BUDDHISM in MYANMAR

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Buddhism in Myanmar - Myanmar Buddhism

Buddhism in Myanmar-Burma, Buddhism, Buddhism religion,
Buddhism symbol.

It is as I suppose the fairest place in all the world.' Ralph Fitch,

the first known Englishman to visit Burma or Myanmar, made this comment in 1586 on the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, evidently as beautiful then as it is now. Many a visitor from the West has echoed these words, as steaming up the Yangon or Rangoon river he has caught his first glimpse of that graceful golden spire, presiding so completely and unshakably over the wharves and buildings of modern Yangon, a hallmark of Myanmar Buddhism.

Walking around Yangon-Rangoon or travels around the country everywhere signs of Buddhist religion are visible 'the graceful seven-tiered spires of the monasteries, the white pagodas crowning every hill of any prominence, the brown-robed monks with their shaven heads carrying their begging bowls in the early morning while devout Buddhist women bring their daily offerings of food.

You will see Buddhist monks

at other times, sometimes a group of novices sauntering along the road like idle youths in Europe on a Sunday afternoon, or forgetting their supposed detachment from the world at a football match, or whipping themselves up into excitement at a political meeting. The spiritual and moral force of modern Buddhism has an important place in the life of the Myanmar people. 

This impression will be more strongly confirmed when witnessing any of the great religious festivals, when streams of pilgrims from miles  around crowd the

pagodas, joining in holiday spirit, drawn into the lavish hospitality,gazing in wonder  at the amazing creations in bamboo, tinsel and paper of mythical creatures and figures, enjoying all the fun of a mediaeval English fair. Most of the pilgrimage is sheer holiday and most of the pilgrims want nothing more, but there is a deeper side, as there was in the shrines and aisles of Canterbury.

To see this deeper side you must be humble enough to shed your shoes and stockings and climb bare-foot the well-worn steps to the shrines that cluster so higgledy-piggledy round the base of the pagoda. There you will find the more devout, mostly women, as in the Christian churches of the West, kneeling with prayerful hands before an image of the Buddha, asking maybe a husband or child or maybe something more spiritual ; or perhaps a tired old man, conscious that life is nearly over and that it is high time to pay serious attention to deeper things, telling his beads and finding refuge from a difficult, perplexing world in the three unfailing sources of refuge, the Buddha, the Law and the Church. If you have an understanding Burmese friend with you he may translate some of the prayers spoken aloud, and you will discover a wide charity in the prayers for all living beings divine and human, and in the generous sharing of the merit gained by the worshipper's prayer. And next door to this quiet shrine you will find a jostling crowd, lighting candles and offering flowers or gold-leaf at the shrine of one of the eight planets, for every Burman knows from the initial letter of his name on what day of the week he was born, and does what he can to secure good luck from the stars. As ever, religion and superstition, closely intertwined. Once again the visitor will be puzzled and find it difficult to evaluate the part which Buddhism plays in the lives of the people.

The Buddha

The Burmese or Myanmar people are almost entirely Buddhists. They are followers of the Buddha, a great Indian religious buddha head mandalay myanmar burmateacher who lived in the sixth century before Christ. His clan name was Gaudama, and he was the son of a small rajah in Central India. He and his family were Hindus by religion, brought up in the religion of the Upanishads and of older religious literature and tradition. From an early age Gaudama had been troubled by the amount of suffering he saw around him, suffering connected with birth, disease, old age, death, running the whole span of man's life. Possibly too he was struck by the contrast between the extravagance and luxury of his court life and the squalor and poverty of the poor who lived in the mud huts around. That grinding poverty of the common people of India is still today the thing that strikes and appalls the visitor from another country or the thinking Indian who loves his fellow men. This consciousness of universal suffering so worked in the mind of the sensitive young yuvaraj that finally he left his father's court, his wife and new-born child, to try and discover for men a way of release from suffering. To him suffering was the primary evil and he felt an irresis­tible urge to discover its cause and so show men how to escape from it. His search led him to sit under the leading gurus or teachers of his day, to study the various philo­sophical schools, to undergo every form of asceticism. But in none of these did he find any answer to his problem, and despairing of outside help he decided to seek his goal by himself and within himself. At last understanding came to him, as he sat in meditation under the Bo tree at Buddha-gaya. From that time on we know him no longer as Gaudama, but as the Buddha, the Enlightened One, the One who knows.

