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I
spent six months in India this year [2003]. And as soon
as we arrived in Bombay I felt this sense of being at
home. In countries like India and Thailand, monks, sadhus
or holy men, or whatever you want to call them, are so
much part of the culture that you feel unquestionably
accepted there. Even though most people in India dont
know much about Buddhism, they know you are someone
who is trying to live the holy life, and you feel this incredible
acceptance. In India everything fts in, no matter how
weird, diseased, strange or eccentric it might be. The fact
that you are there means you belong. So I found it to be
a very pleasant country to be in.
I spent two months in Benares, which is a holy city for
the Hindus, and I always fnd it one of the most interesting
cities in the world. I was staying right on the ghats, right
near the main ghat, in fact, just watching life going on;
you see marriages taking place, corpses burning, pujas,
and people bathing. The Hindus love to bathe in the river
Ganges, and they go by their thousands to do it; the cows
and water buffaloes also bathe in the river, and the sewage
goes into it, and human and animal corpses are thrown
into it, and they also wash their clothes in it it takes
everything.
Sense of the Sacred
Ajahn Sumedho
Ajahn Sumedho
Ordained in Thailand
in 1967 he trained
under the guidance
of the highly
respected Ajahn
Chah. And is the
abbot of Amaravati
Buddhist monastery
in England.
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So, India is an interesting place to be once you
get over the initial shock that it gives Westerners; it is
a culture in which the sense of the sacred is still very
much alive, still active and functioning; and Benares
in particular is a city where everything is sacred, no
matter how good or bad, clean or dirty, or right or
wrong. The sense of sacredness is palpable in that
place; in fact the whole city is like a puja to the great
river Ganges, and there is this powerful devotion to
the various deities Shiva, usually, or Kali or Ganesha
and there is this sense of recognising something
beyond just the material world and individual needs.
When you live in a materialist society, you feel a lack
of sacredness. Much of our common values are based
on self-centred goals and materialism. In the American
system, for example,
where individuality has the
priority, we are brought
up to proclaim ourselves
as individuals in such an
extreme way that we often
do not feel any connection
to anything at all, not even
to our parents or family.
The sense I had of myself
as an individual was very
strong: my rights, what I
think, who I am. That is
one reason of course I was
able to simply leave it all
behind, and didnt go back
home for about thirteen
years, nor did I really want to. So individualism does
have its advantages; it does give you this freedom
to do what you want. But it also leads to an extreme
sense of loneliness.
While you endlessly satisfy your own
needs and think of yourself when you are
young which can be rather exciting
as you get older all of that just creates
a sense of disconnection with the world
and leads to depression, loneliness, and a
lot of self-aversion and self-criticism, and
that is because your self-worth depends
on things that you cannot maintain. You
might achieve that at one stage of your
life, but you cannot keep it for long.
In India, however, the sense of the
sacred is stronger than the individual,
yet it is accepting of the individual. A
leper, an eccentric, a low caste person,
a high caste, a king, a military man, a
communist, whoever, whatever it all
belongs; and I found this a very helpful
reference point.
The discriminative mind tries to control things: This
shouldnt be. Weve to get rid of it. You can see it in
political scenes of the present age where the Americans
are determined to wipe out the axis of evil: Weve
got to destroy it and get rid of it. Of course, the axis
of evil is not in America but somewhere out there
probably in the general direction of the Middle East
its a bit vague! In that logical sense, if good is right
When you
live in a
materialist
society,
you feel
a lack of
sacredness.
Much of our
common values
are based on
self-centred
goals and
materialism.
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obsessed people get with, shush!, dont talk, with
controlling everything and not wanting any disruption.
Of course, if you have a lot of distraction, harsh
impingement, physical pain or irritating things going
on around you, you cannot become tranquil because
the conditions are not there. Sensory deprivation is
the ideal one of these sensory deprivation tanks,
maybe, where all your senses are fulflled in some
way, where nothing is attacked, where you are in a
pool of body-temperature water so that you
cant feel anything through the body, your
eyes are closed and everything is shut
out. Because there is nothing attacking or
irritating the senses and physical body, the
mind can go into a tranquil state. The human
mind likes that and wants it, so once you have
had that experience, you want more of it.
