Why your country has two names

Dear Ako (elder brother),

I hope you are fine and enjoying your loquacious discussions with Ko Moe, Ko Sein, Ko Han and other your philosophic friends in the teashops in Burma as usual. I safely arrived in the Connecticut School of the US on Sunday and now I am writing you from my computer cluster classroom.

Our teaching assistant for economics is a nice and down-to-earth India-born guy who is also a PhD student of political science in my university. As soon as he appeared in the class, he recognized me that I was the new student. “Are you the new student from Burma?” he asked me in his flamboyant voice. When I nodded my head, he asked me another question,” I couldn’t help asking this question. Why your country has two names?”

Actually, I didn’t know how to answer it. I replied in my natural thinking,” People who love their country call our land Burma”. However Mr. Nice Guy seemed not to be satisfied with my answer.

I think in the future, many people who are interested at our country will be asking me the similar question. I feel shy to myself why I have never thought of this kind of inquiry.

I would love to listen to you how I can answer this question in a thinking way.

Yours,

Nyimalay (little sister)

The Ganges will still be crying for its falling temples

When the half-hearted Burma's capitalism was drilling the country’s resources to the avaricious swallowing of Big Head, the communist China's road to capitalism has raised its people to unprecedented growth. For Confucius’ people, economics seems to be more important than politics. Actually, the non-genuine nature of Burma's capitalism has shut down itself from globalization and authentic trade liberalization. The investment climate became desiccated like the Arabia deserts. Before I studied here in America, by seeing China’s affluent society I innocently thought, what Burmese required from Big Brother was not Democracy but generous trade liberalization.

The lay man's thinking can probably be cleverer than the smart people in many cases. But we also need to go a little deeper for verifying our common sense. In “Global Inequality”, David Dollar warned me seriously that trade liberalization alone would not work for Burma. China, India, Uganda and Vietnam are doing well in economy catching up with free trade liberalization in this globalized arena. Mr. Dollar said that Burma can not be expected to happen the same because Burma doesn't possess strong institutional structures to support free trade and open economy. Thinking conversely, as long as there are weak institutions granting the big head unbridled power and privileges for its exploitation at the small head, Burma will still fall behind the rest of the world.

To much more surprise, maybe a beginning of harmony from discord, Thomas Pogge added that this was not the mutually exclusive fault of Burma from the rest of the world. Under the existing global rules, the design of the global institutional order itself was the CRITICAL cause for the development of the problems of the world poverty. He said even the most blatantly illegitimate regime like Burma military junta has full entitlement to sell the country’s resources abroad all in the name of the country’s people. Of course, the trouser people always referred themselves as Burmese. There is not even a small trace of institutional structures in this globalized world to hinder this kind of gravely unfair evils' imposture over the people.

Today, the world biggest communist China and the planet largest Democracy India were two big patrons of “Burmese” who always protect this fatherless child from so-called abuses of the Western dominance. Apparently China and India adopts this kind of foreign policy because these two economic men of Asia think Burma economic pie as the zero-sum game. They are afraid that their current economic pie from the military junta will be lost if the Western investment comes in. For me, Chinese and Indian people were short-sighted economists who knows only how to sell the volatile products: they want to do the business on the spot and want to get money outright never thinking for twists and turns in the long run. If Asoka forthwith pays his ruby, Mao will sell a dragon without delay.

In his so far immortal,” The World is Flat”, Thomas Friedman complacent his fellow Americans’ anxiety over growth of China. He said the more developed China is, the much bigger market size will be the US because now, the more developed China has more purchasing power to consume the US products. I would like Chinese and India leaders to see how the world has already become flattened and change their current “ruby at once and dragon at once” thoughts. According to the spatial correlation theory, the US’s biggest trade partner was the developed and its bordering Canada. I believe Friedman's theory is a universal and timelessly true principle to be applied everywhere in the world where people always want to see themselves as different and couldn't find out a harmony. Imagine the opulent spending tendency of Burmese and how much aggressive in business doing nature of native Indians and Chinese in Burma. The developed Burma in the long run will inevitably and dramatically expand Asoka and Qing Shi Huang’s market empires to many times the size of the current scopes who are pathetically trying to divide a small piece of cheese under the scorns and pointing fingers from many parts of the world.

Allowing to transform Burma into the model of Western democracy and foreign investment is indeed, a win-win situation for both countries and Burma. The world is still too young to be unstinted from barbarian self-interest, a vision to find harmony, and to seek a bonhomie of brotherhood and justice.

To cap, Burma has fallen a victim to the prisoner's dilemma from materialistic thinking of two Asia superpowers. These two Asia superpowers may probably envision themselves that they are so smart for their people. In reality, they are still the jungle men. When the jungle men see a hen, they try to kill at once and eat at once. They have never thought of the wise men's way of letting the hen alive so that those wise men can enjoy the chicken eggs forever.

"Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day", Lao Tsu, the Taoism founder of China, had ever said. "Teach a man how to fish, he will eat for the whole life", Lao Tsu had directed his Middle Land fellows a universal truth. Nevertheless, China has never been a country to accept Lao Tsu's idea of trying for living honestly with the nature. In India, Swami Sukhabodhananda said “One’s effort becomes divine when where one is able to convert his business into a temple and not a temple into a business”. The Ganges River will still be crying with silent tears for the coming temples converted into business as the world will still not be a divine.

Beseeching Buddha's delegate

Look Down, Fair Moon

LOOK down, fair moon, and bathe this scene;

Pour softly down night's nimbus floods, on faces ghastly, swollen, purple;

On the dead, on their backs, with their arms toss'd wide, Pour down your unstinted nimbus, sacred moon.

Walt Whitman

Nothing in the universe to everything in the universe

Dear Ko Moe,

What I am arguing is when you are at the second level of epistemology, I think insight into the third level is not that very far for a mature western social scientist who has been thoroughly searching himself and the purpose of life. As I enlightened the third non-dual awareness in meditation at the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, anybody who takes the shade of a tree or a quiet place can also enlighten in the same way because we can never underestimate the unleashed potential and infinite prospect of human beings.

Let's do it in logic. It has been so long straddling years to be believed that no Pyitt Sa Ka Bodhi enlightenment can appear during the live period of Buddha’s Sarsana. If this saying had been true, any enlightenment must have been derived exclusively pure from the teaching of Buddha. But if you review Tripitika, the eight jana practices are that of Hinduism and Buddha always encouraged people to practice these steps. Apparently as he was not the founder of Hinduism, he was a person who could merely encourage these practices that have been established over thousands of years before his enlightenment. In this sense, for many of the people, these practices are unavoidable stepping stones to Nirvana Enlightenment. When you complete the Eighth step of Hindu janas, the one you need is just to drop off your identity. According to my memory, there are also very few western philosophers who deny the existence of I. As if a tailor who has a very good eye in sewing could seam different portraits to be enlivened on a single backdrop, a Hindu philosopher who accepted the non-existence of I, being zealous in finding himself by his traditional religious jana practices will also get the enlightenment of Nirvana in Buddhism.

Assuming this hypothetical case. a Hindu philosopher who suspects the existence of I can practice these Jana steps and can ultimately get insight into enlightenment of emptiness. I would also like to suggest you to understand first the interconnectedness of Sila, Samadhi and Pynnya, three attributes for self-development in Theravada Buddhism.
The simple and conventional wisdom will interpret these three great pillars as morality, concentration and wisdom. My unconventional thinking will be helpful for completeness in understanding the chain reaction of these tripod elements.

(1) Sila = mind as free from defilement
(2) Samadi = justice not to be biased +
(3) Pynn Nya = Right Analytical Power.

Maybe you find it awful to new view in interpretation of Sila, Samadi and Pynn Nya. What I feel is when I become older, I get more sense of what Buddha actually mean by his Pali words. You can see without No.(2), No.(3)can't appear by luck. The Buddhist monks seem to be still confused Pynn Nya with enlightenment and Samadi with the last step of Magga Truth, Sama Samadi that is an end for the eightfold steps and also a mean to Nirvana but not the prerequisite like Samadi, an equilibrium state of mind to get to the right analytical power of wisdom. The rightfulness of the direction is the most critical part to push you on the way of Magga Truth. No matter, how intelligent and assertive you are in cleaning the jungle, if you are cleaning the wrong jungle, this is a waste of time.

My standing is to see these 3 marble stones as pre-requirements of a lay man (Puthujana). Samadi as the second pillar of three attributes of self-development (pre-requirements) can't be the ultimate Upika to shake off everything at the doorstep of the Nirvana. Remember that the ten perfection practices of Buddha are like institutional fulfillment for the gaps of the former by the latter for the former’s incoherency in the direction of a Bodhisattva's path. I think the term Bodhisattva is also more appropriate in this respect because ten perfection practices are not to be exclusively fulfilled by Buddha and belong to all the worldly creatures who are searching for enlightenment of himself and others.