The Four Noble Truths

He summed up his discovery for later disciples in the Four Noble Truths about Suffering. The first was one that he had already recognized, that suffering is general and co-terminus with life. Suffering is involved in birth, sickness, decay, death, sorrow, in separation from the people and things we like, in having to live with people and things we dislike, in not getting what we want : all is suffering.

The second is the origin of suffering. Suffering springs from desire, craving, lust, attachment to people and things.
The third is the truth about the ceasing of suffering : namely, to escape from suffering crush out desire and craving, break all bonds of attachment.

And the fourth is the way to crush desire, by follow­ing the eight-fold path of right belief, right aim, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right contemplation.

Now there is no doubt that this is noble Buddhism teaching of deep insight into human nature, and if put into practice would produce noble character both personal and national. It may not rise to the heights of Christ's view of suffering as the raw material for spiritual maturity and victory, nor is it so far reaching in its discrimination as Christ's insistence that evil is the primary thing to be avoided. rather than suffering. But it does get down to the root of much human suffering, and it is emphatically practical in its advice how to eliminate desire.

In practice many Buddhists have held that the-Buddha insisted on the elimination of all desire, good as well as bad, and this has tended to make them passive, free from that selfless burning desire to get rid of social evils and to serve their fellow men. This is not seen in the Buddha, for after he had become enlightened, after he had completely repudiated selfishness and desire in him­self and had thus attained Nirvana (Nirvana), he deli­berately chose to live on in the world for the salvation of men.

U Min Dhonesae Pagoda Sagaing Myanmar Burma

Karma and Merit

We must not forget that the Buddha was a Hindu, a Hindu reformer certainly, who perhaps without intending it founded a new religion. Among the doctrines taken over from Hinduism by Buddhists none were more-strongly held than those of karma and transmigration. The Buddha's emphasis on cause and effect was clearly-seen in the four truths of suffering enunciated by him, and this has been elaborated into a dominant principle in Buddhism. Present suffering is thought to be caused by the demerit or guilt inherited from a former existence, while present happiness is the reward of virtue in former lives. Thus one's present state is determined by the law of karma, and nothing can prevent the relentless working out of this law. In practice this tends to produce an attitude of fatalism, which discourages Buddhists from making any whole-hearted attempt to overcome misfortune or to indulge in philanthropic work to any great extent. One who is a leper or blind or a cripple is so because of his karma ; it is both mistaken and useless to interfere. The accumulation of guilt has to be worked off until the last farthing is paid, and then there will be no rebirth in the world, but the attainment of Nirvana. To Buddhists the Christian doctrine of forgiveness seems not only im­possible but immoral.

The accumulation of merit

becomes a chief concern to the Buddhist, and in Burma the good deeds most pro­ductive of merit are those connected with the support of the Kaung-hmu-daw Pagoda Sagaing Myanmar-BurmaBuddhist religion. Thus to build a monastery or pagoda or to feed the monks is looked upon as much more efficacious than building a hospital or feeding the hungry, with the result that monasteries and pagodas are every­where, but hospitals almost only where government has put up the money or Western missions have been at work.
So the doctrine of karma discourages a courageous attack on social evils or personal misfortunes'it is defi­nitely nobler in the Buddhist mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, than to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. But let it be said that in recent years there has been an increase in works of mercy and philanthropy, though the balance is still heavily weighted in favor of the more institutional forms of merit. And all through, the accumulation of merit is far too often the main motive of giving, together -with its advertisement on foundation stones or dedicatory brass plates. But there, in the West, the number of people who feature in subscription lists as 'Anonymous' is equally small. Yet it needs to be said that the doctrine of karma looks forward as well as backward, although this is not often emphasized. For as much as the past determines the present, the present is going to determine the future. This should be an incentive to the Buddhist to a life of effort and virtue, so that having bravely overcome the handicap from past existences he may lay a foundation for his next cycle of life.