You might have various mystical experiences
a sense of oneness, a loss of self-consciousness,
or whatever and you remember them; you
then grasp those memories and try to have the
experiences again, from what you remember . . . and it
doesnt work. If you are always trying to achieve some
mental state something you remember enjoying in
a previous meditation retreat, maybe, you will be
endlessly frustrated.
The frst time those things happen, usually you dont
know what is going on. Suddenly your mind drops. But
you have no inkling of what you have done. That whole
sense of achieving something is not there; the memory
is not there. Maybe you have some vague idea of what
it might be, but you have not actually experienced it
and bad is wrong, then we must get rid of the bad and
hold onto the good. That makes sense, doesnt it? But
the Buddhas teachings very clearly point to the way
it is or the dhamma rather than to any ideals of how
things should be.
In Benares there are many things to criticise;
there are so many things you think they need to
do better, they need to clean up, they need to
make more effcient the American mind can
rattle on like this and yet there was a sense
of this is the way it is, and an acceptance of
it. In its own way things do get done in India;
somehow the trains and buses and everything
do seem to function; for a country with a
billion people where everything seems so
completely chaotic and erratic, it does
work, actually. So, maybe we need to look at
it all in a different way.
For me, much of my early years in meditation
were spent in trying to control the mind, trying to
get rid of the bad thoughts, trying to hold onto the
good ones, trying to retain the more refned states of
consciousness and get the high levels of concentration,
trying to control the environment and keep out the
noise, trying to limit everything so that there were no
irritating sensory impingements, trying to develop the
ideal of samadhi or a concentrated mental state, but I
was always frustrated by the fact that I couldnt sustain
it. Even if one does get it, it is not sustainable because
the effort is all towards controlling, ignoring or denying
the conditions that destroy this tranquil, peaceful state
of mind. You can often see in meditation groups how
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before. The danger is
that once you experience
it, the desire to have it
once more arises. We
want more of what is
pleasant. People that
only have unpleasant
and miserable states in
meditation dont usually
meditate after a while;
the memories are too
painful. As soon as they
think of meditation, they
think, pain . . . misery . . .
and there is no way they are going to do that again,
unless they are masochistic.
The Buddha was pointing to the way it is; he wasnt
pointing to an ideal, he wasnt pointing to the way it
should be, but to this awareness, mindfulness, sati-
sampajanna; he was pointing to our ability to open
to the way it is right now, whatever that might be,
whether the conditions for peace and tranquillity are
here or whether it is just all noise and confusion. When
we are always trying to exclude things, our efforts
in meditation are towards controlling, towards trying
to get states of mind that we want and getting rid of
the ones we dont want, and trying to get tranquillity,
samadhi; we are busy with ideas, habits and techniques
that we have acquired. But the Buddha was pointing
to the power of this recognition of the way it is, sati-
sampajanna, awareness; I call it intuitive awareness;
it is an intuitive ability.
P
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Teachings of A
Buddhist Monk
Ajahn Sumedho,
Foreword by Jack Kornfeld
Ajahn Sumedho invites
us to become aware of
the freedom beyond all
conditions, a freedom
from fear, gain and loss,
pleasure and pain.
ISBN 0-946672-23-7
Extract from Teachings of A Buddhist Monk
When we do not create anything in it, the mind
becomes clear. The mind itself, the original mind, the
unconditioned, is clear, bright and peaceful, and can
contain anything. We can allow all the rubbish in the
universe to pass through this original mind and no
harm will come to it. Nothing can soil or damage the
original mind.
Ordained in Thailand in 1967 Ajahn Sumedho trained
under the guidance of the highly respected Ajahn Chah.
He is the abbot of Amaravati Buddhist monastery in
England.
http://tiny.cc/TBM
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Now, when I use this word intuition, it is not in the
sense of a cultivated knowledge, but as something
that is natural to us; it is a natural state in which we
allow consciousness to manifest the things that are
happening in the present moment, seen or unseen.
So, intuitive awareness is not using reason or anything
like that, but is a recognition of the way it is.
