Is Self-Immolation Anti-Buddhism?

[Ensapa]

Here's a very delusional article that tries to justify self immolation with Buddhist texts. Horrible! As you wonder how much more deluded the Tibetans can get, you get surprised. The bar gets pushed a bit higher on how delusional they can be.

Is Self-Immolation Anti-Buddhism?
Phayul[Friday, June 14, 2013 22:17]
By Tenzin Kun-khyab

China Tibet Online recently published an article in Tibetan, titled “Valuing Life and Upholding Law”, which was authored by a fictitious character. As I started reading the article, what jumped out at me was the absurd irony that those who claim to be atheists are now preaching to us on how self-immolation (as an act of protest) goes against the cardinal principles and values of Buddhism. Even the writer himself must have felt the suffocating contradictions in his religious arguments against self-immolation. But, like all self-serving literature of Chinese propaganda, its total lack of truth and objectivity wasn’t shocking, to say the least.

Whether self-immolation can be considered an act of violence ultimately depends upon the motivation of the concerned person. When an act of self-immolation is guided by negative emotions like anger and hatred or desire for personal fame and glory, it is obviously wrong and can be viewed as an unwholesome action. If, however, one’s motivation is altruistic and for the betterment of dharma and humanity—when one sacrifices oneself in a selfless quest to make society a better place for everyone—such an action cannot be summarily condemned as a religious transgression. In fact, many would argue that they are an act of bodhisattva.

In this regard, according to the Buddhist text The Prayers for the Future of Dharma (Tib: bstan ‘bar ma):

Through giving, out of love, my flesh and blood,
Giving my life away entirely, and
Giving arms and legs and every part of my body,
May the teachings blaze, long into the future!

Similarly, in In Praise of Dependent Arising by Tsongkhapa (Tib: brten ‘brel bstod pa):

In all my lifetimes, may I uphold,
Even at the cost of my body or life,
This excellent system of (you,) the Sage,
Which clarifies reality in terms of dependent arising,
And never loosen (my hold), for even a mere instant.

Furthermore,

Because of this,
In different situations,
You gave up your body and your life,
Loved ones and possessions,
Again and again, for endless aeons.

We Tibetans have deep faith in religion. Many altruistic monks (in the past) have renounced their vows to their abbots and enlisted themselves in the Voluntary Army for the Protection of Dharma and fought against foreign invasion. Since their motivation and goal was the collective good and freedom of the Tibetan people and their religion, their actions will always be remembered as highly religious and significant. Here I must clarify that the only reason why I am recounting these bygone events is to provide a historical context to the current crisis. My intention is certainly not to instigate people into repeating the past.

For some years, an unending wave of self-immolation protests has occurred in Tibet, particularly in the eastern Tibetan regions of Kham and Amdo. The fact that these Tibetans were not driven by any desire for personal profit or glory is amply evident from their three most common last slogans: Return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet, freedom of religion and human rights, and protection of Tibetan language and environment. They have lit their bodies on fire only to convey the acute urgency of their undying aspirations to the Chinese government. Since the aim of their actions was to seek greater international attention and support for the Tibetan cause, we can never categorically condemn such acts as anti-Buddhism.

One thing that must be stressed here is that their chosen method of protest does not in any way constitute an act of protest, or for that matter, expression of anger and hatred, against the Chinese people in general. Their contention is only against the Chinese Communist regime and its leadership.
There is no one who does not cherish their own life. The prick of a tiny thorn or the mere touch of the glowing tip of an incense stick will suffice to make us shriek in agony. Even though the Tibetan self-immolators were fully aware of the infernal pain that they would be subjecting themselves to once they chose to stage a fiery protest, they still refrained from causing any harm to others. This is certainly not easy. If they had even the slightest desire to inflict harm on others, they could have easily engineered death and destruction with suicide attacks. They however fully understand that such an action would be against their religion.

According to the Jataka Tales, in one of his previous lives, the Buddha offers his own body to feed a starving tigress who is about to devour her own cubs. In another life, he takes the life of a bandit in order to prevent him from (suffering the negative karma of) robbing and killing five hundred merchants. In many of his other previous lives, he assumes aggressive postures and resorts to various unsavory means of persuasion, but all with the motivation of a bodhisattva. Can anyone truly denounce those actions as unwholesome deeds? Therefore, any self-sacrifice made for the good of many others cannot necessarily be condemned as being against Buddhism.

