May 2014 LOTUS 21

Goldstein were disciples of Mahasi Sayadaw who taught

meditation on the East Coast. On the West Coast was a

fellow missionary monk from Burma who invited him

regularly to Los Angeles. He would lead retreats over

there at least once a year and occasionally lectured as

well. Among the universities he visited were Columbia,

Harvard, Macomb, Champagne and Berkeley. Eventually

invitations began to arrive from South and Central Amer-

ica too. He first took a retreat in Brazil in 2000; in 2004 he

was invited to the fifth anniversary celebrations of the

Mexican Centro de Theravada.

From the 1980s on he took a prominent part in promot-

ing peace and human rights world-wide, attending con-

ferences in Russia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Austr alia,

and addressing various sections of the United Nations,

culminating in the Millennium Peace Summit at their

New York Headquarters. Among the bodies he was

invited to join in an executive capacity were The World

Conference for Religion and Peace and the International

Network of Engaged Buddhists. As leader of the Interna-

tional Buddhist Peace Mission he visited Cambodia in

1989 and Sri Lanka in 1990. When rioting against the Ne

Win regime began in Myanmar he was asked by Amnesty

to serve as their advisor. He also set up the Burma Peace

Foundation with David Arnott to help the victims of and

refugees from this agitation and visited some of them in

North-West Thailand. When the direction of the Founda-

tion turned to political agitation, he withdrew again. His

aim was always to serve the Buddha’s teaching by help-

ing people, not to add to the clash of ideologies.

While passing through New York in 1993, Dr Rewata

Dhamma talked to Francesc Vendrell, director of political

affairs for South Asia and the Pacific countries in the

United Nations, and suggested that, instead of confronta-

tional demands, the Buddhist way of doing things would

be to engage in dialogue with the Myanmar government.

Vendrell then arranged for him to meet various diplo-

mats in Washington who asked him whether he would

be prepared to undertake that task. As someone who had

renounced his citizenship twice, the second time to take

British nationality, he was not exactly Myanmar’s favourite

son. There were times when he doubted whether he would

ever be allowed to return. Nevertheless, an invitation from

the State Sangha Mahanayika Council arrived soon after-

wards and in May 1994 he set off to see the country he

had not visited in over thirty years.

It was not only his monastic superiors with whom

Sayadaw conferred. He talked over the situation with

several ex-politicians and eventually discussed the advis-

ability of releasing Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest

with a senior member of government. He got no agree-

ment and, on reporting this to Francesc Vendrell and

other diplomats, was asked why the Government would

not even talk to the democratic leader. After all, hadn’t

Dr Rewata Dhamma said that dialogue was the Buddhist

way of negotiation? So in August he flew back to the

homeland he had not seen in so many years for another

week and talked to his Government contact the afternoon

of his arrival. No difficulties were raised and he was

granted permission to visit Suu Kyi for as long as he

liked. His account of their interview is as follows:

“She told me that she was not angry and added that

‘when you keep anger and animosity in your mind, it is

like keeping a cobra in your heart and this is very

dangerous.’ Another point she made was that she herself

did not need to be freed, as she was living in a very

comfortable house, but she wanted freedom granted to

those people who had been detained in jails throughout

the country. She also said that if she could have dialogue

with the Government then her personal freedom was not

a matter of necessity. On the subject of democracy, she

also spoke her mind, saying that democracy was not

something you can beg from someone else; rather, it is

something you had to build for yourself.

“In the course of the rest of our conversation, she also

said that because her father had been the founder of the

Myanmar Army, she regarded all members of the mili-

tary as her brothers. To my mind, this is absolutely true

as she was brought up in her father's home in which the

army and army life was a predominant feature, so it was

quite easy to understand how from an early age she could

regard the military as her ‘family.’ After she told me of

her feelings about the army, I told her that even members

of the military Government regarded her with respect be-

cause of her late father's and her family's strong links

with the army. So whatever differences and problems she

and they had could indeed be solved as brothers and

sister. She ans wered me by saying that only the Myanmar

people could understand Myanmar's problems, and so

whatever differences we had must be sorted out among

ourselves.”

Although discussions did eventually take place between

the two, Suu Kyi was not released until the following sum-

mer. In the meanwhile Dr Rewata Dhamma’s profile was

high and he took the opportunity to declare his vision of

responsible statesmanship at the Asian Leaders Confer-Lama Gangchen with Dr Rewata Dhamma