{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2F4efa9074-6a06-413c-90e2-31fe4fa9a784","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"Facing Darkness with Light","description":"\u201cWe are already in the danger. So we don\u2019t care anymore. The dawn won\u2019t be that much darker than the midnight. And we are already in the midnight, so the darkness can\u2019t be much worse. We are at the peak of the darkness.\u201d\n\nThese were the words of Inda Aung Soe as military tanks were rolling past at the start of our free-flowing and open interview, when asked if he felt safe talking to us from the chaotic streets of Yangon. Inda\u2019s brave response echoes a resilience exemplified by the Burmese people during the shocking events of this month, and kicked off his description of the growing protest movement taking shape across the country. Having been a Buddhist monk himself for many years, Inda is able to reflect not just on the mood of lay protesters, but also at monasteries and among his monastic friends.\n\nDespite these harrowing experiences, Inda affirms a strong set of values that protesters have committed themselves to, in particular non-violence, refusing to cause harm to other beings even in the face of the military\u2019s and their proxies\u2019 aggressions. Inda notes that the military\u2019s attempts to sow dissention among the Burmese people is failing in part because of this value.\n\nAnd according to Inda, commitment to non-violence is not the only thing the military has not understood about the current moment. He shares there is no single leader organizing the movement, so the military can\u2019t stop it by hunting down specific activists, as they have done in the past. Instead, Inda describes an entire population that has stepped up as one to claim its basic freedoms and human rights. He and Zach share a laugh that the usually chaotic and disorganized Burmese society has somehow, overnight, formed itself into a plastic, integrated structure capable of quickly responding as a whole to the most sophisticated attacks\u2014physical as well as psychological\u2014from a professionally trained military.\n\nInda closes by thanking the foreign community for its generosity and support during these difficult times, from both inside and outside the country. We also would like to encourage you to share it widely to help make Inda\u2019s and the Burmese people\u2019s struggles more widely known. The light in the Golden Land is still on, but faint and in danger of flaming out; it is happening in real time.\n\nA note about our mission here at Insight Myanmar Podcast. While it usually takes us several weeks at minimum to produce an episode, we feel that the current moment demands a faster turn-around. However, this can be challenging for a primarily volunteer organization, especially one with limited funds. We hope to continue bringing interviews on this urgent topic with Buddhist practitioners, teachers, and scholars, but we need your support to do so. If you would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give by searching \u201cInsight Myanmar\u201d on PayPal, Venmo, CashApp, Go Fund Me, and Patreon, as well as via Credit Card on our site.","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/85c76e62-225b-47f6-a9a4-946280b20205/0vUAHBhXlN6g_hFPmAhOALZ3.jpg"}