THERAVADA BUDDHISMUS

               

         Der Name des Gründers von dem, was im Westen als Buddhismus bekannt ist, war
Gotama, dies ist der Name des Clans oder der Familie, der er angehörte. Das Wort "Buddha" bedeutet "der Erwachte" oder "der Erleuchtete", und ist kein Name, sondern ein Ehrentitel, welcher dem weisen Gotama verliehen wurde weil er die Erleuchtung unter dem Bodhi-Baum in Buddhagaya in Indien erlangt hatte. 

         
Gotama wurde als der Sohn eines Indischen Königs 623 Jahre v.Chr. geboren, an der Grenze zum heutigen Nepal. So markierte der Kaiser Asoka 239 v.Chr. die Stelle als Geburtsort des großen Lehrers der Menschheit, und als Zeichen der Verehrung für ihn, errichtete er eine Säule mit der Inschrift: "Hier war der Erleuchtete geboren".

             Zu der Zeit seiner Geburt prophezeiten die Weisen des Königreiches, dass er entweder ein grosser Herrscher werden würde, oder aber ein grosser religiöser Lehrer.

Sein Vater wollte, dass er ein mächtiger Herrscher wird und sorgte dafür, dass sein Sohn sich weltlichen Dingen zuwendete anstatt des religiösen Lebens und versuchte vor seinem Sohn jegliche unerfreuliche Dinge zu verstecken, damit er nicht ernsthaft über das Leben und die Welt nachzudenken begann.

              In seinem neunundzwanzigsten Lebensjahr jedoch, während er auf dem Weg zum königlichen Park war, sah Gotama zum ersten Mal in seinem Leben einen alten Mann, einen kranken Mann, sowie einen toten Mann und er erkannte, dass alle Menschen die geboren warden auch alt werden und sterben und dass alle weltlichen Vergnügen nur eine Einleitung des Leidens sind. Als er einen Mönch sah, realisierte er, dass man um den Weg zu lernen das universelle Leiden der Menschen zu überwinden, auf weltliche Vergnügen verzichten musste und dementsprechend verzichtete er auf sein Reich und wurde ein Asket.

              Gotama wanderte durch das Land auf der Suche nach Wahrheit und echtem Frieden, er traf auf viele unterschiedliche Lehrer seiner Tage, aber niemand hatte die Kompetenz ihm zu geben, was er ernsthaft suchte. Er übte unermüdlich sämtliche Formen der schwierigen Entbehrungen und machte einen übermenschlichen Versuch während sechs langen Jahren bis schlussendlich sein zarter Körper nur noch einem Skelett glich. Aber je mehr er seinen Körper quälte, desto weiter weg entfernte er sich von seinem Ziel. 
               Schließlich, nachdem er die völlige Sinnlosigkeit der Selbstkasteiung realisierte, beschloss er einen anderen Weg zu folgen, indem er beide Extreme der Selbstkasteiung und Genußsucht vermied. Der neue Weg den er entdeckte war der Mittlere Weg und der achtfache Pfad, welcher später eines der wichtigsten Merkmale seiner Lehre wurde. Indem er diesen Weg befolgte wuchs seine Weisheit, er entdeckte anschliessend die Vier Edlen Wahrheiten und erlangte die volle Erleuchtung.

               Als Mann erlangte Prinz Gotama den höchstmöglichen Zustand der Vollkommenheit, das Dasein als Buddha und er zeigte den Menschen den einzigen direkten Weg dazu. Ein besonderes Merkmal des Buddhismus ist, dass irgendjemand danach streben kann den Zustand der Vollkommenheit zu erlangen, wenn er die notwendigen Anstrengunen macht. Es ist eine Art evolutionärer Prozess und wird durch die eigenen Bemühungen erreicht.

               Der Buddha lehrte der Wert der Menschen und der menschlichen Würde. Ein werdender Buddha ist ein Bodhisatta und durch unzählige Geburten erlebte der Bodhisatta sämtliche Leiden, opferte alles und erfüllte jede Perfektion, so dass er eines Tages dieses einzigartige Ziel erreicht, das Ziel die Erlösung, - nicht nur für ihn selbst, sondern für alle Wesen – von allen schweren Lasten der Geburt, des Alters, der Krankheit und des Todes zu erlangen.

               Der Buddha selbst erzählt uns von seiner Herkunft, und wie alles mit einer unflexiblen, ehrgeizigen Entschlossenheit begann; er erzählt uns von der schrittweisen Vollendung des Wandels zu welchem dieses Bestreben fürhte, und wie er schlussendliche die Erleuchtung erlang. Auf diesem Wege, anstatt seine Anhänger zu entmutigen und diesen erhabenen Zustand nur für sich selbst zu behalten, ermutigte und bewog der Buddha sie seinem edlen Beispiel zu folgen.

              Das Wort des Buddha wird Dhamma genannt, welches in der Form der alten Sanskrit Schriften Dharma wird. Es bedeutet Wahrheit, die wirklich ist und es bedeutet auch Gesetz, das Gesetz, das in im eigenen Herz und Verstand aller Menschen existiert. Es ist das
Prinzip der Gerechtigkeit, deshalb ruft der Buddha die Menschen dazu auf, edel, rein und gemeinnützig zu sein, nicht um einem Gott zu gefallen, aber wahr zu sein zu seinem höchsten Inneren.

                Dhamma, dieses Gesetz der Gerechtigkeit existiert nicht nur in den Herzen und dem Verstand der Menschen, aber es existiert auch im Universum; das ganze Universum ist eine Verkörperung oder Offenbarung des Dhamma. Die Gesetze der Natur welche die moderne Wissenschaft entdeckte sind Offenbarungen des Dhamma; wenn der Mond auf und unter geht, ist es wegen des Dhamma, weil Dhamma das Gesetz im Universum ist, welches die Materien bewirkt in der Art in der Physik studiert wurde, Chemie, Zoologie, Botanik und Astronomie; Dhamma existiert im Universum genau so wie es in den Herzen und dem Verstand der Menschen existiert. Wenn ein Mensch nach dem Prinzip des Dhamma lebt, wird er allem Elend entkommen und das Nirvana erreichen, die endgültige Befreiung des Leidens.

             Obwohl Buddhismus keine Religion ist, in dem Sinne in welchem dieses Wort meistens verstanden wird, ist es kein System des Glaubens oder der Anbetung, Buddhismus beginnt als die Suche nach der Wahrheit. Er beginnt nicht mit unbegründeten Annahmen einen Gott oder eine erste Ursache betreffend, und er erhebt keinen Anspruch darauf , die ganze Wahrheit des absoluten Anfangs und Endes der spirituellen Pilgerreise der Menschheit in Form einer göttlichen Offenbarung darzustellen. 

            Der Buddha selbst suchte und entdeckte mit direktem Einblick die Natur des Kosmos, die Ursache seines Entstehens und Vergehens, und die eigentliche Ursache des Leidens sowie wie dem Leiden ein Ende gesetzt werden kann, zum Wohle aller Lebewesen. Nachdem er dies getan hatte, verkündete er die Prinzipien, auf denen er seine Forschungen basiert hatte, so dass alle, die es wollten seinem Weg folgen und die endgültige Wahrheit selber erfahren konnten.

               Der Buddha lehrte die Menschen sich auf sich selber zu verlassen, um die eigene Erlösung zu erlangen und nicht auf einen externen Retter. Er hat sich niemals als Mittler zwischen uns und unserer endgültigen Erlösung präsentiert, aber er kann uns sagen was zu tun ist weil er es selber getan hat und somit den Weg kennt. Wenn wir jedoch nicht selber handeln, kann der Buddha uns nicht zu unserem Ziel führen. Er kann den Weg zeigen, er kann uns von den Schwierigkeiten erzählen und von den schönen Dingen, die wir auf dem Weg erleben werden, aber er kann den Weg nicht für uns gehen, wir müssen ihn selber gehen.

                Der Lebensverlauf des Universums wird durch das natürliche Gesetz der Ursache und Wirkung regiert. Die Ursache wird irgendeinmal die Wirkung und die Wirkung
wird die Ursache, und so folgt auf die Geburt der Tod, und auf den Tod folgt die Geburt; Geburt und Tod werden zwei Phasen des selben Lebensverlaufes. In diesem Kreis von Ursache und Wirkung, oder von Geburt und Tod, im Buddhismus als Samsara bekannt, ist ein erster Anfang nicht auffindbar; es wir gesagt „ Die Herkunft eines Phänomens ist nicht auffindbar, und der Anfang der Wesen, welche durch Unwissenheit behindert und durch Begehren verführt werden ist nich auffindbar.“ (Samyutta Nikaya II).
                 Gemäss dem Buddhismus entsprang das Universum, aber es entsprang nicht aus Nichts, es entsprang durch zerstreute Materie eines früheren Universums; und wenn dieses Universum aufgelöst wird, ist es zerstreute Materie, oder es ist restliche Energie welche sich ständig erneuert und es wird zu seiner Zeit auf die selbe Art zu einem weiteren Universum wachsen.

                  Der Prozess ist deshalb zyklisch und kontinuierlich und das Universum selber besteht aus Millionen von Welten, sowie die Welt die wir als unser eigenes Sonnensystem kennen, jede mit ihren unterschiedlichenen Ebenen der Existenz.

                  Was ist die Seele? Was wir als ‚Mensch’ bezeichnen, besteht aus Geist und Materie. Gemäss dem Buddhismus, ausser Geist und Materie (Nama und Rupa) welche den sogenannten Mensch ausmachen, gibt es nicht so etwas wie eine unsterbliche Seele die über ihnen liegt. Materie (Rupa) ist die sichtbare Form von unsichtbaren Qualitäten und Kräften, und es gibt insgesamt achtundzwanzig Eigenschaften von materiellen Qualitäten, welche den physichen Körper eines mit Leben erfüllten Wesens ausmachen. Der Geist (Nama) ist der wichtigste Teil eines Wesens und besteht aus vier seelischen Bestandteilen, nämlich:

1. Gefühle, irgendeiner Art (Vedana)
2. Wahrnehmung, für Sinn Objekte, oder Reaktionen auf die Sinne (Sanna)
3. Geistige Eigenschaften, die fünfzig verschiedenen geistigen Formationen einschliesslich guten und schlechten Neigungen und Fähigkeiten (Sankhara)

4. Bewusstsein, welches der wesentliche Faktor der drei anderen ist (Vinnana)

                Somit wird die Kombination der fünf Aggregate oder des Materials und
der geistigen Kräfte ein Wesen genannt, welches so viele Namen hat wie seine Arten, Formen, Gestalten und welches so weiter variieren kann, je nach der Art der körperlichen und geistigen Veränderungen.