This is not a function that has been highly praised or
respected in the Western world. We in the West prefer
the dualistic functions of reason and logic, and right
and wrong; we love that kind of mental exercise. But
intuition even though we all have it and use it is
something we often dont know anything about or if
we do we mistrust it, simply because it does not seem
to be a rational thing. The point is, it is not something
you can explain; you dont have any really good words
or symbols to make it very clear to anybody; the best
you can say is, I have a feeling, or I have a sense, or
I have an uneasy feeling about . . . Intuition, however,
includes everything; it is not discriminative; it does not
make moral judgements or value judgements about
anything; it does not compare one thing with another,
or say what should or should not be, or what is right
or wrong. It is rather the ability to have this openness
to life as we are experiencing it, even if what we are
experiencing is painful or unpleasant.
For more Ajahn Sumedho CDs and
downloads, click on the link below.
http://tiny.cc/AjahnSumedho
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As we get older we inevitably fnd that more of
our friends, family members and acquaintances are
dying. It is sad to think we wont see them again, and
we may grieve our loss. A close death, however, can
also put our lives into perspective, bring us back to a
place of contemplation. If we contemplate our lives,
birth and deathwhich we tend to do as Buddhistswe
realise that the end of this life could come at any time
any week, any day, even before the next breath! This
way of thinking could bring on a state of melancholy,
fear and panic, or it could lead us into refecting on
the three characteristics of existenceimpermanence,
not-self, and suffering or unsatisfactoriness.
Our culture doesnt encourage too much of this kind
of deep contemplation on birth and death. Birth is
okaywe made it into the worldbut death is often
regarded as a failing, an evil, something to be avoided,
something unnatural. The Buddha, on the other hand,
thought it was good to contemplate birth and death
because he said it was all a delusion, at the same time
emphatically denying he was a nihilist. He said he wasnt
a nihilist (someone who thinks we slip into a black hole
of utter nothingness at the death of this body) and he
wasnt an eternalist (someone who thinks we live forever
albeit in different forms). The Buddha taught that we
dont live forever because birth is a delusion, and we
dont die because likewise birth is a delusion, we were
never born, so how can we die. He saw the body and
conditioned mind as something in constant fux with no
solid self or anything solid anywhere. The realisation
Our culture
doesnt
encourage
too much
contemplation
on birth
and death
Diana St Ruth
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that followed for the Buddha, his enlightenment, was
of the unborn and the undying.
The Buddha became conscious of birthlessness
and deathlessness through the acceptance of
impermanence and no-self. The complete experience
of impermanencefux and changeis a mind-blowing
truth which will bring us to see that the body and mind
are no more us than the clouds in the sky or the
carpet on the foor. And if we do get caught up into
believing those thingsand most of us dothen we
are inclined to suffer, because life doesnt often suit us.
Being a self is a very frm idea, a conviction, but not
a reality that we can ever confrm. Its all in the mind.
Death too, said the Buddha, is a delusion. Birth of me
is a delusion and death of me is a delusion; only fux is
experienced, a changing koleidoscope of hopes, fears,
memories and impressions.
Facing death is facing all the impressions we have
about ourselves and letting those impressions go. If
we can do that, then we will not be bogged down in
concepts. Life fows. We see and know impermanence
as a constant. And that is liberating. All the mental
suffering about what is going to happen to us, about
being this or that person who will eventually disappear,
about becoming nothing, is dissipated and this moment
becomes a vast timelessness. The Buddha called it
birthlessness and deathlessness, freedom from birth
and death.
Chan Master Fen-chou Wu-yeh (761-823) said to his
disciples:
This very nature of yours that does see, hear,
Understanding Karma
and Rebirth: A Buddhist
Perspective, by Diana St Ruth,
Buddhist Publishing Group, 2008, ISBN
978-0-946672-0-1, 203pp, 10.95
Karma and rebirth, fundamental
principles of Buddhism, have been
grossly misinterpreted in the past,
but Diana St Ruths treatment is
most commendable. The writing
style is very simple and direct but
engaging and thought-provok-
ing. Buddhism is about becoming
aware of life as it really is, rather
than being blinded by beliefs and
conditioning.
The book is a great help in devel-
oping awareness and insight. It is
not an academic presentation with theories etc. It tries instead to
generate a direct seeing into the nature of reality, beyond words,
beyond intellectual understanding.
