Post AImqb7FY1b3bcV6pYu by omanreagan@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by omanreagan@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AImqarci7i4v9hp6Rc by omanreagan@mastodon.social
2022-04-24T20:43:28Z
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Immolation occurs around the world. It is not suicide. I've studied and written about Indonesia's first immolation. Immolation has sparked revolutions and movements in many countries. To learn more about it in some Buddhist contexts see this article. https://tricycle.org/magazine/self-immolation/
(DIR) Post #AImqasDZudZL034XuS by omanreagan@mastodon.social
2022-04-24T21:31:34Z
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"The offering of the body, by fire or other means, in the Mahayana scriptures and in real life is a point of intersection of the preeminent virtues in Buddhist ethics."
(DIR) Post #AImqasim2eWSYnfSXA by omanreagan@mastodon.social
2022-04-24T21:31:35Z
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"Buddhist practitioners understood self-immolation in terms of the perfections (paramitas) of charity (dana), vigor (virya), and patience (ksanti)."
(DIR) Post #AImqatNXb58GbEk14q by omanreagan@mastodon.social
2022-04-24T21:31:36Z
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"The major motivation, whether for advanced bodhisattvas or for ordinary beings, was often expressed in terms of the primary Buddhist virtue of compassion (karuna)."
(DIR) Post #AImqau6usNQcrxyFns by omanreagan@mastodon.social
2022-04-24T21:31:36Z
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"Self-immolators were understood to be acting not only for themselves but also for the good of others. Their biographies often emphasized both the benefits to their immediate communities and the larger resonances of their acts on the entire cosmos."https://tricycle.org/magazine/self-immolation/
(DIR) Post #AImqb7FY1b3bcV6pYu by omanreagan@mastodon.social
2022-04-24T20:46:32Z
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It's common for some people, especially in the west, to see Buddhist immolation as self-destruction, and assume it implies loss of hope or desire for non-existence. This is a misunderstanding from lack of familiarity with the fundamentally different view of reality in Buddhism.
(DIR) Post #AImqbA1ph2rwEpiQ6K by omanreagan@mastodon.social
2022-04-24T20:49:31Z
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Thich Nhat Hanh’s 1965 letter to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "In Search of the Enemy of Man" was written in part to explain to westerners and non-Buddhists how Buddhist immolation is not suicide. It is worth reading to understand these acts more deeply.https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/letters/in-search-of-the-enemy-of-man/
(DIR) Post #AImqbCHVJkapE13xo0 by omanreagan@mastodon.social
2022-04-24T21:01:31Z
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Buddhist views of ultimate reality are often shared but not taken literally. But when Thich Nhat Hanh says "the notion of death can not be applied to reality" he means it. It's neither the nihilism of death as end nor the eternalism of life after death. https://youtu.be/t-rCGmCCMMs
(DIR) Post #AImqbE4odtdEnF8rJ2 by omanreagan@mastodon.social
2022-04-24T21:04:30Z
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"Ideas like being born, dying, coming and going, being and non-being, should be removed by the practice of looking deeply. And when you can remove these notions you are free, and you have non-fear. And non-fear is the true foundation of great happiness."— Thich Nhat Hanh
(DIR) Post #AImqbLItlw3XCwmhjE by omanreagan@mastodon.social
2022-04-24T21:13:30Z
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Important to note there is enormous variation in views of ultimate reality, life, death, and everything else not just between Buddhism and other religions but within Buddhism. This is true of all religion of course. Can avoid problems by specifying who, what, where, when, etc.
(DIR) Post #AImqbQvir15AenzHRA by omanreagan@mastodon.social
2022-04-24T21:16:30Z
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Obviously cultural, social, political, and religious context for self-immolation of an American Buddhist who was Shambhala adjacent and influenced by other Buddhist schools is not the same as other immolations elsewhere. But just as there are particulars, there can be universals.
(DIR) Post #AImqbc7TFg13MQZJmC by omanreagan@mastodon.social
2022-04-24T21:22:30Z
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Taking this view of ultimate reality into account it should be clear that Wynn Alan Bruce has not destroyed himself at all and that he continues. He continues in everyone who witnesses his flames of prayer, in every conversation and mention of him here, he continues in all of us.
(DIR) Post #AImqblrt0TUXazM0sC by omanreagan@mastodon.social
2022-04-24T21:22:31Z
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"The fire that burns himburns in my body.And the world around meburns with the same firethat burns my brother."— Thich Nhat HanhThe Fire That Consumes My Brother, 1963