Chapter 13. Mental Culture and Crisis Government. From the book `Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy' by Gustaaf Houtman

Evidently mental culture is important to political discourse in general. Even Aung San, the man designated as the most secular of Burmese leaders, could not evade its implications on his politics. The question arises is in what way these practices have been actually employed in political crises by the leaders beyond the confines of the prison, and beyond the rhetoric of their speeches and writings.

Buddhist responses to political crises

Saw Maung

General Saw Maung was concerned with delineating Burmese from foreign cultural habits and technologies. Characterising himself as a Buddhist at heart, he sometimes responded in Buddhist fashion to questions posed by journalists. For example, to a question about students fearing violence upon return from the border he replied with one of the Buddha's sayings which is also a standard phrase used by meditation teachers to invite people to meditate and see the truth: ‘we have a teaching from the Buddha – “Welcome to see for yourself and to see the truth”’.[1] The implication clearly is that he considered himself and the army good Buddhists who abhor violence. Indeed, when it came to distinguishing between ‘-isms,’ Saw Maung proclaimed the army neutral to politics except for Buddhism, ‘the original “-ism” which can never be overwhelmed by new “-isms”’.[2] The army, though subject to impermanence in the same way as the Buddha and the arahats, is fearless.[3]

We have already noted that Aung San's most important quality was his ‘one-pointed mind’ (samadhi); this mental quality permitted unification of the country. It is only natural that Saw Maung as the head of State facing disintegration of his country should emphasize this very same quality. Indeed, despite the evident interests the army has in politics, he expressed the view that the army was now politically neutral after the BSPP episode. He expressed their role as one of ‘jury’ [qmaDiKuMlUýkI:], literally ‘great arbitrator’ (person with samadhi who sits on the bench).

Only samadhi permits seeing truth objectively, and so samadhi is what Saw Maung felt he should have. As Aung Gyi put it, Saw Maung used to proclaim his attainment of a higher spiritual plane, including superior samadhi, and that to oppose him is to oppose the Buddha's laws of causation.

Saw Maung in one of his speeches contrasted the Burmese technique leading to samadhi as infinitely superior to foreign computers. Burmese techniques of meditation that arrive at ‘control of mind’ [sit\Tin\:Kiuc\:] are much faster than computers that demand ‘data processing’. So when you ask whether, for example, you have been to London, data processing kicks in with a computer, and you have to press a button to get the answer. However, the Burmese mind is so very swift and needs no button to work.

He took this further and said that to enter on the path to nibbana one must have no self-view, and no ‘Self means pride – the pride that I am I. Self must be removed, killed … one must do as he [the Buddha]

(c) ILCAA 1999 - Gustaaf Houtman. Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics. ILCAA Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia & Africa Monograph Series 33, Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1999, ISBN 4-87297-748-3, p265/392

Samadhi has, in this case, been translated into English somewhat inadequately as ‘meditation’.[7] This contrast between foreign computers and Burmese samadhi was made in the overall context of a difference he sought to sketch between foreign cultures and the culture of Burma [y¨\ek¥:m§]. He said that ‘you all should do everything you can to preserve culture and tradition. The people of our country understand and appreciate well the concept of metta.’ He encouraged the army and its families to practise metta. If metta and samadhi are apparently uniquely Burmese values, then he nevertheless concludes his argument saying that this metta should be more than just bonding in social and family relationships, it should also be used to discipline these relationships, for those with metta should ‘admonish the family members of the Tatmadaw units so that they might become good persons, have love for their country, adhere to discipline including school discipline …’. And why? Because otherwise Saw Maung himself would be blamed, for ‘If you act in an undisciplined way, I will get shame’. Saw Maung himself was ‘solely responsible’.

Saw Maung, like Mindon and Hpo Hlaing, thus emphasized meditation in the context of solving a national crisis and searching for a new centre of identity through which he wished to represent Burma. Indeed, in remarkable parallel to Hpo Hlaing, he emphasized the need to ‘kill the self’. However, rather than using it as Hpo Hlaing did, to extract himself from his political predicament, namely by working on the side of reform, he in fact chose to entrench existing army interests through his selfish interpretation of samadhi and his lack of interest in vipassana.