It is non-sectarian: there are numerous anecdotes from all the
major strands of Buddhism. These are most helpful in under-
standing the cause-and-effect process. There are a few anec-
dotes from Trevor Leggett, a great friend of the Buddhist Society,
which, as ever, are quite illuminating. The book has various short
chapters, pointers really, that skilfully get the message across.
This is Buddhism from a serious practitioners point of view. The
aim is that one of the stories or ideas will lead to a spark that can
be developed further.
There is a powerful presence to this book - sometimes less can
mean more. There is also a wonderful section towards the end
of the book on the actual process of practising awareness. There
are numerous pointers here, for instance observing the mind
and body, appreciating the moment, letting go of thoughts, the
thought me etc. These help that direct seeing.
This wonderful book is highly recommended for Buddhists of all
traditions and levels.
Review from The Middle Way, Journal of the Buddhist Society
February 2009, Vol.83 No. 4
Click on this link for details: http://tiny.cc/KarmaRebirth
o-78uJJ|lsm How Pngo 8
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Experience Beyond Thinking
A Practical Guide to Buddhist
Meditation
Diana St Ruth
A simple guide on how to begin
meditating , how to practise, and how
to become aware of what lies beyond
the methods and the thinking mind.
ISBN 0-946672-26-1
Just Sit
There will come a time
in meditation when any
subject of concentration,
the rise and fall of the
abdomen, or whatever it
may be, will become more of a hindrance than a
help in staying with the reality of the moment.
How long will this take? That is impossible
to say. It will be when the mind doesnt need
anything to persuade it to stay open and awake
any more; it will be when any use of persuasion,
which in essence is what concentration is, will
feel heavy and wrong. At such a time, there will
be no desire to run into the past or the future,
or anywhere beyond what is here and now.
Extract from Experience Beyond Thinking.
http://tiny.cc/EBT
feel, and know, is the same age as empty space
which is neither born nor perishable. All objects
are fundamentally empty and quiescent; there
is not a single thing that can be obtained. The
ignorant lack realisation, and are thereby deluded
by objects, transmigrating in samsara without an
end. You should know that the nature of your mind is
intrinsically present; it is not something produced.
It is like a diamond which is indestructible. All things
are like shadows and echoes, devoid of any reality.
That is why the sutra says, It is only this one that
is true; the others are not real. You should always
live in the realisation that everything is empty,
that there is nothing one needs to ponder about.
You should diligently cultivate this.
pp. 126-127 Sun Face Buddha, Cheng Chien Bhikkshu.
Our friends and relatives die and it can leave us feeling
hollow and sad. At the same time it might awaken
within us a wish to contemplate life from a broader
perspective. Meditating on death is not a morbid thing
if its real refection, if its a genuine questioning of
what we know of death and what we mean by that
word. Otherwise, we may not be meditating but
being dragged into a vortex of thoughts and fears. If
we become aware of life as it isa sea of changeit
will be a liberating experience of deathlessness. This
may be but a momentary experience, but a very real
one. And then . . . we may become sad again and slip
back into the confusion of thought. But that, too, is
impermanent.
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* Luminous Essence:
A Guide to the
Guhyagarbha Tantra
by Jamgon Mipham, trans-
lated by the Dharmachakra
Translation Committee, Foreword
by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
$29.95 182pp h/b 2009 ISBN
9781559393270 Snow Lion
Embodying the essence of tantric practice, this text
has been a central scripture in Tibetan Buddhism
for well over a thousand years. Miphams (1846-
1912) explanation of this text, here translated for
the frst time, is one of the most celebrated com-
mentaries on the Tantra of the Secret Essence,
which today occupies an important place in the
tantric curriculum of Tibetan monastic colleges.
While dwelling in a state of equality,
Whatever movements of the limbs occur,
Whatever words are verbalised,
All are the mudra of secret mantra.
Tantra of the Empowerment of Vajrapani
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* The Union of Bliss and
Emptiness: Teachings on
the Practice of Guru Yoga
by the Dalai Lama, trans. by
Thupten Jinpa. $16.95, 192pp
1988, 2009 ISBN 9781559393218
Snow Lion
Reprint of an old favourite. To
quote the Dalai Lama: In all the
manuals on tantric practice, the wisdom of bliss and
emptiness is referred to repeatedly.
