The photo showed 20,000 orange-clad and bald Buddhist monks of varous ages sitting in prayer in protest of the policies of the ruling junta in Myanmar in Monday’s Metro PHiladelphia (Sept 24, 2007). (This is the same group who seized power and overturned the democratically elected Suu Kyi and kept her in detention and under house arrest for 11 of the last 18 years.) Now today the news is that despite resistance from the military, they are still protesting, with chants and upturned bowls (which is an insult) as their weapons of choice. Asa result of course, the public now feels free to also join in and protest the repressive regime and its economic policies that have terrorized and famished the country. Has anyone noticed the spiritual power that these religious people are tapped into? Or, the quandary this action creates for the ruling junta?
These protests began nearly a month ago and now the whole world is watching. Let us pray for our Buddhist brothers and sisters and perhaps pray for ourselves that it will be a lesson the peacemakers in the US will learn. Spiritual power trumps military might.
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