The 1991 monastic boycott of the military was a great setback for the SLORC regime. This was the first time in Burmese history that a collective monastic boycott was called against the government or the national army.[8] This contributed to Saw Maung's downfall. Here, I would like to note that this crisis situation motivated the monks appointed to preach by Saw Maung's government that he should spend time in vipassana practice. As the famous Tipitakadhara Sayadaw, the Secretary of the State Sanghamahanayaka Committee, put it to General Saw Maung, Chairman of the SLORC, on 22 October 1990:

Coming from the state-appointed head of the Sangha Committee, this shows to what depth the regime had sunk in its dealings with the Sangha and the Burmese people as a whole. General Saw Maung was increasingly in mental turmoil and his self-acclaimed samadhi gave way to a nervous breakdown.

Tin U

If we are to go by Tin U's comments, what Saw Maung missed was that vipassana underlies the culture of reform. When asked if the SLORC might feel a sense of shame about its actions, Tin U, Deputy Chairman of the National League for Democracy, replied that SLORC generals should ‘lay down all their weapons just for ten days and undertake a period of vipassana meditation practice under a competent Sayadaw [senior monk]. If their meditation is developing nicely then I think they should extend this practice indefinitely. I think the whole country would applaud them for this noble behaviour.’ Their meditation practice will ‘automatically reveal to them, by themselves, without anyone's help, their true inner state of being. All Burmese will understand this.’ Though there might see ‘some redeeming qualities in them’, Tin U thinks ‘they should meditate first’ as ‘People are suffering’ [C19]. Such emphasis has also been made by Aung San Suu Kyi who referred to austerity practice (tapa) as the traditional requirement of mahasamata [C32].

This view that the military regime will change and stop making the people suffer once they practise mental culture, and in particular ‘insight contemplation’ (vipassana), and once they have developed ‘loving-kindness’ (metta) and ‘compassion’ (karuna) [F1], is held by many Burmese Buddhists [C14].

The call for ‘loving-kindness’ (metta) above is particularly poignant when presented by an ex-

commander of the Burmese army and one-time heir-apparent to General Ne Win. Tin U was Minister of Defence and Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces (1974–76). He was arrested when he was accused of involvement in an aborted army officer's coup in July 1976 for which he was imprisoned. He was released in 1980 under a general amnesty. However, he was imprisoned again between 1989–95 for his work with the National League for Democracy. Though stripped of his army titles, today he is still affectionately known as ‘The Great General’ [biul\K¥op\ýkI:].

U Nu

U Nu, in the midst of the biggest political crisis in his career as Prime Minister, retreated into the same Mahasi Thathana Yeiktha vipassana centre in which Tin U later became a monk. Indeed, U Nu was the principal founding member of this centre. The Karens had captured Mandalay in March 1949, and were close to capturing Burma's capital Rangoon. This took place a prolonged period of great anxiety, starting in 1949 when elections had to be postponed, and involved him announcing in early June 1950 that he was taking a vow to attain a particular state in vipassana contemplation. In July, he said that he would go the next day to the meditation centre as he had ‘a vow to keep to attain the thin‑khar‑ru‑pek‑kha nyan (Sankharupekkha nana qKçåRupkðav%\]’. He warned that ‘Until then do not send for me, even if the whole country is enveloped in flames. If there are fires, you must put them out yourselves’ [C20].

This was a particular kind of self purification, for as he wrote much later about this particular stage of vipassana (Sankharupekkha nana), ‘I really consider this to be a wonderful nana [intelligence]’ . He considered this stage particularly wonderful as it results in equanimity with major advantages. It permits one to be ‘free from fear’, to ‘treat good as well as bad phenomena with equanimity’ and to retain the state of mindfulness the longest.

Nu repeatedly went into meditation retreats at times of personal or national crisis, including the Laotian crisis [GH1]. The practice of vipassana at critical times is also linked to the view that when practised in itself it contributes to the peace and stability of the whole nation and even the world. In respect of U Nu's government in particular, the practice, patronage and furtherance of insight in some respects usurped hands-on political action.[10] For U Nu, the abolition of ‘I’ – consciousness through insight resulted in the best government: the kind of government that does not need to govern. In a speech in America in 1959, he spoke about insight as a way of resolving more than just personal difficulties. A proper socialist state was in need of ‘Streamwinner’ (sotapanna)[11] who had permanently uprooted defilements through the practice of insight.

Here, then, through the practice of insight and the ruling of their own mind, government officers provided an example others would follow so that there would eventually be no need for rulers. Introspective rule of mind has become a perfect form of socialist government.