Why the Buddha (root guru) in the form of
Tsongkhapa. He [Lama Tsongkhapa,] wears bhikshu
robes, has one face and two arms, and is smiling.
It is said that there are two causes for him to be
smiling: One is that at this point we are making the
most effort to engage in a virtuous practice, so he is
pleased. The other is that, although our faith is very
weak and we are always infuenced by negativities
and our actions consist mainly of negative actions,
the guru is like kind parents acting as if they are
pleased, even though they are not, in order to delight
their naughty children. In the same way; although
there is hardly any cause for him to think favorably
of our actions, because we are like the children of
the guru we imagine that he appears with a pleased
expression.
Dalai Lama
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* The Face on Your
plate: The Truth About
Food
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
18.99 Hardcover, 320pp 2009
ISBN: 9780393065954, Norton
This sort of book is always hard
to read for a vegetarian or ve-
gan, but comes in handy to give
to those diehards who cannot
think beyond the end or their fork.
In it Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson shows how food
affects our moral selves, our health and the envi-
ronment. He raises questions to make us conscious
of the decisions behind every bite we take: like the
effect eating animals has on our land, waters, even
global warming; what the results of farming prac-
ticesde-beaking chickens and separating calves
from their mothersare on animals and humans;
how the health of animals affects the health of our
planet and our bodies. Masson looks at how denial
keeps us from recognising the animal at the end of
our forkthink pig, not baconand investigates each
cultures distinctions among animals considered food
and those that are forbidden.
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* The Life of Nyanatiloka
Thera Bhikkhu
by Nyanatusita & Hellmuth
Hecker $8 255pp ISBN 978-955-
24-0290-6 BPS
Ven. anatiloka was one of
the pioneers of Buddhism in
the modern world and the frst
European Buddhist monk. As the
worlds senior Western bhikkhu,
ordained in 1903, atiloka
attracted many disciples, through whose work his
infuence continues to be felt today, more than ff-
ty years after his death. anatiloka was also a re-
nowned scholar and translator of Pali scriptures. His
classic The Word of the Buddha, written more than a
century ago, is still widely read.
Contains some amazing photographs.
www.bps.lk/life_of_nyanatiloka_thera.html
* The Practice of
Mahamudra
by Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang
Rinpoche, trans. Robert Clark,
ed. Ani K. Trinlay Chdron
$15.95,136pp. 2009, ISBN
9781559393232 Snow Lion
This book has a lot of practi-
cal advice for meditators of any
tradition. One I found very inter-
esting was a list which compares posture with the
emotion it inhibits. For instance; The Legs in Lotus
posture, inhibits Jealousy. Hands placed right over
left and held four fnger widths below the navel, in-
hibits Anger. Straight spine inhibits delusion. Chin
tucked down, the with tongue against the palate, and
jaw relaxed, inhibits desire. And Eyes looking down-
ward inhibits Pride.
One merely needs to see minds own nature
New Books
*
Pick of the pack
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from obvious, but it can be attained through correct
reasoning. Thus logic is an important tool, a part
of the spiritual path, leading ultimately to complete
self-transformation.
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Buddhist Fasting Practice:
The Nyungne Method of
Thousand-Armed Chenrezig
by Wangchen Rinpoche,$18.95
207pp, 2009 ISBN 9781559393171
Snow Lion
Nyungne is a two-and-a-half-day prac-
tice which involves the keeping of
strict vows; the second day is devoted to complete
silence and fasting. The meditation centers on the
recitations, mantras, and guided visualisations of
the Thousand-Armed Chenrezig, the embodiment
of all the buddhas loving-kindness and compassion.
Nyungne is said to be nurturing of compassion, and
the purifcation of negative karma.
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Study and Practice of
Meditation:
Tibetan Interpretations of the
Concentrations and Formless
Absorptions. by Leah Zahler $39.95
510pp & 14 charts. 2009 ISBN
9781559393256 Snow Lion
The Buddhist meditative states
known as the concentrations and
formless absorptions are best known in the West
from Theravada scriptures and from Vasubandhus
Treasury of Manifest Knowledge. In this book the
reader is exposed to Tibetan Buddhist views on the
mental states attained through meditation as de-
scribed by three contemporary Tibetan lamas.
