Chapter 20. Samatha Meditation and the Politics of Power and Control. From the book `Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy' by Gustaaf Houtman

I have already shown that the practice of byama-so tayà leads to the Brahma heavens. Its role in politics and in formulating Burman ethnic identity suggests that samatha is, in combination with these practices, an instrument for forging Burman ethnic identity. In particular, metta bhavana is the most popular form of samatha practice.[1] This contributes to the NLD's view that in practising these, the NLD will influence the country's fate.

At the basis of all human life, Aung San Suu Kyi argues, are the five moral precepts.[2] As her teacher, Pandita, points out, these moral precepts represent the first phase – morality – of the Noble Eightfold Path in Buddhism, incorporating ‘right speech’, ‘right action’ and ‘right livelihood’. On the basis of this, it is possible to develop the concentration group, the second phase of the Noble Eightfold Path, namely ‘right effort’, ‘right mindfulness’ and ‘right concentration’.

Samatha, power and revolution

Concentration, the second phase of the Noble Eightfold Path, has two aspects to it. On the one hand, it is a form of mental culture which individual practitioners undertake for their own benefit to empower themselves in order to attain the spiritual heights of mental culture on the Buddhist path. On the other hand, by virtue of gaining control over loka, it is a political instrument to effect some transformation in this world. In the latter sense, it plays a role in the effort to build a nation and, more generally, of rebellion, revolution and conquest.

Aung San Suu Kyi is aware of the role samatha played in the anti-colonial politics in 1930s Burma, in particular in the ideas of Saya San[3] and Thakhin Kodawhmaing.[4] She is possibly also aware of its importance in Ba Maw's concept of ‘revolution’ against British colonialism.[5] That she is aware of this quality is suggested by her praise for some of her student followers who ‘had tremendous powers of concentration’, as she says ‘such are obviously the qualities necessary for those who wish to pursue between the new national elite and the old ideals as these lived in the countryside.’[6] It was certainly widely regarded as an attribute of her father's [M2].

Thahkin Kodawhmaing (1875–1964), whose picture often appeared alongside Aung San's during the 1988 demonstrations, was renowned for his practice of alchemy and his meditation retreats in the mountain resort of Sagaing. He played a significant role in supporting the entry of Aung San into the Dobama Party and, as editor of The Sun and as national poet. In 1940 he published the Sub-commentary on the red dragon (or serpent) (na-gà ti-ka), in which he encouraged early U Nu's (at that time still in his concentration meditation phase, and as yet not crossed over to vipassana) founding of the Red Dragon Club by contributing a little poem which clearly associated the fate of Burma with concentration:

The ‘First Sermon’ refers to the Buddha's First Sermon in which he expounded the Noble Eightfold Path – this begins with ‘Right View’ and terminates in ‘Right Concentration’. The link between ‘right concentration’ and Burma as an emerging nation is reenforced in the association between nationalism and the Red Dragon [ngå:nI] in other ways. A powerful mythical animal with supernatural powers, the song by this name is was performed by Khin Maung Yin (1902-46),[8] popular actor and singer, in 1939, ‘the year of the revolution’. Originally composed by Shwe Taing Nyunt [eRWtiuc\væn\>] (c 1908-44) the song ‘recalled the glories of the past, promised the people a brave new future’. In ‘riddles which were quite simple to read, the song spoke of the dynasty which Alaungpaya built, the fall of the dynasty to the British, and the day British power would be shattered by the Mogyoe thunderbolt’.[9] The same composer composed the Bo Bo Aung [Biu:Biu:eAac\] song, performed by the same singer. Bo Bo Aung played a central role in some of the popular concentration meditation sects, ‘the legendary figure of great powers, who was believed to have attained immortality – his contemporary King Bodawpaya was long dead and gone – through alchemy and religious pursuits’.[10] These songs were banned and their recordings were proscribed, but they were so popular that Columbia Records bought rights to them.

