colour,
The lotus, blooming in the furnace, does not lose its
freshness.[1]
In modern Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Lotus Sutra remains one of the holiest texts. In chapter 23 of the sutra, the Medicine King bodhisattva offered of his own body. He “anointed his body with fragrant oil… and calling on his transcendental powers, [he] set fire to his body…” following this it is recorded that “The Buddhas in the worlds simultaneously spoke out in praise, saying: ‘Excellent, excellent, good man! This is true diligence.’”[2]
Many scholars of Buddhist texts maintain that this and other passages and stories should be referenced in metaphoric or symbolic terms. However, the idea of self-immolation remains concrete in the minds of many Buddhists. The great controversy surrounding self-immolation lies in the tension between religious, altruistic suicide and the Buddhist doctrine of non-violence. Within the context of this debate, many prominent Buddhist scholars and historians (mostly within the Mahāyāna tradition) have attempted to justify the act of self-immolation as it existed historically and as it is continually practiced today.
Modern practices of Mahāyāna Buddhism continue to contain instances of self-immolation. Thich Nhat Hanh, a prominent Buddhist scholar, said in a letter addressed to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “During the ceremony of ordination, as practiced in the Mahāyāna tradition, the monk candidate is required to burn one, or more, small spots on his body in taking the vow to observe the 250 rules of a bhikshu, to live the life of a monk, to attain enlightenment and to devote his life to the salvation of all beings.”[3]
The reasoning behind this letter comes from the most famous instance of self-immolation in our modern history, the burning of Thich Quang Duc in the streets of Saigon in 1963 in protest to various anti-Buddhist reforms in the Diem government.
This first act of self-immolation occurred at a busy downtown intersection in Saigon, on 11 June 1963, and was widely. The monk, seventy-three-year-old Thich Quang Duc, sat down in the lotus position in a busy intersection and had gasoline poured over him by two fellow monks. As a large crowd of Buddhists and reporters watched, he lit a match and, over the course of a few moments, burned to death.
Malcome Browne’s award-winning photograph of Duc, in the sitting position, with large flames billowing behind him, is what many people recall of the Vietnam conflict in 1963. David Halberstam, a reporter for the New York Times covering the war in Vietnam, gave the following account:
Despite the fact that this event took place during a huge news-week as the civil rights movement in the United States was reaching a peak, as the week progressed, Duc's death
and the subsequent demonstrations were covered by western, primarily American, media in greater detail.
President Kennedy received the famous picture of Duc the day that it happened. As a result, Thich Quang Duc's self-immolation accelerated and increased Buddhist protest movements throughout Vietnam. The act led to the overthrow of the Diem regime in South Vietnam in November of 1963 and helped to change public opinion against the American backed South Vietnamese government and its war against the communist supported Viet Cong.
