Buddhist teachings that
molded Madame Aung Suu Kyi’s thought & conduct-JR 177
Aung Suu Kyi Letter to Dawn
Mdame Kyi’s article, “How I learned from the monks, is
presented below. This was posted on the Daily “DAWN”, many many years ago. Some
extracts that may be of interest are also presented below:
1.
One should follow the example of the Lord Buddha,
who only spoke words that were trustworthy and beneficial, even if at times
such speech was not always pleasing.
2.
Hsaysdaw also urged me to cultivate ‘sati”
mindfulness of the five spiritual faculties, “sadha” (faith) , :”viriya”
(energy), “sati”, “Samadhi”(concentration), and panna (wisdom). It is only sati
that can never be in excess. Excessive faith without sufficient wisdom leads to
blind faith, while excessive wisdom without sufficient energy leads to
undesirable cunning.
3.
Too much energy combined with weak concentration
leads to indolence.
4.
The hermit Sumedha , who sacrificed the
possibility of early liberation for himself alone and underwent many lives of
striving that he might save others from suffering .
5.
Four causes of decline and decay: failure to
recover that which has been lost ; omission to repair that which has been
damaged ; disregard of the need for the elevation to leadership of those without
morality and learning .
6.
You must lay down an investment in “dukkha”
(suffering) and you will gain “sukha”
(bliss)
Religious belief
Aung San Suu Kyi’s main principle in life is to
constantly strive for self-improvement. Suu kyi has a drive for perfection and
wholeness and was taught from a young age to be honest with herself and that
“wrongdoing never pays.” She is very against the idea of people being
hypocritical or unjust and believes very strongly in the importance of compassion
in our world. Aung San Suu Kyi believes that as humans the spiritual dimension
of our lives cannot be neglected.
Suu Kyi also has a strong belief in equality and human rights and along with this a strong belief in freedom. She longed for a demcracy in her community to make some of her beliefs prevalent in Burma. "My attitude to peace is rather based of the Burmese definition of peace - it really means removing all the negative factors that destroy peace in this world. So peace does not just mean putting an end to violence or to war, but to all other factors that threaten peace, such as discrimination, such as inequality, poverty." This quote highlights Suu Kyi's cogent belief in the need for peace and lack of need for violence.
Being a Theravada Buddhist, Suu Kyi abides by Buddhist principles. Buddhists base their beliefs off the teachings of Buddha. Buddha's teachings were all based from the framework of the Four Noble Truths:
1. Dukkha: Discontent, stress, suffering, un-satisfactoriness;
2. The Cause of Duukkha: the cause of this dissatisfaction is the craving for sensuality, for states of coming, and states of no becoming;
3. The cessation of Dukkha: The relinquishment of that craving;
4. The path of practice leading to the cessation of Dukkha: The noble eight-fold path of right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
The ultimate goal of the Theravada is to escape samsara (the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth) and to enter nirvana (freedom from the cycle of reincarnation). To escape the samsara the first noble truth must be comprehended, the second noble truth abandoned, the third realised and the fourth noble truth is to be developed. It only through assigning to the noble truths these specific tasks, that you can gain release from samsara.
Suu Kyi also has a strong belief in equality and human rights and along with this a strong belief in freedom. She longed for a demcracy in her community to make some of her beliefs prevalent in Burma. "My attitude to peace is rather based of the Burmese definition of peace - it really means removing all the negative factors that destroy peace in this world. So peace does not just mean putting an end to violence or to war, but to all other factors that threaten peace, such as discrimination, such as inequality, poverty." This quote highlights Suu Kyi's cogent belief in the need for peace and lack of need for violence.
Being a Theravada Buddhist, Suu Kyi abides by Buddhist principles. Buddhists base their beliefs off the teachings of Buddha. Buddha's teachings were all based from the framework of the Four Noble Truths:
1. Dukkha: Discontent, stress, suffering, un-satisfactoriness;
2. The Cause of Duukkha: the cause of this dissatisfaction is the craving for sensuality, for states of coming, and states of no becoming;
3. The cessation of Dukkha: The relinquishment of that craving;
4. The path of practice leading to the cessation of Dukkha: The noble eight-fold path of right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
The ultimate goal of the Theravada is to escape samsara (the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth) and to enter nirvana (freedom from the cycle of reincarnation). To escape the samsara the first noble truth must be comprehended, the second noble truth abandoned, the third realised and the fourth noble truth is to be developed. It only through assigning to the noble truths these specific tasks, that you can gain release from samsara.
One of the main tools by which Theravada Buddhists transform themselves
is meditation. Suu Kyi meditates every day, claiming it is a form of spiritual
cultivation through which humans learn awareness. Following the beliefs of
Theravada Buddhists, she emphasises, through one’s own efforts, attaining self
liberation.
Brief biography
Aung San Suu Kyi (born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
(1991). She is the leader of the National
League for Democracy and the first and incumbent State Counselor, a
position akin to a prime minister. She is
also the first
woman to serve as Minister for Foreign
Affairs, for the President's
Office, for Electric Power and Energy, and for Education. From
2012 to 2016 she was an MP for Kawhmu Township to the House of
Representatives.
Career
The youngest daughter of Aung San, Father of
the Nation of modern-day Myanmar, and Khin Kyi, Aung
San Suu Kyi was born in Rangoon, British
Burma. After graduating from the University
of Delhi in 1964 and the University
of Oxford in 1968, she
worked at the United
Nations for three years. She married Michael Aris in 1972,
with whom she had two children. Aung San Suu Kyi rose to prominence in the 1988 Uprisings, and
became the General Secretary of the National
League for Democracy (NLD), which she had newly formed with the help of
several retired army officials who criticized the military junta. In the 1990
elections, NLD won 81% of the seats in Parliament, but the results were
nullified, as the military refused
to hand over power, resulting in an international outcry. She had, however,
already been detained under house arrest before
the elections. She remained under house arrest for almost 15 of the 21 years
from 1989 to 2010, becoming one of the world's most prominent political
prisoners.
Her party boycotted the 2010
elections, resulting in a decisive victory for the military-backed Union
Solidarity and Development Party. Aung San Suu Kyi became a Pyithu Hluttaw MP while
her party won 43 of the 45 vacant seats in the 2012
by-elections. In the 2015
elections, her party won a landslide victory, taking
86% of the seats in the Assembly
of the Union– well more than the 67% supermajority needed
to ensure that its preferred candidates were elected President and Second
Vice President in the Presidential
Electoral College. Although she was prohibited from becoming the
President due to a clause in the
constitution – her late husband and children are foreign
citizens – she assumed the newly created role of State
Counsellor, a role akin to a Prime
Minister or a head of
government. Aung San Suu Kyi's honours include the Nobel Peace Prize, which
she won in 1991. Time
Magazine named her one of the "Children of Gandhi"
and his spiritual heir to nonviolence.
Since ascending to the office of State Counselor, Aung San Suu Kyi has drawn criticism from several countries, organizations and figures over her alleged inaction to the persecution of the Rohingya people in Rakhine State and refusal to accept that Myanmar's military has committed massacres. Under her leadership, Myanmar has also drawn criticism for prosecutions of journalists. . She has written Freedom from Fear (1991) and Letters from Burma (1991)