Regime members, though strongly supporting other peoples’ practice of vipassana, are themselves inclined to find support in their own lives through ‘mundane knowledge’ (loki pañña) and through taking advice from masters of samatha practice as the ultimate road to control over loki. As samatha leads to various kinds of power, the regime does not like freely roaming practitioners whom it does not support. In particular the clean up of religion during the 1980s involved the arrest of many samatha meditators which, it was feared, if taken up by the populace at large might lead to revolts. As a researcher, the then government permitted me to visit the vipassana centres but not, for example, the weikza cults in Minbu. However, the regime also needs samatha to build their country; and so it needs meditation such as the Thamanya Sayadaw, the Bodhitahtaung Sayadaw, and now the Hpa Auk Sayadaw and the Alodawpye Sayadaw – these can give the regime the authority and legitimacy it craves for.

Back in 1910, well before Saya San and Thahkin Kodawhmaing were active, and well before Burmese political parties had first emerged (let alone the SLORC and the SPDC), the Ledi Sayadaw gave a hint about the role that concentration meditation would play in 20th century politics:

This relates the relationship between mental culture, magic and medicine that is typical in Burmese Buddhism. Strangely, this passage is found in the translated version of Ledi's Niyama dipani, but not in original Burmese published much later. Both were published by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Has official policy on publicising rebellion-inciting Buddhist texts changed?

Authorities fear Aung San Suu Kyi's samatha

There is some evidence that the authorities fear that Aung San Suu Kyi might engage in concentration meditation. Thus Byatti, in one of his raving and often blatantly racist editorials in New Light of Myanmar, referred to Aung San Suu Kyi as a spirit, namely ‘West Maidawgyi’ [Anauk Medaw]: ‘Authorities lifted restrictions on her in July 1995, holder of “West Maidawgyi” title. After that she lay low, seemingly on a vegetarian diet, telling beads, going on meditation or whatever “like a cat that does not swipe with its claws”

(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, p332/392

According to this perception, she is pretending not to be harmful (a cat retreating its claws) whilst yet ‘scheming to set fire to the nation’. He thus refers to her doing the worst possible harm with her meditation. The ‘setting fire’ is also related to the practice of metta and the jhanas for, as we have seen in Seyya Jataka above, those who have jhana are able to heat up the seat of those in authority (the king), causing them to act in their favour. This also confirms depiction of Aung San Suu Kyi on the front cover of Hpe Kan Kaung's collection of articles on her with candles, about to set fire to the nation.

Furthermore, this idea that her samadhi, the power also attributed to her father (chapter 1) and to revolution and national planning (chapter 11) can set fire to the nation is perhaps best of all confirmed by the comparison a journalist made between her and the head of King Brahma. The story goes that King Brahma lost a bet and was beheaded. Because the head, due to the king's jhana powers, was purportedly very hot, it threatened to scorch the earth or dry up the oceans. The King who won the bet ordered four female celestial beings to hold it and keep it from reaching earth, each for a period of one year. The passing of the head from one celestial being to another marks the beginning of a new year. Supposedly in Burmese tradition, a ‘Byamma's head’ is the name given to a trouble-maker. ‘Hoodlums, hecklers, bullies, and persons who borrow money are … always referred as the Byamma's Head.’ The article then names Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as a Byamma's head, and outlines various ‘trouble’ she has stirred up. The article concludes with an echo from the mass rallies:

The beads are instruments for samatha practice, for getting what one wants and for receiving supernatural protection from danger.[14] The heat is the natural consequence of attaining jhana. Because leadership is associated with the ability to generate powers through samadhi, as already demonstrated in relation to Aung San and Bo Bo Aung, rebellion is normally associated with fire (teiza).

When ex-Prime Minister U Nu was still a student, not only did he make a vow to become a bodhisattva, but ‘he did spend many hours in meditation, and proclaimed that he would aid the attainment of independence by saying rosaries’.[15] Furthermore, one interpretation of Nu's escape from the Aung San assassination says something about the belief in the power of the rosary in Burma: ‘devout Buddhist Nu was found by his would-be executioner to be counting a Buddhist rosary at the time, a sight which melted the ferocity of his assailant and reduced it to harmless impotence.’[16]

In referring to ‘beads’ and a ‘vegetarian diet’, which are the hallmarks of the concentration meditator, Byatti has therefore revealed the regime's deep-seated fears of Aung San Suu Kyi, namely as a high profile samatha meditator with all the long-feared destabilizing influence which motivated the regime to arrest practitioners outside its own realm of influence.[17]