It is been over 64 years since China invaded Tibet. And in the 54 years since the complete colonization of Tibet in 1959, China claims to have brought infrastructure development and a new happy society in the country. There is however an elegant saying in Tibetan about happiness:

To be one's own master is counted as happiness. ?
To be in the power of others is held to be misery.

If happiness is in such abundance, why would any Tibetan still sacrifice their life in such agony? What separates man from animal is his intelligence. A full belly and some measure of physical comfort may suffice to keep animals happy, but the humans require much more than that: they also need freedom and human rights.

Further, for the people to uphold the law, the government must first govern in accordance with the law. If the Chinese Communist regime continues its authoritarian rule, there is no way to foster peace and stability. The fact that China’s spending on internal security exceeds that of its national defense proves the regime’s deep anxiety over the gravity of its domestic problems and challenges.

Tibetan self-immolations are essentially an act of protest against China’s oppressive rule. The protesters have so far refrained from causing even the slightest harm to the leaders and cadres of the Chinese government or to the military camps and industrial centers. They have sacrificed themselves only in the pursuit and belief of doing something meaningful with their lives for the common cause. They have as yet not chosen the path of mutual destruction with suicide attacks. There is as such a great value in the significance of their deaths.

We Tibetans are deeply anxious about China’s continued rejection of reasonable Tibetan demands, which is further aggravated by the world’s dismal failure in demonstrating a meaningful support for truth and justice in Tibet. If a world compromised by power, greed and deceit continues to neglect Tibetan cries for help, there is absolutely no guarantee that they will in desperation not tread the path of mutual destruction. There is a famous Tibetan saying, if you keep pinning a dog to a corner, at some point, it will be forced to jump back at you. Who knows, it might bite as well!

The current crisis in Tibet may also escalate to such a point of dog jumping back at you unless China seriously starts paying heed to Tibetan grievances. As they say, one country’s terrorist is another country’s freedom fighter, the so-called terrorists are not born out of nothingness, without any rhyme or reason. The roots of many present-day terrorist movements often lead to a long history of having suffered oppression, discrimination and humiliation. When those who are oppressed fail to receive the support that they truly deserve, they are often left without options. No one is born a terrorist, and neither do they willingly or happily turn to terrorism for the fun of it.

If in the future the peaceful Tibetan freedom struggle degenerates into violence, the blame will fall plainly and squarely on the hardline intransigence of Chinese Communist regime. Some blame will also fall on the United Nations and international organizations for their inaction.

It is true that as long as His Holiness the Dalai Lama is alive, Tibetan people will never go against his teachings of non-violence. His Holiness the Dalai Lama therefore offers the best opportunity for the Chinese Communist regime to mend their hardline policies and resolve the Tibet issue in a mutually acceptable and beneficial way. This is in the long term interest of both Tibet and China. Otherwise, as long as the Tibet issue is not resolved, the Tibetan people will not sit mute and hushed.

If China believes that the Tibet issue will fizzle out once His Holiness the Dalai Lama is no longer in the scene, it would be a disastrous error of judgment. At that time, the peaceful Tibetan self-immolation that we have been witnessing so far may worsen to an entirely different route.

Further, China cannot wash its bloody hands by simply accusing “the Dalai clique” for masterminding the current crisis in Tibet. Their spurious allegations will not be tenable in the court of international public opinion. Many therefore believe that their mindless accusations against “the Dalai clique” are primarily targeted to mislead the domestic Chinese audience who are denied freedom of speech and press. If China truly had any concrete evidence of outside involvement in the string of self-immolation protests across Tibet, they would have publicized them with the full might of their propaganda machinery.

If we take into account the meager size of Tibetan population, the unending wave of self-immolations that we have witnessed in Tibet constitutes one of the largest in the recent world history. The loss of these many patriotic Tibetan men and women is indeed extremely regrettable and heart-wrenching. It is thus my ardent appeal to our Tibetan brothers and sisters to please refrain from committing drastic actions like self-immolation.

N.B. This article is adapted from the original in Tibetan (to be) published in Tibetan newspapers in exile.