Continue analyzing. Number(2) also can't appear by luck by number(1) because free from defilement means the pain that makes your mind regressed by fear (Baya Agati)and also free from the pleasure that makes your mind regressed by love and happiness (Sandar Agati). It is a deep insight to elaborate why Buddha stressed Sila very much because Sila itself is the start of this middle way. (Please keep all these emails because when our rotten bodies get older, maybe I can't produce them again: that is why Buddha said the basic of men's prosperity is a good friend. Without the help of a good friend at the level of this philosophy, I can't get insight by my intrinsic capacity: You know the whales is happy only in the Great Ocean) And some Mahayanists who can't think enough the real philosophy of Sila try to justify pleasure practices (I remember what you said by tasting sexual practices to find the enlightenment, I don't remember the names of these branches) if you merely have the enough right view and great compassion to save the world.

If you can see the series of Sila, Samdhi and Pynn Nya, you can easily conclude this
tripartite can't be excluded from each other. I suggest that the referred Mahayanists can't get this merely right view without pre-fulfillment of the justice equilibrium.

It may probably be very difficult to get this insight of morality and justification because even Ven. Janaka Bivonta said it is his first priority to urge people to have a good heart. This may be true in the way for dealing and enduring the problems of society but not in the way to Nirvana at the spiritual level of our struggle for liberation. If we say a good heart as the initial key to everything, our religion is not different from Jesus and Mohammed because they also have superbly good hearts for the people.

You can also see compassion as the pleasure and wisdom as pain. Because it is very painful to get a better level of wisdom because you always have to quarrel with the pre-existing dog in your body (remember Philosopher Shwe Mya Ta of Min Thein Kha).
You will probably be surprised to see that when pleasure is trying to accept everything, wisdom is trying to reject everything. And Buddha said there is a middle way and for which Sila is a pre-requriement and Samadhi is the initial entry level into the right view that is the supra-pynn nya derived from your rightly directed analytical power based on samadi (equilibrium of non-biasedness). That is why Buddha never says Sama Sila among the steps of the eightfold pathway because Sila is the pre-requirement and not a constituent on the way to nirvana. The monks are confused by interpreting Sama Vasa,Sama Kammana and Sama Arjiva as the Sama Sila and try to adulterate these inalienable eight "processing" steps as being identical with 3 "pre-requirements".

Let's continue the hypothetical case. If we assume just non-identity and no difference as the way to see the emptiness, we can easily see that this Hindu Philosopher who has already enlightened the nirvana can still think that this is still not the nirvana and this nirvana is still just an illusion created by Saturn to diversify him. He will further seek to combine with God he trust and this becomes his decisive real enlightenment. That is why, nothing in the universe is apparently one of the highest steps and manifestations of matter the God create is the ultimate step in Hinduism. By this hypothetical case, I will frankly like to alert both Theravadist and Mahayanists for the fact that the Annattha principle in imperfect epistemic catching of an enthusiastic practitioner could be a just a jana step in Hinduism. Quite paradoxical and ironical, we try to practice Buddha’s meditation but unfortunately we used to end with a makeshift enlightenment of Hinduism.

Apparently the practitioner in Hinduism is rather easy to be adept in swapping to and fro from non-identity to diversity (Nothing in the universe to everything in the universe), (worm's eye to bird’s eye) than much more subtle and seemingly untouchable Vipassana practitioner. According to Buddha, these enlightenments in Hinduism are very good but so far not great enough to be acclaimed as ultimate truth because you can't reach the real emptiness by seeing emptiness as nothing is in the universe.

Let's see my logic again. If non-identity and no difference is the right view, we have to accept that a Hindu, a Christian or Siddartha can reach the emptiness we refer in our epistemology. But if non-identity is still not the right view, we can hold that only in our Magga way, we can get enlightenment. Because the middle way referred by Buddha for justification is "never ever" present in any philosophy or any religion. Some Christians or Muslim scholars can argue Buddhists easily that they are also non-identity religions because they believe nothing exists other than the One. I think this logic and example is enough to prove that the middle way is more important than Anatta principle that both Mahayanists and Theravadists assume themselves as the best and only invincible the One philosophy in the world.

Trying for unbiased justification,
Burmakin

A two-capita snake

An eye-catching statement the military government declared after its auto-coup was that they were now driving Burma on the road to capitalism. The economics would no longer be a closed door and now Burma was on the track of the market economy. Hopefully, after this East Asian model of capitalism, Democracy could be the next step. Economics could probably be much more matter than politics.

Twenty six years ago, no sooner Burma’s determination for the road to socialism was proclaimed, Indian business men were forced to return home and Chinese also lost their mills and private firms in nationalization process. However, not very soon, Chinese without being trammeled by cunning Indian people revived and was able to control the power of Burma market eventually in this closed-door country. After 1988, with the proclamation of The Burma way to capitalism, the epicenter of Burma market has briskly moved back from Chinese to the hands of native people, but the people with green trousers.