                Der Mensch ist deswegen ein moralisches Wesen mit guten und schlechten Neigungen, mit Qualitäten und Kräften. Der unbegrenzte körperliche, geistige und moralische Kräfte hat; und im Herzen eines jeden Menschen ist ein Funken der Weisheit, aber in gewöhnlich sterblichen ist es ruhend oder verkrüppelt durch seinen unerleuchtenden Umgang mit egoistischer Gier, Hass und Ignoranz.

                 Als Buddhist sollte der Zweck eines Menschenlebens sein zu wachsen, von klein zu gross, von weniger nach mehr, von Unwissenheit zu Erleuchtung und von Unvollkommenheit zu Vollkommenheit.  

                Der Mensch ist der Architekt seines eigenen Schicksals, und er wird ernten, was er sät.

              Somit bündeln sich die materiellen und geistigen Kräfte und kombinieren sich neu, mit keiner tieferliegenden Substanz oder Seele, um sie permanent zu machen, und dieser Prozess des Werdens, das Rad des Lebens, dauert fort auf unbestimmte Zeit bis seine wichtigste Ursache, Gier, oder selbstsüchtige Verlangen nach Existenz, völlig vernichtet ist. Es ist dieses Begehren, welches das Rad des Lebens in Bewegung setzt, und es offenbahrt sich in einer Wirkung welche in Wirklichkeit Willenskraft ist. Es wird ‚Kamma’ in Pali genannt, aber ‚Karma’ in Sanskrit, und es ist dieses Kamma, diese willkürliche Handlung welche verantwortlich ist für die Schaffung des Seins.

              Kamma bedeuted alle Arten von bewussten Handlungen, ob seelisch, verbal oder physisch; das sind auch alle Gedanken, Worte und Taten. Jede Handlung produziert eine Wirkung; Handlung zuerst und weiter Konsequenz. Wir können deshalb sagen, dass Kamma das ‚Gesetz von Ursache und Wirkung’ ist und dass der Mensch der Meister seines eigenen Schicksals ist, das Kind seiner Vergangenheit und der Elternteil seiner Zukunft. Kamma hingegen ist nicht Determinismus, weder ist es eine Entschuldigung für Fatalismus; die Vergangenheit beeinflusst die Gegenwart aber dominiert sie nicht. Die Vergangenheit ist der Hintergrund gegen den das Leben von Moment zu Moment weitergeht, und die Vergangenheit zusammen mit der Gegenwart beeinflusst die Zukunft; aber man sollte daran denken dass nur der gegenwärtige Moment existiert und die Verantwortung diesen Moment als Gut oder Schlecht zu nutzen liegt bei jedem Einzelnen. Der Mensch hat eine gewisse Menge an freiem Willen und kann somit seine Handlungen verändern und seine Zukunft beeinflussen. Wenn also ein Mensch eine gute Tat macht oder ein gutes Wort äussert oder einen guten Gedanken hat, wird dies seine Neigungen in ihm gütig werden lassen. Wenn die Handlungsweise des guten Kamma voll entwickelt ist, wird der Mensch fähig sein das Böse zu überwältigen und somit ihn zu seinem Ziel dem Nirvana führen.

  An der Wurzel der Beschwerden der Menschen ist sein Zustand der Unwissenheit und von Unwissenheit kommt Begierde, welche die Kraft des Kamma in Bewegung setzt. Der Buddhist steigt zum Nirvana durch den Mittleren Weg hinauf, der Weg von Weisheit, Moral und Gedankenkontrolle, oder Meditation; er steigt hinauf durch den Kreis von Wiedergeburten, und erlangt Volkommenheit indem er seine Begierden durch Weisheit und Liebe besiegt. Die Erlangung des volkommenen Zustandes involviert die höchste Entfaltung der menschlichen Fähigkeiten durch anhaltende Bemühungen seiner eigenen Argumenationen, Verstand und rechtes Leben.

          Der Buddhismus lehrt, dass man mit der Ausübung der Meditation und Verstandsschule die fünf supernormalen Kräfte akquirieren kann. Z.bsp. überirdische Auge oder Ohren, Erinnerungen aus früheren Leben, die Gedanken anderer lesen und verschiedene übersinnliche Kräfte. Nicht nur dies, aber der Buddhismus lehrt auch dass mit dem Erlangen des Nirvanas in diesem Leben, durch Erleuchtung und Weisheit, man das Ende der Reihe der Wiedergeburten erreichen kann.

               Nirvana ist nicht Vernichtung, weder ist e seine Art von Nichts, es ist der Zustand frei von allen Eventualitäten einer neu entstehenden bedingten Existenz, endgültiger Frieden und Glücklichkeit. In den Buddhistischen Schriften wird es immer in positiven Begriffen beschrieben, so wie die höchste Zuflucht, Sicherheit, Freilassung und Friede.

             Buddhismus besteht aus drei Aspekten; doktrinär, praktisch und realisierbar. Der doktrinäre Aspekt wird in den Schriften genannt ‚Tipitaka’ oder ‚Drei Körbe’ bewahrt, der Grundsatz welcher die Worte Buddhas enthält und welche von Englischen Uebersetzern als elfmal so gross wie die Christliche Bibel geschätzt wurd.e

        Alle Lehren von Buddha können in einem Vers zusammengefasst werden:

‚Von allem Bösen absehen,

Zu tun was gut ist,

Die Seele reinigen.

Das sind die Lehren Buddha’s’

       Dieser Vers verkörpert die drei Stufen auf der großen Landstraße die zur Erleuchtung führt, die drei Stufen der Moral, Konzentration und Weisheit. Moral reguliert Wort und Tat, steuert die Konzentration kontrolliert den Geist, aber es ist die Weisheit, die letzte Stufe, die es dem spirituellen Menschen ermöglicht, die Leidenschaften vollständig zu vernichten welche jemals einen Aufruhr in ihm kreiert haben.

            Bald nach dem Erlangen der Erleuchtung hat Buddha den Orden der Mönche (Sangha) gegründet, welcher sowie die Gemeinde dieser noblen Jünger welche die Aryan edlen Abschnitte erreicht haben, von welchen der letzte die vollkommene Heiligkeit (Arahat) ist, als auch di eGemeinde der Buddhistischen Mönche welche sich noch bemühen die Aryan edlen Abschnitte zu erreichen. Der Orden der Mönche wuchs und während der fünfundvierzigjährigen von Buddha’s Geistlichkeit hatte er sich überall über Indien und sogar noch weiter ausgebreitet und die Lehre der Befreiung wurde all denen mit etwas Staub in den Augen bekannt. Ein ähnlicher Orden wurde von Buddha für Nonnen eingeführt, mit all denselben Regeln und einigen zusätzlichen wie es für Frauen verlangt wurde. Das Buddhistische Sangha, welches historisch die erste klösterliche Institution war regiert durch vollkommen demokratische Prinzipien, besteht weiter bis heutzutage.

               Am siebten Tag nachdem der Buddha gestorben war, entschied der Anführer der Sangha, Maha Kassapa, eine Einberufung zu halten um die massgebenden Lehren Buddhas zu verankern. Sie haben dann einen grossen Rat in Rajagaha gehalten, unter dem Protektorat von König Ajatasattu, wurden die Buddhistischen Schriften gesammelt und in Gesängen rezitiert.

               Während dem ersten Jahrhundert nach dem Ableben von Buddha, gab es nur eine Spaltung unter Buddhisten, aber am Ende des ersten Jahrhunderts während der Herrschaft von König Kalasoka, eine Gemeinschaft von Mönchen versuchte zehn neue Regeln in die Disziplin des Sangha einzuführen, und kündigten an, dass diese zulässig für die Sangha ist. Zur Unterdrückung dieser Häresie, und zur Sicherstellung der Dauerhaftigkeit der Lehren des Buddha, sieben hundert Arahats mit Revata als ihr Anführer, beschützten den König Kalasoka und hielten den zweitgrössten Kongress in Vesali in genau der gleichen Art als der Vorherige.

            Der dritte grosse Kongress wurde im dritten Jahrhundert nach Buddha gehalten, unter dem Protektorat von Kaiser Asoka. Auf den Ratschlag von Moggaliputta Tissa hin, welcher den dritten grossen Kongress anführte, sandte der Kaiser Asoka die Nachricht des Dhamma in die verschiedenen anderen Länder, welche zu der Zeit bekannt waren.

             Der vierte grosse Kongress wurde in Ceylon im frühen sechsten Jahrhundert abgehalten, angeführt von Maha Agga und unterstützt durch König Vattagamini. Während diesem Kongress wurden die Tipitaka Erzählungen das erste Mal nieder geschriben, bis anhin wurden sie nur in Pali weitererzählt seit der Zeit des Buddhas.

              Der fünfte grosse Kongress wurde in Mandalay, Burma abgehalten, im frühen fünfundzwanzigsten Jahrhundert nach Buddha, angeführt durch Jagara Thera mit der Unterstützung von König Mindon. Zu dieser Zeit wurde die ganze Tipitaka auf 729 Marmorplatten gemeisselt und am Fusse des Mandalay Hügels plaziert.

              Der sechste grosse Kongress wurde in Rangoon, Burma abgehalten, und began am Tag des Vollmondes im Mai 2498, Jahre nach dem Ableben Buddhas, und endete am 2500. Geburtstag (Mai 1956). Während diesem Kongress, wurde die Tipitaka in Pali rezitiert und es wurden die ersten Schritte gemacht um sie in modernere Sprachen zu übersetzen.

             Heutzutage gibt es zwei Hauptschulen des Buddhismus; Theravada, welcher vor allem in Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Kambodscha und Laos praktiziert wird; und Mahayana, welcher in China, Tibet und Japan praktiziert wird.

              Theravada, der Weg der Aelteren, war die eigentliche und einzige Tradition aus früheren Zeiten des zweiten grossen Kongresses, als die Mahasangika-Schule, ein Vorgänger des Mahayana, gegründet wurde. Saravastivada wuchs anschliessend als die zweitwichtigste Schule welche sich vom Theravada unterschied, obwohl zuerst nur in kleinen Details, und im Weiteren aufgeteilt in mehrere Sektionen von welchen sich später einige in Mahayana entwickelt haben.

            Die Hauptunterschiede zwischen Theravada und Mahayana Buddhismus sind die verschiedenen Konzepte die den Buddha selber betreffen, so wie als in Bezug auf das Ideal des Bodhisatta, die Lehre der Schrifte, die Entwicklung der Dokträne und die Ehelosigkeit der Mönche und die Art der Zeremonie.

