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Chapter 9 The Forest of Time The mind, the Buddha said, is like gold. A pure mind can pour around the world without getting snagged and can roll all around itself, like a bead of water on a lotus leaf. . . . In the same way, a pure mind . . . can give results way in excess of its size. People who are really intent on purifying the mind may even lift themselves over and beyond the world. —Phra Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo, namo tasso bhagavato arahato samma-sambuddhass Dreams preserved in the biographies of the Buddha provide a map of the Buddhist dream world for those who would follow the same path, such that all buddhas, whether past, present or future, have the same life story and therefore the same dreams. . . . The common dream world is available to striving Buddhists as a map of spiritual progress. —Serinity Young, Dreaming in the Lotus I Resist in My Mind Only Despite the ‘‘miasma of fear’’ that Aung San Suu Kyi has described cloaking Burma, there is clearly both open and collective resistance to the military regime. The continued existence of the National League for Democracy, despite its dwindling ranks as members are imprisoned, intimidated, and die in custody, is testimony to the enormous desire for change in Burma in the face of overwhelming repression. Those who braved the military roadblocks and military intelligence photographers to attend the NLD roadside speeches give further evidence of the desire for change. The will to resist is also evident in the number of people arrested and later imprisoned for handing out leaflets at the roadside talks. The large number of political prisoners in Burmese jails signifies 174 Chapter 9 the open defiance that has persisted through four decades of military dictatorship. Demonstrations by monks, students, and pro-democracy supporters, as well as sporadic workers’ strikes (such as miners and garment factory workers) prove that the regime has not been completely successful in reconstructing Burmese as model citizens. The occasional bomb blast under symbols of repression such as the People’s Desire signboards are enough to convince the regime of the need to keep increasing its control over the everyday lives of its subject population. Collective resistance under the cover of anonymity is more common than open defiance in urban Burma, such as when the residents of Hledan Township opened their doors to the students who had staged a sit-down strike at their junction. United, they were able to deny individual acts of defiance. Attendance at state entertainment events is another example of the way in which collective resistance can emerge. Although Burmese would generally prefer not to patronize official sporting events, high unemployment and a lack of recreational facilities (together with a love of sport, gambling, and competition) combine to make some events too tempting to resist. Anonymity at sporting events allows hidden transcripts to be enacted publicly. George Orwell has written of the insults screamed by Burmese on the sidelines of a British football match during his time in Burma. Scott (1992: 77) notes that in Orwell’s description ‘‘Burmans managed to insinuate almost routinely a contempt for the British, while being careful never to venture a more dangerous open defiance . . . taking advantage of a crowd or of an ambiguous accident, they manage in a thousand artful ways to imply that they are grudging conscripts to the performance. . . . Behind the ‘‘antiEuropean ’’ acts that Orwell noted was undoubtedly a far more elaborate hidden transcript, an entire discourse, linked to Burman culture, religion , and the experience of colonial rule.’’ Upon reading this I was struck by how little the situation has changed. I recalled a friend’s description of another football match seventy years later between the Army and the Customs Department, where the hidden transcript again breaks through under the cover of anonymity: Everyone at the Sports Festival is against the Army. First the Army scored and everyone was quiet except the soldiers who were saluting. The people started shouting out si’tha:ju: [the word for soldier is attached to a derogatory term for madness]. They called out a lot of things. My son said that they shouted defence slogans, ‘‘gagwe! gagwe!’’ Then my son started shouting out ‘‘lee, lee’’ [slang for ‘‘penis, penis’’]. Then everyone started chanting it. Louder, lots of dirty swear words. At one point the soldiers were so angry that they threw a bottle at the spectators. The people started throwing stones at the soldiers. The soldiers...

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