Maha Ghosananda has been called the “Gandhi of Cambodia” and the “Buddha of the Battlefields.” His life story has a lot to teach us about suffering and liberation from suffering.
Born Va Yav in 1929 to a farming family in the plains of the Mekong Delta, he came of age in a time of great suffering in Cambodia. In the wake of World War II, Khmer nationalism began to stir in the country, bringing with it social upheaval, riots, and terrorism.
At a young age, Maha Ghosananda became a novice Buddhist monk and studied at monastic universities in Phnom Penh and Battambang. He was then sent for further education to Nalanda Buddhist University in India, where he met Nichidatsu Fujii, founder of the Nipponzan Myohoji sect. Fujii had stayed in Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram for a time, where he studied nonviolence. Maha Ghosananda, in turn, learned Gandhian methods of nonviolent activism from Fujii. He later studied with Buddhadasa Bhikkhu in Thailand, further deepening his knowledge of engaged Buddhism.
In 1969, the US began bombing Cambodia and the country became engulfed in civil war and social disintegration. Once the Khmer Rouge took power, Buddhist monks were denounced as part of the feudalistic power structures of the past.
Maha Ghosananda, who was in a Thai forest hermitage at the time, was one of the very few monks to survive the brutal torture and murders that followed. Nearly two million Cambodians, almost a quarter of the population, were killed between 1975 and 1979. Maha Ghosananda’s entire family, including 16 brothers and sisters, and many friends were murdered by the Khmer Rouge. In 1978, he left his forest hermitage to minister to Cambodian refugees who came across the Thai-Cambodian border.
In spite of—or perhaps because of—this unimaginable tragedy, Maha Ghosananda continued his ministry for peace on an even larger scale. In 1992, he led a 200-kilometer Dhammayietra (pilgrimage of truth) across Cambodia to begin restoring the hope and spirit of the Cambodian people. The walk echoed Shakyamuni Buddha’s own efforts to stop the war between the Sakyan and Koliyan clans over the sharing of river water for irrigation.
Researcher and lecturer of Social Sciences at Svay Rieng University, Bunly Soeung, writes:
The Dhammayietra involved talks with villagers, deep listening to villagers’ real-life stories and fears, tree ordaining, water blessings, and education through example on loving kindness, non-violent conflict resolution and reconciliation. Utilising its local legitimacy, Dhammayietra played critical roles in reconnecting Khmer Rouge guerrillas, government forces, laypeople, Buddhist monks, and community residents divided by protracted civil wars, and in restoring Cambodians’ mental health and courage for compassion, forgiveness, mindfulness, nonviolence, peace and reconciliation. (New Mandala)
I was lucky enough to meet Maha Ghosananda once, in 2004, at a conference not far from one of his communities in western Massachusetts. The moment he entered the large room, the more than 150 people in attendance suddenly fell silent. Although he was small in stature and never said a word, he was an incredibly powerful presence. As he bowed and smiled to all of us, a palpable wave of joy spread throughout the room.
For many years, I’ve had these words from Maha Ghosananda hanging over my desk and never fail to be moved by them:
The suffering of Cambodia has been deep.
From this suffering comes Great Compassion.
Great Compassion makes a Peaceful Heart.
A Peaceful Heart makes a Peaceful Person.
A Peaceful Person makes a Peaceful Family.
A Peaceful Family makes a Peaceful Community.
A Peaceful Community makes a Peaceful Nation.
A Peaceful Nation makes a Peaceful World.
May all beings live in Happiness and Peace.
This humble monk was able to take his own deep pain and grief and, rather than turning exclusively inward or turning away from them, transformed them into caring action directed outward. The lesson I take from his life is that while there is a place for acknowledging and healing our personal suffering, something remarkable happens when we can take another step out of that insular space and respond to the pain of another.
During these times when there is so much state-sponsored violence and chaos, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the immensity of suffering. In addition, our personal lives may be marked with challenges and difficult emotions.
Here’s an invitation: as you consider the suffering in your own life, try asking how it connects you in an intimate way with other beings. You are not alone in your pain. See if you can look beyond your own situation to see that others—perhaps in your family, your neighborhood, your community—suffer as well. Rather than feeling drowned by your anguish, see if you can find a way to transform it into beneficial action for others. Perhaps, like Maha Ghosananda, you’ll find your way out the other side of suffering where it transforms into compassion. And you’ll have also done something to help lighten a fellow human being’s load just a little bit.
See more
Buddhism and peace-building in Samlot District’s Kampong Lapov (New Mandala)
Related features from BDG
Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Teaching of Interbeing
Maha Ghosananda: Cambodia’s Great Advocate for World Peace
Harmony in Diversity: A Buddhist Call to Co-Existence amid Violence
A Buddhist Understanding of the Dharma and Human Rights
Exploring Engaged Buddhism with Professor Christopher Queen