Furthermore, there are also allegations of her involvement in loki pañña or ‘magic’. As Byatti says elsewhere, ‘the democracy sayagyis and sayamagyis who tell fortunes with cowries and are descendants of

Devadat [who argued for vegetarianism in Buddhism] are afraid to tell the truth so much so that they even criticize the Lord of Nats, who had assumed the form of a buffalo that its horns are spread out.’[18]

There is, however, substance to the allegation that Aung San Suu Kyi is involved with samatha. I do not believe she uses the rosary, but the vegetarianism[19] she practised from the time she visited the Thamanya Sayadaw until the car arrest episode when she stopped as she was so seriously weakened, invariably accompanies the practice of samatha. This is not just simply for the fact that metta and compassion (karuna) are indispensable to peaceful practice of all forms of mental culture. It is because the practice of samatha, since it emphasizes mind-created states and does not see all phenomena in terms of their transitory nature, is more readily disturbed by fear. In ascending to the higher abodes, it is therefore more crucially dependent on the ‘liking’ that the Brahma residents of the highest heavens supposedly have for people who do not eat meat (they cannot stand the smell of meat).

However, though included as part of vipassana traditions which place relative emphasis on samatha as a separate activity (as in the Ledi anapana tradition), vegetarianism is not a prominent attribute of the ‘dry’ approach vipassana practice of the Mahasi tradition, as U Pandita, Aung San Suu Kyi's vipassana teacher, himself emphasizes.[20] Here vegetarian diet is adopted by some people, but is not a feature of the tradition as a whole.

Samatha, metta and Thamanya Sayadaw

The most successful role model of metta held up by Aung San Suu Kyi is described in the first four chapters of Letters from Burma. These deal with Aung San Suu Kyi's 4 October 1995 visit to the U Winaya, better known as the Thamanya Sayadaw, who used to live on Thamanya mountain in Pa-an, but today lives at the foot of this mountain.[21] This was Aung San Suu Kyi's first visit outside her home immediately after her release from house arrest. The Thamanya Sayadaw is of some significance to the ‘spiritual warfare’ that is happening between the SLORC and the NLD. Having almost four thousand Karen refugees living around him, and living in an area which has not been under full government control since 1948, he has openly criticised the SLORC and has openly expressed support for Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Thamanya Sayadaw is a Pa-o monk held in great regard by the Burmese, described in U Sandima's Events in the life of Thamanya Mountain Sayadaw [qamvetac\Sraeta\ BwòPs\s¨\] (Rangoon: eRæHpurpiuk\, 1993, pp 52). The history of the mountain resort where he lives is described in Serene pinnacle of Thamanya Mountain [eA:òmqaeKåc\qamvetac\] (Rangoon: m%iezatsaep, 1993, pp 172).

I myself visited the Thamanya in early July 1998, taking the bus from Rangoon in the early evening

and arriving at Pa-an early the next morning, from which the Thamanya mountain resort was an hour's bus ride. I stayed one night at the monastery. During my visit some of the attendants of Thamanya took me around the projects, including two schools, the many monasteries and retreats on top of the mountain and the monasteries below. The grounds owned by the Sayadaw cover a three mile radius around the mountain where about 7000 families live. The Sayadaw owns 22 vehicles, including heavy duty trucks, that are used for various construction projects, including the building and maintenance of roads and various public utilities.

Thamanya's most distinctive emphasis is on metta. It is said that people used to come mainly to receive Sayadaw's metta. People mostly have come to the Sayadaw because of poverty in this financial crisis. Increasingly, some wealthy business people – both women and men – have come over the last year. This suggests that metta is becoming more commercialised as the free market takes hold of Burma. When I asked him about this, the Sayadaw did not emphasize the donors, but said that it was a single monk for whom this entire empire was built up.

The Thamanya Sayadaw, however, is clearly a product of the political and economic situation. He is viewed as a monk who contributes to the well-being of all those who visit him, and, increasingly to their businesses. In this sense he is seen by the pilgrims as a ‘productive’ monk. This explains why he collects such enormous wealth, which he redistributes to the destitute. For example, I met several young children there, some of whom had run away from home and others whose parents had abandoned them. Apart from receiving metta, they get as much free food as they like for which the finance comes from the wealthy – this is clearly a mechanism for redistribution at difficult times.

