[Buddha-l] 3 Tibetan Monks Sentenced for assistingwith self-immolation

[Jo]

The veneration bestowed on these "martyrs" for the cause by the community 
has eerie echoes of the way martyrdom as a vaunted and rewarded life-choice 
produces an endless supply of jihadi suicide bombers.

More arguments might be offered on each side. Anyone else care to weigh in? 
It is "complex," not a simple matter of loyalty or picking sides.

Dan
______________

As a human being and as someone in Buddhadharma practice I have never
supported  the self-immolation idea as anything but delusional. It strikes
me as against sila, and it should be curtailed by the various monk sanghas. 

Can anyone justify monks doing this as a political gesture, much less for
any other reason? Practically speaking, it only accomplishes a useless death
of one person. Or will mass suicidal die-offs soon be coming to a street
theater near us? 

Joanna