MYANMAR-- WILL THE RULING GENERALS COME BACK AS COACKROACHES?

Here I am at Swedagon. They make you take off your socks as well as your shoes. I refused to take off my socks and we negotiated and compromised. They let me keep one sock on.

It made me proud to be a Buddhist and it made me proud to be a democrat and it made me proud to be a human being to see the way the Burmese monks stood up to the fascist dictatorship that brutally runs their serene, impoverished country. I was also thrilled to watch-- on TV though-- the people of Kenya stand up to blatant election fraud in their country when the ruling regime tried stealing the election there. It makes me scared for America that we didn't stand up when Bush scored his coup d'etat in 2000.

Today's L.A. Times has a front page story about how the monks have responded to the vicious crackdown after their peaceful demonstrations in September. The story, which I read in the barbershop this morning while I was getting my head shaved (monk-style) is pretty inspiring. I had noticed when I visited the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's most revered holy site, that a couple of junta generals were walking around. It surprised me that they would have the nerve to show their mugs at a sacred Buddhist temple. It shouldn't have surprised me though-- anymore than it does that Bush aggressively professes to follow Jesus Christ while doing the daily work of Satan.

In the recent crackdown, many monks were beaten and defrocked in prison. Human rights activists say several monks were among the 31 people the United Nations says were killed by the government.

It was a traumatic wound to a mainly Buddhist society, one that forced a lot of soul searching among people who practice one of the oldest forms of the religion, which emphasizes critical thought and reasoning over blind faith.

The stern-faced Nyanissara, a 70-year-old monk in owlish glasses and a maroon robe, is able to stare down generals with chests full of medals by stepping carefully through the minefield that makes free speech lethal here.

Shielding himself with allegory, he crisscrosses the country giving lectures that draw on history and legend to remind people that rotten regimes have fallen before. As the generals try to crush the last remnants of resistance, he is cautiously keeping the fire alive.

But he knows it isn't the first time in 45 years of military rule that the government has attacked monks who challenged its absolute authority. In at least four previous crackdowns, dating back to 1965, the military rounded up thousands of monks, killing some, defrocking others, while closing monasteries and seizing property.

Each time, the brutal repression outraged many people, but in the end they felt powerless to do anything about it, the crises passed, and the generals continued to oppress with an iron fist.

It's the nature of any government's leaders to "strongly test their political power. They don't want to lose it," he said in a recent interview at the International Buddhist Academy, which he founded in this riverside town whose forested hills the faithful believe Buddha walked on his path to enlightenment.

"But in any faith, when politics and religion come into competition, religious leaders always defeat anything. Religion is the leader. Jesus Christ was killed, but which was more powerful? Religion or politics?"

...In large public gatherings such as these, when the generals' spies lurk in the audience and listen for any hint of trouble, his lectures are often built around the same lesson: Cruel rulers create bad karma. And they will suffer for what they have done.

That's a moral not easily shrugged off by a government whose leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, is intensely superstitious: He consults astrologers to make important decisions.

The ruling generals also churn out propaganda images portraying themselves as devoted Buddhists, receiving the blessing of sympathetic monks. If their faith is true, they know their actions will determine their next life in reincarnation's endless cycle of death and rebirth.

"They have to be afraid they'll be coming back as cockroaches," wisecracked one Western envoy.

Several of Nyanissara's lectures have been burned onto DVDs, with titles such as "Last Days of Empire." The generals have arrested people caught selling them, but they are still widely available across Myanmar, also known as Burma.

"The DVDs are very popular," the Western diplomat said. "A lot of people have mentioned watching them, or knowing of them."

To most people here, the pain of seeing monks beaten up in the streets is more than just an insult to religious faith. To many, it's as if the military had harmed their own family, and the anger does not ease quickly.

Almost any Buddhist with a son has watched with pride as his head is shaved to make him a novice monk in an initiation ceremony called shin-pyu, a moment as life-defining as a baptism, christening or bar mitzvah.