It might be thought that a belief in karma and a recurring series of lives in the world as animal or man indicated a belief in personality. But this is not so. It is not the same personal entity or soul that is carried on from one life to the other, but only the accumulation of demerit, the character that has been built up ; just as a new candle is lit from one that is about to go out, so the karma is handed on. There is no self, for human existence is thought of as being determined by the five khandhas or groups of body, feeling, perception, mental activity, and consciousness ; when these are combined together in operation life exists, when they disintegrate death takes place. This lack of buddha sitting mandalay myanmar burmabelief in a continuing personality in man, of a controller of the five khandhas, of a being personally responsible for the past and the fashioner of the future, has not been an incentive to the development of personality or for attempting great achieve­ments. Yet it does witness to the idea that the attainment of ideal character is a matter of long and painful effort, for which one short span of life is not enough. Even the Buddha himself lived through five hundred and fifty lives (and there is a jataka or birth story for each one) before he attained to Buddha hood. Indeed one of the early symbols of Buddhism was that of a wheel, hinting of the long journey to be traveled and the recurring lives to be lived before the perfection of Nirvana can be attained. Mrs. Rhys Davids speaks of man as a wayfarer on the long road of becoming, undergoing change and growth until the process of becoming is complete and man reaches the ideal and so enters his Nirvana.

But the Myanmars or Burman are seldom logical, even in his religion, and his superstitious belief in the ghosts of the dead suggests that the doctrine of no-personality does not command very deep obedience. For when a member of the household dies the other members of the family will not go to sleep while the corpse is in the house but sit up with neighbors and friends playing games and talking all through the night. Often a notice will be placed on the grave warning the dead person not to return. Even in the more sophisticated circles of government service, when a man dies his name is published in the official gazette and permission is given for him to retire from government service. Once after taking the funeral service of a Christian student who had died, I was approached by his Buddhist school-fellows and asked to put a notice on the grave saying : `Maung Kyaw, take notice that your name has this day been struck off the school register, so please do not return.' But this may be merely due to the survival of pre-Buddhist animist ideas. A similar thought is seen in the reluctance of Burmans to wake a sleeping person suddenly, lest his spirit or 'butterfly' should fail to return in time and so cause his death.

Is There a God'

Just as Buddhism in Myanmar or Burma, Ceylon and Thailand or Siam denies the existence of soul or self in man, so it denies the existence of a Supreme Being, an Ideal Personality, an Eternal God, and it claims that this was the teaching of the Buddha. He certainly did not give any definite teaching about God, nor did lie define him as a person. But this evidence is purely negative and at the most can only be cited as showing that the Buddha was an agnostic. It is possible that he did not regard the existence of God as provable one way or the other, and so did not regard it as of sufficient practical importance to spend much time on it. He was certainly questioned by shwedagon pagoda myanmar burma yangon rangoondisciples as to the existence of a Supreme Being and also as to the existence of the Ego. His reply in each case was non­committal, and this may suggest that in those days when barren metaphysical argument was so prevalent he did not want to commit himself to an answer which would have been equally distorted by both sides. His conception of God and the human soul may have been so deep as to be well nigh impossible to express in words. The view has been put forward that the Buddha was silent on this subject not because his idea of God was too small, but because it was too great and could not be intelligibly expressed, and so he did not wish to restrict himself to a sharp definition of the Deity. A consideration of his spiritual background and environment will give weight to this claim that he was not atheistic. It would be inevitable for one brought up on the Upanishads and earlier religious literature of Hinduism to believe in the existence of Divine Spirit, the source of all our intellectual powers and faculties as well as of all the powers of nature, the great A tman immanent in the lesser, finite atman of each man. To deny this would have been the surest way of arousing the opposition of every thinking religious Indian of his day, and we know that the Buddha's message attracted many who were sincerely seeking for reality. It is possible that this atheistic development took place after the Buddha's death and was one of the chief reasons for the expulsion of Buddhism from India. For it is strange that however strong Buddhism may be in Judo-China, Ceylon and China, it has failed completely in the land of its birth.

Whatever may be the truth about the Buddha and God,

there is no doubt that Buddhism in Myanmar or Burma is atheistic. The three main articles of the Buddhist creed are Dokkha, Aneissa, Anatta'all is suffering, all is impermanent, there is no soul or self. According to this creed there can be no God. To the Burmese Buddhist it is not a case of weighing the evidence and taking one side or the other ; to him there is no question about it : the idea of God is not only not reasonable but it is almost laughable. That is his attitude in discussion and argument, but in real life he is more vulnerable. For not a few of them tend to put the Buddha in the place of God, while to many belief in spirits is a far more real thing than the absence of a Supreme Being. It would seem that the great majority of people, like Nature, abhor a vacuum, and if there is no God at the heart of reality they look round for someone or something to fill the vacant throne.

