Emergency Edition: Burning the Midnight Oil

There are several images that will forever be seared into the mind of the Burmese hip hop artist known as 882021; pictures and videos that he will never be able to unsee, like soldiers charging at protesters, or thugs dressed in monks’ robes cracking car windows with crowbars. 882021 references these grim scenes not only in his music, but also in the artwork in his music videos. He is one of many artists using their creative gifts to resist the military coup in Myanmar.By choosing to be so bold in his lyrics, his life is at risk, and so he quite literally made a new name for himself—actually, a number. The six digits he now identifies himself as represent both the dates of the 1988 revolution and the current resistance movement, and the digits that make up the hexadecimal number for the web color of dried blood—a color he has unfortunately become all-too-familiar with in real life since the February coup.882021 learned Mahasi meditation during his days as a monk. But as valuable as he finds the Buddha’s teachings, he prioritizes freedom of expression in a traditional, conservative society where religious mores often guide artistic output. “I feel everything should be able to be criticized,” he says. “And that includes a religion as well. Personally, I'm a Buddhist myself, but I don't believe in taking extreme measures censoring art.” He is firmly in the tradition of political rap and hip hop that speaks truth to power.In his opinion, rap is the perfect medium for expressing resistance at this current moment. As he says, “Hip hop has always had a political history. And in my opinion, it is the best type of music to express these struggles that we're having with oppression.”

14 Elo 20211h 10min

From the moment you begin looking into the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus pandemic in Myanmar, the numbers are simply staggering. Some projections suggest half of the population might be infected within two weeks, and there is now the risk that the country will become a super-spreader Covid state that fuels outbreaks across the region, with a full one-third of the world’s population live in nations bordering Myanmar.This approaching, apocalyptic nightmare is the subject of today’s episode, which features Dr. Sasa. The former Special Envoy to United Nations, Dr. Sasa currently serves as the Union Minister of International Cooperation and Spokesperson of the National Unity Government of Myanmar.Dr. Sasa is pleading with the United Nations Security Council to issue what he calls a “COVID ceasefire.” He believes that the only hope is for the international community to finally step up. While the Burmese have been left largely to fend for themselves with almost no outside support for half a year, Dr. Sasa notes that two things no person can manufacture on their own are essential to combatting this virus: oxygen and vaccinations. “The international community is the only answer.”Meanwhile, the military is not stopping its assault on their own people even as the pandemic reaches epic proportions. Doctors have been in hiding since February, and soldiers have been singling them out for arrest, torture, and even assassination.Somehow, in spite of all this needless death and destruction, Dr. Sasa still sees some hope in the form of the vast majority of Burmese valiantly still resisting this military coup. He references the famous slogan used to describe the ultimate sacrifice given by Allied soldiers in World War II, “We gave our todays for your tomorrow.” He notes, “The people of Myanmar are sacrificing their life for the future of tomorrow. So that is the reason why we have hope… And our unity is our strength.”

3 Elo 20211h 9min

This is the fourth episode in our ongoing series, “Love Letters to Myanmar.” Today’s show welcomes three foreigners who share how Myanmar has influenced and supported their spiritual path, and the depth of gratitude they have for the country and people.The first guest is Venerable Canda, a Buddhist nun from England. When she was 19 years old, she visited India, where she attended a ten-day vipassana meditation course in the tradition of S.N. Goenka. The experience was so profound that she “knew that the path would be my whole life.” Indeed, ten years later she ordained as a nun north of Yangon under The Phyu Taw Ya Sayadaw, renowned for his deep samādhi prowess and strong sila. Reflecting now on everything she received in her spiritual life from Burmese teachers and the wider monastic and lay community, Venerable Canda feels that now is very much the time to give back.The next guest is Bhikkhu Rahula, a Mexican monk whose first vipassana course was in Japan, also in the tradition of S. N. Goenka, and it was similarly a life-changing experience. Traveling on to Myanmar, he practiced in a variety of traditions, often while ordaining temporarily as a monk. Besides his meditative practice, he devoted himself to studying pariyatti under some of the most renowned academic monks, which brought an even further benefit to his practice. Bhante Rahula brings a Buddhist perspective to his understanding of the current crisis, commenting, “The first thing we must do is become responsible of our own greed, aversion and ignorance. That's the first thing we should do because it's still alive in our hearts.”Finally, we hear a talk recorded with Breno Liberato in January 2020. Breno also got his first taste of dhamma through a Goenka course, and was moved to travel to Myanmar to further his spiritual development. He speaks joyously about his plans to visit various monasteries and meditation centers. He felt particularly called to try the mettā course of Chan Myay Myaing, and then learn cittanupassana from Sayadaw U Tejaniya. One hears the deep appreciation of a visitor who has benefited from his association, however brief, with the Burmese people and country.

