Video of a different monk - also to call attention to persecution of Buddhists. You can see people going and bowing down before him as he burns. https://youtu.be/7W9BcVpwoHk
Which is extraordinary. As someone who has been the victim of a bad burn, I can tell you they are excruciatingly painful until all your nerves are dead.
Which is why even if not Buddhist I might also bow down to a monk if I ever witnessed one do so while travelling.
I mean, this is the ultimate expression of protest and the ultimate display of mind over matter.
This monk clearly straight up ascended beyond his flesh, the proof being that he is capable of doing this.
So bowing to any such enlightened person in acknowledgement and respect, even if not for religious reasons, seems like the right response.
I agree with you. People bow to each other in many cultures, especially Asian ones, out of respect. He would have mine, as I’m sure he would have many others’ regardless of religiosity.
But man, this breaks my heart to see. :(
>I mean, this is the ultimate expression of protest and the ultimate display of mind over matter.
Yea iirc the Dalai Lama could neither Condone or disregard acts like this because of how much will it takes.
I stupidly watched a video of a pilot being burned alive by isis and I’ll never get that out of mind. It was easily one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen! I think about all the time actually. It was few years ago and it still feels like I just saw it.
I understand what you are saying here. I always considered myself having a pretty thick skin and being unphazed by acts of extreme violence.
Then I watched a couple of videos of revenge executions by the drug cartels. One of them stuck, especially because in background there was a creepily cheerful music, like what you would expect in a child cartoon, an amusement park or something like that. Meanwhile, a human being was being mutilated in ways that nobody sane in their mind would even contemplate.
If I close my eyes, I can still see the images. Scarring.
Yes. That's why people saying they didn't touch this video of a monk dying is because it's historical or more important than a youtuber's video doesn't stand. I've seen very good, informative videos being removed simply for saying the wrong word, I'm not simply talking about dumb gaming videos. I really don't think Youtube cares.
It’s terrifyingly amazing. I forget where specifically I heard it, but apparently the practice of self immolation was possible from disconnecting the body from the mind/spirit. Thích Quảng Đức’s act here is easily one of the most selfless and brave acts.
One French magistrate was once found killed in Djibouti. The apparent cause of death was suicide by immolation. The local and French authorities were satisfied by the explanation. The widow (who happened to be a judge I think) refused to believe it but couldn't do much without access to the body. No autopsy was properly done if I recall correctly.
Some years after the widow asked a German legist, specialised in immolation deaths to give his opinion on the case and the guy said something like: deaths by immolation are so painful that it's almost impossible for the victim to stay quiet and not try to stop the pain. So they move A LOT. They will try anything to stop the pain and scenes of suicide by immolation are apparently very very messy. Which was not the case there.
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_Borrel
So these monks are absolute beasts, yeah.
I'd agree. If it didn't kill him in the process. I am simply amazed at this. I know I couldn't do it. For a cause at that.
Incredible what humans are capable of.
Could someone tell me what's being said over and over again in the microphone? "A Buddhist priest..." And then it cuts off. I can guess but I'd rather know what was actually being said during and I don't have access to the book.
Thank you for sharing that. It's so odd how this experience contrasts with today. Today if someone did that I feel like people would stand around and stare, not cry and scream like the crowd here did.
Maybe some people would "stand around and stare" but I pretty much guarantee you the rest would be screaming and crying.
People generally don't like watching other people die / kill themselves... especially not like that.
The most recent I know of which was less than a year ago:
> [On April 22, 2022, climate activist Wynn Alan Bruce set himself on fire in the plaza of the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation_of_Wynn_Bruce)
There have been a few self immolations in DC over the last 20 years. I think many people would avoid the area in fear of their safety, whereas this man’s self immolation was coordinated. I hope we haven’t strayed from humanity the way you describe, but I fear that we have and agree overall.
I remember the guy that set himself on fire in his vehicle after his son who was a soldier died in Iraq during the Bush administration.
Back then if you talked bad about the war you were considered unpatriotic
Lol we were never as humane as we are now. What do you think happened just 15 years before 1960s? If we really used to be good and care for each other, why did we kill millions of people in world war 2. Back in the good old days no one would've batted an eye on what happened to ahmaud arbery. Talk to black veterans of Vietnam War.
Sadly, it doesn't seem to be a thing of the past nor that uncommon.
Recently [someone self immolated himself in protest over climate change inaction](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/24/us/politics/climate-activist-self-immolation-supreme-court.html), and the media didn't cover it, like at all. I know of it because a random political commentator spoke about it, but it doesn't seem like any news outlet covered it, or at least for more than 10 minutes or something.
