Self-immolation and disfigurement in Buddhism
Self-immolation is, simply, setting oneself on fire. it is not widespread or common in Buddhist practice. Nevertheless there are instances and references to this and other extreme ascetic practices in the Buddhist tradition. Other similar practices include self-disfigurement, especially intentionally cutting off one’s own limb or body part.
It may seem paradoxical that such practices are found if not condoned in Buddhist history. Most people are aware that the Buddha himself expressly taught a Middle Way between extremes of indulgence and self-abnegation. He in particular noted that extreme ascetic practices such as limiting diet and physical postures do not lead one to a fundamental understanding of the nature of reality. How, then, did such practices develop in Buddhism after the Buddha’s time?
Overcoming the natural urges of the physical body is part of the way of Buddhism. "Overcoming" is here perhaps too indicative of forced discipline; "not allowing desires to overshadow one’s true nature" is more in line with the spirit of Buddhism. And to aid in this monitoring, the sangha, the community of monks and other cultivators, developed practices and regulations that all members were expected to follow. Chief among such regulations are rules on celibacy and eating habits. Naturally these have developed differently in various Buddhist contexts; for instance, not all Buddhist monastics are required to be vegetarian, and some can marry. However, it is widely recognized that the Buddhist practitioner must become aware of and regulate the urges of the body, as well as other desires that arise in life.
In China as well as India, the regulation of physical urges had been a focus of individual religious practice well before Buddhism. inevitably, in every location Buddhist thought and practice mixed with existing ascetic practices. in China and other East Asian cultures, there was already a Daoist image of the cultivator separate from society, willing to sacrifice all links with fellow beings. The primary link was of course marriage and family. But membership in society also meant the caring for one’s own body. Han Chinese to this day believe that one’s physical body, including the nails and hair, is a precious inheritance from the ancestors and must be cared for in order to perpetuate the family line. Dismemberment in particular is seen as a disrespectful act, since it destroys the continuity of the body’s various parts. Thus a person serious enough about religious cultivation to oppose these ingrained cultural habits was a devoted cultivator indeed.
Self-immolation and disfigurement are thus acts that symbolize religious devotion and sincerity. They carry such symbolic weight in those cultural contexts precisely because they run counter to cultural instincts. Such examples are present in Buddhist texts because they serve as symbols of sincere practice. They are, thus, usually literary tropes.
The 23rd chapter of the Lotus Sutra, one of the great texts of Mahayana Buddhism, states that such monks are worthy of emulation. The autobiography of Hsing Yun (Xing Yun) (1927- ), the contemporary Chinese monk-leader of the Foguangshan movement in Taiwan, gives an example of self-immolation from his youth. That monk was seen as a monk of high virtue. The Chan literature is similarly full of examples of disfigurement.
In actual practice one finds little of this in contemporary Chinese Buddhism. one Western follower of Hsuan Hua (Xuan Hua) (1908-99), a 20th-century Chinese monk who migrated to America, actually did cut off a portion of his finger in order to show sincerity of belief. He was sent to intensive care and severely reprimanded by his master, who said such practices were meant for those extremely rare individuals of high cultivation. It is also possible that the idea of such practices attracts unbalanced individuals. At any rate, it is clear that this emphasis on extreme asceticism is not typical of Buddhist practice in general.
Self-immolation jumped onto center stage of the world’s media during the Vietnam War (1950-75). In a series of widely publicized protests, several Buddhist monks led by Thich Quang Duc (1897-63) lit themselves on fire. They were in this case going beyond symbolic statements of religious practice to political statements of protest. The act, by a highly respected Vietnamese monk, was taken very seriously indeed and broadcast around the world. At the time the Buddhist sangha in Vietnam was becoming increasingly marginalized by the intense political forces locked in the struggle for control of the society in southern Vietnam. It was, however, an essentially political act, not in any way required or condoned by Buddhist practice.
Senzaki, Nyogen
(1882-1958) Japanese monk who worked in America
A student of Soyen Shaku, Senzaki was born in Asian Russia (on the Kamchatka Peninsula) and taken to Japan as an infant after his mother’s death. He had read the entire Tripitaka by the age of 19, and he was able to compose poetry in both Chinese and Japanese. He studied with Soyen Shaku and was asked by him to set up a kindergarten, in 1901. Senzaki lived in America for 17 years, from 1905, before he began to teach on Buddhism. At that point he held lectures in different places, a "floating zendo." He finally set up a permanent zendo, or "zen hall," in 1927 in Los Angeles, the Mentorgarten Mediation Hall (also called the Tosen-zenkutus, "Meditation Hall for the Eastern Dharma"). Interned in Wyoming under Executive Order 9066 as a Japanese, Senzaki continued to teach and lead zazen groups.