The native trouser people also have two kinds of races: one race was from the blue green Kokang mountains, the Wa people who were the tycoons of opium and morphine in the golden triangle of South East Asia. The King of opium, Khun Sar was now dubbed as the peace architect for the country and he and his colleagues could now enjoy the benefits of free market while they were still able to hold the guns and rule their own army. Another trouser group was the Big Brother and his comrades of the domineering army, of course the original Tibeto-Burman group of the Pagan empire themselves, who had got free shares of businesses from the former. Once nominated as the enemies of the state, now the big cheese of opium, were the investors and bankers rising as Big Friends to Big Brother and Burma became a paradise of economic prosperity for the trouser people.

In 2006, the military claimed to the world that the Burma’s road to capitalism under his leadership was stupendously successful. They had the proof to testify that they didn’t lie to the world as the GDP in Burma was 500 million in 1987 and now it had become 6 billion in 2006. The improvement in Burma GDP under capitalism is not a canard but in contemporary Burma, at least one third of the children in the country are malnourished, 75% of the people are below the poverty line and to my knowledge, there are many graduates who were competing one another to get a job to be awarded a salary of less than one US$ per day. Why Adam Smith’s hand of self-interest has never spontaneously pushed forward for the public interest in the Burmese society?

Amartya Sen in his Development as Freedom said the affluence of the society should be measured in terms of freedom rather than measuring the GDP. Burma was good exemplary for his argument. Under the Burma’s road to capitalism, people were like the small tiny head of the two-capita snake. The big head always got the food first without sharing a sufficient amount of food to the small tiny head, becoming bigger and bigger while the small tiny head, from underfeeding became frailer and frailer. Nevertheless, the arrogant big head claimed how strong and beefy he was but without noticing his counterpart would at last poisoned himself at the final day of no more toleration and brought the knell of “State failure” to him.

A cup of Burmese tea

Have a literal drink for a cup of plain tea,
All God’s blessing you will come to see

No matter how big a piece your inspiration
This magic hot water will captivate a smile on everything!

(Original writer, Ramayakan U Toe)

Why some animals are more equal than others? Episode I

Buddha and universal brotherhood

Once Buddha was alone at the Gittzagoat mountain, looking at the world in his enlightened wisdom. All over the fragmented countries of the India Continent, people were relentlessly pauperized, tortured and down-trodden by the unedifying rulers (Maharajas) who didn’t have any scruple for their own existence, selfish and avaricious interest. Buddha’s heart was filled with a glimpse of compassion towards those sufferers.

He thought to himself, “Instead of going on to live as Buddha, should I become an emperor to deliver the people from torture from those wicked kings, to give peace and prosperity to the people whose entitlements are robbed from their Big Enemies that were their unlawful kings?” When Buddha was at the Jetavona Temple, a young man called Suba came to him asking a series of questions: “ O’ Buddha, I have a question that I couldn’t think out: in this world, some people are long-lived, some have a short lifespan nonetheless; some are healthy all the time, some are always struggling with diseases nonetheless, Some are wealthy, some are in poverty nonetheless, Some have a great number of entourage, some lack of them nonetheless…”, he mentioned in total, a sequel of questions for fourteen dialectic stratified differences of the society, “ O, Buddha. Could I know why are there such differences existing between the people?” Buddha’s answer to all these 14 questions was only one. “Suba, this is Karma that creates all these happenings. Suba, in this world, people have an illusion that they have the parents. In reality, they only have the Karma as the parents. Suba, the worldly people have another illusion that they have the relatives. In reality, they only have the Karma as their relatives. To cap, there is no refuge for the people except their Karma”

When Burmese people have been walking through these nightmares of the military dictatorship, whenever they see the people who are aristocrats, barons, tycoons and good in shape, they usually think and probably Burmese Buddhist monks may help them to think, “they have done very good deeds in the past lives, that is why, they soared the fruits of Karma in this life”. Whenever they face non-affordability, difficulty, poverty and diseases, they blame themselves, “your Karma in the past-lives was not strongly good enough to make you comfortable in this life. Try to do good merits in this life to become better in next life for avoiding those sufferings”. When they see a beggar on the street, they think “this guy is not good enough in doing well for his Karma in the past life or even the present life. That is why, he becomes a beggar”. When they face a mad person on the street, they think “this guy could probably have committed atrocity against his own parents in the past lives. That is why; he becomes a mad man in this life”. When he meets a person with Hansen’s disease, he thinks again “this person is sure to have committed a lot of bad deeds in his past lives, that is why he becomes a lepromatous person in this life”.