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directly. When one can do this successfully, it is
called perfection. The Uttaratantra mentions that
Buddha-nature is not stained by any obscurations.
The inseparable nature of all the Buddhas qualities
means that they are always present. Their nature
is clear, calm, free from all obscurations; no matter
what happens, it cannot be stained. This is the truth
of Mahamudra.
Drikung Rinpoche
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* How to Read Classical
Tibetan Volume 2:
Buddhist Tenets
by Craig Preston $45 342pp 8.5
x 11 2009
ISBN 9781559393133 Snow Lion
Craig Preston provides a complete
language course. He teaches how
to read an actual Tibetan text and what it means.
How to Read Classical Tibetan will take self-study
students to the next level
The book also helps students of the Tibetan lan-
guage gain entry into the genre of tenets, which is the
comparative study of the original schools of Buddhist
thought in India. He introduces the rich vocabulary
of Buddhist philosophy without assuming any prior
knowledge, offering simple, easy-to-understand ex-
planations of complicated ideas.
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Tibetan Logic
by Katherine Manchester Rogers
$39.95 528pp 2009 ISBN
9781559393157 Snow Lion
It is fundamental to Tibetan thought
that true knowledge is practical, use-
ful, and ultimately transforming and
liberating. Such knowledge is far
No Self, No Problem
by Anam Thubten, ed. Sharon
Roe $14.95 134pp 2009 ISBN
9781559393263 Snow Lion
True freedom is emancipation from
our concepts, from the psychological
veil that is distorting our view of the
way things are. When such freedom
is attained, we begin to see that life is inherently
perfect, just as it is, and we end up swimming ef-
fortlessly in an abundance of joy and love. But there
is a universal tendency to believe that we will fnd
what we are searching for somewhere else. Many
people look for freedom through accumulating either
material possessions or spiritual knowledge. These
searches amount to nothing more than a donkey
chasing after a dangled carrot. When we wake up to
that truth in this very moment we realise that what
we were seeking was already here. The question is,
Can we wake up to this truth? It might be much
easier than we think. Remember, great ancient mas-
ters often said that we dont realise the truth be-
cause it is too simple and too close to us. When we
fnally realise it, we will be shocked by two things:
how much time we wasted searching and how easy
it was after all.
www.snowlionpub.com/html/product_9826.html
Aung San Suu Kyi: The
Voice Of Hope
Alan Clements, 304pp ISBN
978188836383 Seven Stories
Press
U Tin U, the National League
for Democracy (NLD) Deputy
Leader, once said that Burma
is a prison within a prison. His
words highlight the tragic politi-
cal, social and economic circum-
stances that Burma is faced with today, because of
the military junta. Their calling card is a permanent
stain on the failure of humanity.
o-78uJJ|lsm How Pngo
www.buddhistpublishing.com
2009 Buddhist Publishing Group
The thoughts, movements and actions of more than
50 million civilians are under constant surveillance by
a regime obsessed with maintaining control. Yet Daw
Aung San Suu Kyis thoughts, words and actions provide
a beacon of hope that a peoples democracy living in
peace will someday take shape in Burma.
Author Alan Clements travelled to Rangoon in
December 1995 to meet secretly with Daw Suu Kyi and
recorded a series of dialogues with the leader of the
NLD. Clements involvement with Burma goes back 30
years. He is the frst American to be ordained a Buddhist
monk, and like all foreign journalists entering Burma, he
has also encountered the wrath of the military junta by
being deported.
Between his extensive knowledge of the domestic
situation, and Daw Suu Kyis wisdom and elegance in
answering every question put before her, readers will
understand just how Buddhism is closely connected with
politics in Burma, and why the concepts of faith and
metta (loving kindness) are among the building blocks
of any genuine democracy.
Each chapter is named after a sentence that typifes
the beliefs, sacrifce and struggle that best summarise
key points in Daw Suu Kyis existence. It also demon-
strates the enormous love that she shares for every
person who has risked their life to hear speeches deliv-
ered from her compound. She also speaks repeatedly of
compassion towards members of the SPDC and declares
that they too can show love for the people of Burma.
This may surprise readers, but perfectly encompasses
everything she stands for.