Duc is not the only one who immolated himself during the Vietnam era. Along with six other monks was a nun named Nhat Chi Mai, a lay disciple of Thich Nhat Hanh. On May 16, 1967, she burned herself to death outside the Tu Nghiem Temple. In a letter to the U.S. Government she wrote:
I offer my body as a torch
In a letter to her master, Hanh, she wrote, “Don’t worry too much. We will have peace soon.”[6]
Despite the apparent political success, the act of self-immolation is difficult for the western, Christian mind to comprehend. Many westerners, at the time, viewed the act as the workings of a crazed, religious zealot. Even in protest, the act of suicide is seen by the West as immoral. Thich Nhat Hanh said
…the world has nurtured many doubts and invented a great many hypotheses about the Buddhists of Vietnam. Most Westerners have very little knowledge of what seems to them a strange unorthodox religion. They tend to accept the stereotype of ‘monks’ as uneducated, superstitious indigents who shave their heads, forgo meat, and recite prayers for salvation from rebirth.[7]
Similar to prominent Western thought, the act of suicide is viewed by Buddhists as immoral. Buddhism is not only about caring for others but also about maintaining a healthy body and mind. “Therefore, suicide is seen as morally wrong and will result in negative karmic consequences.... To take one's own life, is also to destroy the advantage that human life affords for spiritual progress, even for gaining enlightenment”8]
Thich Nhat Hnah described the act of Duc’s self-immolation as follows:
The press spoke then of suicide, but in the essence, it is not. It is not even a protest. What the monks said in the letters they left before burning themselves aimed only at alarming, at moving the hearts of the oppressors, and at calling the attention of the world to the suffering endured then by the Vietnamese. To burn oneself by fire is to prove that what one is saying is of the utmost importance…. The Vietnamese monk, by burning himself, says with all his strength and determination that he can endure the greatest of sufferings to protect his people…. To express will by burning oneself, therefore, is not to commit an act of destruction but to perform an act of construction, that is, to suffer and to die for the sake of one’s people. This is not suicide.[9]
Thich Nhat Hanh continues to explain why Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation was not suicide, which goes against the Buddhist teachings of non-violence:
Suicide is an act of self-destruction, having as causes the following: (1) lack of courage to live and to cope with difficulties; (2) defeat by life and loss of all hope; (3) desire for nonexistence….. The monk who burns himself has lost neither courage nor hope; nor does he desire nonexistence. On the contrary, he is very courageous and hopeful and aspires for something good in the future. He does not think that he is destroying himself; he believes in the good fruition of his act of self-sacrifice for the sake of others…. I believe with all my heart that the monks who burned themselves did not aim at the death of their oppressors but only at a change in their policy. Their enemies are not man. They are intolerance, fanaticism, dictatorship, cupidity, hatred, and discrimination which lie within the heart of man.[10]
Self-immolation can be best thought of as a way of sacrificing one’s own self in the name of ending suffering. In that sense, self-immolation goes much further beyond the idea of a religious practice or a political statement, and instead becomes a spiritual plea for peace. The basis behind self-immolation, according to Hanh appears to be on the fundamental concept of compassion, that that violent nature of the death is outweighed by their motives. Hanh said of Duc’s immolation
The Venerable Thich Quang Duc awakened a whole population by his act of sacrifice. Many westerners did not understand the meaning of the act, and think of it as violent. On the contrary, it was a manifestation of his willingness to suffer for the sake of the enlightenment of people. In its essence it does not differ from the act of Christ in his death on the Cross. Accepting the most extreme suffering of his body, Thich Quang Duc burned himself and in so doing created the fire of consciousness and compassion in the hearts of people.[11]
The act of burning by use of fire has deep symbolism in many schools of Buddhist thought. Thich Tri Quang said that "burning oneself to death is the noblest form of struggle which symbolizes the spirit of non-violence of Buddhism." Dr. Peter Della Santina wrote in Myth and Symbolism that “Fire often surrounds the deities. Light is an important medium for identification between the meditator and the visualized forms of the deities. Fire and light are very important and meaningful elements of our human experience… In the Vajrayana tradition, fire stands for the flames that consume and destroy ignorance.”[12]
In the first chapter of the Lotus Sutra the use of fire is emphasized. It is said that the “Buddha emitted a bright light beam from his brow which shined eighteen hundred territories to the east.”[13]
In the Teachings of Honmon Butsuryusu: How to O-Kyuji (to adorn the altar) it is said:
The light from his brow indicates that all things, happenings and realities contained in the fundamental truth (the true form of existence in this world) have been clarified by Buddha's wisdom of enlightenment. As the light is a symbol of Buddha's "Chie" (working of the mind so as to capture the true nature of reality, and then to realize the truth, or wisdom of enlightenment) when one is to kindle the candles, the incense sticks, or during the cleaning of the altar, recall the significance of the light and pray that Buddha's "Chie" be passed on to you.
