Dear U Warazein,

I am delighted to receive your email response for two reasons.

One, I am very honored to have such a friend like you who has good knowledge of politics as well as religion. I must say that my knowledge of Pathana is not that good. I am still in the learning stage trying to listen to the CDs by learned Sayadaws again and again. There is no such thing as "enough" when it comes to aquiring knowledge and understanding.

Two, the fact that this discussion is going on with deep thoughtful postings with civility and respect for each other. The issues discussed are very important and I am sure others in this forum will benefit even if they do not wish to join in as yet.

On the moral issue of obeying orders.

I will reply with my own personal story. During the era of the BSPP government, the economy went from bad to worse and a lot of people - citizens, government servants, merchants etc. had to sell things in the blackmarket (especially petrol rations) and engage in bribery and corruption. The moral question then was: Do you join in and do what others are doing although you know it is wrong. Do you drink the bitter rain or not.(Amyar moe khar yae thauk ko lei thauk).

In my case, I decided to leave the service because it was the right thing to do at that time in my analysis of the situation. At that time many civil servants demonstrated on the streets for good governance, democracy and freedom. They did it out of their own convictions and many paid the price for these actions. You know I left the service and tried to get employment elsewhere rather than remain in the system and suffer in misery every day of my life.

What I am saying here is that every individual has his price. Some are fearful of authority. Some are afraid to lose their jobs. Some are willing to stay on within the present system rather than venture into the unkown.

I am not making a moral judgement on how others make their life-changing decisions.

However, you and I know that there are laws of men, international law and the laws of the universe (Dharma). Christians would call it "the laws of God".

This brings to mind a title of a book by a famous Russian author, "God sees the truth but waits".

You will have noticed that sometimes I may side-step issues or choose my words very carefully. All these are based on the fact that this is a public forum. I hope you will understand.

From the Abhidhamma we know that certain acts of karma (either good or bad) bear fruits in their own way.

It is very difficult for us as ornidary mortals how the effects of Karma will play out. It is beyond the scope of our understanding. Only the Samma Sam Buddha can comprehend the laws of karma in detail. Having said that, there are answers in the Abhidhamma which can guide us.

1. Some karmic acitons bear fruit immediately. (within a few days).

2. Some karmic actions happen within a lifetime. (like the Romanian dictator and the Talibans who destroyed the huge Buddha statues in Afghanistan).

3. Some karmic actions happen in the next life. (like being reborn in the Four Lower Abodes or in the Heavenly deva planes.)

4. Some karmic action will bear fruit at any appropriate time till a person becomes an Arahat. (example: even some Arahats had to suffer the effects of their past bad karma just before attaining nibanna. The Suttas are full of these stories. There was one Arahat who was killed by robbers - beaten to death. In this case he was paying back what he did in his past life when he asked robbers to beat his parents to death. The parents did not see who did this cruel act as they were blind.

Very recently, I was listening to a very good CD - a sermon given by Ashin Zawana (Metta Shin). In his vipassana sermon he said that the real test to find out if a person had become a Sotapan or not is to see if this person will do the following things:

1. Kill a living being.
2. Steal

He explained that a person who has reached the stage of Sotapana (first level stream winner in the Magga path)will not commit the above acts. He or she would rather die. A Sotapana cannot be bribed by any amount of money or threatened by death.

One of the biggest virtues of the Omniscient Buddhas is that they will never commit an evil deed when they are by themselves or in public.

The Buddhas have the virtue of "Vija carana".

Vija = knowledge

Carana = practice

All other beings who are not on the list of Stream Winners of the Magga Path (Sotapana, Thadagana, Anagana and Arahata) will commit small acts of akusala or big acts of akusala.

This is because they do not yet have the vija pyinnya (Knowledge that leads to Magga).

An ordinary putuzana may not believe the laws of karma. He or she may not even believe in the next existence.

That is why some people may commit cruel crimes within society or even crimes against humanity like Hitler and Pol Pot.

I once had a friend who told me "why should I care what happens to me in my next life, if there is one, as I will probably not remember anything." Well, I told him "you will feel the pain in any case and it does not matter whether you remember why this misfortune is happening to you."

For persons who do not learn from history, history has a habit of repeating itself.

The real hero is not the person who does the right thing in front of the TV for publicity but the person who does the right thing even when he has the opportunity to commit crimes or become rich while he is alone and unknown by anyone.

Jesus once said: "Do not let the right hand know what the left hand is doing". In my interpretation, I think he was reminding us to be humble and good and not worry too much about publicity.