           Die Aehnlichkeiten zwischen den beiden Schulen des Buddhismus sind: Die vier edlen Wahrheiten, welche sich auf das menschliche Leiden beziehen, auf das Vergängliche und das Vorübergehende; the Anatta (nicht-ego) Lehre und die Lehre der Kausalkette, obwohl unterschiedlich interpretiert; der edle achtfache Pfad, als der Weg der Erlösung welcher eine moralische Disziplin beinhaltet sowohl als die Ausübung der Meditation, die Heilkraft von Metta, die Güte, sind grundlegend; die Akzeptanz von Buddha’s Lehren ist grundlegend für ihre Anwendung im Universum; und der Mittlere Weg zum Ziel des Nirvana, die höchste aller Glücklichkeit.

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အေကာင္းသံသရာႏွင္႔ အဆိုးသံသရာ

          ဓမၼတာအားၿဖင္႔ ၿမင္႔ၿမတ္သူတို႔ အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေသာ ႏုိင္ငံသည္ သာယာ၏။ ယုတ္ညံ႔သူတုိ႔အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေသာႏုိင္ငံသည္ မသာယာ။

             ေလာကၿဖစ္စဥ္တို႔သည္လည္းေကာင္း၊ ေလာကခ်ဳပ္စဥ္တို႔သည္လည္းေကာင္း ပဋိစၥ သမုပါဒ္ ေဒသနာေတာ္အရ စက္ဝိုင္းသဖြယ္ၿဖစ္ပါ၏။ ထုိ႔ေႀကာင္႔ တရားႏွင္႔ အညီ အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေသာဘုရင္မ်ား စိုးစံေသာအခါ ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္သည္ သာယာေအးခ်မ္း၏။

               
ေအးခ်မ္းသာယာေသာ ႏုိင္ငံေတာ္္၌ တရားႏွင္႔အညီ အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေသာ ဘုရင္မ်ားေပၚေပါက္၏။ ဤသည္မွာ အေကာင္း သံသရာ လည္ၿခင္းၿဖစ္၏။ အက်ဥ္းအားၿဖင္႔ဆိုရလွ်င္ ဘုရင္ေကာင္းလွ်င္ ႏုိင္ငံ ေကာင္း၏။ ႏိုင္ငံေကာင္းလွ်င္ ဘုရင္ေကာင္း၏။

             
ထိုနည္းအတူပင္ ဘုရင္ဆိုးလွ်င္ ႏုိင္ငံဆိုး၏ ႏိုင္ငံဆိုးလွ်င္ ဘုရင္ဆိုး၏။ ဤသည္မွာ အဆိုးသံသရာလည္ၿခင္းၿဖစ္၏။

             ဓမၼတာအားၿဖင္႔ ဘုရင္ဟူသည္ ႏိုင္ငံ၏ မိဘၿဖစ္၏။ မိဘဟူသည္ သားသၼီးမ်ားအေပၚ ၿဖဴစင္ၿမင္႔ၿမတ္ ေမတၱာကိုသာထားရမည္။ ထိုအခါ သားသၼီး မ်ားက မိဘမ်ားအေပၚရုိေသလာႀက၏။ ထိုသို႔ရိုေသလာၿခင္းသည္ ကုသုိလ္ၿဖစ္၏။ ကုသုိလ္ဟူက အၿပစ္မရွိၿခင္း ေကာင္းေသာ အက်ိဳးကုိေပးၿခင္း လကၡဏာ ရိွသည္သာ ၿဖစ္၏။ ထို႔ေႀကာင္႔ ကမၼနိယာမ အရ “ဘုရင္ေကာင္းလွ်င္ ႏုိင္ငံ ေကာင္း၏။ ႏိုင္ငံေကာင္းလွ်င္ ဘုရင္ေကာင္း၏” ဟူေသာ အေကာင္းသံသရာသည္လည္ရၿခင္းၿဖစ္၏။

            ဓမၼတာအားၿဖင္႔ပင္ ဘုရင္ဆိုးေသာအခါ ႏိုင္ငံသူႏိုင္ငံသားမ်ား သႏၱာန္၌ မိဘ သဖြယ္ၿဖစ္ေသာဘုရင္အေပၚ မႀကည္ညိဳၿခင္း၊ ၿပစ္မွာၿခင္းသည္ၿဖစ္၏။ မေလးစားၿခင္းသည္ၿဖစ္၏။ မႀကည္ညိဳၿခင္း၊ ၿပစ္မွားၿခင္း၊ မေလးစားၿခင္း ဟူသည္မွာ အကုသိုလ္ ၿဖစ္၏။ အကုသုိလ္ဟူက အၿပစ္ႏွင္႔တကြၿဖစ္ၿခင္း၊ မေကာင္းေသာ အက်ိဳးကုိေပးၿခင္း လကၡဏာရိွသည္သာၿဖစ္၏။ ထို႔ေႀကာင္႔  “ဘုရင္ဆိုးလွ်င္ ႏုိင္ငံဆိုး၏၊ ႏိုင္ငံဆိုးလွ်င္ ဘုရင္ဆိုး၏” ဟူေသာ အဆိုးသံသရာ လည္ရၿခင္းၿဖစ္၏။

          ဤသို႔လွ်င္ ႏိုင္ငံႏွင္႔ဘုရင္တို႔သည္ မိမိတုိ႔ ရင္ ၌ကိန္းေနႀကေသာ ကုသုိလ္ႏွင္႔ အကုသိုလ္တို႔၏  အက်ိဳးေပးနိယာမအရ အေကာင္းသံသရာ လည္း လည္ႏုိင္၏၊ အဆိုးသံသရာ လည္း လည္ႏိုင္၏။

      ဗုဒၶ၊ 

ေလာကသားတို႕၏ အႏႈိင္းမဲ့ေက်းဇူးရွင္

                                           ( ဦးေရႊေအာင္)မွ ထုတ္ႏူတ္ေဖာ္ျပပါတယ္။ 
                                                        မွ်ေဝခံစားႏိုင္ႀကသၿဖင္႔ အသိဗဟုသုတမ်ား တိုးပြားႏုိင္ႀကပါေစ။

Speech By S N Goenka in U.N. Peace Summit

      Satya Narayan Goenka (born 1924) is a leading lay teacher of  Vipassana meditation and a student of  Sayagyi U Ba Khin. He has trained more than 800 assistant teachers and each year more than 100,000 people attend Goenka led Vipassana courses.

Love!

 

“အခ်စ္ အခ်စ္၊ ခ်စ္တိုင္းခ်စ္၍၊ ခ်စ္ေလခ်စ္ေလ၊ ခ်စ္မေၿပတည္း၊ ဆားငန္ေရေနာက္၊ ငတ္တိုင္းေသာက္က၊ ေသာက္ေလေသာက္ေလ၊ ငတ္မေၿပသုိ႔၊ ေပမအရာ၊ တဏွာဖြဲ႔ရစ္၊ ထိုအခ်စ္လည္း၊ အၿပစ္မၿမင္၊ မဆင္ၿခင္ဘဲ၊ ခ်စ္လွ်င္ေပ်ာ္ႏုိး၊ ခ်စ္စပ်ိဳးသည္၊ ခ်စ္ရိုး ခ်စ္စဥ္ ခ်စ္လမ္းတည္း။”

                                                                  (ေရွးပညာရွိပ်ိဳ႔)

“Love! Love! The more they love, the more they are insatiate, just as they cannot quench their thirst by drinking salty water. Love, pema or tanha, turns a blind eye to one’s defects; expecting happiness through love, one nurtures loves. This is the way of love, the nature of love”

                                                                  (An ancient Burmese poem.)

Venerable Ashin Virathus’ thoughts about U Gambira

The famous monk Ashin Virathu, who was released from prison in Mandalay in January 2012 after spending nine years in prison, recently published an article with his thoughts about Ashin Gambira with whom he made contact during their time together at Obu prison.

Venerable Ashin Virathu is a well respected lecturer at Masoe Monastery with over 3.000 monks living there. He was first threatened with arrest when in 1998/1999 he published a book criticizing monks for working together with the military regime. Between 2001/03 the authorities created a conflict between Buddhist monks and Moslems in Virathus’ home town. Ashin Virathus’ senior teacher was accused, arrested and sentenced to 27 years in jail. Ashin Virathu was arrested shortly after that during a visit with his teacher in prison. He was released on the same day as U Gambira during a general amnesty in January 2012.

Ashin Virathus’ article (Part I):

Since I came back to the human world (was released from prison) two monks have disrobed. Both are well known. One is well known in the political field, the other one was well known among the monks at Masoe Monastery. The names of these two monks are U Gambira and U Einda Seriya Bhivamsa.

Football talk and Gambira honey
I have never met U Gambira in person. But I had contact with him in Obu prison. I was already in prison before him. When I heard a new monk arrived, I introduced myself. I sent him a note that I support the fellow monks who are arrested and incarcerated and I received a reply letter from him.
In 2002, before my arrest, I had given a Dhamma talk in Rangoon (football talk refers to the Dhamma talk). At that time the young monk U Gambira had just advanced for the Buddhist examination (just before the stage of Dhamma teacher). He filmed my speech with a camera, I didn’t know who he was at that time.
Now in prison in addition to his letter I received a bottle of honey. My student brought me this honey calling it “Gambira honey” because U Gambira had donated this honey to me. This bottle of “Gambira honey” never got empty. Whenever the honey was near to finish I added new honey to the old one. That is why the “Gambira honey” always stayed with me.
U Gambira was well respected by many people in prison.
Does U Gambira have a mental problem caused by the mistreatment of the military intelligence?
In his letter Ashin Gambira told me he had disrobed because of money. He told me he was not a monk anymore. Everyone who read his letter thought that this letter was strange. When I analyzed his situation – I heard he has been tortured by military intelligence, his age was too young and the difficulties have been too big – I think that might be the reason for his mental problem.
The one who was angry all the time
I suggested to Ashin Gambira to meditate. But he told me he had never meditated before and he asked me if I had any books about meditation. I sent books with the subject of meditation to him. I thought his age was very young, his experience very little, his determination was strong but his mental training very week. For this reason he was angry all the time. I heard very often about him.
He was fighting alone
A little bit later I heard that U Gambira had started a hunger strike. He demanded from the military regime to free Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners. His determination was very high. When the prison authorities gave food to him he refused to eat. That happened to him in prison. The prison guards watched him all the time. I heard he did not even drink water. He ate nothing and didn’t drink water for three days.
He was still healthy at that time, he was still demanding, still active.
Am I to be blamed?
As soon as I got the information about his hunger strike I spread the information to Shwe Maung. It was a lucky coincidence that U Gambiras’ family stayed at that time at Shwe Maungs’ house. When U Gambiras’ mother heard about his activities in prison she spread the information to the media. U Gambiras’ demand was very worthy but the government did not seem to react to his demand at all. That’s why I thought he is demanding the impossible and tried to arrange a meeting with the authorities and asked them to allow me to meet with U Gambira. I told them if I could meet with him I would try to encourage him to eat and drink again.
I don’t know if it is a coincidence or not, but the next day I heard U Gambira was transferred to another prison.
I have never met him personally and never agreed with the ideas
Later a variety of news arrived about U Gambira. I heard he was transferred to Kanthi prison and then Kalay prison again. I heard many stories about him during his time in Kalay prison. On 13th January of 2012 we both returned to the human world (were released from prison).
Later U Gambira asked for my phone number but so far we never have spoken on the telephone. Then I heard news about his activities in Rangoon. I heard he was arrested again. I saw U Gambira on DVB arguing with the authorities in anger. I could not agree with him in that case. Not only could I not agree, I thought this kind of behavior is a bad reputation for us monks. People from inside and outside the country asked me about my opinion about it. So I gave out a statement with my point of view on U Gambiras’ behavior. I received many comments to this statement, some negative, some positive. It was very exciting. The next day I received a message from somebody. I think it was from USDP with a link to Myanmar Express website. It siad U Gambira had changed his clothes, he had broken his head, some comments were very rude.
Finally I heard that U Gambira disrobed, he had returned to lay life because he is not very well. I think that his mental health is really not very well. In the political world and throughout the international world Ashin Gambira was a well known monk. He has now disrobed, returned to lay life.

