July 03, 2020

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said “Let’s come up with determined efforts to win the war against COVID, once and for all with the participation of everyone” on her Facebook page yesterday. This was what she wrote:

Let me share once again what I have shared many, many times. This is none other than the spiritual guidance given by the Venerable Pakkoku Sayadaw to my father. He said, “Don’t be scared when others try to scare you. Don’t take it lightly also. When others heap praise on you, don’t let it get to your head. Also, don’t be too modest to accept the praise.” In the first part, I have repeatedly referred to COVID. I am just reminding you all not to be too scared and at the same time not to let down your guard.

This time I wish to talk mainly about the second part. When others heap praise on you, don’t let it get to your head. This is quite clear. “Also, don’t be too modest to accept the praise”. This was how the Venerable Sayadaw explained to his disciples; he said that if someone praised you, you should try to value and continue to maintain the good qualities that resulted in the praise. In other words, you should nurture your good qualities and accomplishments.

There have been some words of praise with regard to our COVID related programmes. In the beginning, there were some who did not think that our country would be able to handle such a huge problem. Now, these very same people have recognized that how we handled the problem was appropriate and proper. This is the time when we can all be justifiably happy with elation. When they praised us, as far as I was concerned, this was possible because we knew “people were the key”. This was possible because the whole country participated. We adopted the motto “leave no one behind”. That was how we used to give our explanation. We recognize the fact that we have not arrived at the end of our journey. We are mindful of the fact that we should maintain the momentum of our success.

Let us all experience a bout of elation because of the praise heaped on us. Let us all join hands and work with determined efforts to win over the war against COVID once and for all so that we can all continue to be worthy of praise. (Translated by Kyaw Myaing)