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, aending 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 Arno 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 maer 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