ralis Posted June 24, 2016 Can someone explain how that yogi lay on the fire? Was it an illusion? His clothes should have burned quite rapidly and that would have been the end of him. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
blue eyed snake Posted June 24, 2016 Tibet http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/20/tibet-s-self-immolation-outbreak-will-not-be-shared.html Tibetans know this too. Outside of Tibet, the younger generation has questioned the Dalai Lama’s conciliatory policy. Inside of Tibet, the younger generation has become desperate, and self-immolation has become the desperate protest of choice. Echoing the self-immolation of Buddhist monks in Vietnam, the first such act took place in India in 1998, but the tactic began to spread in earnest in 2011. Since then, 110 to have burned themselves to death. Self-immolations are horrific. Youtube has a (warning—incredibly graphic) video of one here. Dying by fire is said to be the greatest human fear, which is why so many people jumped out of the World Trade Center on September 11. It’s an apt metaphor for rage and hopelessness, yet the self-immolators believe its dramatic nature also has the capacity to inspire. Indeed, the self-immolation of Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi ignited the Arab Spring. There is also a specifically Buddhist flavor to the act. The Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh wrote to Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1965 that “to burn oneself by fire is to prove that what one is saying is of the utmost importance.” Yet the image of a monk or nun seated still in meditative posture while flames devour his or her body is also a provocative image for self-transcendence. It has become iconic. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