26 Heinä 20211h 58min

When Han Htoo Khant Paing was pursuing degrees at the University of Economics in Yangon and Oxford University in England, he never imagined that one day he would be fleeing for his life to the jungles of Karen State.While many of his friends were enjoying the benefits of the liberalization and reforms of the 2010s, Han was growing increasingly worried that the transition was not going far enough. When the coup happened, Han responded immediately by co-founding the Burma Spring Front for Federal Democracy, an activist group dedicated to reestablishing democracy in Myanmar. He played an important role in organizing some of the country’s largest protests in February and March.As expected, Han and his fellow activists soon became targeted by the military. Han was one of the lucky ones who managed to escape, relocating to a safe house on the very day that soldiers searched his street. He eventually fled to Karen state, where he lived for two months under the protection of the Karen National Union (KNU). Eventually however, the Tatmadaw began running air raids over the camp and nearby villages, prompting Han to flee once again and look for safety.In addition to this harrowing story, our discussion covers a wide range of topics, many concerning the events that took place in the 2010s. Han was deeply disappointed not only by the Rohingya crisis, but also by the indifferent and even defensive response to what was unfolding from his Bamar friends. He feels that so many were enjoying their new-found opportunities for greater material rewards, that they ceased to cherish the value of hard-won, basic freedoms, leading to a misuse of freedom of speech and religious intolerance.

21 Heinä 20212h 1min

Michael Haack’s lifelong advocacy for Myanmar had a fortuitous start. With a growing interest in the divestment movement, he took advantage of an opportunity to take alternative winter break during his university years on the Thai-Myanmar border. While there, local people told him that they wanted foreign companies to stop doing business with the governing junta. Back at school, he aligned himself with a Free Burma coalition, and with a few other students managed to develop a successful campaign to stop multi-national companies from operating in the country.Since then, the Burmese country and people would have a special place in his heart. Michael’s several-decade career supporting various causes and campaigns, and current position as Campaign Manager at The Campaign for a New Myanmar, are the fodder for this episode’s wide-ranging discussion.The conversation starts by examining the role of the garment factory workers in the present resistance movement, and then spoke about railway workers staying home as part of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), and the importance of rail lines running at less than full capacity. Michael also mentions a recent interview he conducted with Dr. Sasa, the present government leader-in-exile, and in profiling him, found his story so incredible that he thought it could be “sold to Hollywood.”Michael names two other factors that inform a more complete understanding of Myanmar’s current crisis. First is the complicating nature of the Rohingya crisis. And second, in contrast to previous protests of 1988 and 2007, people are no longer fighting for something they never had, but rather fighting for something they don’t want to lose.On this latter point, Michael uses it to push back at criticisms by more liberal colleagues in the West that the coup basically proves that “there never was a transition” to a free society in the 2010s. While it may be true that the liberalization did not go as far as some might have hoped, but “to say that there was no transition is to literally just rob huge swaths of Myanmar society…of their lived experience, their agency, and their understanding of what had happened over the last 10 years.”

