The short answer is, “Yes.”  Of course we should be nice to Muslims, Christians, Atheist, animals, snakes and all beings.  Sabbe Satta means all beings.  In this long winded article, I speak about how the Muslims will win a majority in Myanmar and how Buddhism is already falling down in quality and quantity.  Any “evil” actions like parochial schools, or large families were actually practiced in Myanmar by Buddhists only 20 or 30 years ago.   They have continued with this practice, while Buddhism has slacked off.

The Muslims will become a majority in Myanmar just like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Pakistan, and other countries. It is unavoidable because Buddhism is going down and the Muslims have a winning track record.  This is all the more reason to be nice.  The last time I checked, “being nice” was a Buddhist Ideal and also a protection.  Morality among monks and lay people is also a protection.  I do not like the Islamic Religion any more than you do, but we should recognize that they are human beings along the many of creatures.  We all need love and compassion.  I am sorry to write about the sad fate of Myanmar Buddhism, but the writing is already on the wall.  Be nice!  That is my message.

When I started to venture outside of my usual monasteries (Pa-Auk or Vinaya friendly), I noticed that large monasteries were occupied by such a small number of monks. Often just two or three were in a monastery that once housed hundreds of monks. Sometimes there was only one monk in such a monastery. I asked my friend about the numbers I observed. He said that in his village there were 400 monks 20 years ago. Now there are 40. The monk who sits next to me in class gave me similar then and now ratios. His small village was ten monks and now there are only two and one of those is very old and will die soon. So we are looking at a ten to one ratio in 20 years. A 90% reduction in monastics. Gasp!.. It is happening all over the world. Ireland is a famous Catholic country and they are having single digit ordinations per year for the whole country. One year there was nobody to ordain.

Are the Muslims responsible for this sharp decline in Buddhism? Why don’t people at ask this question? Monastic life is the heart of the survival of Buddhism. It is going down in numbers but also in quality too.

Vinaya is Important

The Buddha created Vinaya (monastic rules) to protect Sangha (monastic community) and for Sangha to last for generations to come. Any scholar will confirm this was the the purpose for creating the rules and it is mentioned in many if not all of the vinaya study books. Furthermore, the monasteries which follow strict rules of monks have been growing in population, while the “normal” monasteries have been shrinking. The Buddha was right and we can see it clearly with the Pa-Auk and Mahavihara monasteries and their respective exponentially growing populations.  However, they are a very small majority among the Buddhist monastic population.  During the First Buddhist Council meeting, they asked which of the three baskets should be recited first. Venerable MahaKassapa suggested that the vinaya basket be first because, “Vinaya is the life and blood of the teachings.” We know that morality is a cause for concentration and that concentration is a cause for wisdom. A monk who uses money lives with a broken morality. People who give money to monks only help them break their morality.

Today’s “normal monk” does not inspire anyone simply by being a monk.  To inspire others, they need to retell what other good monks before them or the Buddha had said.  That is good, but it is not enough to keep Buddhism alive. Outside of my one year stint at ITBMU, I usually do not see such “normal” monks unless I am traveling from one vinaya following monastery like Pa-Auk Pyin Oo Lwin to another like Varanasi Monastery in Mingaladone. During the rest stops of a night bus, I will see monks smoke and eating snacks in the late evening. I say this because I just saw this a few days ago upon my travels. It was depressing to see. How inspiring is that? And it is the norm too.  There is no shame in buying unallowable food at night with unallowable money.  The shop owners sell to them.  It is so normal that the bus-attendant offered me a snack along with the other lay people (which I politely refused). She has to do this because the monks will complain if they don’t get their evening snacks. Does this sound inspiring? No.

It is rare for me to go to a restaurant, but when I do, I am usually in the mist of travel to a monastery or hospital. It is rare for the kappiya to pay for my meal though. Why? I eat according to vinaya. It is something the restaurant owners or another customer rarely or never sees. They get inspired and offer the expenses to the donor or kappiya. Usually 4 out of 5 meals that I have during travel are this way.  One day I was collecting food on my own after a doctor’s visit.  A lady stopped me as I was slowly walking with my bowl and asked me if I wanted to eat and I nodded my head.  Then she brought me to a food stall and ordered a full monk’s meal for me and left (usually double size).

The bus I had taken just a few days ago was also given as gratis too. “We don’t want to charge the monks.” they said. The bus was already pre-paid, so they gave the money back to my donor’s friend who brought me. Why? For sure they charge normal monks, but when they see a monk that does not touch money who dresses properly outside of the alms period, when outside the monastery, they get inspired and “business as usual” goes out the bus window.  The e-ticket was already paid for, but they did not feel right about it when I showed up.