From Aung San Suu Kyi

 

“If you're feeling helpless, help someone.”

…………………………………………..

“The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear”

…………………………………….

“You should never let your fears prevent you from doing what you know is right.”

……………………………………………………………………

“Fear is a habit; I am not afraid.”

……………………………………

“To view the opposition as dangerous is to misunderstand the basic concepts of democracy. To oppress the opposition is to assault the very foundation of democracy.”

…………………………………………………………….

“I don't believe in people just hoping. We work for what we want. I always say that one has no right to hope without endeavor, so we work to try and bring about the situation that is necessary for the country, and we are confident that we will get to the negotiation table at one time or another.”

………………………………………………………….

“The struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma is a struggle for life and dignity. It is a struggle that encompasses our political, social and economic aspirations.”

………………………………………………………….

“There is too much violence already in our world and we’ve got to try to do something about this.

 Are we not educated enough? Are we not intelligent enough, as a human race, to find solutions which are not violent? We should be able to do this. This should be part of our education.”

…………………………………………….

“Very small things make me happy. I’ve learnt to be happy with small things, such as for example the ability to be able to go to bed early one day. I think myself “Ha, I am going to bed early today.” And that’s make me happy. I think this is one of the things we have to learn if we live the kind of life that I do. You have to learn to be happy with little things and to treasure them as part of life.”

……………………………………………………

“I only think that challenges are interesting and they are there to help you to become a stronger person.”

……………………………………..

“But if you don’t know why you are doing what you are doing, then you cannot be effective. It’s a matter not just of faith but also of thought. You have to think out your philosophy and you have got to think out your tactics and strategies very carefully.

……………………………………………….

“I was born a Buddhist but I don’t think we are born good with this. I think we have to work at it. Buddhism like any other really good educational process is all about learning to know yourself, what you are as a human being and what you are capable of as a human being and that helps a great deal.

Life is a series of test!

 Life is a series of tests. Difficulties are tests. We are in school now. Our whole life is a school. From the time we were born until we die, we are in school.

This is an informal school. There is no classroom. Everything we see, everything we hear, everything we smell, everything we feel, all happiness and all suffering, every problem, every achievement, every success and every failure is a lesson. When we have success, this is a test. It is testing how humble we can when we are successful. Most of us become very proud and conceited: "Oh! I am a success. Other people are failures." So we don't treat people with respect anymore. We become conceited and arrogant.

 In the same way, failure is a test. How equanimous can you be? How can you keep your balance and not feel depressed, inferior, or unhappy about not succeeding. Also it is a test to find out whether you will try again.

From the time we were born until we die, we are in school. It is true!

Yes, we are here to take lessons, and if we can't master the entire lesson, we will have to come back to take the same lessons in our next life.

You fail, you try again. You have another failure and try again. So it is a test to see whether you have the kind of maturity, courage and trust in yourself and trust in life, to see whether you will try again and again. We need to trust ourselves and trust in life.

Life is a series of tests, but you will know when you pass the test; you will be able to look back on them as good experiences! When you are facing difficult situations, often you will think: "Oh! How unfortunate I am. What have I done to deserve this difficulty, this pain?" You complain about your kamma , your parents, your husband or wife, or your government. You complain louder and longer. The more you complain the more it shows that you are failing the test. This is a test for your maturity, your endurance, you equanimity, and wisdom. Whenever you face a difficult situation, remind yourself: "This is a test. This is a challenge. I must learn something from this experience and become more mature."

Everything in this world has a hidden meaning. Because we see only superficially we do not see the underlying meaning of what happens and so things become meaningless. Many people ask me: "What's the meaning of life?" How can I answer that question? It depends on how mature you are. It depends on how much meaning you put into your life. Don't ask what life means. First ask yourself what meaning you put into your life. We ourselves have to give life meaning. Don't ask others for its meaning. Give your own meaning to your experiences. This is very important.

Whether we have good or bad experiences, it is very important for us to look deeply and find out: "What does this mean for me?" Not for other people. Often we want to find a meaning for everybody and sometimes others do not agree with this meaning. So don't ask whether anybody else will agree with your meaning, just ask yourself.

Sometimes I have done things that are very meaningful for me. However most of my friends said: "This is meaningless. Why are you doing this? You are crazy." If I had believed them, I would have lost my meaning.

You may have different values from your family and friends and they may criticize you or make fun of you. However everybody who walks on this spiritual path may face the difficulty of being understood. You need to have trust in yourself: "I know what I am doing and I know what it means to me. If it doesn't mean anything or make sense to others, it is not my problem."

We went to school, we studied and we sat for exams. We passed our exams and we went to a higher standard and this is the way with our lives as well. Every time we pass a test we learn, we grow. We grow up, not so much grow old. Some people grow old but they don't grow up. Some people although they are not very old are already grown up. Growing up doesn't depend on the number of years you have lived. Growing up depends on how much you have learnt from your experiences, from your life, not from books, not from other people but from your life. One of the joys of living is, knowing that you are growing up; each day you are growing up.
      A Collection From Sayadaw U Jotika's Dhamma Talk.

“လူပ်ံေတာ္မ်ားကို ႀကဳိဆိုၾက” အပိုင္း(၁)

                   ဝီရသူ(မစိုးရိမ္)
          စာေရးသူ လူ႔ျပည္ျပန္ေရာက္မွ နာမည္ေက်ာ္ ရဟန္းပ်ဳိမ်ား လူပ်ံေတာ္ဘဝသို႔ ကူးေျပာင္းသြားသည္မွာ ႏွစ္ပါးပင္ ရွိေလၿပီ။ ႏွစ္ပါစလုံး ထင္ရွားေက်ာ္ၾကားသူမ်ားပင္ ျဖစ္ေပသည္။ တစ္ပါးက ႏိုင္ငံေရးနယ္ပယ္မွာ ထင္ရွားသူျဖစ္ၿပီး၊ က်န္တစ္ပါး မွာ သာသနာေလာက၌ ထင္ရွားသူ ျဖစ္ေလသည္။ ႏိုင္ငံေက်ာ္ ကမၻာေက်ာ္ ဆရာေတာ္ေလးမ်ား ျဖစ္ၾက၏။
          တစ္ပါးကား- ဦးဂမၻီရ ျဖစ္ၿပီး၊ တစ္ပါးမွာ ဦးဣႏၵာစရိယာဘိဝံသ(မစိုးရိမ္စာသင္သား) ျဖစ္ေပသည္။

                                     “ေဘာလုံးပဲြတရားႏွင့္ ဂမၻီရပ်ားရည္”
          ဦးဂမၻီရႏွင့္ လူခ်င္းမေတြ႕ဆုံးဖူးေသာ္လည္း အိုးဘိုမွာေနရစဥ္တြင္ အဆက္အသြယ္ရွိခဲ့ေပသည္။ မိမိက ေရွးဦးစြာ ေရာက္ႏွင့္ေနေသာ ေက်ာင္းသားေဟာင္းႀကီး ျဖစ္ေသာေၾကာင့္ သတင္းၾကားသည္ႏွင့္ လွမ္း၍ဆက္သြယ္ကာ မိတ္ဆက္စာေပး၍ အားေပးစကား ေျပာခဲ့ဖူး၏။ အေၾကာ္အေလွာ္မ်ားလည္း လွဴလုိက္ပါ၏။
          ဦးဂမၻီရထံမွ ျပန္စာရခဲ့ပါ၏။ ၂၀၀၂-အင္းစိန္ရြာမမွာ “အၿမဲ႐ႈံးေနေသာ ေဘာလုံးပြဲ” ေဟာစဥ္က သူဟာအႀကီးတန္း သင္တန္းသားအျဖစ္ တရားနာခဲ့ရေၾကာင္း၊ ဓာတ္ပုံကင္မရာျဖင့္ မွတ္တမ္းတင္သည့္ ဦးဇင္းတစ္ပါးမွာ သူသာျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း၊ ပါဝင္ေလ၏။