King Mindon

The involvement of vipassana in government was first initiated during the reign of King Mindon (1853–78). Mindon himself brought mental culture into the duties of kingship at the very beginning of his reign when, upon accession to the throne, he requested his Thathanabaing to write a work on royal conduct entitled Commentary on the way of the king [Thúyazá mekga dipani kyàn]. Finished in 1853, Thathanabaing said that the King himself requested ‘to have a work written on royal discipline and mental culture’ as previous writers on the subject of discipline of royalty ‘have tended to lack deference to and profundity in the Buddhist truths’ and were ‘materialist in orientation’, so that following them is ‘like eating curry without salt by which one can never feel contented’ [C21].

King Mindon, who seized power immediately after the Second Anglo-Burmese War, was the first major king-patron to take a personal active interest in vipassana. He also patronised the earliest generation of vipassana teachers considered the founders of Burma's contemporary vipassana methods, such as the Thilon Sayadaw (1796–1860), Htuthkaung Sayadaw (1798–1880), Shwegyin Sayadaw (1822–1893), Hngetdwin Sayadaw

(1831–1910) and the nun Me Kin. Furthermore, he had the latter teach vipassana to his queens in the palace. Interest within the palace is confirmed by Maheiti, the Right Hand Queen of King Mindon, who commissioned a work called The mirror of vipassana.[13]

Significantly, it is to the Thilon Sayadaw, Mindon's favourite forest monk, to whom the Mahasi Sayadaw traces back his vipassana techniques (referred to as a ‘practice lineage’ as opposed to a ‘scriptural learning’ lineage based on ordination). Since Aung San Suu Kyi, Tin U and U Nu all practise vipassana in the Mahasi tradition, there is therefore much overlap between dynastic and spiritual succession from the time of Mindon. Mindon provided the impetus for the introduction of mental culture into government at a time of crisis and the crisis is still here today.

Mental culture and the military

U Nu and the Ne Win coup

To understand the role of vipassana from the military perspective, it is necessary to take the example of U Nu one step further, for it bears on the current political situation. With government becoming untenable, on 26 September 1958 U Nu, then Prime Minister, invited by the military under Ne Win, by means of an eight point letter, to restore law and order until elections would be held in April 1959.

Point six referred to the army's role in attaining peace ‘within the country’ by the ‘suppression of such crimes as rape, robbery, dacoity, kidnapping, and murder’. This is distinct from point seven below which, concerning itself with the attainment of ‘internal peace’, is undoubtedly a reference to the practice of mental culture.

U Nu's resignation took place 28 October 1958 when he divested himself of his personal possessions, later sold at an auction for charity, and ordained as a monk spending a week in a monastery.

It is important to appreciate that U Nu's request, and Ne Win's reply, on this point of ‘internal peace’ pertained to mental culture. For example, U Nu says that human beings ‘at the beginning of the world … prayed for the sun and the moon’ because the first human beings were doing so in the origin myth (See App. I.2). In the chapter ‘What is socialism?’ in his Conduct of government [ òpv\eTac\su nIti] (1960) U Nu identifies the goal of socialism as returning to this original pure (jhana, but in his view more specifically vipassana-induced) state, prior to the appearance of the defilement of craving and the corruption of man, where there are no differences in gender, beauty or possessions.

In popular perception, therefore, to practise mental culture is to purify the mind and thereby remedy and overcome dangers of lawlessness and greed. It bears a direct relationship to the reform of a hopelessly degraded society. Successful practice is supposed to lead people to change their minds to the extent that they will naturally become inclined to understand and observe law and order. ‘To meditate’ is ‘to apply oneself to the dhamma’ [tra:Aa:Tut\ ty\], but dhamma can be used to refer to the ‘attainment of nibbana’, the ‘Buddha's teachings’ (tipitaka), ‘justice’ and ‘law’.[15] Mindon and U Nu’s calls had similarities to those of Tin U, namely to bring mental culture into government as part of this common mental culture of politics, in which change in unsatisfactory political and legal institutions must be preceded by first accomplishing a significant change in the mental state of its incumbents.[16] In other words, to make them see the laws of

kamma [G1]. This emphasis on primacy of mind is what, as I hope to show, Aung San Suu Kyi has in common with the broader cultural thread running right through Burmese society.[17]

The Ne Win regime declared it would not involve itself in mixing religion and government. Successive military regimes have clamped down on all forms of organization, including many Buddhist organizations. However, true to Ne Win's 1958 promise to Nu, these very same regimes have permitted the insight contemplation traditions, of which there are several dozen nationally, to proselytise relatively freely, though some adhamma cases have been brought against some vipassana teachers. The Burmese Way to Socialism that Ne Win propounded ‘does not serve the narrow self-interest of a group, an organization, a class, or a party, but plans its economy with the sole aim of giving maximum satisfaction to material, spiritual and cultural needs of the whole nation’. This, as we shall see, later led to the incorporation of byama-so tayà in the formal ideology of Ne Win's Burma Socialist Programme Party.

