Burning Monk

[puzzled]

Everyone's seen this famous photo, always gives me chills.

How do Buddhists do this? He's just sitting there meditating! He's not the only one who did this, many Buddhists have done this. A few years back a Tibetan Buddhist nun set herself on fire, she was just standing still while engulfed in flames, middle of the street. 

I'm guessing through intense meditation they are able to separate themselves from their bodies? and just leave their body ? 

Not that I'm making a comparison, but you read about Sikh Shaheeds not feeling any pain while going through torture. 

[Guest]

Amazing. Hopefully one day we can reach that avastha level.

[Redoptics]

People watched them burn alive? 

[puzzled]

Just now, Redoptics said:

People watched them burn alive? 

yeah,  It was done in protest. Catholics were persecuting Buddhists in Vietnam. 

Tibetan Buddhists have done it as well in protest against the Chinese government.  

[Kaurr]

Waheguru waheguru.

I know they do it because they're protesting, but what's the meaning behind this act? How does it affect the Catholics, or the Chinese government?

[Redoptics]

26 minutes ago, Kaurr said:

Waheguru waheguru.

I know they do it because they're protesting, but what's the meaning behind this act? How does it affect the Catholics, or the Chinese government?

Yeah its a bit odd doing it in protest, with nothing achieved after the act.

[GurjantGnostic]

59 minutes ago, Redoptics said:

Yeah its a bit odd doing it in protest, with nothing achieved after the act.

Well it is what raised awareness initially. It did not lead to Free Tibet unforunately. 

[puzzled]

Just now, Kaurr said:

Waheguru waheguru.

I know they do it because they're protesting, but what's the meaning behind this act? How does it affect the Catholics, or the Chinese government?

If you think about it, living in a country where the military is killing your people, watching your people suffer, that pushes people to the extreme! its hard for us to imagine. 

Humans then express themselves in different ways, often extreme. Some start protesting, some pick up arms and some sacrifice themselves like the monk and many others have. 

Maybe this act of self immolation was to show the world the pain his people were in ?

There's a photo from the 80s of a Singh in Canada or America walking through fire while protesting against operation bluestar. 

These situations push the most ordinary and relaxed people to do unimaginable things. 

Look at how Sikhs responded to operation blue star and the persecution of Sikhs. Ordinary young men ended up picking arms and became ruthless warriors. Shaheed Dilawar Singh Babbar became a suicide bomber, Shaheed Gurdip Singh Heran assassinated 100s, he was an ordinary Punjabi guy, but never the same again after the attack on Akal Takht. 

I read a story of a young Sikh bibi who was arrested by the Punjab police in the 90s, her husband was in the Sikh freedom movement. The police arrested her and started torturing her, trying to get her to tell them where her husband was hiding. They then started torturing her baby, they got a really big ice cube and put the baby on top of the ice cube, she then grabbed a knife  from the desk and slit her throat open in front of them!  nobody knows what happened to the baby. She killed herself so she wouldn't have to watch her baby get tortured, or reveal where her husband was.

When your people are persecuted it pushes one to cross his/her limit and do really extreme things. 

Self immolation still happens around the world to this day. 

 

[puzzled]

Just now, GurjantGnostic said:

Well it is what raised awareness initially. It did not lead to Free Tibet unforunately. 

Yeah, the guy who was persecuting the Buddhists in Vietnam got assassinated a couple of months after the photo was taken.

Sadly Tibet is still under China.  

[puzzled]

A video of it. He doesn't even move. Not sure if this is from a movie?  or if its the real video.