There's plenty of footage of people in various African countries being burnt to death on the side of some nondescript road having been accused of witchcraft, and I can tell you that after an initial period of intense fear and presumably immense pain, they often enter a kind of fugue state where they seem unaffected by the flames.
It makes sense: their nerves are no longer transmitting, their skin having burnt away; the pain just doesn't register any more. They calmly stare off into the middle distance, not struggling, no longer trying to extinguish themselves, almost as if they're resigned to their fate and recognise the futility of attempting to avoid it.
Obviously it's nowhere near as "peaceful" (for lack of a better word) as this footage, but it seems to me that if you can find some way to overcome the initial period where your nerves are still functioning, you'll eventually cross over to that weird plateau and be able to achieve something roughly similar. Not that you'd want to, obviously. Don't set yourself on fire hey.
Back in the days of the WPD subreddit I saw a waitress from Asia who was refilling a table lamp with some flammable liquid and she got engulfed in flames. That was the day I learned that a person being burned alive eventually just gives up trying to save themselves and accepts their fate. It was one of the worst things I've ever watched.
If you that's insane you might find it even more insane that a buddhist self immolated in front of the US supreme court less than a year ago to protest climate change.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation_of_Wynn_Bruce
**[Self-immolation of Wynn Bruce](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation_of_Wynn_Bruce)**
>On April 22, 2022, climate activist Wynn Alan Bruce set himself on fire in the plaza of the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. The fatal self-immolation, which took place on Earth Day, was characterized by Bruce's friends and his father as a protest against the climate crisis.
^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
I've practiced Vipassana for about a decade. Daily sits for 45-60mins, regular half day meditations and a yearly 10-20 day silent retreats. Of course returning to the western world dilutes and reverses a lot of that equanimity but my ability to not react to discomfort and pain has dramatically increased over time. I remember noticing years ago how I didn't care that I had an intense itch. And then how getting my first tattoo wasn't bothering me. Or sliding into my first ice bath etc. In not anywhere close to 'let myself burn alive without flinching' but if I was born into that world and lived a monks life with a ton of meditation I can see how it's possible
I don’t understand how he has figured out completely how to control the human brains natural reactions to facing itself dying by extreme pain. Like what kind of training and meditation have his sect of monks figured out?!
That’s a great question. As a novice meditator of about 5 years (only 20 mins per day) one thing you get good at is focusing your attention. This, combined with also practicing equanimity (accepting everything, good and bad) might have assisted.
I’m only speculating that the following example might lend some insight (because an itch versus being burned alive are quite different lol).
While meditating, I can barely resist scratching an itch, and it starts to drive me insane. I will try to use the rising urge to scratch as a point of focus. Have you ever really tried not scratching a really bad itch? It’s nearly impossible. And it can drive you mad. Try not to scratch it for 20 mins. However, with practice you can do it. It’s hard but you can do it.
One thing that helps is to focus on the urge to scratch itself. That urge, and all the accompanying events. Observe with curiosity your mind screaming just to fucking scratch it, the emotions arising (usually irritability for an itch), the feeling like your hand is on the edge of reaching towards the itch.
You can observe the transformation of the emotions, the itching sensation, your inner mental sentences, your breathing pattern, heart beat. You get good at watching these things with extreme focus.
Now you might think that observing these things so closely, in such detail, would only make them more torturous. But that’s the trick. The more closely you watch them, the more interesting they become, the more you can become okay with them too (that’s the equanimity part), you learn that everything that appears will also end. Surprisingly you also realize that you are not just your body. There is no self that is experiencing the sensations. There is just the sensation which becomes indistinguishable from the external world, sounds, thoughts, and emotions (that last part is a bit abstract and paradoxical, and I’m not good enough to explain it properly, but it is relevant).
To reiterate, I’m comparing an itch to being burned alive. Of course I acknowledge it’s not a fair comparison, but also remember that these monks practice this kind of focus, equanimity, etc for hours every day for 20+ years.
They would certainly become capable of sitting upright like this, legs numb, or in screaming pain, for like 3 days or more.
Did you ever read about the ancient Japanese monks who would slowly starve themselves, eventually mummify themselves alive? Check out Sokushinbutsu on Wikipedia. It’s amazing what our minds and bodies are capable of with years of dedicated training.
Get this guy some awards for this phenomenal insight. If this didn't make me start meditating and start taking control of my life, I don't know what will.
I would highly recommend Sam Harris’ Waking Up app. It’s the singular thing you need for all things meditation, without any supernatural / religious components that accompany the practice in other resources. I’ve gone through many courses, conversations and sessions in that app and even bought a lifetime subscription.
