Meditation

Many Burmese Buddhists consider meditation the most praiseworthy activity one can undertake as a pious Buddhist, whether religious or lay. This chapter suggests that meditation’s prestige stems from its model of overcoming vulnerability in interaction by withdrawing from it. The chapter relates the course of a ten-day meditation retreat based on the currently more prestigious “insight” rather than “concentration” meditation tradition. It analyzes the prominence of meditation in contemporary Burmese discourse as reflecting the great value placed on autonomy, particularly for males. By instantiating the cessation of interaction, meditation models a condition of invulnerability and serenity that achieving detachment proffers.