Even today these spiritual movements are still perceived as having the potential to lead to ‘internal peace’, for vipassana practice, with its emphasis on no-self and insubstantiality of identity, does not in itself encourage any form of militant opposition (though it often leads to more sophisticated intellectual forms of dissent). In that sense, the military sees it as ‘the opium of the people’, for those whose property was nationalised during the military regime took to its practice like ducks to water.

It was under Ne Win that the first, ‘pilgrim's visas’ were issued, permitting foreigners to come to Burma and stay there for many years, pending their good behaviour.[18] This began in 1979 in advance of the 1980 Sangha purification. At that time, only diplomatic staff and a handful of academics had entry into Burma.

Today, Ne Win himself is reported to have taken to meditation, though it would appear to be tinged with magic. Sanda Win, one of Ne Win's daughters who has the most privileged access to her father, characterised her father's activities in his retirement as follows.

Military attitudes

Following in the footsteps of Ne Win's alleged interest in Buddhism and meditation, since 1992 the regime has increasingly taken to representing itself as pious and Buddhist. In an interview, General Than Shwe said the following:

Finally, when asked by the interviewer how he could be so quiet and calm, the Senior General said:

With these public expressions on the part of the generals, and largely forgotten since U Nu's heady days, mental culture has begun to creep back into the public limelight.

Today mental culture has once again come to be seen as an important and positive attribute for government. This is evident from the establishment in March 1992 of a new government title, namely ‘Teacher of Mental Culture’ [kmî@ansriya]. By March 1995, no less than eighty-five such titles had been

issued accompanied by a financial reward, indicating that these teachers were now sanctioned by the government to teach mental culture. Also, the aforementioned International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University contains a Department of Vipassana along with a Department of Samatha, in the Faculty of Padipatti.[21]

Members of the regime since the 1991 monastic strike seek to disarm their critics by presenting themselves as engaged in meditation. Victor describes how at an interview with General Maung Maung, ‘the general spent almost an entire evening with me talking about the joys of meditation’.[22] However, when she mentioned the reports that women returning from Thailand with HIV had been executed by the regime, and that she herself had visited a mass grave, he responded that they were alive and cared for by monks and doctors along the border areas. He replied, ‘you know, it is against the Buddhist religion to kill anyone.’

The regime admits on it's official Internet site that mental culture provides the necessary solace for people during the years of slow economic development.

It is evident from the tourist map of Rangoon that foreigners are encouraged to seek out these experiences. The map conveniently shows at least two meditation centres for the tourist, namely the Mahasi Thathana Yeiktha and the U Ba Khin International Meditation Centre. Tourist visas are routinely stepped up to ‘Meditation visas’ when they are stamped with the abbreviation ‘Medi’.[24] One goal of the regime in the field of tourism is thus to provide a Holy Land to foreigners who can come and meditate in this wonderfully Buddhist country [C15].

However, these centres are not just seen as beneficial for foreigners. The presence of vipassana centres in the minority states and abroad provides a useful stabilising influence in areas outside immediate government control, which in part explains the presence of the Minister for Border Areas at the inauguration ceremony of branches of forest monasteries in Rangoon.[25] The regime has also opened 30 drug-treatment centres since 1975, where detoxification means undergoing agonizing withdrawal with a little opium and ‘meditation lessons from Buddhist monks’.[26]

Military support for these movements is thus not a matter of personal devotion on its part. I have it on good authority from a highly placed informant that it was pragmatically perceived as a useful tool for keeping the Burmese people under control. The military regime today permits, to some extent, the practice of vipassana in prisons [C15].

In other words, to the regime vipassana provides a weapon of control aimed at those ‘outside the legal fold’. Saw Maung's invitation to the students was similar to the Buddha's invitation to the people to meditate to find the truth – ‘Welcome to see for yourself and to see the truth’.[27] Nevertheless, it is not true to say that the military has used vipassana only as a tool and had absolutely no personal interest in its practice. For not only are the NLD leaders who emphasized the practice – directly or indirectly – of military background, but a number of military men have joined the fray in taking to its practice.