Buddha said in the Dhammapada: "He who by righteousness abandons the evil ways of life shines in this world like the moon escaped from clouds".

At the end of the day, we may be able to fool a few people or a lot of people or even the whole world, but we cannot fool ourselves.

All our thoughts and actions are recorded permanently on the "hard drive" of the karmic stream of consciousness. Good deeds or bad deeds will follow us like a shadow for many, many lifetimes.


With that let me rest for today.

KM

Dear U Kyaw Myaing,

Since I joined the service after you, my colleagues and I look upon you and a few others as 'mentors'. I regard you as Mr Clean.

The point you've raised whether to join in with the majority even though you know it is not 'morally correct' depends on how you were brought up, I suppose.

Bringing up children and economic hardships does not go well together at all. However, it is also a 'test' for your character - how clean you can lead your life. Say, if we were to believe in the Dhamma then there is no room for bending the rules when you are confronted with 'corruption'. We were raised to be content with what we have and what we can afford.

I considered myself lucky to have the opportunity to work for a while with Uncle when I started. He taught us many lessons, in particular, how to lead and ethical life in the service and what pitfalls we have to expect.

I find it hard to go with the flow and time and again I had to confront with those moral dilemma. Like you, I decided that I cannot be part of the system and sought political asylum. My parents always reminded me that to do a immoral act is like throwing a stone 'backwards'. Knowingly or unknowingly you're tarnishing the name of your ancestors. We were taught to have shame and fear of doing immoral things and it's a very straight and narrow path to follow when you're living in Burma. In Abhidhamma, shamelessness and fearlessness of wrong are the mental factors or cetasikas that will lead one to do immoral things.

As for those who commit inhumane or criminal acts with the excuse that 'they were just doing their duties - following orders' it was said that they have loss a sense of responsibility as a question of their submission to authority. The essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person's wishes, and he therefore no longer regards himself as responsible for his actions. Once this critical shift of viewpoint has occurred in the person, all of the essential features of obedience follow.

Hannah Arendt in her book "Eichmann in Jerusalem" sets forth her then controversial thesis about 'the banality of evil': that the detestable Nazi Eichmann was not a 'monster' but was simply obeying orders that the Jews in his concentration camp be put to death in the camp's gas chambers. Eichmann was simply a bureaucrat obeying orders, like bureaucrats everywhere. I have my relatives in the military who were not much better than Eichmann when it comes to 'obeying orders or just doing their duty'.

It was also mentioned that there was an intense devalution of the victims prior to action against them. Vehement anti-Jewish propaganda systemically prepared the German population to accept the destruction of the Jews. Was there any difference in the genocide of Tutsis by the Hutus in Rawanda?

Let me quote you what George Orwell wrote:

As I write, highly civilised human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me. They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are only 'doing their duty', as the saying goes. Most of them, I have no doubt, are kindhearted law abiding men who would never dream of committing murder in private life. On the other hand, if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well-placed bomb, he will never sleep any the worse for it.

It is not just the authority that is to blame but the mindless obedience to the authority that can cause more harm. I do not think that I need to elaborate further.

We should never take obedience to authority for granted.

Dear U Kyaw Myaing,

Since I joined the service after you, my colleagues and I look upon you and a few others as 'mentors'. I regard you as Mr Clean.

The point you've raised whether to join in with the majority even though you know it is not 'morally correct' depends on how you were brought up, I suppose.

Bringing up children and economic hardships does not go well together at all. However, it is also a 'test' for your character - how clean you can lead your life. Say, if we were to believe in the Dhamma then there is no room for bending the rules when you are confronted with 'corruption'. We were raised to be content with what we have and what we can afford.

I considered myself lucky to have the opportunity to work for a while with Uncle when I started. He taught us many lessons, in particular, how to lead and ethical life in the service and what pitfalls we have to expect.

I find it hard to go with the flow and time and again I had to confront with those moral dilemma. Like you, I decided that I cannot be part of the system and sought political asylum. My parents always reminded me that to do a immoral act is like throwing a stone 'backwards'. Knowingly or unknowingly you're tarnishing the name of your ancestors. We were taught to have shame and fear of doing immoral things and it's a very straight and narrow path to follow when you're living in Burma. In Abhidhamma, shamelessness and fearlessness of wrong are the mental factors or cetasikas that will lead one to do immoral things.

As for those who commit inhumane or criminal acts with the excuse that 'they were just doing their duties - following orders' it was said that they have loss a sense of responsibility as a question of their submission to authority. The essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person's wishes, and he therefore no longer regards himself as responsible for his actions. Once this critical shift of viewpoint has occurred in the person, all of the essential features of obedience follow.