[DS Star]

Ensapa, on contrary, I don't think there is anything horrible about Tenzin Kun-khyab's article.

If you read carefully, he was merely giving his own views on this issue of self-immolation & he ended the article urging his fellow Tibetan brothers and sisters to refrain from self-immolation.

"The loss of these many patriotic Tibetan men and women is indeed extremely regrettable and heart-wrenching. It is thus my ardent appeal to our Tibetan brothers and sisters to please refrain from committing drastic actions like self-immolation."

I believed Tenzin Kun-khyab was trying to defend the dignity of his fellow Tibetans who had sacrifice their lives for their seemingly out-of-reach cause. Right or wrong, he can't bear to read article on China Tibet On-line that equaled them with violent criminals, accused them of causing public unrest and now their actions are labelled as Anti-Buddhism.

He gave valid explanations to differentiate between the negative and positive point of the same action when we look into the motivation of the person:

1. Negative / Unwholesome action when motivated by the 3 Poisons or 8 Worldly Concerns

"When an act of self-immolation is guided by negative emotions like anger and hatred or desire for personal fame and glory, it is obviously wrong and can be viewed as an unwholesome action."

2. Positive / Wholesome action when motivated by Altruistic mind

"If, however, one’s motivation is altruistic and for the betterment of dharma and humanity—when one sacrifices oneself in a selfless quest to make society a better place for everyone—such an action cannot be summarily condemned as a religious transgression. In fact, many would argue that they are an act of bodhisattva."

Buddhism is a peaceful religion, killing is viewed as an unwholesome act; the 1st of the 5 Layman vows (Panca Sila) to be observed by all Buddhists is to refrain from taking live of other's or one's own.

In normal context, self-immolation can be categorised as 'killing'. However, no one knows whether these Tibetans who had sacrificed their lives through self-immolation were motivated by anger or by altruism.

We are not in their situation to understand the struggle of Tibetans in China. It is of course not proper, and not fair for us to pass any judgments.

[Ensapa]

Ensapa, on contrary, I don't think there is anything horrible about Tenzin Kun-khyab's article.

If you read carefully, he was merely giving his own views on this issue of self-immolation & he ended the article urging his fellow Tibetan brothers and sisters to refrain from self-immolation.

"The loss of these many patriotic Tibetan men and women is indeed extremely regrettable and heart-wrenching. It is thus my ardent appeal to our Tibetan brothers and sisters to please refrain from committing drastic actions like self-immolation."

I believed Tenzin Kun-khyab was trying to defend the dignity of his fellow Tibetans who had sacrifice their lives for their seemingly out-of-reach cause. Right or wrong, he can't bear to read article on China Tibet On-line that equaled them with violent criminals, accused them of causing public unrest and now their actions are labelled as Anti-Buddhism.

He gave valid explanations to differentiate between the negative and positive point of the same action when we look into the motivation of the person:

1. Negative / Unwholesome action when motivated by the 3 Poisons or 8 Worldly Concerns

"When an act of self-immolation is guided by negative emotions like anger and hatred or desire for personal fame and glory, it is obviously wrong and can be viewed as an unwholesome action."

2. Positive / Wholesome action when motivated by Altruistic mind

"If, however, one’s motivation is altruistic and for the betterment of dharma and humanity—when one sacrifices oneself in a selfless quest to make society a better place for everyone—such an action cannot be summarily condemned as a religious transgression. In fact, many would argue that they are an act of bodhisattva."

Buddhism is a peaceful religion, killing is viewed as an unwholesome act; the 1st of the 5 Layman vows (Panca Sila) to be observed by all Buddhists is to refrain from taking live of other's or one's own.

In normal context, self-immolation can be categorised as 'killing'. However, no one knows whether these Tibetans who had sacrificed their lives through self-immolation were motivated by anger or by altruism.

We are not in their situation to understand the struggle of Tibetans in China. It is of course not proper, and not fair for us to pass any judgments.