The lamplight should always be kept on because the world of Buddha is a bright, shining place. Therefore, it is inappropriate to keep the altar in darkness.[14]
In Kukai’s Shingon Buddhism, The Great Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, is a central figure. The fire ritual (Goma or Homa)[15] is an important and integral part of the Shingon school of thought. During this ritual, the head priest feeds the fire with various types of oils, seeds, and small cedar sticks. The sticks may be purchased for the intentions of gaining answers to prayers or wishes. It is believed that the smoke carries the wishes and intentions to the heavens.
In the case of self-immolation, it is believed that the light will illuminate a world shrouded in darkness and that the smoke will carry a plea for peace into the heavens. Charles Orzech in a 1994 article, "Provoked Suicide,” is able to draw the conclusion that Duc was acting through pure Bodhisattva motivation. He concludes that "Quang Duc was seeking to preach the Dharma to enlighten both Diem and his followers and John Kennedy and the American people."[16]
In this light, the act of Duc and other Buddhist self-immolation could fall upon the revered Buddhist doctrine of Upāya, or “expedient means.” Upāya calls upon the use of all means necessary to trigger insight, or to bring about enlightenment and wisdom in others. In most cases, the use of Upāya cannot contradict the fundamental teachings of the Buddha, one of the most important of which is non-violence. But, as discussed many Buddhist texts, in an effort to bring about a greater good, the use of violence is tolerated, or the karmic retribution generated by the violence is tolerated to bring about a greater good.
In cases of self-immolation it seems apparent that the monks or nuns are completely aware of the karmic retribution entitled to them upon their rebirth. It is in the context of compassion that immolation must be observed, that they are willing to undergo suffering, and in essence, the threat of damnation to bring about the enlightenment of others. The Bodhisattva’s way of life is as follows
As long as space remains,
As long as sentient beings remain,
Until then, may I too remain,
And dispel the miseries of the world.
In this context, Buddhism is full of literature containing the sacrifice of the Bodhisattva. In the Lotus Sutra, a bodhisattva named Sarvasattvapriyadarsana chooses to pay homage to a Buddha who has passed away by completely burning away both of his arms. A Buddha then said, “He undertook the practice of giving by abandoning his body immeasurable hundreds of thousand of times… If there is anyone who sets forth and wishes to attain the highest enlightenment, he should pay homage…by burning either a finger or a toe.”[17] Followed this example, in the year 1034 “two enlightened Zen monks, Nghiem Bao-Tinh and Pham Minh-Tam, burned themselves in tribute to the Buddhadharma.”[18]
In a Jataka Tales, a series of tales containing the historical Buddha’s previous lives, there is one entitled the Hungry Tigress which goes as follows:
Once there was a great king named Maharatha and he had three fine sons, Mahapranada, Mahadeva and Mahasattva. As they walked in the forest one day, the three princes came upon a tigress and her seven cubs. Exhausted by hunger and thirst, the tigress was hardly able to move and Tiger looked as if she would soon die. The three brothers were greatly disturbed by the sight of this poor tigress and wondered what they could do. Of the three, Mahasattva was moved to great compassion and asked his brothers to leave him a while.
When they were gone, Mahasattva laid himself down in front of the tigress, hoping she would feed and drink on his body. But she was too weak. Realizing this, Mahasattva took a piece of sharp bamboo and slit his own throat, making it easy for the tigress to feed on his blood and thereafter eat his flesh.[19]
Another story about a monk Seng-fu reads as follows.
[Seng-fu] silently thought of cutting off his relation with this world. At that time, there was a robbery in a village. A male child was captured by the robbers, who planned to remove its heart and liver in order to offer them to a god. Seng-fu was strolling on the road near the village at the time, and when he saw the robbery, he inquired about the abduction. Thereupon, he took off his robe and tried to redeem the child by his own body. The bandits ignored his proposal. Seng-fu argues: “Are the chief viscera of an adult unusable for sacrifice?”
