[Buddha-l] Extreme practice

[Stuart Lachs]

Years ago I stayed at a Vietnamese Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles. I was 
told there that the Buddhist
self immolations, I believe there were six, during the Vietnam War were done 
to keep the government,
made up of Vietnamese Catholics as Dan pointed out, from killing the 
leadership
of the Buddhist resistance. I was told that the gov't. had the Budd. 
leadership in their hands
and were driving them from place to place as cover for before killing them. 
The self immolations I
was told was to bring world attention to Vietnam and keep the gov't. from 
killing these Budd.
leaders. If this story is true, then the self immolations were successful 
because it did save the lives
of the Buddhist leaders.

Stuart