vaga #2/9 Monks who impressed me

part IX

I chose this sculpture of Buddha because I found it wonderful, the peace it transmits, the humility and the hint of a smile, which is seen very little in the Statues of Buddha in such a welcoming attitude, it was one of the first I saw,  I happened to take a full-body photo of him sitting in a very relaxed pose, so different from the other statues that are rigid with expressionless faces and they are all very similar to each other. The rare marble colour was a steely green, I admire this anonymous sculptor like all the great architects, sculptors and craftsmen of the highest quality, of great beauty and skill and always being anonymous. Remembering the image of Moses by Michelangelo I see a tremendous difference, the Moses statue, is rigid, not very fine, with a hard, authoritarian expression, while this one reflects a simplicity of soul, compassion, kindness, it gives a feeling of humanity, which I did not feel in front of Moses, who is so appreciated by Western culture, my mother was fascinated by the statue of Moses. Once again my deep admiration for this stone master and his anonymity overriding his ego, in Buddhism there is no ego. I am so pleased with the transmitted peace that I have it as wallpaper on my cell phone.

Three stories touched me about monks, the monk in the pagoda or Paya Shwedagon in Rangoon, the saffron rebellion and finally the moje U Ka Wein.

A monk in meditation in the pagoda under a niche in a place full of people, it was noisy and the temperature was over 40 degrees, many others were meditating in other niches, but nothing like him. I stopped to look at him discreetly, for a long time, he did not move, nor did I see movement due to his breathing, he didn’t blink for about 10 minutes I was observing him closely. I continued touring the temple, which consisted of many temples within an enclosure, I passed by him again about 20 minutes later and it was still the same, I took 2 videos at different times each video, was 2 minutes long and they were identical, without blinking, without breathing. I came by in another 30 minutes and he was still the same. A sensation of being in another world, free of a material body, oblivious to what he was hearing around him, to the heat. It made me emotional to see a monk in a state of superior spirit and for so long, it touched me deeply.

The next story was about the peaceful revolution that the monks made in an anti-government protest, I was impressed that they demonstrated in politics, I thought they were alien to everything outside, but no, I also learned about other Buddhist demonstrations in Vietnam during the war and in India. " Saffron Revolution“(2007) The reason it was called that was because his robes were that colour. It was triggered by the decision of the military junta government to increase the price of gasoline by 500%. After learning that one of his fellow monks had been brutally tortured and killed by a group of soldiers, he had demonstrated together with students at the beginning of the price hike. They did not get forgiveness from the military and mobilized en masse, organising sit-ins and demonstrations. The protests mostly took place in Rangoon, then other cities were added. At least three monks were shot dead by the army. The main instigator of the revolt was the young cleric U Gambira, founder of the All Burma Monks Alliance, and for this reason, he was imprisoned in 2008 and was forced to give up his robes while in jail. that was one of the major punishments he received. He was released from prison in 2012 thanks to an amnesty but had to leave the country in fear of his life. 

The demonstrations were repeated for almost a month, even though the authorities toured the cities to warn them all from cars with megaphones, that anyone who dared to observe or participate in the protests could be sentenced to a sentence of three years to ten years in prison. The military also carried out night raids, burning several monasteries to the ground. Among other demonstrations, they did a walk from Rangoon to Mandalay (500 km north), monks from each area joined the column, arriving in Mandalay. 15,000 monks were accompanied by students, it was a silent march, gathering more than 100,000 people according to several witnesses, they were cheered on the road as they passed by. Dalai Lama and George Bush also gave their support. A curfew was imposed. Aung San Suu Kyi was transferred from her house arrest to prison. Reporters were prohibited from taking photos and were expelled from areas of conflict. They even cut the internet for three days so that the protesters couldn’t coordinate with each other. Civil protesters protested both for democracy and against the violent treatment of the peaceful monks. There are half a million of them and every Burmese man must live as a monk for six months of his life. All have been monks at some point in their lives, even the military.    

The protests did not achieve any political change in Myanmar but came close to ending the military dictatorship.

I took this photo as a screenshot from Google, you can see the huge column of monks walking.