“When you cannot give up your own body, what is the use of using big words?” replied the bandits.
Seng-fu then thought: “When the time comes, this illusory body of mine must die. If I use my death to rescue the child, I shall be alive though my body may perish.” He therefore snatched a knife from the bandits and cut open his chest down to his navel.[20]
These are prime examples of the emphasis that compassion plays in the Buddhist religion. Among many monastic traditions is the idea that the abandonment of ones body is the ultimate expression of faith and piety. They believe that ones own body is the most acceptable offering to the Buddha. Sacrifice coupled with compassion is supremely embodied in the character of the Bodhisattva, whose entire existence revolves around the enlightment of all sentient beings.
Thich Quang Duc is seen in many Buddhist circles as having attained the rank of these venerated Bodhisattvas. After he carried out his self-immolation he was cremated. Legend has it that his heart would not burn. As a result, his heart is considered holy and is in the custody of the Reserve Bank of Vietnam.[21] Whether or not these particular myths is true, it shows the admiration and reverence which is showed towards the Bodhisattva and their calling.
The acts of immolation which occurred in 1963 and after have been the inspiration behind a variety of Buddhist historians who have sought to justify the actions religiously in the context of Buddhism. Various attempts have been made to explain why suicide is prohibited for the unenlightened but permitted for the enlightened. In 1965 Lamotte wrote:
Suicide is justified in the persons of the Noble Ones who have already cut off desire and by so doing neutralised their actions by making them incapable of producing further fruit. From the point of view of early Buddhism, suicide is a normal matter in the case of the Noble Ones who, having completed their work, sever their last link with the world and voluntarily pass into Nirvana, thus definitively escaping from the world of rebirths.[22]
Lamotte, in the remainder of his text, attempts to prove that there is nothing wrong with taking ones own life if it is not done in fear, anger, or hate.
Jan Yün Hua, a prominent Buddhist scholar, has made it his work to discover if the actions of self-immolators are historically justifiable within the context of ancient Buddhist texts.
Hua says in a work entitled Buddhist Self-Immolation in Medieval China that “‘religious suicide’ may more appropriately be termed ‘self-immolation,’ for the actions of these self-immolated monks was one which brought their lives to an end with a spiritual motivation and a strong sense of determination. Thus self-immolation signifies something deeper than merely the legal concept of suicide or the physical action of self-destruction.”[23]
Hua provides a study of ancient Chinese texts such as Kao-seng-chuan (“Biographies of Eminent Monks”) by Hüi-chiao (596-667), the Hsu Kao-seng-chuan (“Further Biographies of Eminent Monks”) by Tau-hsüan (919-1001), and the Sung Kao-seng-chuan (“Sung Collection of Biographies of Eminent Monks”) by Tsan-ning. In these works, Hua found record of more than fifty monks how committed the act of self-immolation. Interestingly, in these works, the word for their immolation is Wang-shen or Yi-shen which is used in the same context as monks who have abandoned their bodies in defense of their religion.[24]
Hua said that “many of the biographies of these self-immolated Buddhists are soberly historical.” From this he concludes that “One can clearly see that the Chinese Buddhist historians regarded such action as virtuous and worthy of emulation. This view was also approved by the Buddhists of Japan and in now approved in Vietnam.”[25]
Hua finds that the act of self-immolation could, in some ways, be compared to some ancient ascetic traditions, such as refraining from food unto death. This was seen historically as a disdain for the body in favor of the life of the mind and wisdom, a sacrifice of the body in order for one to attain enlightenment. In each of these cases, Hua makes that argument that sacrifice was proper and important in order to bring about a greater good.