The military regime has always relied on twenty or so monks whom they will cultivate for their powers and occasionally invite to Rangoon. However, the greater the geographical distance between the monks and Rangoon, the more difficult it is to keep these monks tied to their patronage; on the other hand, also, the further away these monks are, the more useful they are to gain control over far-flung regions. The military was very keen on fostering a close relationship with the Thamanya Sayadaw, but this monk responded to their overtures by daring to criticise them quite openly.

The stories about his powers are legion. Some have alleged him to be a yahanda which would put him in the same bracket as Shin Arahant, the monk who assisted Anawratha in his reform (See App I, 7). During my visit, some of his attendants placed him as ‘more than a weikza and more than a yahanda’, suggesting that he is a kind of small Buddha. Like many monks who practise samatha he is vegetarian. His power is readily conveyed[22] through pictures distributed to pilgrims visiting him. For example, in Rangoon and Mandalay, the majority of taxi drivers have a picture of this (or some other) renowned samatha monk fixed against their windscreen for safety.

The Sayadaw's metta was extended to his environment and shaped the community around Thamanya mountain, for today within a radius of about three miles the people who live there eat only vegetarian food and only vegetarian food is sold in the food stalls. Visiting pilgrims eat vegetarian food for several days prior to departure. I was accompanied by five people, all of whom were vegetarian for the duration of the trip. One had already spent one year eating vegetarian food according to the instructions of this same Sayadaw. They do so in sympathy with the monk's emphasis on metta (of which vegetarianism is part since it is about avoiding the killing of sentient beings). His metta is so great that he feeds all who come to see him, without fail.

As Aung San Suu Kyi once said, the people at Thamanya live in ‘a sanctuary ruled by the metta of the Hsayadaw’ and in ‘a domain of loving-kindness and peace’. In criticising the SLORC, Aung San Suu Kyi remarks how bad the roads become when one leaves Rangoon, yet how good they are in the Thamanya Sayadaw's hands, ‘far superior to many a highway to be found in Rangoon’. She describes the situation where the SLORC forces people to contribute labour to build roads, whereas the Sayadaw achieves his works by voluntary contributions from the people. At Thamanya, ‘whenever the Hsayadaw goes through his domain people sink down on their knees in obeisance, their faces bright with joy’.[23]

At the two schools surrounding Thamanya Sayadaw's monastery, 375 children are taught by thirteen teachers with a lack of resources such as books. She concludes that the monk's works ‘are upheld by the donations of devotees who know beyond the shadow of a doubt that everything that is given to him will be

used for the good of others. How fine it would be if such a spirit of service were to spread across the land’. Her conclusion to this piece sums up her interest in metta:

Some have questioned the appropriateness of talking about such matters as metta (loving-kindness) and thissa (truth) in the political context. But politics is about people and what we had seen in Thamanya proved that love and truth can move people more strongly than any form of coercion.

This suggests an important criticism of the regime, which can only pretend to have metta in their slogans [E16][E17][E31]. It also suggests that only in metta do the destitute find refuge, thus producing more powerful monks than the regime can handle. Once again, it is the regime that produces its own enemies.

Aung San Suu Kyi's intention initially appeared to have been to visit a monk greatly respected by both the people and members of the regime alike, with the aim of working towards reconciliation. Some even speculated that she met with some high-ranking military officials at the Thamanya in preparation for future dialogue. A senior advisor close to her father supposedly even suggested she pay her respects to Ne Win. The idea being that, while they may not be able to formally reconcile, they may be able to arrange a Buddhist ceremony where they could meet informally. Soon after returning from her visit, Aung San Suu Kyi held a ceremony to mark Buddhist Lent day, and included among the invited guests was General Ne Win, though he did not attend.[24]

The many informal stories of the meeting between Aung San Suu Kyi and the Thamanya Sayadaw turned her into something of a heroine in opposition to the regime, and these stories are still popularly recounted by Burmese people today, even years later. Though many are obviously mythical, they invariably demonstrate Aung San Suu Kyi's spiritual upperhand over the SLORC's General Khin Nyunt:[25]

1. The Sayadaw manages through his superior jhanas to enter her compound despite all the guards and is able to talk freely to Aung San Suu Kyi; yet Khin Nyunt repeatedly invited the Sayadaw to Rangoon but he would not come

2. Khin Nyunt visited the Thamanya Sayadaw after Daw Aung San Suu Kyi did. U Thamanya came down the mountain to meet Aung San Suu Kyi and later invited her to come back and visit again. Khin Nyunt had to walk up the mountain by himself, and he was not invited back. Khin Nyunt tried to give U Thamanya a van, but U Thamanya said monks don't need vans, take it back.

