Mokkhita's spiritual journey is deeply interwoven with his experiences in Myanmar and the practice of meditation, which he described on a recent podcast episode. His path began in 2005 in Germany, where a 10-day meditation course profoundly transformed his life and set him on the Dharma path, which he decided to follow for the rest of his life. This journey led him to participate in over 40 retreats, deepening his practice and connection with the tradition. The turning point came when Bhikkhu Mokkhita saw a video that struck a deep chord within him, showcasing the monks and pilgrimage sites in Myanmar. This ignited a powerful connection and a sense of familiarity that compelled him to go deeper into his practice and eventually led him to Myanmar in search of answers to his meditation questions. There, his quest led him to a monastery near Yangon, where the monks' kindness and guidance resonated with him, affirming his commitment to the monastic life and the pursuit of Dharma. Despite being asked to ordain in Germany, he chose to return to Myanmar, drawn by the profound connection to the place and its people, and eventually ordained there, embracing a life dedicated to spiritual depth and service… until it all came apart after the military coup, a story he shares in the following excerpt.
“They destroyed everything we’ve been working for all these years; it’s hard to see. How can monks, now being the Sangha, be there shaking hands with a military, taking power and using that?”
It's sad for me because, over these years, we have educated 250 children; we've been there since 2018, helping the kids and educating them to work in health, ecology, and education. Seeing that bringing them to open up their minds with a lot of volunteers, we had over 30 volunteers from all over the world coming from over 15 countries and around 20 employees; that was running very well during this time, and seeing so many people helping all these years, and the donors supporting the children to be open-minded, developing critical thinking and analytical thinking.
We also taught them a lot about ethics and civil education, justice and freedom, and what it meant to have a good education. We connected with international schools, partner schools from Germany and Singapore, and groups that came over from international schools from Yagon as exchange groups.
When I arrived in 2018, I saw how the military wanted to control the people; they pushed them down and used that very low-quality education; they used this system of learning by heart, rote learning. So the children have just been screaming at the book, learning everything by heart, and not allowed to question anything that is in the book. That's the best propaganda material, and they don't want the children to think for themselves, to have open-minded, critical, analytical, and creative thinking. No reflection was allowed before in those 60 years of military dictatorship.
That was exactly what we were stopping: going against the effects of the military, giving a good education, working with this open-mindedness, freeing the minds of the children, helping to develop the best education they could get, teaching them English, and then connecting them to the world by showing them computers, and internet and inviting these international schools to empower the children. Also, we taught them about our equal projects; we were building Eco-buildings there and had equal farming. They made their own tables, chairs, and handicrafts; there were sewing rooms where they could sew their material and many arts, dance, and music. So, we wanted to give them the best education possible to empower them to live their lives.
And now, that's all lost.
Because I saw what happened there, with the monks: The Sayadaw of the monastery, a second monk, and a novice I had ordained, I saw the Sayadaw getting closer to the military. When something didn't go right for him, he got furious and would hit the novices while they ate in the evening. I know that using that power to discipline the children was quite a common thing in Myanmar. I have seen the second monk hitting the novice with a stick; 10, 12,13 years old, and younger; this had been there before we arrived at that monastery.
One monk drank whiskey in the evening; even the Sayadaw knew that, and because of the drinking, he was hitting the children. But they were getting on with that situation because there was no possibility of having anybody else there for his replacement; it was also Sayadaw's decision; we had no control over it. My part was to ensure that we were running everything well in the monastery, that the children were safe, and that these things did not happen. And so when I saw the hitting, I went to the monk; I did not show any anger, knowing that does not lead anywhere; I talked to him, explaining that this is not how we do things. That was at the beginning when we first arrived; it was common for the local teachers to hit and discipline the children, working with these old methods, but we could put a stop to it, bringing this good quality education and respect towards each other.
But now we're gone, and they are still there; I don't know what will happen.
They destroyed everything we've been working for all these years; it's hard to see. How can monks, now being the Sangha, be there shaking hands with a military, taking power and using that? Everybody has witnessed what we have done, and we know that after we left the site, the Sayadaw called all the villagers in and told them the story of us being politically active, bad people, and stealing money. The people we worked with and hired there know that that's not true. They would even like to speak out to clarify this, but they can't speak out because of the power of the Sayadas there. If anybody said anything against that, he would be detained by the military; that's the power of those monks.