Tun, my friend, a political science graduate from London and a very innovative entrepreneur, had once a skirmish against my being as a devout Buddhist as well as all the Burmese. “Leonard, you and all Burmese Buddhism is radically wrong. All Burmese think that what happened to your life and your social fields are related to your Karma.This is really non-sense. You all attach to a ridiculous principle, Karma and heap every happening in your life on it. Burmese become never proactive to fight for their life by clinging to this unsound principle”. I answered him “No, the Karma interpreted by Burmese society today is not the principle Buddha intend to mean. Buddha never says that your inferiority or your prosperity is related to Karma. What Buddha actually means is the principle of volition; volition is conglomerated happening at the mental level. If you know the principle of dependent origination (Parissa Samuputta), the Karma, the volition again, is in another dimensional point, a diversified and interdependent happening of all worldly creatures”. I began to realize at the same time there is a great need to clarify misinterpreted fallacies in Buddhism.

The collective wisdom could probably be quite smart in framing the society, however, it will not be good to say a cow as a buffalo just merely following the collective decision of the people. At his enlightenment time, Buddha himself was a revolt man to collective wisdom for the India Hindu people to accept the discrimination in their caste system. Buddha said, “There is neither royal caste, neither merchant caste nor neither servant caste in my system. As if five hundred rivers, whether they are big or small, long or short, they come together at the Great Ocean to become one, all my disciples are equal to come together at this Way of Enlightenment (Sarsana)”. Buddha also told his followers, the monks, “After I die, only the Dhamma principles will be your teacher to guide you. You call each other by the name of “my brother”; you need to pay homage to each other according to the seniority of your practice as a monk”. Buddhism can probably be the first religion to combat any discrimination in society and apparently aiming at the universal brotherhood.
(To be cont..)

Animal Farm and The Land of Vampires

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others

In 1984, Winston was told by a thought criminal that there are two means to maintain persistence of dictatorship. The first is to make the people starve so that they couldn’t have time to think about politics. The second is to deprive the people of education so that the people could have no intellectual capacity to revolt against the government. In an essay that won a prize of my US school, I wrote that when I was in Burma, I saw myself as Winston Smith of 1984 and Neo of Matrix Revolution.

Burmese Buddhists had a very famous traditional story of Buddha. Buddha, himself had deciphered sixteen dreams of King Kosala last 2500 years ago. Burmese believe that these dreams are the omens for the events that have been happening in the country in modern days. One fearful scene of these sixteen dreams was that Kosala saw a village crow was worshipped by an entourage of Mandarin ducks who were royal birds with feathers of golden sheen. Buddha said this dream meant in distant future, there will be kings who were cowards and fools. Fearing revolt and revolution, they will elevate their footmen, bath-attendants, and barbers to nobility. These kings will ignore the real nobility of academicians in the country.Cut off from royal favor and unable to support themselves, bona fide nobles will be reduced to the services of the barbers who were deliberately raised to royalty by those wicked kings.

When I saw Su Su Nway, the winner of the Humphrey prize award in 2006, and her comrades were violently pulled out by thugs of the government in the Hle Dan demonstration this year, I felt that now the barbers were officially given a position in this country. The September Economist Journal showed this violent photo with a heading, “The Charter for thugocracy”. The word thugocracy could be a naïve term in the field of journalism and I wander if Buddha had already used this neologism in deciphering Kosala’s dreams.

I had a very close friend who had the habit of stealing and were somewhat belligerent in behavior. He used to borrow from me some money frequently at the time of my days of Burma. Just a few weeks before I came to America, he came to me and to my surprise, returned me some money and, in a proud voice, he said to me,” I had got a job in the Sunn Arr Shin ward committee (newly founded thug organization of the junta) and, now I had to attend the office every day. I asked him where his office was and he said it was in the same place with the ward SPDC office. This was one of my self-evident examples how thugs were raised by the government.

In her “Finding George Orwell in Burma”, Emma Larkin’s Burmese friend, Aye Myint, said to her, “Animal Farm (a book also written by George Orwell before 1984’) is a Burmese book because we were ruled by the dogs and the pigs”. Emma Larkin probably thought that the dogs and pigs meant the current junta. Not exactly, what Aye Myint wanted to refer were those jobless, aggressive gypsies who permeated almost all the representative positions of the government authority in wards of the villages, towns, cities and the capital in the society of Burma. I was curious if George Orwell had known these sixteen Kosala’s dreams during his youthful days in Burma. However, his three classic novels, “The Burmese Days”, “The Animal Farm” and “1984” were in Aye Myint’s words, all modern Burmese books and a representative of a Burmese social life.

I remembered my most admirable Burmese author, the editor of the Burma Guardian Newspaper, Shwe U Dawn (the pen name that means the golden peacock), was awarded the National Literature prize because of his translated book of Animal Farm. However, he didn’t directly use the name, Animal Farm for his translated book title. Being so good in abstract things or probably a forerunner for late happenings in Burma, a title that was dreadfully disgusting in nature came out from his instincts, and the title was “The Land of Vampires”.