The Mahasi tradition

Sein Lwin, the most feared and brutal leader who took over the military regime immediately after Ne Win's resignation (26 July–12 August 1988), also known as the ‘butcher of Rangoon’, entered a Mahasi centre for vipassana practice upon his retirement. Also reported to have entered into meditation is Tin U, once Secretary General of the BSPP, who was removed from office in 1983 and was sentenced to life for

corruption. He spent his retirement ‘devoted to religion and meditation’.[28]

A strong relationship between the Mahasi tradition and the military regime is evident, which has prompted some to accuse it of having become an instrument of the military.[29]

The regime has indeed established much control over the Mahasi organization. Sometime in the early 1990s, the regime weeded out of the Thathana Yeiktha all monks who were not prepared to support the regime.[30] The monk U Pandita left the Thathana Yeiktha at that point and is therefore seen as independent from the regime. It is with this relatively independent side of the Mahasi tradition tradition that Aung San Suu Kyi has been most associated Tin U, on the other hand, is associated with the main Mahasi Thathana Yeiktha before the assertion of the regime's control. However, Mahasi centres have been established since 1938, well before the Burmese military even existed, and control has been established over most of the country's organizations, so that the wholesale identification of the Mahasi tradition with the army would be simplistic.

Indeed, in the course of Ne Win's attempt to ‘purify’ the Sangha in the 1980s, lack of co-operation by the Mahasi Sayadaw and the Tipitaka Mingun Sayadaw led to Ne Win initiating a defamation campaign against these two monks in a very similar manner to the campaing against Aung San Suu Kyi. The regime distributed leaflets accusing the Mahasi of talking with the ‘nat’ spirits, and it was claimed that the Tipitaka Mingun Sayadaw had been involved in some unsavoury incident two years after entering the monkhood. So ‘the SLORC's crude use of disparaging propaganda against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is not something new or surprising.’[31]

Nevertheless, because of its formidable influence and its structure of centres, the Mahasi tradition is still much in favour with the regime. The military has allowed the Mahasi tradition to expand, take in foreigners and to establish itself abroad even while Burma's borders were officially closed. On examining the opening of Mahasi centres, it is notable that the biggest growth took place during the military period after 1962, not under U Nu's premiership as one would imagine.[32]

Lately, with the new emphasis on public military devotion to Buddhism, official regime sponsorship has been taken up once again. Activities initiated by the Mahasi centres are routinely reported in the national press.[33] On 27 July 1998 General Khin Nyunt attended a cash donation ceremony for the construction of a three-storey Thiri Yadana building at the Thiri Mingala Mahasi Yeiktha in Dagon Myothit, together with all the major government ministers: including Industry, Cooperatives, Hotels and Tourism, Progress of Border Areas and National Races, Livestock and Fisheries, Health, Rangoon Mayor and various other ministers and officials.[34] Since then, many more donations by high ranking officers have followed.[35]

Pa Auk Sayadaw

Senior members of the regime have taken a liking to the Pa Auk Tawya Sayadaw [På:eAak\etarSraeta\]. On 28 June 1998, it announced a major cash donation ceremony for the opening of a branch in Thanlyin, Rangoon. Again, Khin Nyunt was present along with the Major government ministers. The leading members of the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee were also present,[36] and Ne Win's grandson, the son of Sanda Win, apparently insisted on attending this event. He gave a copy of the Sayadaw's writings to Ne Win, who appreciates the Pa Auk Sayadaw's teachings.

The Pa Auk Sayadaw is unique among Burmese vipassana teachers in teaching samatha to jhana level along with vipassana. This monk's fame is underlined by Dr Mehm Tin Mon's An introduction to Hpà-auk-tàwyá, first published in 1991.[37] Mehm Tin Mon, who also teaches at the Department of Samatha at the new Buddhist University, believes that hitherto Burmese methods have ignored the jhana practices and he strongly supports this tradition. Opinion within the Pa Auk tradition appears to be that he is more scripturally correct in his methodology than other Sayadaws. This is causing some major problems obstructing, as the Pa Auk supporters see it, the publication of the Sayadaw's writings in an environment where the Mahasi method predominates. Nevertheless, a number of publications have already appeared, in particular abroad.[38]

The current Pa Auk Sayadaw is U Seinna [¨I:si%â], the third in line from the original Pa Auk Sayadaw who was known as the ‘Fruit Sayadaw’ [qs\qI:Sraeta\] because he lived on only fruit. The Second Pa Auk Sayadaw U Egga Pañña [¨I:Ag©pva] died on 21 July 1981. After Seinna practised samatha and vipassana for twenty years at a forest monastery, he began teaching at the Pa Auk monastery in 1983 [1345]. Though I do not find this in his biographical details, I have it on authority from a Mahasi Thathana Yeiktha teacher that he originally studied vipassana at this centre.