Shwethalyaung reclining Buddha Statue
Shwethalyaung reclining Buddha Statue.

The Buddha himself did not claim to be divine. He claimed to have found the way of escape from suffering, to show men the road leading to Nirvana ; he was a teacher and a guide, but not a savior. By imitating his example they might become as he was, but it was by their own effort and in their own strength. When near death he is recorded to have said to Ananda : 'Therefore, 0' Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye a refuge to yourselves. Betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the Dhamma as a lamp.' And his last words were : `Decay is inherent in all component things. Work out your salvation with diligence.

This lack of belief in a Supreme Being and in an undying personality in men is regarded by many friendly critics of Buddhism as its greatest weakness.

Such a negative faith cannot supply a satisfying purpose for life, nor any real incentive to great achievement. Indeed life in the world is regarded as unfortunate and evil, some­thing to be escaped from. The goal of Nirvana, too, seems negative and unsatisfying, especially to Western minds with their emphasis on activity. It is the most difficult of all Buddhist concepts to understand. Nirvana is at any rate the cessation of selfish desire, emancipation from the three cardinal evils of lawba, dawtha, mantha, 'lust, ill-will, unreasoning stupidity ; it is the end of suffering, the end of the weary recurring cycles of existence, and so the Buddhist speaks of the Great Peace. It must be some­thing more than the peace of nothingness, but it is difficult to think so without a belief in personality. In one place the Scriptures say : `the ceasing of becoming is Nirvana' ; you have ceased to change and grow because you have reached the goal, becoming and being are now one, you have become that which you always aspired to be. Is this its meaning '

The most positive concept of it has been suggested by a modern Buddhist* who compares Nirvana with eternal life as taught by Jesus, and says it is a quality of life possible now, the kind of life the Buddha had, free from self-centredness, lust, This fits in with the possibility of attaining Nirvana while still in the world, and also with the refusal of the Buddha to dogmatise about what happens after the death of a Buddha.

Dharma Teaching, Law, Truth

There being no God in Buddhism in it is obvious that there can be little in the way of worship or prayer. It ought not to be necessary to state that Buddhists do not worship the image of the Buddha. They sit and fix their eyes on the Buddha's image to remind them of that great compassionate teacher and the way of salvation which he taught ; that practice is an aid to meditation and concen­tration. Prayer too is not addressed to anyone ; it is aspiration rather than communion or petition. The nearest approach to worship is found in the reverence which every Buddhist renders to the Three Gems
I go for refuge to the Buddha.
I go for refuge to the Dhamma (Law).
I go for refuge to the Sangha (Brotherhood of Monks).

We have already dealt fairly fully with the first of these objects of reverence in our consideration of the life and teaching of the Buddha. We have now to consider the other two. The Dhamma is the body of teaching handed down by the Buddha to his disciples. On his deathbed, before attaining to the final Nirvana, he told them that the Dhamma was to be their light and guide, and that the fulfillment of the Dhamma would be the highest way of reverencing himself. 'Whosoever, Ananda, be he brother or sister, lay brother or lay sister,'whosoever walks uprightly with the Dhamma-he it is that truly honors, reveres, respects, worships, and defers to the Blessed One in the perfection of worship.'