16 Heinä 20211h 58min

Lynn wants to know if anyone can suggest something that hasn’t already been tried.In contrast to many other protesters whose political consciousness was raised only after the coup, Lynn’s own professional and personal background in seeking peaceful solutions to his country’s problems goes back much further than the current moment. Before the coup, he worked directly on the peace process for years, attempting to bring different stakeholders to the table.But following the military coup and the military’s aggressive crackdown, everything changed for him. As Lynn says, “A lot of us decided that the same manner of language must be used to make [the military] understand, because the only language that they were using was violence.” Reaching this sad conclusion, he decided to join a training camp hosted by one of the armed ethnic groups, where for the first time in his life he learned such skills as handling firearms and explosives. Lynn estimates that hundreds of thousands of Burmese have secretly received such training.Armed with their new skills, many returned back to the cities and tried to join up with the People’s Defense Force (PDF) or Special Task Force (STF). However, they were unable to do so, partly due to a general sense of distrust within the opposition movement, and continuing disagreement about what role, if any, violence should play in the movement. This left those newly-trained citizens with basically just one option to use their new skills: forming their own regional groups to begin operations, which became known as the UG network.Abandoning his lifelong pacifist values was not easy, and Lynn still struggles with his new role and the use of violence even as a last resort, which he hopes will be a temporary tool to use in coordination with other activities, and to be abandoned once freedom is attained.

11 Heinä 20212h

How can a dedicated meditator maintain the five precepts when encountering armed soldiers with orders to abduct, rape, torture, or even kill? How should devoted lay supporters of the Saṅgha respond when much of their own monkhood remains silent even as their country is burning around them? What is the best way that practitioners outside of Myanmar can support the protest movement at this time? These are just a few of the moral quandaries put to the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi, in an interview which he later admitted was “one of the toughest I’ve ever had.”Many of the questions were sent in by Burmese Buddhist listeners, and concern real-life—and sometimes life-and-death—challenges, in the context of the military’s on-going terror campaign. They are questions from people desperately seeking spiritual answers that in many cases their own monkhood has unfortunately not been providing. Towards this end, Bhikkhu Bodhi emphasizes that his words “should be viewed as my personal opinions, and not authoritative dicta coming down from the high seat of authority, but my opinions, the way to resolve these very difficult ethical dilemmas.” He advocates adapting the spirit rather than the letter of the teachings to help us navigate our way through these serious challenges now facing Myanmar.The discussion is wide-ranging. Other topics range from the way Buddhist monks can engage with this crisis skillfully and in accordance with the Vinaya, to how Buddhist communities can best protect themselves against the terror state while understanding the immutable laws of karma, to the Rohingya crisis and issues surrounding the integration of Burmese Muslims into society. None of these have easy answers. This makes Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi’s willingness to wade into this morass all the more remarkable, at a time when many Buddhist leaders, especially those whose lineages trace back to Burma, carry on their teaching schedules while carefully avoiding these difficult questions. We thank Bhikkhu Bodhi for his moral courage in engaging on these challenging matters, and for the sensitivity and value of his words of wisdom.

4 Heinä 20211h 29min

In more normal times, Thiri Nandar would look for a way to balance her love of music with a spiritual practice. But the challenges of this current crisis make it impossible to either enjoy her music, or pursue her meditation practice. Instead, she is an active member of La Communauté Birmane (CBF), where she works tirelessly to fundraise to support the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), as well as providing food and medicine to impoverished communities.In France, her home away from home, she unsuccessfully tries to raise people’s awareness of the terrible situation in Myanmar, but most do not see the relevance of events taking place so far away to their own lives. And even then, it is hard enough discerning what the actual “news” really is. Independent journalism in Myanmar has been outlawed, with many reporters arrested or in hiding, so she is left to sift through military-sponsored fake news on one side, and the false hopes regularly shared by protesters on the other.Thiri Nandar also has grave concerns with how the military is coopting Buddhism to keep themselves in power at all costs. This has had an especially disastrous impact on the younger generation, many of whom are now rejecting the Buddha’s teachings entirely, unable to separate them from the junta’s perversions. She is grateful that she was not raised to be a “traditional” Buddhist who faithfully participated in ceremonies and practices but with little understanding, instead benefitting from a personal monastic tutor who encouraged her to question every part of the teachings, while teaching her an ānāpāna meditation practice.

28 Kesä 20211h 43min