One cannot help but show admiration for any individ-
ual willing to risk their life to hear a political icon outline
the real situation in Burma, and be prepared to listen to
how and why civilians are suffering. In the process of
unravelling Daw Suu Kyis deepest thoughts, Clements
uncovers a defant individual that will not be intimidated
by weaponry in the hands of authority, while uncover-
ing the keys to life; love for humanity, education and an
open heart.
Daw Suu Kyi speaks modestly and candidly in describ-
ing her upbringing, the role of her parents in shaping her
values, her frenetic daily routine while under house ar-
rest, life abroad and eventual homecoming to Burma,
and unrelenting commitment to nonviolence. The appeal
of the dialogue is that Daw Suu Kyis answers to some of
Clements lengthy questions and points are presented
plainly and with fervour as if addressing a crowd of tens
of thousands of her supporters. There is no place for
political spin within these pages, which enhances the
readability.
One theme that resonates through the entire book
is the tenacity of the people of Burma and their abil-
ity to adopt a sense of humour in spite of the horrifc
conditions that they face. It takes a special human be-
ing to constantly laugh throughout years of suffering.
Clements has clearly done his background research
to prompt thought-provoking answers from Daw Suu
Kyi and in doing so, delivers possibly the greatest in-
sight into the worlds most famous female political icon.
It is impossible to have conceived the danger facing
Clements and Daw Suu Kyi, making the discussions and
writing of this publication all the more plausible.
Throughout the course of the book, the reader be-
comes acutely aware of the volatile situation that Burma
has faced in recent decades, a scenario sadly prevalent
to this day. The facts itself relating to Burmas political,
social and economic demise are not new, but Clements
aims to provide shock therapy and reveal to the world
the extent and frequency of abuse. He succeeds in
piercing the heart and soul deeply enough and warn us
that if we do not regard Burma as our highest priority,
then it is not just the people that face the harshest con-
sequences of tyranny. As a society, we will all carry the
burden of watching humans slowly die without directly
intervening.
This is not only an incredible individual we are learn-
ing about more intricately. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is
consistent that her work is only possible through the
efforts of her fellow party members, which leads to
Clements interviewing with individuals whose voices
and actions that been vocal in their opposition to the
military junta. He speaks candidly with U Gambira,
leader of the All-Burma Monks Alliance and inspiration
for the 2007 Saffron Revolution, and infuential NLD in-
dividuals and scholars U Kyi Maung and U Tin U. Their
insights, along with a chronology of the countrys re-
cent and international contacts, give readers the tools
to ensure that Burma is discussed at every regional
and international meeting, and at dinner tables and
bars. There is so much at stake now, not just with Aung
San Suu Kyis trial but with the farcical elections due to
be held in 2010.
Aung San Suu Kyi: The Voice Of Hope reminds us all
that the forgotten people of Burma are not just the dead
who have been forced to onto their knees for so much
of their lives, but the living voiceless. Alan Clements
has presented us a manual for life that crudely tells the
most powerful leaders on the planet to stop waiting for
a miracle to occur. This book is the catapult that will
launch individuals into taking immediate action. The
message here is loud and clear; use your rights and
privileges to help the long-suffering civilians of Burma
gain their freedom. Without Aung San Suu Kyis pres-
ence, our world will be so empty.
David Calleja is a regular contributor to Foreign Policy
Journal and member of Burma Campaign Australia.
Also received
Peace or Perish: There is no other choice
JP Vaswani, 8, 206pp, 2007, ISBN: 8187662719, New
You Books
www.sadhuvaswani.org
Tantric Techniques
by Jeffrey Hopkins. $39.95 424 pp. 2008 ISBN
9781559393201, Snow Lion
The idea is that by visualising being a Buddha, one
gets closer to actually achieving Buddhahood. We are
Buddha so why not act like Buddha. Tantras not that
diffcult really.
www.snowlionpub.com/html/product_9766.html
Dew Drops of Love
by J.P. Vaswani $15 126pp
www.dadavaswanisbooks.com/new-releases/index.php?id=238
Seven Commandments Of The Bhagavad Gita
by J.P. Vaswani $9.99 418pp
www.dadavaswanisbooks.com/online-store/books/hinduism/index.php?id=152
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