Buddhists in Myanmar or Burma have tended to identify this Teaching with the external law, written and contained in the Ti-Pitaka, the three 'baskets' of the Scriptures. These are : (I) Vinaya or Discipline, containing the rules of life, intended mainly for the monks. (2) The Sutta-Pitaka or Discourses, including the four longer books'The Dialogues of the Buddha, Further Dialogues of the Buddha, Kindred Sayings, Gradual Sayings, and a number of shorter ones of which the best known is Dhammapada or Verses on Dhamma. To the ordinary student of religion this collection is by far the most interesting of the three, though it does not make easy reading ; but patience will discover many gems of thought and religious insight. There is a good deal of repetition and a number of literary devices, which point back to an oral tradition, when the teaching was learnt by heart and handed down from one generation of monks to the next. All the main books in this section may be read in the English translations pub­lished by the Pali Text Society. (3) Abliidhanima, which describes the processes of thought and psychology of Buddhism. This is of a very metaphysical nature and makes more difficult reading still. Strangely enough this is the most popular of the three 'baskets' in Burma, suggesting that Burmese Buddhists are more interested in the metaphysical side than in the ethical or religious aspects of their religion.
To the serious Buddhist the essence of the Teaching, contained in the Scriptures, will consist of several strands. There will be the insight of the Buddha into the cause of suffering, and the way of release in following the eight­fold path ; there will be an appreciation of the Law of Causation and its working out in the law of karma'regarded from these aspects Buddhism is certainly a `gnosis', a way of knowledge and enlightenment. There will also be the ethical teaching of the Buddha, summed up for the ordinary man in the Five Great Commands, binding on every Buddhist. These are :
1. To kill no living thing.
2. Not to steal another's property.
3. Not to commit any sexual crime.
4. Not to speak what is untrue.
5. Not to drink intoxicating drinks
.
The highly moral character of Buddhism is evident from these five general commands. The first and the last need some comment. Not only human life is sacred, but all life, Teaching the highly moral character of Buddhism in Myanmar Burmathat of animals and insects as well. This is a logical development of the belief in re-incarnation, that long recurring cycle of lives progressing from humble forms of life and lower standards of character, to that final existence in the world when all guilt has been purged away, the debt of karma fully paid, and from which is no return ; Nirvana has been reached. So theoretically all life is equally sacred, that of an insect or animal equally valuable with that of a man. But in practice Burmese Buddhists fall short of that ideal'as indeed the adherents of any religion fall woefully short of their highest aspira­tions. Murder and violent crimes are sadly prevalent'murder is so common that a murder trial is dismissed in the newspapers with a short paragraph ; it is not of front-page value as in the West. The crime statistics of Burma rival those of Chicago, so that fearless critics of their Burmese friends have said : 'Instead of exalting all life to the value of that of a man the result has been to value the life of a man no more than that of an animal or insect.' Yet the devout monk will strain his water lest he swallow a tiny insect, and the ordinary householder will allow every pup born to live and will refuse to put a pain-racked animal out of its misery.
The fifth command too is interesting in its complete forbidding of the use of intoxicating liquor ; in the case of strict Buddhists this extends to the use of brandy for extreme cases of illness or exhaustion. The strictness is probably due to a practical understanding of human nature ; in the East generally speaking, if a man drinks at all it is not for fellowship or the stimulation of flagging energy, but to get drunk, to forget his worries and diffi­culties ; he has no idea of moderation. And in that case abstinence is safer than temperance.

The ethical nature of Buddhism has been expressed in another way : 'To abstain from evil ; to fulfill all good ; to purify the heart' this is the teaching of the Buddha.' To point out the failure of Buddhists to live up to this high level is no valid criticism of the standards of the Buddha, any more than the confusion and failure of the West can be used as an argument against the teaching of Christ. In both cases it is a refusal to accept the highest standards or a failure to find the spiritual power necessary to put them into practice. If Christians lived up to the teaching of Christ, and if Buddhists put into practice the ethical teaching of the Buddha, both West and East would be radically different from what they are now.
A beautiful practice in Buddhism is meditation on the four Brahinaviharas of inyitta (universal love or good­will), karuna (universal compassion), nzudita (joy in the prosperity and happiness of all), and upekkha (equanimity, indifference to the ups-and-downs of life, non-attachment to the things of this world). The object of this four-fold meditation is not only to produce these four states in oneself, but to radiate to all living beings good-will, coin-passion, sympathetic joy, unshakable poise.
In the Suttas there is a lovely description of the whole duty of the Buddhist, and a version of this is known and loved by every Burmese Buddhist. It is called,

The Song Of Blessing

One night a spirit came to the Blessed One and addressed him thus in verse :
Many devas and men have pondered on blessings, Longing for goodly things. 0 tell me Thou the greatest blessing.

The Lord replied :
Not to follow after fools, but to follow after the wise ; The worship of the worshipful, this is the greatest blessing.

To dwell in a pleasant spot, to have done good deeds in former births,
To have set oneself in the right path, 'this is the greatest blessing
Much learning and much science, and a discipline well learned,
Yea, and a pleasant utterance, 'this is the greatest blessing.
The support of mother and father, the cherishing of child and wife,
To follow a peaceful livelihood, 'this is the greatest blessing.
Giving alms, the righteous life, to cherish kith and kin, And to do deeds that bring no blame, 'this is the greatest blessing.
To cease and to abstain from sin, to shun intoxicants ; And steadfastness in righteousness, 'this is the greatest blessing.
Reverence, humility, content, and gratitude,
To hear the Law at proper times, 'this is the greatest blessing.
Patience, the soft answer, the sight of those controlled, And pious talk in season clue, 'this is the greatest blessing.