Often we get visitor monks at Pa-Auk Maymyo. We can easily tell which of these monks uses money and who does not even though we dress the same inside the monastery. We just know. The Buddha has said in (Book of Fours, Rohitassa Vagga, sutta no. 10) that the monk loses his shine if he uses money.

`Stained by lust, anger, and blinded by ignorance some monks and brahmins take delight in sense pleasures.

Those foolish monks and brahmins drink alcohol, engage in sexual intercourse, accept gold, silver, and money, and obtain their requisites by wrong livelihood (money).

All of these are called corruptions by the Buddha who shines like the sun. Those foolish monks and brahmins who are corrupted by these corruptions, impure, and defiled, do not blaze or shine.

But instead bewildered, blinded, slaves to desire, and full of craving they increase the size of cemeteries by taking birth again and again. ́

I don’t have any Dhammacariya degrees. I did not give any dhamma talks. I didn’t do anything except show up dressed like a monk should be dressed for the village with both shoulders covered in the early evening. Perhaps I was shining from living the Bhikkhu’s way of life, with a full time meditation schedule.  I had not left the monastery even once in three months. That is all. It is rare and it inspired them. They offered a refund and let me ride too.

It is all a Population Game

My friend from Mon State explained further that he had ten siblings in his family and the whole village was like that. Families of 12 living under one roof makes sense if you do not use birth control. Ireland was once like that. However, nowadays, people use birth control as a way to gain higher financial status for their kids. They can afford better things for their children and send them to better schools. The schools that families of ten went to 20 years ago were in the monasteries. Now they go to private schools and compete so they can get good scores in the A-level exams and go to Universities, get a good job, and so forth. At the same time, Muslims are likely to still have ten kids and send their kids to the Mosque for schooling. They also allowed to marry widows as second wives. They are doing the same practice that Buddhists followed twenty years ago. It is not as evil as people say because it was what Myanmar once did not very long ago. So the numbers games are not working well for Myanmar Buddhist. How can we solve this problem?

Can we tell the Myanmar Buddhists: You must start having 10 kids each.

Can we tell the Myanmar Buddhists: You should not send your kids to Private Schools, to English Medium classes and they should learn at the monasteries. The Suttas, Dhammapada and Jataka stories are good for teaching kids.

Can we tell the Myanmar Buddhists: You should send your kids to become novice monks and miss precious regular school.

Sure we can tell them this, but it is not really right to expect this to happen. Currently, we might guess the Muslim to Buddhist ratio 20% of what the Muslims are producing. Then if we were to calculate that very few monks actually stay monks, we are in big trouble. If fifteen percent of novice monks actually remain monks until old age, this would be good, but this is an ambitious number. How many novice monks ordain and stay ordained all the way to the end of life? Very very few.

Very few children are joining monastic community now and the empty monasteries will yield more empty monasteries. Less exposure, will yield less interest and it will spiral. There will be less “respect learned before they can talk”. Kids will not be around to give almsfood to monks with their mothers. Things are spiraling downward and the future is grim. Ask a monk if respect has gone down in the past 20 years. They all will say yes. It is the monk’s fault of not following the rules and also just less numbers with less exposure.

Now let us assume the worse.

The Muslims will win because they have a record for winning.

It is true. When Muslims become the majority, it is likely that Buddhist will feel oppressed. It is natural for a majority to oppress the minority. It happens all of the time.. and it is not right.. but it happens. Currently, the Muslims are a minority in Myanmar and I am sure they feel oppressed.

Let us assume a 90% Muslim majority can happen in 200 years (or less). We can make history starting now. There are two options:

We can be friendly, promote loving-kindness, give help when needed, give help when not needed and be friendly and kind to our Muslim brothers.

Or

We can alienate them, oppress them and even fight them.

When they reach the 90% majority. They will look at the history. They will say:

“We are now a 90% majority. These Buddhists have alienated us, oppressed us and even hurt and fought us. Now we are a majority. What shall we do?”

Or they may say:

“We are now a majority. These Buddhists, have been friendly, promoted loving-kindness towards us. They have given help when needed, help when not needed. These Buddhist brothers have been our friends. What shall we do?”

Loving-kindness is the way of the Buddha.

Even if we lose our Buddhist Population, we have a choice:

1. We can lose the population, and lose our Buddhist values.

2. We can lose the population, but retain our Buddhist values.

Let us assume the worst that oppression will happen when the majority happens. Which is the best choice to follow?

If the Myanmar people really want to protect Buddhism, it will have to retain its Buddhist values. One must have faith in the power of loving-kindness. Even if it does not work, we should remember “The Simile of the Saw” spoken by the Buddha.

In this sutta, there were robbers who were cutting off the limbs of their victim slowly with a saw. The Buddha told us that we should develop loving-kindness towards these thieves until the very end of our lives. This is the advice of our Lord Buddha and this is the way we shall protect Buddhism.

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