          စာႏွင့္အတူ ပ်ားရည္တစ္ဘူးလည္း ပါလာေလသည္။ တပည့္လည္းျဖစ္၊ ကပၸိယလည္းျဖစ္သူ အတူေန ေမာင္ေၾကး ႐ုပ္ကား “ဂမ႓ီရပ်ားရည္”ဟု အမည္ေပးေလသည္။ ဦးဂမ႓ီရ လွဴလိုက္ေသာပ်ားရည္ ျဖစ္ေသာေၾကာင့္ ထိုကဲ့သို႔ နာမည္ေပးျခင္း ျဖစ္၏။ “ဂမ႓ီရပ်ားရည္” ေလ်ာ႔သြားလ်င္ တစ္ျခားပ်ားရည္ႏွင့္ ေရာကာ “ပြား”ထားျပန္၏။ ညေနတုိင္း ဆရာေတာ္ “ဂမ႓ီရပ်ားရည္” ဘုရားဟု ဆိုကာ ကပ္ရွာေလေတာ့၏။ ဦးဂမ႓ီရကို ထိုသို႔ပင္ ေလးစားၾကည္ညဳိၾကေလသည္။
                                      “စအဖေၾကာင့္ စိတၱဇျဖစ္ခဲ့ရေလသေလာ”
ဆက္လက္၍ ၎စာထဲ၌ ေငြေၾကးကိစၥမ်ားေၾကာင့္ သိကၡာခ်ထားခဲ့ရေၾကာင္း၊ ရဟန္းတစ္ပါး မဟုတ္ေတာ့ေၾကာင္း လည္း ပါဝင္ေလသည္။
          သူ႔စာဖတ္ရသူတိုင္းက “စိတ္ပုံမွန္ မရွိေတာ့ေၾကာင္း” ေကာက္ခ်က္ခ်ၾက၏။ ဆက္လက္စုံစမ္းၾကည့္ရာ စစ္ေၾကာေရး ကာလမွာ‘စအဖ’၏ ညႇင္းပန္းႏွိပ္စက္မႈကို အလူးအလဲ ခံခဲ့ရေၾကာင္း၊ အသက္က ငယ္ငယ္၊ ေလာကဓံကႀကီးႀကီး ျဖစ္ေနေသာေၾကာင့္ လည္းေကာင္း၊ တစ္ပါးတည္းေနရသည့္ ေန႔ရက္မ်ားကို ျဖတ္သန္းရခက္ခဲေသာေၾကာင့္လည္းေကာင္း စိတ္က်န္းမာေရး မေကာင္းေတာ့ဟု သိရျပန္ပါသည္။
                                                “တစ္ေယာက္တည္း ေပါက္ကဲြေနတဲ့သူ”
          စာေရးသူက တရားအားထုတ္ဖို႔ ဆႏၵျပဳလိုက္၏။ တရားအားမထုတ္ဖူးေၾကာင္းႏွင့္ အလုပ္ေပးတရား စာအုပ္မ်ားရွိက ပို႔ေပးပါရန္ စာျပန္သျဖင့္ မဟာစည္ဆရာေတာ္ႀကီး၏ “ဝိပႆနာ႐ႈနည္းက်မ္း” စာအုပ္ေလးကို ပို႔ေပးလိုက္၏။
          အသက္ကငယ္ငယ္၊ အေတြ႕အႀကဳံကႏုႏု၊ စိတ္ဓာတ္ကျပင္းျပင္း၊ သမာဓိအလုပ္ကနည္းနည္း ျဖစ္ေန၍ အၿမဲတမ္း တစ္ေယာက္တည္း ေပါက္ကြဲေနပုံ ရေလသည္။ မၾကာခဏ သူ႔အေၾကာင္းသာ ၾကားေနရေလ၏။
                                                “တစ္ကိုယ္ေတာ္တုိက္ပဲြ သူဆင္ႏြဲ”
          သိပ္မၾကာလိုက္ပါ။ ဦးဂမၻီရ အစာငတ္ခံ ဆႏၵျပသံ ၾကားရပါေတာ့၏။ “ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ လြတ္ေျမာက္ေရး ဒို႔အေရး” ေအာ္သည္။ “ႏုိင္ငံေရးအက်ဥ္းသားမ်ား လြတ္ေျမာက္ေရး ဒို႔အေရး”လည္း ေၾကြးေၾကာ္သည္။ တစ္ျခား ႏုိင္ငံေရးႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္သမွ်လည္း ေအာ္ဟစ္ေတာင္းဆိုသည္ဟု ၾကားရ၏။
          ယုံၾကည္ခ်က္က ျမင့္မား၊ ခံယူခ်က္က ျပင္းထန္လြန္း၍ ထင္သည္။ ေထာင္ကေခ်ာ့ေမာ့၍ ေကၽြးသည္ကိုပင္ လုံးဝမစား၊ ေထာင္မွဴးကိုယ္တိုင္ ခ်က္ျပဳတ္ျပင္ဆင္ၿပီး ေကၽြးသည္ကိုလည္း တို႔ထိ၍ပင္ မၾကည့္ေပ။ ေန႔ေရာညပါ ဝန္ထမ္းမ်ား အလွည့္က် စနစ္ျဖင့္ ေစာင့္ၾကပ္အိပ္ၾကရ၏။ တစ္ဆင့္ ၾကားသိရသည္မွာ ဦးဂမၻီရသည္ “ေရလည္း လုံးဝမေသာက္”ဟု ဆို၏။ အစားမစား ေရမေသာက္ဘဲ သုံးရက္တိတိေနေသာ္လည္း က်န္းမာေရးက ေကာင္းေနဆဲ။ ေၾကြးေၾကာ္သံမ်ား ေအာ္ႏိုင္ဆဲ။ စိတ္အားတက္ၾကြ စြာ လက္သီးလက္ေမာင္း တန္းႏိုင္ဆဲပင္ ရွိေနေသး၏။
                                              “မိမိပေယာဂမွ ကင္းပါ့မည္ေလာ”
          မိမိသည္- သတင္းရလွ်င္ ရခ်င္း၊ ေရႊေမာင္အိမ္သို႔ သတင္းပို႔လိုက္၏။ ကံေကာင္းသည္ဟု ဆိုရမည္ေလာ မသိ။ ေရႊေမာင္အိမ္၌ ဦးဂမၻီရ၏ မိသားစုေရာက္ေနေလသည္။ ညေရာက္သည့္အခါ မယ္ေတာ္ေဒၚေရးက ေဆာ္ေၾကြးေလေတာ့၏။ ဦးဂမၻီရ၏ ေတာင္းဆိုမႈက ျမင့္မားလြန္းေန၍ အစိုးရက လိုက္ေလ်ာမည့္ပုံ လုံးဝမရွိသည္ကုိ ေတြ႕ရ၏။ မျဖစ္ႏိုင္သည္ကို ေတာင္းဆိုရင္း အသက္တစ္ခု အဆုံး႐ႈံးမခံႏုိင္ေသာေၾကာင့္ တိုက္႐ုံးသို႔သြားကာ အရာရွိႏွင့္ ေတြ႔ဆုံလိုက္၏။ “ဦးဂမၻီရႏွင့္ ေတြ႕ခြင့္ေပးပါ၊ အစာျပန္စားေအာင္ ေျပာေပးပါ့မယ္”ဟု တင္ျပခဲ့၏။ မိမိက ညေနအခ်ိန္မွာ ေတာင္းဆိုခဲ့ျခင္းျဖစ္၏။ တိုက္ဆိုင္သည္ေလာ မေျပာတတ္ ေနာက္တစ္ေန႔မနက္ ေထာင္ဖြင့္သည္ႏွင့္ ‘ဦးဂမၻီရ ေထာင္ေျပာင္းသြားေၾကာင္း’ သိလိုက္ရေပေတာ့၏။
                                                “လူခ်င္းမဆုံသလို မူခ်င္းလည္း မဆုံႏုိင္ေတာ့ၿပီ”
          ၎ေနာက္ သူ႔သတင္းေတြက အေတာ္စုံသည္။ ခႏၱီးေထာင္ေရာက္သြားၿပီဟု လည္းေကာင္း၊ ကေလးေထာင္ေျပာင္းရ ျပန္ၿပီ ဟူ၍လည္းေကာင္း၊ ကေလးေထာင္မွာ ဘာသံၾကားရျပန္သည္ ဟူ၍လည္းေကာင္း၊ စုံ၍စုံ၍ ေနေပေတာ့၏။
          ဤသို႔ျဖင့္ 13.1.2012-ရက္ေန႔တြင္ မိမိတို႔ လူ႔ျပည္သို႔ အတူျပန္ေရာက္ၾက၏။ ထို႔ေနာက္ မ်ားမၾကာမီ ဦးဂမၻီရက ဖုန္းနံပါတ္ေမးခိုင္း၍ ဟုဆိုကာ ေမးလာၾက၏။ သို႔ေသာ္ ယခုခ်ိန္ထိ တစ္ခါမွ် မဆက္သြယ္ခဲ့ပါ။
          ခ်ိပ္ခြါ သတင္းေတြၾကားရသည္။ ကမၻာေအး သတင္းေတြၾကားရသည္။ ျပန္ေခၚျပန္ထိမ္း သတင္းေတြ ၾကားရသည္။ DVB-ထဲမွာလည္း ႐ုပ္သံ ျမင္ၾကားရျပန္၏။ မဂၢင္ေက်ာင္းကိစၥ ေဒါႏွင့္ေမာႏွင့္ ေျပာဆိုေနပုံမ်ား ျဖစ္၏။
          စာေရးသူႏွင့္ အျမင္ခ်င္း မတူ႐ုံတင္ မဟုတ္ေတာ့ဘဲ သူ႔လုပ္ရပ္ေၾကာင့္ “ကမၻာေအးဆရာေတာ္ႀကီးမ်ားႏွင့္ ျပည္သူလူထု၊ သံဃာထုတို႔ အကုသိုလ္တုိးပြား အျပစ္ဆိုးဝါးလာမည့္ အေရးကို ေတြးပူေနခ်ိန္တြင္” ျပည္တြင္းျပည္ပမွ ဦးဂမၻီရလုပ္ရပ္အေပၚ ဝီရသူ၏ သေဘာထားကို မၾကာခဏ ေမးျမန္းလာၾကသျဖင့္ “ဝီရသူ သေဘာထား” ထုတ္ျပန္ကာ ေထာက္ခံထိုက္သည့္ အခ်က္ကို ေထာက္ခံ၍၊ ႐ႈက္ခ်ထိုက္သည့္ အခ်က္ကို ႐ႈတ္ခ်ခဲ့ေပသည္။ ထုိအခါ စာေရးသူအားလည္း ေထာက္ခံၾက၊ ႐ႈတ္ခ်ၾကႏွင့္ ေကာင္းကင္ တိုက္ပြဲ ဆင္ႏြဲမိလ်က္သား ျဖစ္ေနၾက၏။ ေပ်ာ္စရာလည္း ေကာင္းသည္ပင္။
          တစ္ေန႔ စာေရးသူ-အင္တာနက္ အသုံးျပဳေနစဥ္ ဒကာတစ္ဦးက မက္ေဆ့ခ်္ ပို႔လာ၏။ ျပည္ခိုင္ၿဖိဳးမွ ျဖစ္မည္ထင္သည္။ Myanmar Express.ဆိုဒ္ပါ ဦးဂမ႓ီရသတင္း ျဖစ္၏။ သကၤန္းလဲပုံ- ေခါင္းကြဲပုံမ်ား စုံလင္ေလသည္။ comment.ေပးထားသူမ်ားမွ တစ္ခ်ဳိ႕စာမ်ားမွာ လြန္စြာၾကမ္းတမ္း ႐ုိင္းပ်သည္ကို ေတြ႕ရေပသည္။
          ေနာက္ဆုံး၌ ဦးဂမ႓ီရ လူဝတ္လဲသည့္ သတင္းၾကားရ၏။ က်န္းမာေရးမေကာင္းေသာေၾကာင့္ဟု သိရ၏။ စိတ္က်န္း မာေရးကို ဆုိလိုပုံရ၏။ ႏိုင္ငံေရးေလာက၌ ျမန္မာမွာသာမက ကမ႓ာမွာပါ ထင္ရွားေက်ာ္ၾကားသည့္ ႏိုင္င့ံသားေကာင္းတစ္ပါး (ရဟန္းဘဝမွ လူ႔ဘဝသို႔) ဘဝေျပာင္းသြားခဲ့ေပၿပီတကား။

Happiness!