Restraint, the holy life, discernment of the Noble Truths, Of one's own self to know the Goal, this is the greatest blessing.
A heart untouched by worldly things, a heart that is not swayed. By sorrow, a heart passionless, secure, that is the greatest blessing.
Invincible on every side, they go who do these things On every side they go to bliss, 'theirs is the greatest blessing.

To follow this noble life brings merit and helps a man on his long pilgrimage to Nirvana. Perhaps the acquisition of merit has become too dominating a motive for living the highest life, and as has been said earlier the most meritorious deeds are those connected with the institu­tional side of Buddhism ; yet in daily life you will find many a sign of thoughtful charity often along the road­side you will see a tiny miniature house, high on posts like the living houses, built of wood, containing pots of drinking water, daily replenished by some kindly person for the refreshment of thirsty wayfarers ; or in almost every village a zavat or rest house where travelers may spread out their bedding rolls and sleep under cover ; or a village well provided by some villager who loves his fellow men. There are very few homeless orphans in Burma ; if the parents die a kindly neighbor will often adopt the children ; there is a whole section of traditional Buddhist law dealing with the rights of adopted children. Even the pariah dogs and birds are fed.

The spirit of toleration inculcated by Buddhism flourishes in Myanmar or Burma. Where there is intolerance it is due
not to religion, but to a sensitive nationalism, which regards Buddhism as the religion of Burma and therefore considers it unpatriotic of a Burman to accept conversion to another religion. And it must be said that sometimes missionaries in their approach are neither tolerant nor tact­ful, failing to appreciate the spiritual stature of the Buddha and the goodness and beauty of much of the Buddhist teaching.

A word perhaps needs to be said about the absence of any caste or class distinctions in Burma. This is due, I think, to the value and equality of all living beings implicit in the Buddha's teaching, although in his time caste distinctions in India had not yet hardened into their later rigidity ; they were there, but in their original purpose of practical division of responsibility and labor. Nor do we find the class distinctions so common in the West. Burmans meet one another and people of other races with a delightful absence of caste or class conscious­ness, with no complexes of superiority or inferiority.
So when the devout Buddhist begins his religious exercises with his homage to the Three Gems, in reverenc­ing the second gem, the Dharma, he has in mind some or all of the above ideas.

In recent years Mrs. Rhys Davids, following up the principles of the higher and textual criticism which have been brought to bear on the Christian Scriptures, has attempted to get back behind received writings and tradi­tions to the original message of the Buddha. To her mind the Dharma is not an external code of teaching but more of an inner principle, an inner light and guide approach­ing the idea of conscience. She claims that originally this was akin to the idea of Holy Spirit. The handful of Burmese Buddhists who have read her recent books will have nothing to do with this theory, yet strangely enough Mrs. Rhys Davids has some support of an historical basis, in the existence in Burma of a sect of Buddhists who call themselves Paramats, the name apparently meaning follow­ers of the higher way as compared with the Pinyats or adherents of the Law. These Paramats believe in a Divine Wisdom, somewhat akin to the Logos idea of the Stoics, and later of Philo, with which men may enter into communion by purification and meditation. They have no use for monks or pagodas or external symbols ; the highest form of life to them is that of the hermit, who by fasting and prayer seeks to get into mystical relation­ship with the ultimate reality. Some of these hermits, independently of Christianity, have conic to the conclusion that there must be an Eternal God.

