A brown hand appeared in front of me and placed a bowl of peanuts on the floor where I was sitting. I had been listening to an elder monk read Pali texts out loud at Ananda Temple when this curious bowl of peanuts appeared. When I looked up, a young monk pointed to another monk across the room. The second monk smiled broadly showing teeth stained by betel-nut. His eyes were warm and sparkled with a bit of humor and mischief something I found uncommon in stark Buddhist settings. I looked at the peanuts quizzically. Where I come from, you give monks food as alms not the other way around. He noticed my confusion and proceeded to illustrate to me how to crack open a peanut. I laughed. He thought I did not know how to eat peanuts from the shell! I proceeded to eat the peanuts and called out a polite "Thank you" in Burmese. He offered me some tea. I accepted and joined his circle of monks for a little cup of tea and a lot of conversation.
His ordained name is U Ya Thanada. He joined the monastery when he was a teenager to escape the poverty and suffering that the people of Burma experience. At 36 years, he has been a monk for over 20 years, splitting his time between meditation and reading Pali texts. He explained that once he became ordained as a monk, his basic life needs of food, shelter, and clothing were provided for, and thus, he could focus on his spirit. The role of the Buddhist monk as he explained it was to provide education on the spirit. He provided insight into people's lives on suffering and how to ease that suffering.
I made eye contact with him across the small circle of monks on the floor. I asked him for permission to speak frankly and prefaced that by saying he did not have to answer my questions if he felt uncomfortable. I felt every monk around us hold their breath. He nodded his permission. I leaned my head closer, lowered my voice, and attempted to speak, but found myself opening my mouth and then closing it. As I tried again, he stopped me, "Wait," and he scooted closer. Everyone in the circle exhaled and laughed. The tension eased. I asked him what his feelings were on the government and if he thought there was any hope for freedom.
He answered emphatically, "I do not support the government and one day it will be overthrown. I have no fear in saying this."
"Will this happen in ten years?"
"Yes."
"Five?"
"No."
"Seven?"
"Likely."
"How do you think this change will come about?"
He tried to explain to me in a Burmese metaphor of a wheel rolling down the road. It would be slow at first and as it kept spinning, it would gain momentum. He believed that the Burmese people would unite and build this momentum. The Buddhist community was there to provide spiritual guidance but from what I can tell they would not be the leaders of the revolution.
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| U Ya Thanada |
I made eye contact with him across the small circle of monks on the floor. I asked him for permission to speak frankly and prefaced that by saying he did not have to answer my questions if he felt uncomfortable. I felt every monk around us hold their breath. He nodded his permission. I leaned my head closer, lowered my voice, and attempted to speak, but found myself opening my mouth and then closing it. As I tried again, he stopped me, "Wait," and he scooted closer. Everyone in the circle exhaled and laughed. The tension eased. I asked him what his feelings were on the government and if he thought there was any hope for freedom.
He answered emphatically, "I do not support the government and one day it will be overthrown. I have no fear in saying this."
"Will this happen in ten years?"
"Yes."
"Five?"
"No."
"Seven?"
"Likely."
"How do you think this change will come about?"
He tried to explain to me in a Burmese metaphor of a wheel rolling down the road. It would be slow at first and as it kept spinning, it would gain momentum. He believed that the Burmese people would unite and build this momentum. The Buddhist community was there to provide spiritual guidance but from what I can tell they would not be the leaders of the revolution.
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| Ananda Temple |
Nice ... in the East and in the West, people know that what we have is unsustainable, that the bus is not just rolling down a road but has rolled off a cliff.
ReplyDeleteWe're closing our eyes while appointing new puppets to sit behind the wheel, pretending they can steer it up again! =)
That's pretty cool. My brother was a monk for a few years. In Thai tradition it is also customary for men to become monks before they get married or to honor their parents.
ReplyDeleteBecoming a monk is pretty awesome, I think.
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteWow, he did it for a few years. In Burmese tradition, young men become a noviate monk for a short period of time before they become adults. I just read yesterday that General Aung San (freed Burma from the British and Aung San Suu Kyi's father) believed that mixing religion with politics goes against the spirit of religion because its message is timeless and higher than politics.