[Buddha-l] Re: Self-inmolation in the Buddhist tradition

[Jim Peavler]

On Oct 11, 2005, at 3:49 PM, Chan Fu wrote:
> It's surprising that the Vietnamese
> buddhists endured direct persecution at the hands of the French
> Catholic colonists for many decades and suddenly chose to oppose
> the threat of "communism".

They were NOT opposing communism. They were opposing the war.
Buddhists were killed in about equal numbers by both sides, largely
because they insisted on giving aid and comfort to both sides.

> All that being said, self immolation, to a buddhist practitioner,
> is impossible. Why? Because it involves a commitment to an idea
> or ideal. It's possible that when all those supposedly committed body-
> parts choppers actually woke up, they went back to the
> trashcan to collect their errors. But then it would also be unlikely,
> since they would have proven to be good practitioners of detachment.

You need to learn a little more about "committed" Buddhism. It is 
probably a relatively
recent development, at least in its current form, which owes a lot to 
developments
during the  Vietnam war. But it is rather arrogant to claim that it is 
not good
Buddhism, and that the people so committed are either fools or crazy, 
while you
sit in your nice warm room in a country that chooses to do its killing 
on the other
side of the globe.