COVID-19 in Myanmar: Women's Edition

In the second installment of our ongoing COVID-19 in Myanmar series, we present the Women’s Edition. So often at times of crisis and at key moments in world events, it is the voices of men who make the news. This is certainly no less true in Myanmar, where speeches from revered Sayadaws and male meditation teachers dominate the Dhamma discourse. For this reason, this episode will highlight those voices and experiences of female practitioners, who discuss how they have responded to the current pandemic.

The guests include:

·     Katie L’Estrange, a British teacher, fundraiser, and meditator who left her Mandalay home with her young son, just as the pandemic was exploding to return to Wales.

·     Sayalay Piyadassii, a Lithuanian nun hunkering down at the Shan State Buddhist University in Taunggyi.

·     Dominica Bastrzyc, a Polish backpacker-turned-meditator who found shelter at a monastery north of Yangon when the pandemic hit.

·     Inga Bergman, a vipassana meditator from the S.N. Goenka tradition who organized a donation drive from her home in Chicago to feed Yangon monasteries unable to procure food from alms rounds.

As part of this new series, in upcoming episodes we will explore how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting Burmese monastic society, and how it is impacting meditators around the world, and pushing meditation teachers to respond in new and innovative ways to the crisis as it unfolds. In this time of uncertainty and insecurity, we hope the voices that follow provide information and insight, and help awaken the seeds of wisdom within you.

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