I have seen video reports on television which featured the numerous foreign monks, from many countries, including Sri Lanka, Italy and Germany, who gave testimony to the excellence of the Pa Auk method. When I visited the centre in September 1998, there were a total of 313 people meditating there, including 56 foreigners of sixteen nationalities. A large number of them were Taiwanese, with smaller numbers of Malaysians, Sinhalese and Germans. It has attracted a number of long-standing foreign monks whom I found to be intellectually curious. The centre occupies a vast stretch of land totalling 190 acres, including forested hills with isolated meditation huts planted far apart. It is ten hours by bus or train from Rangoon, though only an hour by plane, but malaria poses a serious risk.

Although the Pa Auk tradition has supporters high up in the regime, nevertheless, publication of Pa Auk Sayadaw's voluminous work proved to be a problem. Pa Auk Sayadaw's work concerns itself with knowledge not just of the present, as the other methods, but with knowledge of the past and the future. This turned out to be a major departure from previous methods, and fear has been expressed that it would imply criticism of the other vipassana methods, in particular of the Mahasi. Though a large volume of the writings had already been published in Taiwan, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, upon the recommendations of the Mahanayaka Council decided not to publish his works in Burma for fear of destabilising the situation by alienating followers of other methods.

Alodawpyay Sayadaw

The Alodawpyay Sayadaw [Aliueta\òpv\>Sraeta\] Bhaddanta Ariyavamsa[39] is also known as ‘Pakistan Sayadaw’ because he originates from Arakan. Aungmyay Bodhi Dhamma Yeiktha, his principal monastery, is located opposite the famous Shwezigon Pagoda in Nyaung U near Pagan, but thanks to sponsorship by the military, he now has affiliations in Rangoon and elsewhere.

When General Khin Nyunt toured Pagan donating and inspecting the renovation of the pagodas, he met this Sayadaw. After General Khin Nyunt became his pupil, the Sayadaw seldom stayed in his monastery often accompanying General Khin Nyunt on his travels.

He received his name after restoring the Alodaw Pyay or ‘Wish-fulfilling’ Pagoda. This pagoda is now visited by many Burmese pilgrims. He is said by some to have originally studied vipassana under the Mahasi Sayadaw. However, he is known in particular for his samatha and has become something of a wishfulfilling monk to his followers. He teaches vipassana and has established teaching monasteries (Pariyatti Sathintaiks) and meditation centres in various parts of the country.

This monk is now patronised by the regime's top echelons. General Maung Aye visited the Alodaw Pagoda on 11 February 1998, during which he gave a cash donation.[40] A visit to Pagan by the highest-ranking officers including Than Shwe took place on 18 April 1998. The visit included a clock-wise tour of the Shwezigon Pagoda (auspicious), they donated funds and then visited the Alodawpyi Pagoda where they also made donations.[41]

The most fervent supporter of the Sayadaw is General Khin Nyunt. As part of the campaign to develop influence in Arakan, he happily sponsored the opening of a meditation centre in Arakan by the monk on 17 March 1998.[42]

In March 1998 Khin Nyunt facilitated and visited the construction of the Aungmye Bodhi Dhamma Yeiktha, another three-storey building at Pinshwenyaung Street in Tarmway Township Rangoon, ‘to enable the Sayadaw to carry out the missionary duties with peace of mind and conveniently’. At the opening ceremony, Khin Nyunt said that the Sayadaw had ‘established Pariyatti Sarthintaiks and meditation centres in various parts of the country’, and ‘at the same time … the Sayadaw is discharging missionary duties in Bagan and border areas energetically.’ Money for this particular building was provided by what would appear to be government agencies, including more than 5 million Kyat from the Yangon City Development Committee, and 2 million Kyat from the Ministry of Construction and the Department of Human Settlement and Housing Development. Khin Nyunt made regular visits to monitor progress.[43]

On 9 August 1998, Khin Nyunt attended the laying of the foundation stone in the construction of the Htayrawatha Kyaungsaung, one of the buildings in the same Bodhi Dhamma Yeiktha compound in Rangoon. This coincided with the umbrella hoisting ceremony for the Bawdiyadana Theindawgyi. The procedure was that Khin Nyunt received 3 million Kyat from Brigadier General Tint Swe, a retired army officer and sole donor of the Bawdiyadana Theindawgyi, which he then presented to the Bawdiyadana Theindawgyi. It was Khin Nyunt who hoisted the umbrella, and together with the other ministers laid the foundation stone.[44]

[1] e.g. Saw Maung (1990b:36,49).