U Ka Wein was born with another name, then, when entering the monastery they gave him the name of "wise man" he quickly told me, with a smile, that he wasn’t, and U ka Wein is the name that his friends call him, of course, he had to write it down for me. He was the monk in charge of a monastery in Mandalay I don’t know the meaning of his name. How did I meet him? I was walking  on " The Buddhist New Year" and I was soaked, by the water being thrown at me, I ended up in a very small street with no idea where I was, there was a food cart half a block away and two monks were sitting on the sidewalk on either side of the cart, I passed by, and I heard “ where are you from? “A monk asking me   !!!! PLOP   //// I stopped and said Chile, knowing that I might as well have answered“Timbuctoo” …. He answered loudly Alexis Sánchez, he said to me   !!!! PLOP again //// Obviously, with that in common, we began to talk, a monk knew about Chile and a Chilean even though he is a football player, the coincidence amazed me. He invited me to sit next to him. !!!! PLOP AND PLOP !!!! it was around 4 pm and it was my second day in Myanmar, seeing monks in the streets for me was like being in another world, like a fairy tale. Never in my life had I seen a monk and suddenly I was seeing them everywhere and now I was sitting in the street with a monk who spoke perfect English, The bench was small so we were shoulder to shoulder PLOP  that closeness, already physical, we were sticky with sweat and our arms felt glued together) I was speechless. We talked for about 45 minutes, I was too shy to ask about the monks, he was asking me everything. A while later he asked me if I wanted to see his monastery   !!!!… . of course !!!!…… He took me down an alley and I was worried because I was wearing shorts, something that is not allowed in holy places, but I didn't say anything, it depended on him. It was the poorest monastery I have seen so far, it was not a proper temple, it was a room with a statue of Buddha, it was the place of meditation without a fan. We went up to the second floor I was impressed by the basic environment. I took a photo of the area where the guests stay, it had a ceramic floor, period. He told me that the baths had just been finished, and he was very proud of the achievement. Then he asked me if I wanted tea, ……. of course  …… I would do anything to stay in there and look at everything. We sat on the first floor, at a table for about 14 people, a lady arrived with tea for both of us and some very tasty cakes, she was the cook, she told me that he did not eat after 10 am. About 3 or 4 young men were sitting around the small room doing nothing. A boy passed by and knelt in front of my friend, the monk and gave him effusive compliments over and over again, the monk seemed indifferent and told me at that "you don't have to do it " I gulped because I was unaware of his stature, and I was sitting in front of him drinking tea? I had seen civilians bowing to monks before but to those of higher rank. He explained to me that young people come from the provinces and study under teachers and they give them accommodation and food and but because of the Water Festival they are on holiday and they were at leisure. He told me that he learned English and was self-taught and that it was good to practice English, because the options to do so, were very scarce. I saw an intellectually restless man, it was clear to him that studying was an essential part of getting away from a life of poverty and that is why he welcomed future teachers. He became a monk when he was a child and never left the monastery again, he came from a small and poor northern town. He was a high ranking monk, he is about 45 years old because their ranks are measured every 10 years, I don’t know what the names of the ranks are. I learned that anyone can become a monk at any age, 40, 60 80 years old, They can stay for a week or as long as they want to, without any restrictions. That is why there are older monks but they have not had the experience, nor do they have an in-depth study of the Sutras. There were 2 young monks on the second floor watching TV, I didn't know they could watch TV. He told me that he was a soccer fan and watched it on TV when he could, soccer is not a sport that is played in Myanmar... He started talking to me about Buddhism but I was exhausted, 45 degrees of heat, the emotions of the day and the two hours that we spent together so we agreed to get together again and continue talking. He asked me if I had  Facebook, Facebook, What   !!!! a monk has Facebook,   another PLOP… !!!!. we exchanged telephone numbers (in Chiang Mai in other circumstances I met the elder monk of a famous monastery and we also exchanged telephone numbers, I had the personal telephone numbers of two high ranking monks from two monasteries in my cellphone, “UNIQUE!”. We went back to the alley where I saw the street vendor who sold leaves, the ones that everyone chews all over Myanmar, and they all have black and rotten teeth. I dared to ask if I could take pictures of myself with them, it was no problem, but both were aware of their teeth and kept their mouths closed. A week later I dropped by but I couldn't locate him and before I left I asked Fatty to take me to the monastery to say goodbye, they told me that he was in the hospital and Fatty took me there. I contacted him by phone and he told me which floor he was on. I found him in the waiting room and learned that there is no public health, only private but the 'look' of the place is very basic and the waiting times are like the public health hospitals. He was there because he had to visit someone who was sick and he had to talk to the doctor and find out about the situation. He had been waiting for more than two hours. I was surprised and I have not heard of other monasteries that provide social support. I was pleased that he is not only engaged in meditation and teaching Sutras to the young monks, but he also had diverse interests and I think that is what connected us.

We continued chatting by phone and by e-mail, I asked him questions about Buddhism but at some point, we lost contact. Telephone calls and emails to him went without any replies, so there the friendship remained, only the memory, we would have continued talking for the rest of our lives. A man open to knowing the world and the life and steps of a traveller, he kept up to date with my travels with empathy, he updated me about the monastery or gave me news about himself. I just made another attempt to contact him, to find out about his participation in the Saffron Revolution and his opinion about it.. It would have been extremely interesting to hear about it in the first person. but I was not lucky, it is a great pity and I do not know the name of the monastery to search for it on Google, it was too small, without the appearance of a monastery, in a labyrinth of streets and alleys,  tightly squeezed into a place between buildings and barracks. For the last time a great pity, I found that he was more like a man than a monk with his attitude, he was conscious of other’s needs and he provided solutions for every need.

Dear friend and monk, I am grateful and lucky to have met you, I will have you in my thoughts for life, Thank you.