Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta in Defense of Human Rights

“After I understood anicca, dukkha, anatta from my meditation practice, I could apply them in politics. So my approach, whenever I defend human rights, is not on the individual or personal level, but on the system level. It's at the structural level where there is the interconnection between meditation and politics.”

There are few people more qualified to speak on the topic of Engaged Buddhism than Ma Thida, and there are few quotes more powerful than this one, which comes from our podcast conversation a few months ago. A dedicated meditator who went on to work as a doctor and author, she joined the NLD in 1988 to support the democratic movement. Several years later, she was imprisoned under false charges at Insein, where she was a political prisoner, ultimately becoming something of a cause célèbre.

During our interview, she gives an overview of her experience under incarceration, discussing her relationships with fellow inmates and guards as well as the severe health complications that she faced, along with her decision to at one point transform her entire prison cell into a meditation cell, and take up meditating for up to 20 hours per day. Without a teacher and with few books on hand, she carried on a secret correspondence with Chan Myay Yeiktha Sayadaw, as meditation questions were smuggled out of her cell to his monastery for clandestine reply.

Ma Thida has walked the walk. She has given as much for the democracy movement and in support of human rights as anyone in Myanmar... for which she paid the price. Yet she also has gone far beyond the traditional conception of Burmese Buddhism, and ardently sought a release from samsara while seeking full liberation as much as any monk or nun. So as a Burmese Buddhist and activist, I was quite eager to hear her thoughts on where she found that social engagement and meditation came together.

She did not disappoint. Take a listen to the full interview to hear her full range of reflection.