[2] Saw Maung (1990b:337).

[3] Saw Maung (1990b:157).

[4] ‘Letter to General Ne Win from U Aung Gyi’. Rangoon, 01.05.1992. Burma Debate, July–Aug 1997.

[5] Speech on conclusion of 40th training course of the Command and General Staff College, 10 November 1989. State Law and Order Restoration Council Chairman Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services General Saw Maung's addresses. Rangoon: Ministry of Information, 1990, p. 215 (Burmese), 265 (English).

[6] Saw Maung (1990b:215,266).

[7] I will take up the relationship between metta and samadhi in the chapter on byahma-so tayà.

[8] There was a monastic boycott against Kon-daw Maung Kya Ban under King Mindon, but this was not a full onastic boycott against the government.

[9] Patriarch Maha Thera's Ovadakathas delivered to State Law and Order Restoration Council Senior General Saw Maung. Rangoon: Department of Religious Affairs, U Aung Than, 1991, p. 19.

[10] See also King (1964:96).

[11] With at most seven more lives for whom entry onto the path of nibbana is assured.

[12] A close confidant of U Nu as reported by King (1964:256).

[13] Thandíma (1883).

[14] Sein Win (1959:85–86).

[15] For a detailed analysis of this concept see Than Tun (1978:77–90).

[16] Further light is shed on the two passages by the last editorial included in Dhammantaraya (published by the military regime in psychological warfare with the Communists) from Rangoon Post (10 May 1959), which argues that in Buddhism the way to nirvana is to extinguish greed (lawba), anger (dawtha), and illusion (mawha) ‘through self-discipline’ [i.e. through morality, concentration and insight]. However, in communist countries it is government who legislates and disallows these. He considers to what extent ‘words like greed, avarice, etc, should disappear from the Russian vocabulary’ (p. 37). Mental culture, here, is the avenue to first internal peace, and second to country-wide peace, whereas in the communist system a country-wide single-class sense of peace would not lead to personal fulfillment in terms of inner peace. This underlines the ambiguity in the original letter by Nu to the caretaker government, namely concerning ‘inner peace’.

[17] Mya Maung (1992:ix) in seeking to find a model for the Burmese case of economic development which is capable of taking into account ‘non-economic factors’, quotes approvingly Lawrence E. Harrison's Underdevelopment is a state of mind (Lanham, MD: University Press of America 1985.)

[18] Clements (1992:13).

[19] Victor (1998:174).

[20] Kyi Kyi Hla. ‘Gives us a chance: an exclusive interview [with General Than Shwe]’. MP, May 1998.

[21] IS, 07.01.1998; NLM,19.06.1998.

[22] Victor (1998:210).

[23] ‘Tourist Information: religion and culture’ at http://www.myanmar.com/gov/tourist/rel.bak.

[24] In 1998 the visa regulations were altered so that extentions had to be paid for in foreign currency, resulting in a US$90 expense for the first half year and the requirement for further foreign currency expenses every half year. This has made it difficult for longstay monks without private funds to find a place to meditate in Burma long-term.

[25] Visiting SLORC official U Win Pe in London on 7 June 1993 said that when quizzed on the attitude of government to insight centres, ‘meditation assists in eliminating self-centredness and moving outwards’ (Burma Affairs Bulletin 3,2, Apr–Jun 1993, p. 12). The regime's view of this is a one-way outward move that represents the subduing of ethnic minorities, and the spreading abroad of Burmese Buddhism in the form of vipassana oriented monasteries strictly under supervision of the military.

[26] C.S. Wren. ‘Heroin puts Burma in crisis over AIDS’. New York Times, 03.05.1998.

[27] Saw Maung (1990b:36,49).

[28] ‘Brig. General Tin Oo dead at 71’. Associated Press, 30.12.1998.

[29] This argument has been put to me by the son of a senior NLD politician. Indeed, the Mahasi argument spilled over into the press of the Burmese opposition in Japan. Japan is seen by the Burmese regime as a hotbed of opposition. It is a place where much intelligence is gathered by both sides. When a Mahasi monk took many pictures of me in a way which appeared to be more than passing interest (including photographs with glasses on and off), I mentioned this to some Burmese acquaintances. My informal account was promptly published under the heading ‘Government monk?’. When I wrote a letter in reply, saying that this header was inappropriate as I could not be sure about the status of this monk, I was vilified in the next issue as insensitive to the opposition cause (Voice of Burma 8.10.97, 19.10.1997). Evidently this permitted the editors to air a long-time grievance. This grievance is also largely stoked by ignorance of the editors and reporters to this newspaper, who were not only largely ignorant about vipassana traditions in Burma because of their long stay abroad, but were also one-sided in their political views, giving the vipassana traditions little credit for their revolutionary political history.