The first part of the article seems to be an attempt to mislead others into thinking that Buddhism does indeed encourage self immolations as a way of self sacrifice for the greater good and that's the attitude that seems to propel this phenomena. There are so many other ways to work towards the Tibetan cause without setting yourselves on fire, such as infiltrating the Chinese government and helping the community, so it's not an excuse that the people who self immolated did it due to altruistic reasons, it is more of a misguidance. This isnt really about judging the Tibetans, but rather, pointing out the fact that someone is using Buddhism to encourage self immolations and that is wrong.

[Rinchen]

I agree with what Big Uncle that the article does not sound as though it is telling the world that self-immolation is something that Buddhists should be doing. Instead, I feel that the writer is asking others to not do so through this article. It points out the process of the self-immolation is something that is not correct and it does not sound so religious to do so.

[Gabby Potter]

I personally don't find this a thing that Buddhists should be doing, it is always said that our lives are very important and we do not end it just because we want to, we have to think of our mother especially, our mothers who went through so much pain and suffering to deliver us, to feed us and to make sure we eat well, dress well, live well, all these required time, effort and love. I find it very unfair and not appropriate to end one's life just because we've had enough of it or we simply think that it's okay to do so. I hope that people will appreciate their lives more and do something beneficial out of it.

[Dondrup Shugden]

Killing is not Buddhism and self immolation is a form of killing for whatever the reasons.

Even if the intention is for a bigger cause than self, there are many ways to have a solution.  Using our precious life to work for solutions will also have the side results of living with courage to face the negative situation and find a way out.

Somehow even though self immolation sounds heroic it is still killing. 

[Matibhadra]

I personally don't find this a thing that Buddhists should be doing, it is always said that our lives are very important and we do not end it just because we want to, we have to think of our mother especially, our mothers who went through so much pain and suffering to deliver us, to feed us and to make sure we eat well, dress well, live well, all these required time, effort and love. I find it very unfair and not appropriate to end one's life just because we've had enough of it or we simply think that it's okay to do so. I hope that people will appreciate their lives more and do something beneficial out of it.

But then, according to you, your "holiness" the evil dalie must have some "higher purpose" when he brazenly supports, and refuses to condemn, self-immolations, right?

Or is your faith in your cult leader, the evil dalie, faltering here?

[kelly]

I personally do not think is right for self-Immolation because human life is very precious we can always use our live to learn the dharma to transform our mind so that we can achieve enlighten and be able to benefits more people rather than self sacrified that might not bring any benefits to anyone, and furthermore people who do this act they are very brave because burning yourself do occur tremendous pain.

[MoMo]

The content of this article should be read carefully, for people of swallow basic understanding of Buddha-Dharma will take it as the author was encouraging the act of immolation as a noble act of saving his religion and culture. It only briefly urging his fellow Tibetan brother and sister to refrain from it but did not mention the supporting reasons and logic. Thus, it was very easy for young Tibetan to take it as heroic act. 

In the Lamrim ,  it said that the first perfection of generosity  we should train to achieve to be able to give away our body as easy as one plate of vegetable but it also mentioned that for the unattained this precious human body that we acquire now should not be wasted as we need this vessel to achieve the higher goal for the benefits of sentient beings.  We could give away all our possessions but not the three types of robes that adorn an ordained person.  Thus, in general immolation are for the attained who had achieved the level of be able to control their next rebirth as easy as turning of one’s palm as they know this final act of immolation will bring positive results  for all and the next rebirth will be at his own will.

[pinecone]

"Born into a family of Brahmans renowned for their purity of conduct and great spiritual devotion, the bodhisattva became a great scholar and teacher. With no desire for wealth and gain, he entered a forest retreat and began a life as an ascetic. It was in this forest where he encountered a tigress who was starving and emaciated from giving birth and was about to resort to eating her own new born cubs for survival. With no food in sight, the bodhisattva, out of infinite compassion, offered his body as food to the tigress, selflessly forfeiting his own life.”

The above was extracted from the Jataka tales, which relate the Buddha’s previous incarnation, where he gives up his body to feed a starving tigress and her four cubs. Some other stories also talk about self-sacrifice by the Buddha.Although ending one’s life in such manner are prohibited in Buddhism, some Buddhists believe it depends on the motivation. If the action was done out of frustration,  revengeful ,hatred and  anger, then it is negative. I personally think that for those who are lighting themselves on fire and  have not attained enlightenment, will still be stuck in the cycle of rebirth and will be born again.