You may not know that S. and I just completed a ten day journey in Burma (as the US State Department insists on calling it) or Myanmar (as the rest of the world calls it). I can’t quite figure out why we insist on using something as arcane as naming conventions as a means of conducting foreign policy…remember ISIL vs. ISIS in another area of the world. Back to our journey. The first question that comes to mind when one discovers our travel intentions, is “why in the devil would anyone want to go to Burma.” Let me tell you now there are no crisp answers. In part, I guess, it’s because we haven’t been here before, part because there is a shroud of mystery about it due to the military dictatorship that’s lasted for fifty years and more, and partly because of the recent media attention paid to Aung San Suu Kyi, the famously popular daughter of that man accredited with the founding an independent Burma. In fact President Obama, in his recent interview with Steve Inskeep of NPR, cited Burma and Suu Kyi in his discussion of areas of the world where things seem to be going right for a change. They both deserve more attention from me, but later.
I have to admit that I was attracted to Burma, at least in part, due to the fact that Burma is a thoroughly Buddhist country. When I say thoroughly, I mean thoroughly as in through and through. Think small towns in the South with a Baptist church on every corner. Think the diamond district in NYC with all the Hasidic Jews in their odd clothes, top hats and long curls manning their diamond counters. Think any Middle Eastern country with the women covered in burqas My thinking was that Buddhism seemed, well, peaceful and not personally threatening.
In Burma, unlike most other largely Buddhist countries, Buddhism is pervasive. It slaps you upside your head and keeps on slapping. In a country roughly the size of Texas and with a population of sixty million, they have over a million pagodas (roughly equivalent to our church) and an estimated half million monks (not including the little kid monks and lady monks referred to as “sila-rhan” which means owners of virtue. Most people just call them nuns.) Collectively these groups are called the sangha or the monastic community. To give some perspective on the relative size of the monastic community, realize that in the United States we have about six hundred thousand clergy men and women for our population of three hundred million. If we had preachers in the same proportion as Burma has monks we would have…..?, well I can’t figure out the numbers, but it would be pretty crowded with bible thumpers.
If you’ve paid any attention at all to past postings, you will know that I have a somewhat, even outright, cynical view of traditional religions. In fact, I’m pretty cynical about all religions. I’ve written several pieces that touched on various aspects of the Abrahamic faiths, and I’ve even explored Hinduism and Jainism due to our past travels in India. Of course, I’ve touched on Islam, as it is hard to ignore today. But nary a word on Buddhism which is the fourth largest and fastest growing religion (if you want to call it that). There are those that opine that beliefs that are not god-based fall short of being a religion. I’ll let you be the judge.
For all of us on this side of a very large pond, Buddhism is to us a completely mysterious piece of business, but you should know that Buddhism is not small potatoes elsewhere as it dominates most of Asia. Its adherents are divided roughly into two piles…the Theravada and the Mahayana. Geographically, the distribution follows a north-south fault line, with virtually all of the Mahayana in the north of Asia…China, Korea, and Japan; while the Theravadas are in the south…Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka. I’m sure that to them the theological divide, as between the Shia and Sunni and the Catholics and Southern Baptists, is terribly important, but I must admit that I could not discern any understanding of these differences, except, perhaps, with respect to the fervor of the various believers.
You will be forgiven for thanking whomever you care to thank, that I’m not going to try to cover the ins and outs of Buddhism; however, I don’t know about you, but I grew up a Southern Baptist where things were made pretty clear at a very early age. It was all about sin, and what one needed to do to expiate that sin. If you did all the right things and kept on doing them, the sins would be forgiven and you, sooner or later, wound up at the right hand of god, or some such place. Not so with our friends the Buddhists. With them it’s all about suffering. Yep, I said suffering. They believe, as did Siddhartha Gautama, now known as the Bhudda, that man is born into suffering and that one’s life, as well as future lives, should be about expiation of that suffering. Indeed, the Buddha lays out a pretty concrete plan of action that would get the job done. Unfortunately, it takes him, and his followers, about 10,000 pages of “teachings” to explain. These teachings are from various sources and in various forms, but collectively are referred to by those of Theraveda leanings as the Pali Tiptaka. As far as I can figure out, much of what the monks do, other than chant and ask for money, is to study these teachings with a view towards reaching the enlightenment which they call Nirvana. Up until this trip, I always thought it was the name of an acid rock band from California.
The basics of Buddhism are simple. Just remember 8,5,4. Eight is the Noble Eightfold Path which describes the aspects of life that are important for relieving suffering; five is the Five Precepts which are necessary for good, ethical living; and four is the Four Noble Truths which provides a framework for everything else. Well, it is a little complicated. Frankly I like the five stuff better because it’s more familiar to me. 1) No killing, 2) No stealing, 3) No sexual misconduct, 4) No lying, and the toughest one No alcohol. These might be a little familiar to you too, if you’ve ever read Exodus or Leviticus in the good old King James bible. Yep, you’re right. They come right from our ten commandments…or at least four of them did, except that Buddha came first, I think. Maybe Moses and Buddha were in cahoots somehow.
But the heart of Buddhis is the Noble Eightfold Path or what they casually call “The Middle Way”. It’s a pretty good prescription of how one should live one’s life. It’s all about having the Right: Understanding, Intent, Speech, Action, Livelihood, Effort, Mindfulness, and Concentration. Yes, I know. These require a lot of definition and I guess that’s what the ten thousand pages are all about.
More about monks. Monks are a pretty special set of characters in Burma. They spend their whole lives trying to live the good life, studying the teachings of Buddha, asking for alms, and generally trying to get enlightened so they can get to Nirvana. I asked how many had made it, and the answers were vague to non-existent. I think the old Buddha may be the only one that ever made it, and he was the one who was making up the rules. BTW, that’s what reincarnation is all about. When you fail to get enlightened and reach Nirvana in your first life, you get another shot at it in another life, and on, and on, and on. It was a little of a downer to find out that no woman has ever made it, and is not likely to, because the only ones that have a realistic shot at it are monks and there are no women monks. Go figure. I guess that means there is no cohabitation or procreation in Nirvana.
I know all of this sounds a little odd at first blush, but if you were an alien someone tried to describe Christianity or Judaism to you, you would probably think exactly the same thing.
So my bottom line is that Buddhism is probably okay as long as they keep it over there, and it’s a big plus that the people seemed pretty nice, although the dictators have been pretty mean for the last fifty years or so. Maybe they weren’t good Buddhists.
The only thing I really don’t like about it is that they let all the monks get on the airplane first, even before first class and frequent fliers. It’s just not right.
