[Buddha-l] Extreme practice

[Dan Lusthaus]

> James A. Benn . _Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in
> Chinese Buddhism (Studies in East Asian Buddhism)_. U. Hawaii
> Press, 2007.
>
> And we thought it was just a few neurotic individuals, not
> heroes. Looks like the Middle Way got dumped by the Mahayanists.
>
> Has anyone seen this book?      Joanna

Yes, and I'm having it reviewed for h-buddhism, so a considered opinion (not
my own) will eventually be available.

The most famous example of Buddhist self-immolation is the Buddhist monk in
Viet Nam in the 60s who used that means to protest the war (actually to
protest the N. Vietnamese Catholics and their policies that the US kept
installing as puppet dictators). But burning of fingers, limbs, entire
bodies is a well documented, ancient practice.

The official mainstream position was that self-immolation was "wrong." But
zealous practitioners ignored those protestations, and often performed their
immolations as public "miracle" events which, understandably, would gather a
great deal of interest. The practice that many Chinese monks and nuns follow
to this day of burning a few "dots" on their head with incense sticks as
part of their initiation is a holdover from that.

I first encountered back in grad school in a Chinese text reading class. The
story of Monk Yai (ca. 5th c, if memory serves) is archetypical of the
genre. Yai is involved in various ascetic and magical practices, and takes
to burning off his fingers. But he can make the fingers regrow! The local
Buddhist masters try to dissuade him from the practice but he stubbornly
persists. At one point he gives a public display, burning the flesh off his
fingers, and continuing the burning process until his fingers, bones and
all, are gone. Then, magically, the bones reemerge, and then flesh regrows
to cover them. The crowd is so impressed they start shouting praises, and
claim they will build a great stupa to honor him when he dies. Disgusted
with the praise, he bites off a finger and spits it at them, saying, "There!
Go build your stupa!" When he's ready to die, he sets up a huge platform (=
stage) at a major crossroads, and when a large enough crowd has gathered,
sets himself completely on fire. Once, the fire dies down, there are still
corpse vestiges, so more fuel is added and the fire is reignited (I guess he
had assistants). When they poke around the ashes at the end they find the
only thing remaining is his heart (heart=mind), which is still moist.

Dan