Hannah Arendt in her book "Eichmann in Jerusalem" sets forth her then controversial thesis about 'the banality of evil': that the detestable Nazi Eichmann was not a 'monster' but was simply obeying orders that the Jews in his concentration camp be put to death in the camp's gas chambers. Eichmann was simply a bureaucrat obeying orders, like bureaucrats everywhere. I have my relatives in the military who were not much better than Eichmann when it comes to 'obeying orders or just doing their duty'.

It was also mentioned that there was an intense devalution of the victims prior to action against them. Vehement anti-Jewish propaganda systemically prepared the German population to accept the destruction of the Jews. Was there any difference in the genocide of Tutsis by the Hutus in Rawanda?

Let me quote you what George Orwell wrote:

As I write, highly civilised human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me. They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are only 'doing their duty', as the saying goes. Most of them, I have no doubt, are kindhearted law abiding men who would never dream of committing murder in private life. On the other hand, if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well-placed bomb, he will never sleep any the worse for it.

It is not just the authority that is to blame but the mindless obedience to the authority that can cause more harm. I do not think that I need to elaborate further.

We should never take obedience to authority for granted.

Dear U Warazein,

For the record, where doing the right is concerned I do not follow the majority. I follow the teachings of the Buddha.

Sometimes the majority may be wrong.

One does not have to drink "the bitter rain" just because the majority thinks it is sweet.

When I was mentioning the decline in morality during the BSPP era I was just making a note of the facts of life during that time. That does not mean that I will do the wrong things just because everyone else thought it was "cool" and "ok".

I have my own standard of ethics.

In my opinion, ethical standards stand the test of time and place and all great philosophers agree on the basic principles of ethical behavior.

One of the greatest ethical principles is the fundamental right of the people to elect their leaders in free and fair elections. I am not talking about the kind of elections during the socialist era when there was only one party and the people did not really have a good choice to choose good leaders.

Now things have changed. The Internet, World Wide Web, digital media and YouTube have changed all that.

The ordinary citizen at the lowest level have been given a voice and a right to speak up and be heard at the global level.

That is why we are should be discussing about "leaders" and how to choose "good leaders".

There is a dictum in management:

"Doing the right things" is more important than "Doing things right".

So we should be sure that we are "Doing the right things".

That is our first priority.

KM

Dear U Kyaw Myaing,

I have no intention of questioning your ethics. But for one to be able to lead a moral life the standard of ethics must be set in accordance with 'Visuddhamagga' (the Buddhist Path to Purification) at the top and living strictly in accordance with the 'five precepts' at the basic or layman level.

I could understand when I was told about the saying, 'amya-nyi e-ko kywei-phat' (if the majority has the say then white should be read as 'black' but living under a dictatorial regime, I know the meaning quite well.

I know what you mean by not going with the flow and drinking 'bitter rain' as most would but it's a life that most would scorn on. For me, I always reminded myself of my mother's words, "let a thousand men scorn on you, they can all be redeemed by the praise of one good man".

We have deveiated or side-tracked from our original discussion of 'the qualities we wish for in a leader'. According to Abhidhamma, 'cetana' is the most crucial factor in a person doing what is good or bad. For example, look at Daw Suu's prime intention or cetana for the country. She wanted to set up chain of libraries throughout the country. Everyone know that 'education' is the silver bullet in fighting poverty.

She could have lived a luxurious life in the West with her family unlike being in detention for years with no release in sight. Gaining power as a way to accumulate wealth is out of the question for her.

Unlike her, Than Shwe and his company has destroyed the country for the sake of accumulating wealth by illicit means. I cannot imagine how well they sleep with that kind of guilt or they may have become immune to guilt.

They have destroyed the country in many aspects. Without a good education how can we ever hope to rebuild when we are going to have generations of people with little or no skills. The skills they have are not the one we will need for nation building. Even in a wealthy country disinvestment in education proved fatal a few years down the track.

Like Sayar U Kyaw Htut said, " In Abhidhamma, a person cannot be good or evil all the time. It will depend on the person's 'cetana'. They used to say that a person cannot be regarded as 'human' just by being borned out of human beings. Unless that person have a clear understanding of what is good (kusala) and what is bad (akusala) that person may never be regarded as a 'human'.

What can we say about those 'who ordered to shoot the monks (which is in Buddhism one of the three gems - it was never mentioned that the gem has to be a real one or a monk has to be bogus) or those who shoot just because they were just 'following orders'?