Finding Siddartha's last days

Dear Ko Moe,

The first thing I would like to speak about myself is I have not so much pleasure in
studying in the United States.But I find great pleasure in learning a diversity of books that is not available in Burma. If I decide to stay in the U.S, the only reason is I cling to "availability of books" but not for the common materials that we all humans hook around up.

Another thing is I have not so much great pleasure in my standing.Sometimes I like to be a great Bodhisattva. Sometimes I don't like to be any great thing.Sometimes I like to have a girl friend or wife who can really tolerate my crazy luck and ideas and understand me with a smile. Sometimes I want to go back to the unforgettable teashop chatter with you.As I have ever confessed, I have no aptitude, no special ambition, no special target and likely to take a risk than anybody else.A paradoxical and very awkward man.

"Vitet, Boundary of imagination is the highest in its area and the lowest in its
intensity" particularly for me. I had got to the botanical garden of Washington. I sat under a very shady tree. The soft breeze coming through the green leaves enlightens me like Siddhatha's last days of life.I really found it, my vinyan(flash of mind) appearing under this tree supersedes every vitet I have had in my whole life. How many times and how many cycles of birth,do you have a chance to be peaceful and totally have equanimized your love about anything else.

The topic you are speaking is somewhat related or absolutely influenced by
existentialism. I can't deny (I think nobody can deny existentialism: U San Lwin's
greatest mistake is he tried to prove existentialism is wrong showing that he was not an arahat/saint) existentialism too. But I find a way how you can escape from the sequences in existentialism. Find the peace under a tree,and it is the practice of Nikhama(relinquishment) that Buddha has practiced several times in finding the way of liberation. Imagine yourself under a green tree while you are free from these tiring vitets. There is no wife, no son, no love but love for this peace and enjoyment to be free from vitet.

This is my solution

Thanks for refreshing my mindfulness,
Burmakin

Dummy Lady

Probably this was last year,
In our Burma independence ceremony,
My eyes caught by her beauty;
She was wearing
A yellow attire in her royalty

Probably, this has been
A lost piece from my memory
I resurrect her shape
Still so shadowy;
Groping her charm as originality
Beautification was
Just modesty

Probably, this was my ego,
Had I never seen
Erudite queens of beauty,
Ohnmardhanti or Papavati
Buddha himself had been nutty,
Still I said,
They were oblivion
In her reigning contemporary

I started quarrelling with my nerves,
Craving aggrandized to think
She is my destiny;
Dragging myself gradually to Beauty,
To my amaze,
Born were new opinion and unprecedented philosophy,
Nirvana was vaporized for humanity;
I was curious how her pre-life wishes
So cute to be;
Vigilant from far or near sight,
Unarguably she was the most pretty

To my luck,
One special day, in a dim hall of the guest dormitory,
Again this is she

A greeting with untold words,
A significant smile in her flickering lips
Seeing a bloom of love for a tyro,
My steps are now back to the age of chivalry

At last, I am at her distance not to be blind
Alas, I have a murmur,
This is the damn artist who carved his imaginary chime
She was an unseasoned sculpture.

Translated from Panputhuzar of Myoma Nyein by Moe Tee

A tea drop from Burma

Dear Ko BmK,

How do your study in Brown Univ: go on? Do you find your courses meaningful for your future career and related to the available employments?

Anyway, to be in States itself is a great blessing for a book lover. I
really envy you in this sense only. The flames of worldly knowledge and the transcendental wisdom are burning on this land of freedom and creativity.Even libraries are widely available for all students, so it is not a necessity to buy and own the books.

You can take this great opportunity to learn whatever you want in States.
Here in Myanmar, we are like the frogs in the dried well that just look up
the sky and waiting for the rain drops to come in. We spare a large amount
of our salaries and savings to buy very expensive books from USA for the
sake of just tasting the wisdom. What a pity!

Another thing is that USA is a huge spiritual Supermarket. I know that even
you are persuaded by the superficial distractions (wealth, fame, and power
which are parts and parcels of great American Dream), you are a spiritual
being in deep down level. In USA, You can find the competent masters from
all kinds of spiritual traditions: Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana,
Mahamudra and Dzogchen, Sufism, Vedanta, Taoism, Zen Buddhism, and even
indigenous spiritual traditions like Wicca and Shamanism, so on and so
forth. So my dear, now you are at the center of the world and you have an
unparalleled chance to find 'the Way".

Our regular weekly teashop meetings are still going on. Sometimes, as you
said, it is better to talk with one's old-time friends freely and frankly
and exchange opinions and ideas. It is really a tonic for the lives of
people who are working uninteresting jobs just for the sake of money and
survival. I hope you also miss your friends in Yangon.