Setsubun
(Bean Throwing Ceremony)
Setsubun is the traditional Japanese festival that celebrates the beginning of spring; it served as well to exorcise wandering spirits. There was an ancient belief that ghosts wandered the streets at night in the new season. The ceremony was originally performed on New Year’s Eve by the imperial court. in the performance some actors took on the role of blue and red ghosts who were chased by the others. Beans were also thrown around the ground to ward off devils. The festival gradually spread into the general populace.
Today, on February 3 of the solar calendar, people throw roasted soybeans in and around their homes, intoning, "In with good luck, out with devil." This Setsubun-derived act is a ceremony to drive out demons. in shrines and temples well-known celebrities perform the same actions.
Another feature of Setsubun still practiced in many households is to put food out for the Mother Deity, Hariti. The traditional legend is that Hariti was a demon who ate the children of humans, until her own child was hidden by the Buddha. From that point she became a disciple of the Buddha.
Setsubun festivals are held at many Shingon temples in Japan, such as Hoko-ji and Eifuku-ji in Nara.
Sexuality, Buddhist approaches to
Buddhist practice is heavily monastic and therefore celibate. However, there exist a great multiplicity of approaches to sexuality in Buddhist literature and practice, and there are many teachings concerning what it means to be a sexual being.
Unlike Western monastic practice, which prohibits sex because it is seen as being immoral, Buddhist monastic practice prohibits it because it is a major distraction for anyone engaged on the Buddhist path. This view of sex is connected to the position that suffering is supported by cravings. These cravings ensnare one in the cycle of samsaric existence. Sex is an entanglement, and it produces additional entanglements in the form of family relations. Just as the Buddha felt the need to renounce these entanglements of family in order to cultivate, so too do Buddhist monks. Thus sexuality is not a moral issue; it is a practical one.
For laypeople, sexual conduct is not greatly discussed in the Buddhist literature. All devout lay Buddhists take the five vows (panca sila), which include the injunction not to engage in inappropriate sexual behavior. But the norms for that behavior are left unexpectedly open. Thus modern Buddhists in some countries accept birth control, homosexuality, and even abortion. in contrast, life inside the Buddhist monastery is strictly regulated by the Vinaya rules of conduct. Sexual intercourse results in expulsion. intercourse is carefully defined as any type of penetration of any orifice, including the anus and the mouth.
The rules for nuns are equally onerous. Nuns cannot touch another person’s body between shoulders and knees and cannot meet alone with a man. And unlike monks, nuns are not allowed to meet with other women. They are also not allowed to sleep two in a single bed, unless one is sick.
Masturbation is an offense for both monks and nuns, although not as serious as intercourse.
The Vinaya rules for monks were, of course, written by men. That they spell out sexual rules in such detail may indicate the difficulties monks experienced in living up to the demands of celibacy. And since many of the cultures were patriarchal, much of the blame for their difficulties was placed on women. Women in Buddhist thinking were considered to be more subject to sexual desire than men and less able to control their desires, hence their more elaborate rules.
Mahayana Buddhism thought allowed that the act was less important than the intention behind it. Thus it was possible for an individual to engage in sex while not being influenced by it.
The bodhisattva precepts, which reflect this newer Mahayana way of thinking, now dominate monastic discipline in Japan. In Japan sexual misconduct no longer leads to expulsion, rather to the need for repentance. Male homosexuality also became more widespread in Japanese monasteries. Japan eventually eliminated the requirement for celibacy altogether. It is the only Buddhist culture to do so.
Sexuality, Daoist approaches to
Daoism, with its core mission to investigate immortality, devoted much attention to the relations between the sexes. In contrast to Buddhism and other moralities of celibacy, Daoism has consistently taught that sex is a necessary part of life and, indeed, important as a cultivation practice. The sexual act itself seemed to recreate the creation of matter on a microscopic scale.
The unique approach of Daoist thinkers was to focus on retention of the male’s vitality (yuan jing). One view of intercourse is that it nourishes the male. Some writers state it can feed the longevity of women also. The man’s jing energy is limited and so should not be shed without control. In contrast, a woman’s sexual energy, a form of qi, is inexhaustible. Therefore, a man should not ejaculate, while a woman may reach orgasm often. A balanced view would be that both sexes benefit from the sexual act.
The urge to limit male ejaculation may also have been related to the keeping of many concubines, of course, a strictly social, patriarchal practice.
