Aung San Suu Kyi's idea of freedom offers a radical message for the west | Madeleine Bunting
The Burmese heroine's Reith lectures expose our patronising attitudes to Buddhism, and injects fresh meaning into a concept we have abused
"For her, freedom is not only a set of institutions, laws and political processes, it is also a quest of the individual spirit, the struggle to free oneself from greed, fear and hatred and how they drive one's own behaviour. "
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"But an inner sense of freedom can reinforce a practical drive for the more fundamental freedoms in the form of human rights and the rule of law.""
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"Lastly, Aung San Suu Kyi's Buddhism is challenging one of the most persistent orientalist myths. Just as Islam was characterised as violent by Christian imperialists, Buddhism was scorned for its quietism, and self-absorbed fatalism: both were treated with comparable contempt under colonialism."
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