Buddhist Monks

Friends, barefoot Buddhist monks may have begun a peaceful revolution in Burma, the Southeast Asian nation also called "Myanmar." Since last week, a growing number of monks--joined by a growing number of civilians--have been marching through the streets of some of Burma's biggest cities, defying the nation's longstanding military regime.

The monks have made contact with pro-democracy leader--and Nobel Peace Prize winner--Aung San Suu Kyi, who has lived under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years. They've also come face-to-face with armed riot police. They greeted them with prayers and chants of "may there be peace."

Burma's military regime continues to cling to political and economic authority--as it has, sometimes brutally, for decades. But a spokesman for exiles says "the monks are the highest moral authority in the Burmese culture." That makes them both hard to ignore and hard to beat down. Today, let's meet the man who inspires the monks: the Buddha himself. Tomorrow, we'll survey some Burma basics.

Meet the Buddha

About 2,500 years ago, near the modern border of India and Nepal, the man who would become the Buddha--Siddhartha Gautama--was born into a world ready for change. The local religion had long been based on India's ancient Vedic texts, which emphasized ritualism. But increasingly, people were looking for something focused more on the spiritual interior.

Siddhartha grew up with both privilege and power. He was a member of the high-ranking warrior caste, and his father was a king who sheltered him from every care. He had three palaces built just for him, a beautiful wife, and countless concubines. He had everything, but it wasn't enough.

Renunciation

Siddhartha was touched by religious disquiet and, at the age of 29, transformed. Beyond the palace walls, he saw an old man, a sick man, and a dead man--all for the first time. They signaled the basic human problem: our bodies suffer and die (and then, according to the law of karma, we are reborn into new bodies that suffer and die again and again).

But one man he saw seemed happy: a religious ascetic who denied himself the pleasures of the body. So Siddhartha renounced his possessions, left his wife and infant son, and became an ascetic, too. In fact, he pushed asceticism to its limit, fasting till he looked like a corpse. He denied himself everything, but he didn't attain spiritual peace.

Meditation

For Siddhartha, neither self-indulgence nor self-mortification seemed to be the way of wisdom. So, at the age of 35, he looked for a "middle way" instead. He found a large tree, sat beneath it, and meditated. According to tradition, he achieved the status of Buddha ("awakened or enlightened one") in continual meditation beneath that tree.

At last he saw the "Four Noble Truths." First, he saw that life is characterized by suffering. Second, he saw that the cause of this suffering is desire. We crave and cling to impermanent or illusory things (including the idea that we have a "self"), but these things invariably go away or prove to be dead ends, afflicting us with their loss. Third, he saw that we can end suffering by putting an end to desire.

Finally, he saw the way to end desire: the "Noble Eightfold Path." It would take wisdom (which meant having the right view of the world and the right intention for your actions), virtue (which meant using the right speech, taking the right actions, and following the right livelihood), and mental discipline (which meant cultivating the right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration). But it could be done.

Nirvana

This message formed the basis for the Buddha's first post-enlightenment sermon (pictured above), and it's still the bedrock of Buddhist belief. By holding to this path, we can achieve nirvana ("extinction") and, at death, exit permanently from the cycle of rebirth into a state beyond suffering.

Before he died at the age of 80, the Buddha had built a community of monks who followed his example--adopting homeless lives, dedicating themselves to seeking truth (dharma), and teaching what they learned to others. Today, there are about 350 million Buddhists in the world, attempting to follow Siddhartha Gautama down the path to nirvana.

Now, Play the Re-Name Game

These days, you're likely to hear more about "Myanmar" than you do about "Burma." Most American media have switched to the name preferred by the nation's leaders. But not everyone. To find out why, play "the re-name game."