Sayalay Khema Cari, Thabarwa Center, Italy; Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
When I arrived in Burma (Myanmar), I had to share a room with a fellow meditator, a Burmese gal. On the first night, I was provided with clean bedsheets and a mosquito net, but I didn't want to use the net.
The Burmese woman insisted I use it, as there were many mosquitoes. But I didn't want to, and she gave up asking. The next night she removed her own mosquito net. I was surprised and asked her why. She explained that if she were under her mosquito net, all the mosquitoes in the room would bite me. So she wanted to share the bites with me. ❤️
The Burmese woman insisted I use it, as there were many mosquitoes. But I didn't want to, and she gave up asking. The next night she removed her own mosquito net. I was surprised and asked her why. She explained that if she were under her mosquito net, all the mosquitoes in the room would bite me. So she wanted to share the bites with me. ❤️
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| I want to love without limits. |
That day I understood how different and how much kinder the minds of Theravada Burmese Buddhists are.
This story describes exactly their way of seeing things: Not only would they share what little they had, but they would share another person's burden, too. They would endure more to reduce someone else's suffering. At least that's what they would aim to do by their intention. I became a Western Buddhist nun. Every culture has beautiful qualities. We can learn from all of them to help recover our humanity and develop our hearts to be as vast as the sky.
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