          

 Life is struggle. The struggle to make money, to feel comfortable and luxury. Whatever we do, we do essentially for happiness. Even in Religion, we do for happiness. Do we get it?
Some people think that a partner, a good congenial partner, may be a source of happiness, and it may be temporary sources of happiness, but not the real sources of happiness. When we are separated for some reason or other, as sooner or later we will be, we feel unhappy. Do we really understand that the outside sources are not the real sources of happiness; the main thing is the mind? Do we really understand only the mind which is controlled and cultured is the real source of happiness? Are we ready to train our mind? How much are we generous with our time to train our mind?
We should try to learn to be contented and happy with what we have. Here I would like to share a short story:

A certain oriental king who was very unhappy sought the advice of a philosopher. The philosopher advised the king to search for the most happy and contented man in his kingdom and to wear his shirt. After a long search the king finally found the man, but he had no shirt!

“The Pen is sharper than the Sword” – Martin Kovan interviews Ashin Kovida and Ashin Issariya

“The Pen is Sharper than the Sword” Interview with Ashin Issariya (aka King Zero) and Ashin Kovida, 14th March, 2011 The Best Friend Library, Mae Sot
by Martin Kovan
 

Ashin Issariya, also known by the pen-name King Zero, was one of the central architects and organizers of the 2007 Saffron Revolution, and continues his educational, political and social-welfare work in exile in Mae Sot, Thailand, via The Best Friend Library with branches which he founded inside and outside Burma. His colleague Ashin Kovida also coordinates the Library and educates the local and global audience about the ongoing Buddhist non-violent resistance movement inside and outside Burma. Martin Kovan is a writer and scholar of Buddhism currently living and working as an educator in Mae Sot.


Martin Kovan: Today I’d like to discuss if possible the work of the Best Friend Library, and yourself Ashin Issariya, also known as King Zero, and Ashin Kovida. So thank you both very much for taking the time to speak with me today.
I was reading one of your articles from October 1st 2009, where you said King Zero, that “we have to push together, we have to put pressure on this regime because it also endangers world peace.” I’m very interested in what you mean by putting ‘pressure’ in 2011, as opposed to ‘pressure’ in the past. I’m wondering whether you think about that differently now, than you did four years ago. Also, would you consider such pressure as the only or best means of achieving reconciliation with the regime?
Ashin KOVIDA: For us, ‘pressure’ is, for example, to put sanctions on the military junta, or an arms embargo, because they still do not respect human rights. Of course, economic sanctions, an arms embargo alone, is not enough to bring a change in Burma. Reconciliation is important, an engagement policy as well. And we have to practice an engagement policy from two sides: not only engage with the military junta, but also engage with the opposition groups, like Aung San Suu Kyi and the ethnic groups. We have to listen to different points of view, then decide. Sanctions alone is not enough.
MK: As representatives specifically of the Buddhist sangha, you support sanctions and embargoes, but what can you do as the leaders of the sangha movement to exert your own kind of pressure?
AK: What we can do ourselves is boycott the junta as well, like cutting communications. But this does not mean we do not speak with them totally, rather to show ‘we do not like your actions.’ But when they are ready to listen to us, then the monks are ready to give advice according to the Buddha’s teaching.
MK: Does ‘pressure’ then also imply another major popular demonstration? In 2007 initially it was fuel prices, people couldn’t for example catch the bus anymore, couldn’t afford it, so the monks came out and said ‘please consider changing this policy.’ Do you mean a similar pragmatic kind of action now, or something else perhaps?
AK: It’s very difficult to predict for the future, because even last time in 2007, I think King Zero knows, this was not the monk’s will, this was the will of the people. According to the will of the people, the monks had to come on the street.
MK: Would it be true to say, King Zero, that the people really depend on the monks, and then they follow them?
King ZERO (Ashin Issariya): The people, even though they’re poor, they support the monks. At the time our monks also thought how to bring change to the people, we could not find a way to change our country’s system, the poor were getting poorer and poorer day by day. So we thought: which way is best for our sangha, our monks. The Buddhist way is to send loving-kindness to all the people, so we chose that way, then we chose to walk on the street. We were using only the non-violent way, to send loving-kindness, but the military beat and tortured us, a lot…and they never apologized. Then a lot of people followed our way, because the people are very respectful of the monks.
MK: Yes. Do many lay-people, particularly less-educated people in Burma, need the sangha, still now, to provide the moral leadership?
AK: Of course, they rely on anybody who can lead, to bring change for the better in Burma. We have a saying in Burma that “three sons are the most important”: they are the Kyaung Thar, the students, the Sit Thar, or soldiers, and the Phaya Thar, the monks. And at the moment I think the monk’s community is stronger than any other opposition group in Burma. The student communities are not strong enough anymore, the universities are isolated in the jungle, separately, so they cannot be united because even their teachers ensure the students are not involved in politics. Fortunately the monks are living unified in monasteries, so in that case the monks together are stronger than the other groups.
MK: Including the recently-formed political opposition parties, let alone for example the NLD, but also the NDF, and a number of democratic student parties who tried to contest the election in November? You’re saying that also these parties don’t carry the popular authority or leadership that the people need?

AK: I think the NLD maintains a strong leadership for the people, even though they are not a registered party anymore. However, the other smaller opposition parties don’t have so many followers I think. But when the monks encourage and advise the people, I believe the people would be ready to follow, because they trust in them.


MK: o in fact the people need the monks, they are indispensable?
AK: Yes, they can’t do without the monks. But I want to add: monks cannot act alone as well.
MK: King Zero, you’ve also indicated that “a bigger revolution, a bigger movement” lies still in the future. Do you feel that such a demonstration of popular opposition against the regime is finally the most effective or powerful form of opposition or reconciliation with them?

KZ: After the Saffron Revolution a lot of monks, and lay-people, are now ready to participate in a bigger movement. Even before the Saffron Revolution, when we discussed politics with the monks, they were very afraid to join us. But after 2007 everyone was ready to join us. They said to me ‘Ok, please tell me how to participate in your way, please share your knowledge, I will share it also.’ Because there were also arrests and torture of the monks, the people also saw this directly, and this was important because it made the reality very clear. So we thought if we can start the movement again, it will be a bigger revolution, because we and the people are more ready than before.
AK: The 2008 constitution was made in response to 2007, the election of 2011 was also a result of the Saffron Revolution. Of course we couldn’t replace the dictatorship with democracy, but we believe the people are now ready to successfully do this. It would take different form, we are not sure what kind of form it would be.
MK: So do you mean in a bigger version of the same action of 2007, or a different kind of action? You said that many monks were tortured and put in jail, many disappeared, so wouldn’t many sangha but also lay-people today be more afraid of another, bigger revolution?
KZ: We don’t know whether it would be the same as the Saffron Revolution, or not. At this time however the NLD party is stronger than before. In 2007 Aung San Suu Kyi, U Tin U and U Win Tin also were all under arrest, so they could not lead the movement. Now our leaders are ready. So now all our country’s people can participate in the movement under their leadership.
MK: So speaking concretely, a popular movement in the same sort of form as we see recently in Egypt or Tunisia, for example. I ask the question because, increasingly for example, the Internet is being used not just as a tool for communication, but actually as a method for cutting power, as we see with Wikileaks, or online activists hacking into major corporations or banks to disable power-bases in a globalised economy or governmental power-structure. You have ‘hacktivists’ who prevent certain organizations from receiving monies for example. So I’m wondering if you think also in these terms, in terms of an internet revolution, anonymous, a less centralized, or maybe less ‘obvious’ revolution.
AK: That’s why I think Aung San Suu Kyi also asked the people to build more networks, in the 21st century, this IT network is very effective to oppose dictatorship. So strategy can be different from 2007 as well, because we cannot have one method, it depends on the situation, we have to play it by ear. The most important thing is that we really must have a will to build a network, not only inside the country but outside of the country as well. When we have a strong network, sharing information between our friends and organisations, the stronger we are the closer is our goal.
MK: You would agree King Zero?
KZ: Yes, I agree. We try now to connect the inside and outside, because a lot of monks are attaining university education and receiving ideas, in Bangkok and other countries. But the connection before has been no good, so I am trying to connect them inside and outside, as well as with the people.
MK: What other forms of non-violent opposition apart from mass-demonstration, and the Buddhist alm’s-boycott (pattanikujjana) do you think could be considered especially in the current post-election period of early 2011?
AK: All kinds of actions are effective. I think if we can take more actions, especially non-violent action, in the media, or whatever, so for example, for everyone to spend just one hour per week, or even ten minutes per week, for everyone to stay inside to show our solidarity against the junta, this would be a strong and very effective action to bring them to the table. If we can organize the whole country in that way, there’s no choice for the military junta but to negotiate.
MK: When you say ‘the whole country’, say for example you had hypothetically 10,000 people, ready, what would you have those people do, as a non-violent action?
AK: If there was 10,000 people, personally, we are going to march. But I don’t want to decide, because we have to ask all those 10,000 people if they agree, then I’ll march on the street and ask the military junta in a non-violent way to negotiate with the representatives of ethnic nationality, and the NDL, elected in 1990. And of course we are not going to kick the military out, they can also take a part.
MK: That’s still quite political, in a sense, based on negotiation. I’m taking the devil’s advocate role now, being very hard and realistic, to suggest that maybe, given previous experience, the government simply will never negotiate, about anything. So are there things, perhaps more cultural actions, school and educational actions, that normal people could do under your leadership, that could, as we say, exert a kind of ‘pressure’? Or could be just, in themselves, already actions that say: ‘we are free.’ I’m thinking for example of how in Burma many children and young people love music, they’re always playing music, and some music is very political. But maybe you could have TV shows for example, that are not directly political, which the government accepts, but they’re introducing more and more social forms of resistance. For example, anti-military campaigns, ‘don’t join the army, there are other things you can do instead of the army.’
When I was in Burma I saw that many young people joined the army because their educational options were limited, they couldn’t study many things, or very easily. The universities are closed a lot of the time, there’s a lot of restrictions on available degree programs. So young men join the army. I could imagine younger people going to an anti-military weekend camp, or a peace-training group. Actions that are not about dialogue with the government, but just for the people, and their own lives, and non-violent. So when you talk about non-violent opposition, is it purely political, purely a mass-movement? Maybe there are other avenues?
AK: Purely political, I’ll say.
MK: But the government doesn’t listen.
AK: The 10,000 people, all these 10,000 people shouldn’t be from Yangon alone. They should be Karen, 1,000, Shan, 1,000, Kachin, 1,000, come, all from ethnic nationalities.
MK: But in 2007 how many did you have?
AK: A few millions, I’ll say. It was a different situation, a different environment as well. In Burma, we speak different languages, we don’t have strong media to give information to the ethnic areas. And the neighbor countries in ASEAN, China, India, even while the monks were walking in the street, expressing their loving-kindness, the foreign minister of India said that he works with the military junta. So they do not support a democratic movement. That’s why the military had a chance to keep in power.
MK: What interested me in the days after Aung San Suu Kyi was released, she often said we need to do more grass-roots work on the ground with the local people. See how we can help HIV/AIDS patients in voluntary treatment centres, education work and so on. And when I heard that the NLD is focusing on more social welfare work, just like you do here with refugee relocation and assistance programs for poor families, I had this idea that, because as you said everyone speaks their own languages, imagine if in every main township in Burma, of every area, in their own language, with their own songs, their own poems, they had like a Peace Corps, so to speak. A group of people committed to non-violent beneficial social action. A group of perhaps a hundred young people who were trying effectively to spread peace, metta or loving-kindness, to the local people. They’re not even really worrying about the government, but they’re trying to build long-term a culture of strong, peaceful, non-violent resistance. And then you have the whole country doing non-violent things, a generation growing up, in their minds, with non-violent resistance where the military is maybe not even in the picture.