Decline In The Burmese Sangha

In recent years the Brotherhood of Monks in Burma has suffered a serious decline, both in the reputation and respect in which it is held by the laity and also in its influence on the moral and spiritual life of the country. This is not entirely due to internal causes. For in the days of the Burmese Kings the Sangha was strictly controlled through an archbishop or Thathanabaing appointed by the King and responsible for the monastic discipline throughout the country. With the annexation of Upper Burma in 1886, the British Government with its recognized principle of neutrality in religious affairs, allowed this important office to lapse and so since that time there has been no coordinating or controlling nucleus in Burmese Buddhism. The result has been that the discipline in individual monasteries has depended entirely on the presiding abbot : in some cases strict standards of moral life and monastic discipline have been preserved, in others there has been sad laxity in both those spheres. In recent years monks have involved themselves in politics, especially some of the younger ones and have helped to stir up violent nationalistic feeling. The monas­tery too has often been looked upon as a sanctuary for Burmese criminals and the ease with which a man may become a novice has encouraged this. In Rangoon for example a big block of monasteries in Godwin Road was often a source of anxiety and trouble. There is obviously a need of some official register of monks and a stricter scrutiny of those who present themselves for the novitiate. It has been suggested that in the reconstruction of Burma after the war the ancient office of Thathanabaing should be revived and that he should be assisted by advisory bodies of trusted monks and devout laymen. It is possible that something more far-reaching than this is necessary and that Buddhism should be made the state religion of Burma with an annual grant for furthering truly religious objects. In Siam the King is regarded as the sole defender of the faith and many of the monasteries are under his direct control and in these a stricter rule of life is observed.

It must not be thought that this unhappy state is completely acquiesced in, for many monks and leading laymen deplore it and there have been efforts to remedy it. Only a year or two ago a bill was to have been pre­sented to the Legislative Council by a leading Buddhist to provide some control of the Sangha but was withdrawn at the last moment as the mover was violently threatened while on the way to the Council Chamber.
And in every generation there have been monks of outstanding piety and learning. Twenty-five years ago the saintly Ledi

Sayadaw became a great spiritual force in the life of the people, and in many a town in Lower Burma his teaching is still remembered and practiced. In recent years there has been the Monyin Sayadaw who has organized a powerful Buddhist centre near Monywa wherever he goes, crowds flock to hear him for he speaks simply and directly to the moral needs of the people, and where this is so there will always be plenty of people eager to listen and learn. After the Burma Rebellion in 1931 many Buddhist monks toured the affected areas preaching peace and goodwill, and in the rehabilitation of Burma after this war the monks will have a still greater part to play.

But it must be admitted that there is a real doubt as to whether or not a country like Myanmar or Burma can support as many as 100,000 monks. Economically such a large number is a serious drain on the country, and it is to be questioned whether it is morally healthy for so many men in the prime of life not to be doing some really creative work. In the Christian monasteries of the Middle Ages, under the influence of S. Benedict and his order, the twin principles of work and prayer were accepted, and from the monasteries there came out not only religion and learning but much practical inspiration for the develop­ment of agriculture and industry. If the Buddhist rule could be modified to include manual labor what a differ­ence it would make to the thinking and life of the people generally ; possibly with the spiritual aristocracy doing manual work the rising generation would come to see that manual work was at least as praiseworthy and valuable as a routine job in a government office, which seems to be the extent of ambition at present.

To pursue the high moral life laid down by the Buddha, to point men ever to the rooting out of all selfish­ness, to live worthy of the great reverence in which they are held by the people'these are no mean aims for the monks of Burma, and their achievement in any degree would augur a spiritual and moral revival among the people of Burma, already one of the most friendly and loveable races in the world.

We may close our study of the monks with words taken from the Buddha's charge when he sent them out on their mission : 'Go ye, 0 Bhikkhus, and wander forth for the gain of the many, for the welfare of the many, in compassion for the world, for the good, for the gain, for the welfare of gods and men. Proclaim, 0 Bhikkhus, the Doctrine glorious, preach ye a life of holiness, perfect and pure.'

Belief In Spirits

All the indigenous races of Myanmar or Burma have come from the mountainous regions of the Tibetan and Chinese borders, pressing down the great river valleys towards the fertile land of the south, where nature is generous and life easy. Before they settled in Central or Southern Myanmar or Burma the Burmese people were animists as the hill tribes still are to-day. They worshipped the spirit of the spring or river, the tree spirit or nat of the great banyan tree, they propitiated the spirits of nature and those responsible for sickness and disease, and they feared the spirits of the dead. Much of this still survives to-day in spite of the fact that Buddhism is the accepted religion of the country.

The word nat may have two meanings in Myanmar or Burmese. It may refer to the devas, the spiritual beings who inhabit the six Buddhist heavens in which virtuous people are rewarded with happiness after a good life on the earth. These beings display great solicitude for the pious state and welfare of mankind, but you need not bother about them too much for they will not do you any harm.