[30] Arguably there is some support for the Khsatriya [military] tradition within Buddhism, for, as Goyal (1987:58–60, 201–2} argues, Buddhism plays an important role in questioning established hierarchies in emergent ruling classes.

[31] ‘Hitting below the belt’. BurmaNet, 06.01.1998.

[32] A total of 293 Mahasi centres were opened over the 43 year period between 1938–80, which averages at 6.8 centres per annum, rising to 8.79 per annum for the 33 year period between 1947–1980. The pre‑independence period (1938–48) saw a rise of 6 centres, or 1.5 average per annum. The early post‑independence period (1948–62) saw a rise of 103 centres over 13 years, or an average of 7.8 centres per annum. The military period (1962–80) saw a rise of 185 centres over 19 years, or an average of 9.7 per annum. The last 11 years (1970–80) of this period was responsible for the biggest rise in centres at 142, or an average of 12.9 per annum. The rise in the number of new centres has diminished since the death of the Mahasi Sayadaw in 1983.

[33] ‘Nyaungkanaye Sayadaw leaves for Japan’. NLM, 15.05.1998; ‘Pagodas, monasteries crowded with devotees on Fullmoon Day of Waso’. NLM, 09.07.1998; ‘Respects paid to religious title recipient Sayadaw of Yay U’. NLM, 26.04.1998.

[34] NLM, 27.07.1998.

[35] ‘Families of Ministry of Transport offer dry rations to Mahasi Sasana Yeiktha’. NLM, 21.08.1998.

[36] ‘Phaauk Tawya Yeiktha of International Buddha Sasana Yeiktha Branch opened in Thanlyin – Nine wellwisher families donate over K35m for meditation centre’. NLM, 29.06.1998, p. 1.

[37] edåk\tamc\:tc\mæn\x [An introduction to Hpà-auk-tàwyá] Pa:eAak\etarmit\Sk\x rn\kun\X rtnamc\:saepx 1991X See also chapter 4 on the works of Pa Auk Sayadaw, in the same author's Aòmt\SuM:pn\:tiuc\:pn\:tuic\Ekn\piuc\x vol. 1, 2nd edition, òmmæn\rtnasaepx rn\kun\x 1995x m¥k\nHa 50–81, 203–315X

[38] Light of wisdom: meditation in Pa Auk Forest Monastery. Kuala Lumpur: Wisdom Audio Visual Exchange, 1997.

[39] He received so many titles that now he is billed as Alodopyi Sayadaw Maha Gandavacaka Pandita Maha Saddhammajorikadhaja Bhaddanta Ariyabhivamsa.

[40] ‘Vice-Chairman of State Peace and Development Council pays obeisance to pagodas and Sayadaw in Bagan-Nyaung U.’ NLM, 12.02.1998.

[41] NLM, 17.11.1998.

[42] ‘Safeguarding of religious, cultural heritage in Rakhine State getting necessary inputs.’ NLM, 19.03.1998.

[43] ‘Secretary-1 inspects construction of Aungmye Bodhi Dhamma Yeiktha Alodawpay Kyaungtaik in Tamway.’ NLM, 22.03.1998; ‘Senior General Than hwe and party pay obeisance to pagodas in Bagan.’ NLM, 19.04.1998; ‘Theravada Buddhism flourishes in Myanmar thanks to Venerable Sayadaws’ abilities to carry out missionary duties’. NLM, 05.05.1998; ‘Secretary-1pays homage to Maha Zeya Atulamarazein Bonze Buddha.’ NLM, 11.07.1998.

[44] NLM, 10.08.1998.

[45] In 1998 Khin Nyunt offered the wazo and the kathina robes. ‘Secretary-1 and wife attend Waso robes offering ceremony of Aungmyaybawdi Yeiktha Alodawpyi Kyaungtaik (Yangon)’. NLM, 10.8.1998; ‘Secretary-1 and wife attend Kathina robes offering ceremony of Aung Myaybawdi Dhamma Yektha Alodapyi Kyaungtaik (Yangon)’. NLM, 20.10.1998.

[46] ‘Ordination hall of Aungmay Bodhi Dhamma Yeiktha, Alodawpyi Kyaungtaik (Yangon)’. NLM, 30.11.1998.