3. The Sayadaw openly spoke out in support of Aung San Suu Kyi's efforts when they met; he openly told Khin Nyunt off

4. The Sayadaw only permitted his picture to be taken with Aung San Suu Kyi; Khin Nyunt was not permitted

5. Khin Nyunt was only given a brief audience; Aung San Suu Kyi was given over an hour.

6. When Khin Nyunt tried to start his car as he was leaving, he couldn't. He had to go back up to the Thamanya Sayadaw and ask for help. U Thamanya told him that when he stopped being angry, his car would start. Finally after a period, he was able to start the car. Such incident did not happen to Aung San Suu Kyi during her visit.

[1] Spiro's encounter with two Mandalay ‘Future Kings’ implicated meditation (concentration) and loving-kindness. Ba Pwa, a ‘Universal King’ (Setkya Min) was ordered by his guide weik-za Bo Min Gaung ‘to live with love and concentration’, as did Bodaw Setkya dispensed his students advise to ‘practice meditation… practice both love and tolerance’ (Spiro 1970:176,179).

[2] ASSK (1997a:24,124).

[3] Saya San who was a healer wrote two books on loki pañña before he got involved in the rebellion.

[4] After I gave a talk in Oxford in 1983, Aung San Suu Kyi asked about the meaning of ‘yogi’. Only just returning from fieldwork, at the time the significance of this question was not clear to me. However, I was later to discover that Thahkin Kodawhmaing, who was a great supporter of the entry of her father into the Do-Bama Party, adopted the title of ‘yogi-hermit’ (yogi yatheí). The significance of his meditation to the Burmese national independence politics dawned on me only much later.

[5] Ba Maw (1968:74), in a conversation with Aung San, indicated that the appeal of the Burmese Freedom Bloc, which had been phrased in terms of concentration meditation symbolism, allowed a binding between political leadership and the Burmese masses necessary as the characteristic of a ‘true revolution’, as distinct from a ‘conspiracy’ (leadership only) or an ‘insurrection’ (the masses only). The significance of this concentration symbolism for the success of a true ‘revolution’ which gave the masses a joint purpose with their leaders, should not be underestimated

[6] ASSK (1997a:33).

[7] Myín Hswei (1977:581–82).

[8] Thahkin Kodawhmaing's biography is in MSK (vol 2:310–11)

[9] Maung Maung (1969a:62). Col. Suzuki who was in charge of the Burmese Independence Army which ‘liberated’ Burma from the British, was renamed as the Moegyoe thunderbolt, ‘which would one day strike and shatter the umbrella's rod – interpreted by the astrologers as British power’ (Maung Maung 1969a:96). The prophecy was thus a self-fulfilling one. It is interesting to note that the account of the Ledi Sayadaw is also full of such prophecies pertaining here, not to the importance to the nation of the succession of kings or politicians, but the succession of monks or kings.

[10] Maung Maung (1969:62).

[11] Ledi Sayadaw (1965:119).

[12] (#11095 soc.culture.burma). In an email reply, Myint Oo Maung finds this accusation ‘is a very insulting remark on … Buddhists’ daily practice… what DAung San Suu Kyi does is simply a daily process of the Buddha’s way. What is wrong with this? Byatti (the SLORC mouthpiece) says as if this process is a criminal act.’ See also ‘Foreign dependent skinny person.’ NLM, 08.08.1996. Saw Maung had already intimated this criticism when in his 27 March 1989 Resistance Day address he criticised ‘internal and external destructive elements’ taking advantage of disorder, that ‘as the saying goes, the cats dance in glee while the forest is on fire”’ (Saw Maung 1990b:77).