Secondly, the word nat may refer to the spirits of nature, the spirits of the air, the forest, the water, the household nat, the nat of the village. These are generally, though not always, regarded as malevolent ; they may do you either good or harm, and so they must be propitiated by regular offerings. There is a nat-sin or shrine for the local spirits in each village ; in most homes a cokernut deco­rated in red cloth is hung up for the guardian nat of the home ; at every big banyan tree there will be a shrine for the tree-spirit at which gold leaf, candles, flowers will be offered. All these spirits are to be feared because of their potentiality for doing harm.

There are also powerful spirits connected with certain localities, the spirits of people who in past generations have met with a violent end and are now believed to roam around the scene of their death seeking whom they may devour. The early legends in Burmese vernacular histories deal largely with this type of nats. Some of the most popular festivals, though centering round the pagodas, are in origin nat festivals. In 1856 at the founding of Mindon's new capital of Mandalay, pregnant women were buried alive under the posts of the main gates, the idea being that their spirits would haunt the place and do harm to any who came against it with evil intent.

Among the Karens and Kachins animism plays a more powerful part than among the Burmans, but even among the latter the nats are to be reckoned with in everyday life, so much so that it has been claimed that animism is the real religion of Myanmar or Burma and that Buddhism is only a veneer.

Anawrahta, the founder-patron of Burmese or Mynmar Buddhism, realized how difficult it would be to detach his people from their old beliefs and practices, for in the great Shwe Dagon Pagoda at Bagan, he enshrined images of the thirty-seven nats, saying, 'If they will not come for the new religion, they must come for the old'. It should be understood that this worship of the spirits is quite contrary to Buddhism ; it is tolerated rather than permitted. Its existence side by side with Buddhism is thoroughly illogical, but then the Burman is illogical in more ways than one : as a Buddhist he confesses that `all is suffering' but in practice he is a gay, pleasure-loving, happy-go-lucky fellow. Perhaps too Buddhism may satisfy him as a philosophy of life and as an outlet for social activity, but it is cold and impersonal, whereas his contact with the nats is more satisfying to that inner, reli­gious sense of dependence and need.

This belief in spirits is accompanied by a natural faith in omens. There are all kinds of auspicious and inauspi­cious omens, certain days on which it is unlucky to commence a journey or undertake a new project. And inevitably there are plenty of experts, who profess to be able to interpret the signs or foretell the auspicious days. These be-din say as, astrologers, ponnas, will for an appro­priate fee tell your horoscope or advise you as to lucky days, or tell you the whereabouts of a lost person or piece of property. Superstitious practices, relics of primitive magic, love potions, still survive and are well patronised. The best monks frown on all this, urging their people to protect themselves by reciting the usual religious formula or verses of the Scriptures, against which the wills of the nats etc. are harmless. But superstition and the desire to know the future are so far too strong even for the dis­approval of the monks, who have perforce to tolerate what they would fain banish.

Myanmar or Burmese Festivals

Mention has already been made of the festivals, which are more of the nature of great social holidays. Many of these are the patronal festivals of pagodas, some are even nat festivals, not all of them have any connection with Buddhism. The New Year Feast or Thingyan known to Western people as the Water Festival is almost the only festival that is observed universally throughout Burma. This takes place early in April and celebrates the annual visit of the Thagya-min or King of the Devas to inaugurate the new year. The exact day is fixed each year by the astrologers who profess to have intimate knowledge of his plans, and who also announce whether he will stay on the earth for three days or four. Early on the first day crowds repair to the monastery with pots of fresh clear water which are respectfully offered to the monks, then the images at the pagoda are ceremonially washed. After that the festival becomes one joyous holiday and water is sprinkled or more often thrown over anybody and every­body, the idea behind it being friendliness and cleansing. In former times there was a deeper thought to the festival '

children would not fail to visit their parents and sprinkling them with a few drops of water would ask pardon for their negligence's of the past year ; a similar thought would lurk behind the offering of water to the monks ; officials and employers would receive visits from their juniors and would be sprinkled with water symbolic of blessing, good-will and respect. But in modern times the festival tends to degenerate into a rollicking time especially for the younger folk, with buckets, hose-pipes, squirts, stirrup pumps all brought into play, with trams, trains, buses, motor-cars as the favorite targets so that on these festival days it is risky to go out unless you are prepared for repeated soakings. But among the Burmans themselves it is all carried on with friendliness and enjoyment, and no one minds getting soaked, for the hot weather has already arrived and there is no fear of catching cold.

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