There are reports of communal rituals of ejaculation control in Daoism. The so-called he qi (union of energies) ritual of the second century c.e. was held after fasting, meditation, and prayer. Partners then disrobed and performed union. Not surprisingly, such communal rites, probably of ancient pedigree, were strongly criticized by Buddhists and Confucians.
Shaku, Soyen
(1859-1919) first Zen Buddhist priest in America
Soyen Shaku, the first Zen Buddhism teacher in the United States, was ordained as a monk at the age of 12. He studied under Imakita Kosen Roshi, who passed to him a desire for higher education. After receiving dharma transmission in 1884, Shaku went on to study at Keio University and then travel to Sri Lanka to study Sanskrit and Theravada Buddhism.
Kosen died in 1892, and Shaku succeeded him as the head monk at the Engaku-ji temple in Kamakura. Shortly thereafter he accepted an invitation to speak at the World’s Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. He delivered speeches on the law of cause and effect and on alternatives to war. At the parliament, he met Paul Carus, the owner of Open Court Press. The meeting generated an interest in Buddhism in Carus, who went on to publish a number of works on the subject and himself become an active practitioner.
In 1905, Shaku accepted an invitation from Alexander Russell to visit San Francisco. His most famous student, Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, accompanied him and served as translator for his public lectures. in addition to Suzuki, two other students would become pioneers of the American Buddhist movement, Nyogen Senzaki and Sokatsu Shaku.
Shambhala International
Shambhala international is an international Buddhist organization that originated in the teaching activities of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (193987), a Tibetan lama from the Kagyu tradition who taught in Great Britain and North America from the 1960s until his death in 1987. Having already established several meditation centers in Great Britain and the united States, Trungpa in 1970 founded Vajradhatu with headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, as an umbrella organization for the loosely affiliated group of Buddhist institutions that had emerged around Trungpa among his students in the united States, Canada, and Europe. These local centers became known as dharmadhatus. Vajradhatu also included the Nalanda Foundation, which Trungpa founded as the organization to oversee his Nalanda Institute,a secular educational institution for instruction in traditional subjects with a grounding in the Buddhist tradition. He also founded the system of Shambhala training, a secular path of spiritual training based on his popular book shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior.
In 1976, Chogyam Trungpa appointed Thomas Rich, an American also known as Osel Tendzin, as his regent. Osel Tendzin was responsible for day-to-day administration of this organization and assumed full leadership after the death of Cho-gyam Trungpa in 1987. Osel Tenzin’s leadership did not last long, because of a severe health condition and a major lapse in ethical judgment. He contracted acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 1988, and concealing this fact, infected at least one of his students with the disease before dying in 1990. When his condition was made public, this news led to a serious crisis throughout Vajradhatu.
After Osel Tendzin’s death, Trungpa Rinpoche’s eldest son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche (1962- ), was in 1995 named the new leader of Vajradhatu. Meanwhile, in 1992, the leadership chose a new name for the movement and its various parts, Shambhala International. Today Vajradhatu primarily designates the way of Buddhist practice and study within the movement.
Shambhala international is headquartered in Nova Scotia, Canada; it is rooted in six residential contemplative communities in the united States, Canada, and France and the extensive network of dharmadhatus throughout North America and Europe.
Shangqing Daoism
(Shang-ch’ing)
Shangqing (high clarity) Daoism is a movement that was active between c. 370 c.e. and the Yuan (1270-1368) dynasty. Unlike some earlier Dao-ist movements associated with popular beliefs, Shangqing was Daoism as practiced by the upper classes. It was highly influential on Daoist ritual and is especially known for its focus on visualization techniques.
The classic work of Chinese alchemy, Baopuzi Neipian, was issued in 317 c.e. In another 50 years a new series of Baopuzi-inspired texts appeared, known collectively as shangqing (high clarity). These form the core of the Shangqing branch of Daoism.
In the classic account by Dao Hongjing (456536), most of the Shangqing scriptures came into existence when Lady Wei descended from heaven to give or recite the texts to Yang Xi (330-386). Lady Wei was in fact a historical person who died in 364, at the age of 83. According to Ge Hong, author of the Baopuzi, Lady Wei had studied Daoism and become an immortal. Thus the Shangqing texts recorded by Yang Xi were revealed texts, in which the writer is somehow possessed by or privy to the words of a god.