Have a nice day,
Ko Moe

Her choice

On the way of return
full of exhaust, from my farm
She implored me in this morning
she would like to put on Jasmine;
Had I plucked the buds,
hopefully, I could have a hug;

Now I saw a vague shape
That's my beauty queen,
My heart thumping,
rush for her amaze
But the lady's hair, full of grace
Not with Jasmine that was borne
with royal roses and thorns

(Translated from a Burmese poem by Leonard Aung Khine)

The Middle Way

Dear Happiness Friends,

In class, I asked a question whether there exists a universal pre-condition for happiness or
there's not:

If you examine my love story of 3 old men, what are the negative things of their life: old age, upcoming disease burden, lowest salary, hard job, no aspiration. And what is positive?

"Love and to be loved".

But when they can forget all the bad things and when they can substantiate this
small little thing: human beings can be extremely happy. As I said in the class,
the human beings have adaptability to be hedonistic; upcoming failures are taken
granted and try to enjoy whatever they encounter at the very "small present".
My question is "the ever-existing miserable side of their life is more to be reflected "
or "the small treadmill happy moments are more to be valued".

Leo Tolstoy once wrote a story: An old man is traveling in the desert. He was being chased by a tiger. He ran away and slipped off into the den. Fortunately, he could hang on a small branch of a tree that grew alongside the wall of the den. Hanging this branch, he looked downside, a lion at the floor of the den was opening wide his mouth ready to eat him if he ever fallen. So he thought should he go up. The tiger ever chased him was roaring at him to tear him apart if he ever come up. He saw his last resort, that small branch. One white mouse and one black mouse were hungrily biting the root of this branch driving him to ultimately go down. A honey comb was also there in this rotting deteriorating branch and drops of honey were dribbling from the comb. The old man in his forgetfulness, he ignored all his conditions and tried to lick the honey drops.

I think this story exactly reflects the hedonistic adaptability of human beings.
However if you see the situation of the old man in the den, the only best way he can do is
to lick the honey drops, and although the venerable Tolstoy wanted to criticize this
human nature, we can't blame it.

In the ending of "1984", Winston Smith began to believe that "2+2=5" and he fell in love
with the cruel dictator, Big Brother. As long as he denied 2+2=5 and insisted that it is 4, he
was restlessly tortured. What the person who tortured him said are remarkable: "You believe
that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right...But I tell you, Winston, reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes; only in the mind of the party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the party holds to be truth is the truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party. That is the fact; you have got to learn, Winston. It needs an act of self-destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble yourself before you can become sane". These brain wash words changed the revolutionish Winston to believe and accept 2+2=5 and he began to love "Big Brother".

If you see the Party in this story as the Society and you see yourself as Winston, all the
miserable things you encounter for the past, present and future as the torture, what we
all are doing is the last choice Winston made that is accepting 2+2=5, falling in love
with "Big Brother" and exactly it is our happiness.

Stephen Covey wrote in his 7 habits of highly effective people in arguing against his
friend who found no interest in his wife after 10 years of marriage or so: "If you
don't love her, try to love her". His friend complained, "Is love natural or
man-made". Stephen's answer is "you can make it, try to believe you love your wife and try
to love your wife".

You can see apparently Stephen is trying to defend "happiness adaptability" of mankind in
every effort. And this is the outlet of all human beings. All the tortures in life lead to
that we should have the positive attitude to accept what is happening for the moment and
we have to be positive to be happy.

However, if you see all these 4 cases in consequentialism, all these good processes we have
made brilliantly to make us happy are ultimately and unfortunately "dissoluting again" as
Buddha said Ananda in his pre-last words. This form of philosophical doctrine is pervasive in existentialism and sometimes existentialism is blamed as "too negative" to see the life.

If you really know Buddhism, Buddha teaches only one word: "Mindfulness". I hope if we have
the real practice of mindfulness, you can find a middle way between your present hedonism and your future existentialism.

With mindfulness,
Aung

Buddha and economics

Dear Friends,

Here I gave you two Buddhist stories professor and I had talked in the class.

Story (I)

Ananda felt very sad, and the Buddha begun to consoled him. Ananda uttered this: In lack of wisdom rule the darkness in the humans mind and all the sentient beings in the world grope in the lack of guidance. Then the Perfected One lightens the lamp of wisdom, that lamp, which now will be ceased before he had carried that lamp to the end". "Do not cry, Ananda", said the Buddha.