An understanding of the fundamental concept of sacrifice as it plays out in the Buddhist religion is vital for one seeking to understand self-immolation. Dr. David J. Kalupahana of the University of Hawaii said
The ideal of renunciation is therefore emphasized throughout in the Buddhist texts…It may not be far from the truth to say that this attitude of renunciation is behind every moral virtue. Not only those who leave everyday life and embrace the life of a monk, but everyone, is expected to practice renunciation to the extent to which he is able. Without such sacrifices, there cannot be perfect harmony in society. Thus, even the simplest of virtues, such as generosity…cannot be practiced without an element of renunciation or sacrifice.[26]
Buddhism offers its practitioners the opportunity for different levels of involvement on the spiritual path towards enlightenment. This ranges from one who practices with minimal sacrifice primarily to achieve personal spiritual gain to one who sacrifices his or her entire life with the hope of benefiting humanity. As a person moves along this spectrum from little to great sacrifice, one also gains a growing concern for the spiritual welfare of all sentient beings.
Buddhist monks and nuns are especially required to sacrifice. Most immediately, they sacrifice the comforts of a life with family outside their monastic community. They sacrifice by abstaining from certain substances and activities, vowing to live a celibate life, and engaging in activities which will provide them with increased understanding and wisdom. “The role of the monk is to maintain a certain purity, largely through keeping an elaborate set of vows. Such purity renders the monk as a suitable “field of merit” to whom laypeople can make offerings, thereby accumulating the favorable karma that will result in a happy rebirth in the next life.”[27]
Trijang Rinpoche said, “Although the actual practice of generating bodhicitta [The feeling of responsibility for the liberation of all sentient beings] must be a compassion that cannot tolerate the suffering of others, to develop this you must first be aware of how you yourself are overwhelmed by suffering.[28]
Tao-hsüan, the author of Hsü Kao-seng-chuan (“Further Biographies of Eminent Monks”) wrote
So far as my humble knowledge goes, to follow chastity and to regard life lightly has been a difficult task since ancient days. “To escape by improper means” is an easy way even at present. In the biographies of dedicated persons several categories of examples are established; in the Classics words to describe virtuous and mean men shine forth. These serve to warn and admonish ordinary people, and to enlighten the spiritual ones. Only the Way (Tao) occupies the highest point, only the Virtue (Te) produces things. Thus these [those who immolate themselves] were able to forget both success and failure, and to dismiss both right and wrong. They understood the root and source of the fluctuating and the attachments. They comprehended the Law of illusion. Because of this, the intelligent person knows that the body is an empirical combination, like dust, and has no mature of its own. He considers that life and calculation are similar to flowing water, and phenomenon is merely the reflection of mind. Therefore, all beings being illusory, how can a wise man preserve himself for ever?[29]
Tao-hsüan considers those who immolate themselves as being wise as to the impermanence of all things. He says that they understood the “source of the fluctuating and the attachments…. [and that] they comprehend the Law of illusion.” Tao-hsüan continues to say that “The body is the embodiment of accumulation. Because the body is the most important thing of life, to destroy the body is the only proper treatment.”[30]
Tsan-ning said in Kao-seng-chuan (“Sung Collection of Biographies of Eminent Monks”):
To give away the thing that is difficult to part with,
Is the best offering amongst the alms.
Let this impure and sinful body,
Turn into something like a diamond.[31]
These last couple works show a belief that the sacrifice of a body can bring about great things (diamonds). They consider self-immolators to be great examples for other Buddhists to follow.
Although self-immolation was accepted in some ancient Buddhist traditions, primarily those existing in feudal China (as seen with the previous authors), many areas, primarily India, condoned the act. I-ching (635-713), a prominent Buddhist historian said during his travel in India that cases of religious suicide were regarded by Buddhists as misled or heretical.[32]
I-ching continues to say that “It was the Bodhisattva’s work of salvation to offer his body to a hungry tiger… It is not our power to imitate a Bodhisattva.” He says that such acts of self-destruction are “entirely out of harmony with the Vinaya canons,” and that “if one destroys life in such a way, the great object of one’s existence is lost,” and that the loss is a “sin (which cannot be undone), just as a broken stone cannot be united.”[33]
In this light, there seems to be a great contradiction between ancient Chinese and Indian texts. Anciently, just as today there was a raging debate as to the validity of the practice of self-immolation. Self-immolation and other practices of altruistic suicide existed anciently and are continuing to manifest themselves in modern times, as seen with the sacrifice of Duc and others during the Vietnam era.