Dao Hongjing collected many texts and recorded the early history of this process of text transmission and as a result is seen by some as the true founder of Shangqing. Dao was also the major practitioner of Shangqing Daoism in his time. And because Dao lived on Mt. Mao (Mao Shan), Shangqing became known as the Mao Shan lineage, although the association is not exclusive because other influences and schools were present on Mao Shan as well as Shangqing. Regardless, Shangqing existed as a separate school from the time of Dao Hongjing until the Yuan, when it effectively merged into the Zhengyi school of Daoism.
The merger with Zhengyi Daoism was not surprising, since most of the early members of Shangqing had a background in Zhengyi Daoism. Like Zhengyi Daoists, Shangqing leaders were members of the elite, ruling classes. once a new ruling dynasty, the Eastern Jin, took power in 317, the elite members of the southern gentry class adopted Daoism and reinterpreted it in their own way. Thus Shangqing was an elite, southern Chinese reinterpretation of Daoism concepts.
The key work of Shangqing Daoism is the Perfect Scripture of Great Grotto (Datong zhen-jing, also called Dragon Book of Three Heavens of Scripture of Thirty-nine Chapters). Thirty-nine was said to be important because it matched the number of Daoist gods (39) and the number of "seats" of the human body. The idea was to ask a god to descend to all of the body’s "seats" and guard them. There are three key rituals described in the Perfect Scripture—the visualization of the five directions, the visualization of the sun and moon merging inside the body by swallowing 27 times, and a visualization of drawing in the energy from 24 stars, mixing this with saliva and breath, then swallowing 24 times. These early Shangqing rituals used key sounds—chui, hu, xi, ah, xu, and si—during meditation, sounds that are still used also in contemporary qigong.
In line with its essentially elitist background, Shangqing religious practice focused on inner contemplation, rather than communal rituals. Those contemplations made ample use of visualizations and invocations of the gods, allowing them entry into the individual’s body. Such "entries" were of course on a subtle, nonvisible level. Practitioners also visualized themselves taking out-of-body trips to sacred sites and journeys to the limits of the five directions. Finally, Shangqing practitioners also used drugs, a reflection of experiments with alchemy.
Organizationally, Shangqing for many years had its own set of patriarchs, some of whom were powerful during the Tang (618-906) dynasty. With headquarters on Mao Shan, the patriarchs were at one point, 721 c.e., given supervision rights over all localized and mountain-related gods throughout the empire.
Sheng Yen
(1931- ) founder of Dharma Drum Mountain Association (Taiwan)
The Taiwanese Buddhist teacher Sheng Yen, the founder of the Dharma Drum Mountain Association, heads an international organization, one of the largest fellowships of Chan practitioners in the world, with more than 300,000 students. Sheng Yen was born near Shanghai. He entered a monastery in the Chan Buddhism tradition at the age of 13 and began a decade of study and practice at various related facilities in and around Shanghai.
During the Chinese Civil War, he joined the Nationalist Army and was assigned to Taiwan. He continued in the army (while continuing to pursue his Buddhist studies) for a decade, during which he published his first book on Buddhism (1956). About the same time he left the army, he had several deep meditational experiences, as a result of which he was recognized as a Dharma heir (successor) in both the Linji Chan (Lin Chi) and Caodong (Tsao-tung) Chan Buddhism traditions. He became a full-time monk at the Buddhist Culture Center in Beitou, near Taipei. Sheng-yen engaged in a solitary retreat at the Chao Yuan Monastery (1961-68) and subsequently became a lecturer at Shan Dao Monastery in Taipei. His academic accomplishments were later recognized with a master’s degree (1971) and a doctorate (l975) from Rissho University in Japan.
He followed his early status as a Dharma heir by receiving full transmission in the Caodong tradition (1975) and the Linji tradition (1978). He now began the organizational steps that led to the founding of Dharma Drum Mountain. In 1978 he became the president of the Chung-Hwa Buddhist Cultural institute in Taipei. The next year he assumed duties as the abbot of Nung Ch’an Monastery in Taiwan, and in 1980 founded the Ch’an Meditation Center and the Institute of Chung-Hwa Buddhist Culture in New York. In 1985, with a growing following, he opened a graduate school, the Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies, in Taipei.
In 1989 he founded the international Cultural and Educational Foundation of Dharma Drum Mountain. in 1996, this foundation was merged with the institute of Chung-Hwa Buddhist Culture in New York to form the Dharma Drum Mountain Association. As these organizational changes were occurring through the 1980s and 1990s, Sheng Yen authored more than 90 books, many of which were translated into the languages of the Pacific region. He developed an active travel schedule, which sees him annually spending up to six months of the year in North America. He has also assumed a role as an environmental activist.