The Buddha told him this: I told you for a long time ago this: That’s the nature of
everything that we must be separated from them who we loving in this world. One is
short-sighted and keeps the idea of the self? The clever have realized that there is
nothing to build any thoughts from. He is apparent of that all compositional units may be
dissolute again but the truth always lasting. Why should I preserve this body then the
noble truth lasting? I have now reached the end of the way. I have reached my purpose,
after this work I have done, I am seeking for the rest. You, Ananda, you have been very
close tome and ardent in thoughts and loving deeds, which never had been lesser and never could be measured. You have acted well. Be patient in your struggle. Soon, even you will be free from evilness, from sensuality, from egoism an ignorance". Later, Ananda brushed away his tears, and stopped crying.

Story(II)

But both of them were ignorant and knew only how to spend money and not how to keep it or to make it grow. They just ate and drank and had a good time, squandering their money. When they had spent all, they sold their fields and gardens and finally their house. Thus, they became very poor and helpless; and because they did not know how to earn a living they had to go begging. One day, the Buddha saw the rich man's son leaning against a wall of the monastery, taking the leftovers given him by the samaneras; seeing him, the Buddha smiled.

The Venerable Ananda asked the Buddha why he smiled, and the Buddha replied, "Ananda, look at this son of a very rich man; he had lived a useless life, an aimless life of
pleasure. If he had learnt to look after his riches in the first stage of his life he
would have been a top-ranking rich man; or if he had become a bhikkhu, he could have been an arahat, and his wife could have been an anagami. If he had learnt to look after his
riches in the second stage of his life he would have been a second rank rich man, or if
he had become a bhikkhu he could have been an anagami, and his wife could have been a
sakadagami. If he had learnt to look after his riches in the third stage of his life he
would have been a third rank rich man, or if he had become a bhikkhu he could have been a sakadagami, and his wife could have been a sotapanna. However, because he had done nothing in all the three stages of his life he had lost all his worldly riches, he had
also lost all opportunities of attaining any of the Maggas and Phalas."

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:
They, who in youth have neither led the life of Purity nor have acquired wealth, waste
away in dejection like decrepit herons on a drying pond deplete of fish.

They, who in youth have neither led the Life of Purity nor have acquired wealth, lie
helplessly like arrows that have lost momentum, moaning and sighing after the past.

From Aging (Jaravagga)

Have insights and peace,
Aung

Love is happiness?

For those who want to listen to my critique about happiness,

Today, I was working in the dining services. The two old American women(workers at the dinning services) were very happy at seeing a very ugly African janitor man (as ugly as Sams, Furray and Troussay) who always hold a smile with his spiritual compassion towards everybody.

He was pushing a very heavy trash bin. These two old American women hugged him in joy. This guy, Andree whose one side of hand was always imprisoned by this heavy trash, hugged them back with the only remaining arm that could sense the taste of Democracy. He was also really happy to hug these two old American women with grey hair in their heads (who could no longer be as beautiful as Marwa or Elizabeth or Anna or Rana) (I need not to forget my two beautiful TAs in this list for sake of my happiness in grades). These old people kissed each other, smiled at each other, talked stupid things at each other and burst out into laughter. You can imagine how happy they were at that moment.

I explored my curious mind why these people should be so happy. They were working at the minimal salary and the hardest jobs for their old ages; apparently in comparison with us, lost all the youthfulness and great chances and great aspirations in life, still they could freely enjoy the sense of happiness. I don't think his Excellency, George W Bush couldn't have been happier for "the very moment" these three old men in the poorest strata met together.

My question is why these old poor man and women can be so happy among the restraints and mourns of life. I believe it is the love that determines this moment. One of the greatest moments for your life can be that you begin to know that you love somebody and you are convinced that you are being loved.

Looking for happiness that is to be loved,
Aung

While we were sleeping in our dreams

Dear Magali,

When I was in the Washington Botanical Garden, I took a place under a big shady leaf. I
saw my life back and queued," how many times I could sit peacefully breathing the natural breeze under the cool shelter of a tree, equanimized, free from any mourn and sigh, just the very enjoyment of quietness".

When the Vijara prince, the gallant with the army, marched to genocide all the Nepalese,Buddha was walking in the sun that is on the inside border of Nepal. The prince asked Buddha, "Why you don't take the shelter in spite of seeing so shady trees?". Buddha said to him, "Prince, for the shelter of relatives is cooler". I sighed how you have lost a relative that is cooler than this shady tree of Washington or the trees 2500 years ago outside border of Nepal
.
However, we try to validate to think we come to the world for seeking happiness always hungry for better utility (satisfaction). Notwithstanding," Death has tided all humans away while they are sleeping in their dreams". That is the undeniable truth Buddha alarmed the people. I hope you and all the people to be awakened from the sorrows as well as that virtual happiness of our dreams.

Aung