This tradition of self-immolation, most likely, has its roots dating back to China and has continued throughout different schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The apparent schism within Buddhism on the subject is most likely manifested with the differences between Theravada traditions (ex: India, Thailand, Burma, etc.) which are more primarily concerned with personal enlightenment and traditions of Mahāyāna Buddhism (ex: China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, etc.) which revere the practice of selfless sacrifice and compassion.
The debate existing between the Buddhist doctrine of non-violence and acts of religious or altruistic suicide can be justified historically within the Mahāyāna tradition. Although difficult to understand from a Western perspective, within the scope of Mahāyāna Buddhism, practitioners of self immolators have existed historically and such have been widely revered in their own circles.
[1] Poem by Ngo An (Vietnamese Zen monk, 11th Century AD)
[2] The Lotus Sutra, Chapter 23
[3] Thich Nhat Hanh. Vietnam: The Lotus in the Sea of Fire, Appendices 2, In Search of the Enemy of Man by the Venerable Nhat Hanh, 1 June 1965. Hill and Wang, Inc. 1967
[4] David Halberstam. New York Times. 1965:211
[5] Nhat Chi Mai, "A Letter to the U.S. Government," in Cambridge Women's Peace Collective, My Country Is the Whole World: An Anthology of Women's Work on Peace and War (London: Pandora Press, 1984), p. 178
[6] Thich Nhat Hanh, Love in Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1993), p. 44.
[7] Vietnam, the Lotus in the Sea of Fire, p. 9 -10. Hill and Wang, Inc. 1967.
[8] About.com, Buddhism: Buddhism and Suicide
[9] Thich Nhat Hanh. Vietnam: The Lotus in the Sea of Fire, Appendices 2, In Search of the Enemy of Man by the Venerable Nhat Hanh
[10] Ibid.
[11] Thich Nhat Hanh, “Love in Action” quoted in Buddhism and Zen, p. 174
[12] Dr. Peter Della Santina, Myth and Symbolism
[13] The Lutus Sutra, Chapter 1
[14] Honmon Butsuryusu, Teachings of Honmon Butsuryusu: How to O-Kyuji
[15] Image found at www3.la.psu.edu/textbooks/ 480/graphics/ch7/04.jpg
[16] Charles Orzech, Provoked Suicide, 1994
[17] The Lotus Sutra, p. 297-298
[18] Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhism and Zen, p. 67
[19] Jataka Tales: The Hungry Tigress. Found at http://www.watthai.net/talon/jataka/jataka.htm
[20] Ching-ch’ao, op. cit., p. 404b-c
[21] Schecter 1967: 179
[22] La motte, E. (1987) "Religious Suicide in Early Buddhism," Buddhist Studies Review 4, p. 105-126 (first published in French in 1965)
[23] Jan Yün Hua, Buddhist Self-Immolation in Medieval China, p. 243
[24] Ibid.
[25] Ibid. p. 244
[26] David J. Kalupahana, Buddhist Philosophy, Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1976, p. 60
[27] The Story of the Buddha, p. 136
[28] Trijang Rinpoche, The Three Scopes, p. 42
[29] Tao-hsüan, Hsü Kao-seng-chuan, T. 2060, p. 684c, 11. 4-11
[30] Ibid.
[31] Tsan-ning, Kao-seng-chuan, T. 2061, p. 710a, section 7, Yi-shen p’ien
[32] I-ching, A record of the Buddhist Religion as Practiced in India and the Malay Archipelago, translation: J. Takakusu, Oxford, 1896, p. 198.
[33] Ibid.
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