[13] ‘Byamma's Head’. NLM, 09.1998. Interpreted on Radio Free Asia (RFA) by Aung Zaw, 29.09.1998.

[14] For example, this has also been used to explain why U Nu was not killed at the same time as Aung San for when they came for him he was counting the beads which protected him.

[15] Butwell (1969:18).

[16] Brohm (1957:394).

[17] Certainly, monks renowned for their practice of concentration meditation such as the Bodhi-ta-htaung Sayadaw, who currently has a fleet of forty cars and a large area of land populated with cheaply built religious structures funded mostly by soldiers and their wives, receive requests for helping protect soldiers going into battle. However, some of the most potent monks, such as the Thamanya Sayadaw, whose photograph is in almost every taxi in Burmese towns, are beyond government reach. Once the protective power of meditating monks slips from government control, and becomes focused on monks within NLDs domain, there is little doubt that the regime will not survive. How can its soldiers keep up their morale and go into battle with the blessings of ineffective monks? There is some evidence of Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army {DKBA} army members have been instructed to meditate in order to gain victory over their enemy. They have also been instructed to be on a vegetarian diet (article 1674, soc.culture.burma)

[18] Byatti. ‘Not satisfied dear love, let's begin from the start’. NLM, 07.06.1996.

[19] Thet-thak-lut, ‘life-killing-free from’ is the Burmese term for vegetarianism. There are important differences in the way this term operates in the Burmese language as compared to its English equivalent. First, rather than a dedication to a diet of vegetables, as the English ‘vegetarianism’ (one who prefers vegetables) implies, the Burmese term is clearly an extension of the first and the last of the Nine Moral Precepts (thilá kò bà). The first precept is not to kill, and the ninth precept is to send loving-kindness to all sentient beings (including ‘enemies’). In Burmese vegetarianism means to take the moral precepts to an extreme degree of difficulty, namely by eating in a way which avoids killing in action, intention, and desire. Though Pythagorian ideas held vegetarianism as important, in the Christian heritage, on the other hand, killing of animals for food is morally quite acceptable, which leaves vegetarianism thereby as having a very different status in Burma as compared to, for example, England, the country with the largest number of vegetarians in Europe.

[20] ‘… I would like to talk about vegetarianism. Some hold the view that it is moral to eat only vegetables. In Theravada Buddhism there is no notion that this practice leads to an exceptional perception of the truth.

The Buddha did not totally prohibit the eating of meat. He only lay down certain conditions for it. For example, an animal must not be killed expressly for one's personal consumption. The monk Devadatta asked him to lay down a rule expressly forbidding the eating of meat, but the Buddha, after thorough consideration, refused to do so.

In those days as now, the majority of people at a mixture of animal and vegetable food. Only Brahmins, the upper caste, were vegetarian. When monks went begging for their livelihood, they had to take whatever was offered by donors of any caste. To distinguish between vegetarian and carnivorous donors would have affected the spirit of this activity. Furthermore, both Brahmins and members of other castes were able to join the order of monks and nuns. The Buddha took this fact into consideration as well, with all of its implications.

Thus, one needn't restrict oneself to vegetarianism to practice the Dhamma. Of course, it is healthy to eat a balanced vegetarian diet, and if your motivation for not eating meat is compassion, this impulse is certainly wholesome. If, on the other hand, your metabolism is adjusted to eating meat, or if for some other reason of health it is necessary for you to eat meat, this should not be considered sinful or in any way detrimental to the practice. A law that cannot be obeyed by the majority is ineffective.’ (Pandita 1992:40–41).

[21] ‘Burma's Suu Kyi leaves Rangoon for first time’. Nando Times, World Briefs, 04.10.1995.

[22] The actual taking of a picture of someone with power permits it's transfer to the photograph, known in Burmese as ‘conveying energy’ [Dåt\kU:ty\]).

[23] ASSK (1997a:13).

[24] Aung Zaw. ‘Suu Kyi extends olive branch as convention delayed once again’ Nation, 13.10.1995.

[25] I am grateful for example 2 and 5 to Christina Fink.

Samatha, power and revolution

Authorities fear Aung San Suu Kyi's samatha

Samatha, metta and Thamanya Sayadaw