AK: Non-violent for what? We must have a clear vision of what kind of activities we are doing. For example, non-violence is important because it’s the best way to bring a change without bloodshed, especially in a Buddhist country. Even when we are here, giving, sharing something, we must have clear reasons for why we are doing that. So for example when we do dhamma talk in prison, or anywhere, we must have a clear vision for why we are talking.
KZ: When we opened the Library in Myanmar, we talked to the people. We wanted to open all over the country, but we couldn’t because of the military junta. So we always taught the people, and explained to them that they could participate in our movement. So we walked two ways: the ‘overgound’ way was to open the Library and language school; the ‘underground’ way was to share political books, political CDs, meetings also. A lot of people participated more and more. Before they were very afraid to join, because when they were found with one political book, they could be arrested and receive thirty years or forty years prison. And then they could join the Library and participate more and more in our movement.
When I was giving a dhamma talk, I explained to them ‘now you are enslaved here. If we cannot change the system, our life will never change.’ Because as you know in our country most of the people think ‘because our former life was no good, now the present time is also no good’, but this is the wrong message. But the military always write this in their newspapers or play it on their TV stations. So I explained to them ‘forty years ago our country was richer than Thailand or Singapore – why? Because our country used the parliamentary democracy. Now, since 1962, they used military rule, and it is a bad system. And all the money was taken from you and put in their pocket,’ I explained to them. ‘Now, General Than Shwe has over 2 billion dollars, why? It is our money. We have to try to change our country’s system. This is our money, we need to take our money.’ Now, all the people are listening, they know more and more, so they understand. Understanding is very important. We have to explain always. But many media, and also some leaders, never explained to them, they were very afraid to. The leaders care a lot, but they can never meet with them. How to organize them? It is a major problem. Now I arrived here two years ago, I meet all the people. When they invite me, I always go there, talk to them.
MK: King Zero, you’ve said that the Buddhist alms-boycott (or pattanikujjana) of the corrupt elite of the regime and its business associates, since the violence of 2007, is ongoing. What kind of persecution occurs for monks who continue to do the alms-boycott in 2011?
KZ: Now 250 monks are in jail, or sent to the labour camp. They are tortured, beaten a lot. Also a lot of monks have “changed colour,” or become lay-people, a lot of monks are in hiding, a lot are in exile. Also our junior monks are not all in monasteries. Many senior monks are very afraid of the military regime, because they have been asked to identify which monks are working politically. Many old monks say to junior monks, ‘Ok, you shouldn’t work politically, you shouldn’t boycott. If you want to, you should go, you shouldn’t live in the monastery.’
MK: So in 2011, there is no pattanikujjana?
AK: It is still going on.
MK: Where?
AK: Inside the country.
KZ: When the military regime make offerings to the monks, some monks don’t want to accept that offering. But the regime spoke to them and says ‘Ok, if you don’t want to accept our offering, we close your monastery and send you to jail.’ Then some monks accept that offering, but later they throw it away, they never accept it.
MK: So that’s a half-pattanikijjana, a semi-pattanikujjana? They take the food and then throw it away – it’s not the full pattanikujjana!

Both: (laughing) Yes, true.
KZ: A lot of monks are still now very brave, so they never give up. And they also preach the Buddhist teaching, so very briefly they talk about politics also. But some monks are forbidden to talk dhamma.
MK: Before you said ‘we are ready for a bigger revolution, a bigger movement,’ but now you’re also saying that there’s also more fear. There’s more oppression and so more fear. So even though maybe there’s many people who still want to protest, will they?
AK: Sometimes I think revolutions come from fear, too, you know. When the people are oppressed more and more, like a spray, finally, when you press more, finally it comes up. Nobody wants to be in fear all the time. So they are really fed up, they are not happy under the military junta. That’s why it could be any time. This time, if the revolution comes, it will be bigger.
KZ: There are two ways. Junior monks are much stronger than the old monks. Now the junior monks are ready to participate, also they’re working in a politically, in the underground. Sometimes they come here, and we teach them, we share our experience. Also we are in contact with them on the phone, the internet. What they need we support them.
MK: That’s a good point, because my next question is about the underground, or “ugyi” movement inside Burma. Can you describe this movement in some more detail? You’ve spoken about education through e-mail, people coming here, going back to Burma. What else happens in the ugyi movement? Are there meetings, training seminars, how do people transfer information inside Burma?
KZ: With the underground, monks and students are working politically, they share political papers everywhere –
MK: That’s a big risk isn’t it if they get caught with materials on them?
AK: Yes, but nobody knows who wrote that paper.
MK: But say in a raid of a monastery, the MI comes in, or even a spy in the monastery, in robes, sees this, he knows it’s you, because he sees you reading it. This is dangerous, no?
AK: Yes, it’s dangerous, of course, but they can say, ‘Oh I don’t know what kind of letter is this, I just found it on this street. You can take it if you want, I’m not interested in it.’ Even if they are interested, if they are caught by spies or police they can say, ‘I just found it on the street, take it, it’s not for me. I don’t know who put it there – maybe you’. They can accuse them!
MK: They can – they can try. Do many monks have access to laptop computers, can they use them easily? Do they have much online access?
KZ: Very little. Sometimes the military regime, when they find out who is working politically, they take all the computers. I gave computers to monks, and the regime took them. Because inside it is very difficult to use them, to get the money to buy them. And online access is also very difficult.
MK: Yes, sometimes nothing at all.
KZ: Yes, right. And they always check which shop is OK, because sometimes the regime has opened that internet shop, so they check who works in there. In Myanmar we always asked which shop is OK.
MK: Are there any other aspects of the ugyi movement you would like to comment on? For example, if I was a monk in Myitkyina or somewhere remote, and I’m political, would I know through ugyi who is my leader, or my senior? I know for example in the Saffron Revolution many people said ‘Who’s King Zero?’ No-one knew who you were. It was only afterwards they found out. So would I know through ugyi who I can rely on as my leader?
AK: No, you cannot. In the ugyi, I think you cannot rely on someone in particular, you have to work with everybody. In a dictatorship, nobody believes anybody. So when we are in tea-shops or internet cafés or whatever, when we complain about the internet access for example, then you can start talking with someone, or just smile, or laugh. Then, you understand, and  keep talking, or complaining, step by step. ‘What about in other countries, really, I don’t think it’s so bad’ and so on, like that. In that way you can open a communication.
KZ: In Myanmar I wrote a lot of poems and articles, but I used a lot of pen-names, and sometimes one of my friends would read that paper or article, and I’d used another name, and I’d say show me, and they wouldn’t know it was me who wrote it.
MK: And you kept quiet.
KZ: Yes, I kept quiet. At the time the military regime could also find me easily. Sometimes I’d stick things on the wall, and my friend would show me, and I’d say ‘Who wrote that? What is it? Where does it come from?’ I’d ask them, but I never told them.
MK: A great story. Kovida, what you described though about the two people in the Internet shop talking, it sounds like it takes time, and if I was there I could listen and think what are they are talking about, especially if I’m a spy I could take notes. So couldn’t you use a code language, or have code-words, it would save time. Is this used in ugyi?
AK: Yes. From their phrases, the way they speak as well. It’s much easier I think, we understand eachother, but for the Westerner raised in free democratic countries, it’s difficult for them to understand. For example, when you talk about politics in a tea-shop, as soon as somebody who we don’t know comes, we definitely change the subject.
MK: King Zero, in an article from September 26, 2009, you’ve written that “there are two distinctly visible and different forces working for peace and stability in Burma.” Could you elaborate on these two forces and the relationship between them?
KZ: I connected with political people, with the NLD leaders and got a lot of political information, ideas and so on and could share with people at my Library. But they were also very afraid to join openly with me. So I opened the Library, and a language school, and this was a way of them having contact with me. And then later I could share with the NLD party and leaders, and I worked in that way, indirectly, in an underground way.
MK: So you’re saying basically that the two main visible forces are either political affiliation, like joining the NLD, and everyone openly knows. And secondly by an information network shared through the Library for example, which is not political, but it is cultural, socio-cultural, educational, and so on, in its effect. And then obviously you’ve got protest demonstrations. I was interested in the difference between the overground and underground. Because there’s political opposition, and then there’s more social or cultural opposition. And what seems to me to be the case in 2011, after the ‘election,’ is that maybe socio-cultural forms of opposition will be more effective, and have more access for the people, than purely political ones. So looking at the post-election environment, it has altered in some superficial ways since 2007. The regime has not improved, but its trade relations with ASEAN and other countries continue. The government is more consolidated, its doing more business than before. So what do you think is required for the resistance movement to now adapt to these political, economic and other changes?
AK: I think the military junta doesn’t change anything, but unfortunately some ASEAN countries and some countries in the West want to change their policy, they want to give credit to the junta’s elections. They think the election alone will bring a change in Burma. Or they’ll just look at their own interest. But in Burma genuinely, truly, it doesn’t change, no difference before and after the elections. I will say the situation in Burma is even worse.
MK: That is a change.
AK: Yes, that is a change, for the worse, not for the better.
MK: So how do you approach these changes, in terms of your policy or action?

AK: Our action is now we collect signatures, we try to speak with the representatives of the government, internationally, as much as we can, with more diplomatic contact. We want to explain why the sanctions are still needed in Burma, because the military, even nowadays, recently, they declared they use the national budget for the military junta. This is a really big amount, when you compare what they use for education or healthcare. They do not really open to everybody in Burma, only the crony friends of the junta are allowed to work internationally. That’s why when the international community invest in Burma, all the monies go into the pockets of the generals directly. So that’s why I don’t want the international community to support the junta to oppress their own people.
MK: So your response is to continue with reminding and persuading the international community to keep the sanctions in place, because in some cases they almost decided to remove the sanctions.
AK: Yes, and then keep going, asking the junta to respect human rights and release all political prisoners.
MK: Having spoken about international solidarity, will you be seeking greater solidarity and support from other S-E Asian Buddhist sangha, in particular, especially in Thailand, to support a trans-Buddhist resistance movement? Maybe this is a question to you more as Buddhists, as religious leaders or representatives of the buddhadhamma?

AK: I believe personally the Buddha taught dhamma which is a universal, literal truth and justice. So in the name of justice of course we always seek solidarity with everybody who loves justice, peace and freedom. So in Thailand as well of course, and Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, and other Buddhist countries, and non-Buddhist countries. Anybody in all countries who love and want to support justice and freedom and peace we are seeking solidarity.
MK: How are you doing that, concretely?
AK: All we can do is, we want to inform them, give them information, then we want to listen to their opinion as well, we want to hear from them as well, their suggestions, advice, whatever.
MK: Do you ever hear from any of the Buddhist leaders from other countries?

KZ: In Thailand one of the monk-professors, he teaches our monks about justice, human rights also, in a non-violent way. A Thai monk. He is also a professor.
MK: What is his name?
KZ: We cannot say because the Thai government doesn’t want their monks to be political. So they are afraid to reveal their names.
MK: Some monks are willing to help you, but covertly, they can’t do it publically?

KZ: Yes.
MK: So that’s difficult for you, because you don’t have a popular or public expression of support from the Thai sangha?
KZ: In Bangkok one major monk, an abbot, supported us during the Saffron Revolution, also a lot of monks could come to his monastery, and he supported Burmese monks to protest here in Thailand.
MK: You have both expressed a few times that Western sympathizers for Burmese democracy need to add action to their verbal support. What would this look like in concrete terms for you in 2011?
AK: Verbal action is good, but lip-service alone is not enough. In Buddhism we have three kinds of action: mental, verbal and physical. So verbal actions can encourage or ask their governments to put pressure on the junta as well. But this is not easy. If they want their government to put pressure, they have to know about Burma. Taking action means cooperating with the democratic and human rights workers for Burma.
KZ: If they want to support the people, they need to support them directly. Sometimes they associate with the regime, who have gained a lot of money from them, but the people never, so it is not good. If they want to, they need to go directly to the people, that way is good.
MK: So in fact responding to their own situation, their own relations with complicit companies and governments. Many European people do not realize that the French company TOTAL, the largest oil company in Europe, has put billions of Euros into the regime’s survival. So firstly, concerned people could educate consumers and then secondly, could boycott TOTAL products, or thirdly, put pressure on TOTAL to give a message to the regime to improve its human rights record, for example. It’s not merely pressuring the Burmese regime, its putting pressure on their own consumers, companies and governments to act responsibly and honourably.
Both: Yes, yes.
MK: It is clear that the ethnic nationality armies are committed to an ongoing armed resistance to the regime. After up to 61 years of such conflict, do you feel there is a more beneficial policy that could pursued by the armed resistance?
AK: Our way is through non-violence. After 61 years this conflict is still going on, so I don’t believe you can solve the problem through violence. It’s not a good way for Burma where there are many ethnic nationalities. I think it is better to talk at the table and bring discussion and exchange, to bring a peaceful and developed, stable country.
MK: But they have tried for decades to have dialogue with the junta using the civilized means you suggest. But this has never worked. Is there no place for ‘speaking’ to the army on their own terms, ie. militaristically?
AK: I think everybody in Burma should support non-violence, in one voice. For example even in prison the junta cannot rape a woman easily because some prisoners are educated to protect themselves. If a woman in prison has a gun, she might be killed, so it’s always wiser to avoid violence at any cost, because the consequences will be worse. Don’t forget there’s a saying that ‘the pen is sharper than the sword.’ Even the junta don’t attack the opposition with guns alone, they rely on the media to attack them, the intelligence force and so on.
MK: Do you feel you can effectively dialogue with the ethnic armed groups about this issue?
AK: I believe, yes, we can effectively talk.
MK Do you?
AK: No, I did not talk with them, but we can talk. If there’s a will there’s a way. We must have a will, to want to talk.
MK: And they have to want to listen.
AK: Yes. They must want to listen, and to talk, too.
KZ: Yes, we believe in the non-violent way, because the Buddhist way is a non-violent way. So we use loving-kindness.
MK: Does that mean that the armed resistance, given they are obviously armed, is there anything they could do as armies that would still be more beneficial? Can you offer them any moral guidance? For example, Aung San Suu Kyi politically believes in non-violence, but she also respects the army very much.
AK: For me I want to suggest to all the armed ethnic groups, to work for the country, in the name of democracy and human rights. Not just for their own organizations, their own ethnic groups. They must have a will to work for human rights rather than only independence.
MK: So changing their focus from a nationalistic to a more collective one.
AK: Yes. Nobody should be chauvinist. Chauvinism cannot reach their goals, I believe.
MK:Do you think they could unify?
AK: I believe, after 61 years, everybody can find a different way, even though they keep the gun.
KZ: We always try to associate with the military. When we were in Myanmar we associated with them. We are not fighting the army, we are fighting the system only, so we explained this and they knew more about our cause. We discussed with soldiers how they can participate in the movement. Because it is very difficult for them if they want to participate, they can be arrested.
MK: So in the current time, what general idea do you have of how much of the army, what proportion of soldiers, is able or willing to hear this message? Say for example there was another uprising and the army come out how many of these young soldiers can hear you and change?

AK: I think many soldiers are not happy under the SPDC regime. Of course they want to escape but they have no choice. When they decide to join the opposition groups, they cannot go back into the army, so they must be very careful to decide. So we must understand them, we must show that we really protect them, love them. We cannot expect from them alone. So we extend our loving-kindness to them. In 2007, for about 10 days many soldiers were reluctant to shoot the monks. Even, this morning King Zero told me, the soldier who shot the Japanese journalist, when you look carefully it is very suspicious whether he’s really one of the army, or if he was forced only to put on a uniform. Because he doesn’t wear army regulation shoes, he wears flip-flops. We have heard in 2003 many people refused to attack Aung San Suu Kyi, so they may have been criminals with a death sentence, who were made to attack her and her group. So maybe it worked like that in 2007 as well, nobody knows but it is possible.
MK: In Mae Sot you are very central here, the Best Friend Library performs a very important service for all of the people, in terms of education, cultural events, Buddhist teaching and so on. What is your relationship with the local exile media, what kind of hopes do you have for working collaboratively with them in the future?
AK: I really hope to work with everybody closely, to bring a change for the better in Burma. I think the media in Burma for the military is very strong, they work very systematically. But I think the exile media do not work as systematically. The military media has a very clear vision: they work for themselves, for the dictatorship, to attack the opposition movement. The SPDC media every day has four political, or four economic or four social objectives, and so on. Everything, newspapers and books, for it to be published, you must have these clear aims. And then nowadays, say twenty times a day, they mention it on the radio, in the newspapers, the television. So ‘the BBC and VOA, their stories are full of lies’ or ‘Beware of destructive BBC and VOA’ and so on. But in the opposition media they do not have as clear a vision. I want them to say something like a quote from Aung San Suu Kyi, like ‘Every citizen in Burma has the right and obligation to defy any unjust law.’ Every day, again and again. If they say it repeatedly, maybe even the military might begin to think ‘Why do they say like that?’
MK: That’s a very good point, but on the other hand, even though the government media is very organized, it’s also simply propaganda. So, it’s not true, and they’re lying. So surely the people in Burma don’t believe all this media.
KZ: Yes, the regime can organize from their TV, newspapers, etc, every day. But here we try to suggest things which are good, which things are not good, to the Burmese media, but they never accept it. Sometimes I talk to the media, and they censor it, and this is no good.
MK: Here?
KZ: Here! And also the DVB also censor what we say.
MK: What kind of content would you say they are trying to keep hidden from the public?
KZ: It’s hard to know why they censored what we say, they gave no reasons. I was talking about unity. I saw a video on You Tube of water-buffalos protecting the young from lions, and I thought this was a good symbol for unity between all those working for rights and freedoms in Burma, including the media, should work together, like the water-buffalos, to protect the people who are vulnerable, like political prisoners, students and so on.
AK: Frankly, I don’t think the exile media work to bring change to Burma, they work for their own self-interest. Because the exile media do not contact eachother, they are competing with eachother, they don’t have a good relationship. When we give an interview with someone, the other media group aren’t happy, because we didn’t given it to them first. They always want to be the first. Not all of the, some are better than others, but this is a problem. The most important thing is to give good information for the people, by the people, outside and inside of the country. Their goal should be to serve the people in a unified way, and work together, in the defense of human rights.
MK: So for you it’s the media’s job, as well as your educational programs here, to inform the people. But the media are not taking that responsibility.

AK: Yes. I think their vision is only as much audience as possible. It is for commercial purposes. A lot of people to speak to, for a very short time, it’s superficial. Not saying anything, just talking.
MK: There are many similarities politically, and in terms of Buddhist issues, between the oppression of Tibetan sovereignty in Tibet, and human rights in Burma. Would you care to comment on these respective issues or differences, as you perceive them, and on the role Buddhism plays in them both. Can you see your own efforts here as equivalent to the aims of HH Dalai Lama regarding Tibetan freedom?
AK: Of course in Burma we practice Theravada Buddhism, whereas in Tibet they practice Mahayana. In Mahayana Buddhism the Dalai Lama is holy, the leader of Tibetan Buddhism. But in Burma we do not have such a leader. We are all leaders of ourself. But still both countries follow the Buddha’s teaching. Also, Tibet is under Chinese occupation, whereas Burma is under a military junta which comes from our own country. The similarity is that Tibetans are also fighting for peace, freedom, democracy and human rights in Tibet, we also the same in Burma. And non-violently as well. Like the Dalai Lama, we also believe only in non-violence in order to bring any change for the better.
MK: Have you had any contact with the Tibetan sangha who support non-violence?
AK: Many Tibetan exiles live in India, so actually we do not have much contact with them living here in Thailand. And then Tibetans are well known in Western countries, whereas the Burmese situation is not so well known.
MK: Perhaps I could propose you host a regional Buddhist Peace Conference to bring more global attention to Burma and the struggle for its freedom. I certainly hope so. Thank you.
Both: Yes. Thank you very much.