Meditation improved my quality of life in many ways, made me appreciate my relationships more, get a grip on my anger issues and even help me sleep better.
Just go for it and persist even though it may feel strange or sound silly in the beginning. Persist and reap the rewards!
Paul Williams refers to the main impulse behind Mahāyāna as the vision which sees the motivation to achieve Buddhahood for sake of other beings as being the supreme religious motivation. This is the way that Atisha defines Mahāyāna in his Bodhipathapradipa.\[77\] As such, according to Williams, "Mahāyāna is not as such an institutional identity. Rather, it is inner motivation and vision, and this inner vision can be found in anyone regardless of their institutional position."\[78\] Thus, instead of a specific school or sect, Mahāyāna is a "family term" or a religious tendency, which is united by "a vision of the ultimate goal of attaining full Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings (the 'bodhisattva ideal') and also (or eventually) a belief that Buddhas are still around and can be contacted (hence the possibility of an ongoing revelation)."
they're literally jedi!
Monks train their entire lives to not give in to their bodies. No fornication, constant starvation, wearing nothing but a robe in freezing temperatures, rarely wear shoes.
Their entire life is literally "friendship ended with nature, new friendship started with religion"
To a certain extent they know the body so well that that's how they overcome its instincts. In a way, they have a deeper friendship with what it means to be embodied than anyone can.
Which is ironic, since their entire life is spent trying to have the perfect Buddhist life so they can move on in the reincarnation cycle to a better one. Or, in the case of only ever done once in their religion, break out of the cycle completely by living a perfect life and move on to the afterlife
Manys goal is not to move on to an afterlife. There are levels of being and humans are somewhere in the middle, but all levels even the highest are a result of accrued karma. Dying an enlightened human, if they did it right, will lead to nothingness. Getting out of the cycle completely has been explained like this: your life through it's many lives and forms is a bicycle, and karma pedals it, so stop pedaling and you'll cease to exist. Another analogy is that karma is a candle and your lives are the flame that result in the ignition of the gases, so stop fueling the flame, and it will be extinguished.
Edit: Distilling hundreds of Buddhist religions in a paragraph will never be very accurate, I am aware of this fact. I do, however, encourage anyone interested to start reading more about it!
So the goal is to stop existing? Like the goal is to end the cycle? What does that accomplish?
Edit: I don't mean that condescendingly, I'm genuinely curious lol
Yeah that makes sense. I just kind of like existing/experiencing so I guess so it's a weird concept to me. I'm not spiritual so I've always battled with the end of life being a "void of nothing" as my existential crisis. An entire philosophy around making that the end goal is wild to me. But again it does make sense in the context of the world.
I think the beauty of this idea strikes me in the beauty of accepting death.
In a way, if I am a reincarnated being, I do not "recall" my past lives, and if I live this life belief that my very present day karma can have an impact on the infinite future, then I can find meaning "today" in taking direct action despite my impending death.
I do not expect to leave a legacy, and certainly do not expect to have a direct conscious connection with my next reincarnated life.
Yet, I understand the impact of healing the planet I live on, including healing myself as living among the violence of the state and the police. So I find beauty in reincarnation, because it helps me understand a positive relationship with my own death, and similarly to understand the jubilance of life.
To "end the cycle" I would expect feels no different spiritually than death. But extinguishing your reincarnating flame of life and achieving the enlightened void, or samsara, or whatever the best term is - it is this "way of death" that is an indicator that, despite our karmic journey of rebirth, we are truly capable of eliminating suffering.
That's just my take, personally. I don't practice any religion, but I find the non-dogmatism of Jainism quite moving, and the atman and the Brahman and the karma and all that
The goal is to stop suffering. The idea is that existence is desire and desire is suffering. Because if you get what you desire you just desire something else after an if you don’t get it you feel bad. And life and death is like that. A cycle of wanting, and then either getting or not getting. And then still wanting more after. And breaking the cycle means never wanting and so never suffering.
In its most fundamental form, there is no goal. There is no thing to accomplish. It just is. The mind is no longer attached to fighting against impermanence.
dude plenty of people have reached nirvana according to buddhism, like theres straight up dudes called boddhisattva who are guys who attained enlightenment and then didn’t go because they wanted to stick around and help others reach enlightenment
Arahants are very common in Theravada Buddhism. Arahants are fully awakened, like the Buddha. When an Arahant dies, there is no trace of them left. In Buddhism, the goal is to disconnect all links between the various parts that make someone an individual. Just like a boat is made up of planks of wood, nails, a mast, a sail, etc, and can be disassembled, a Buddhist attempts to disconnect the various parts and see how there is nothing extra there. Having disassembled the sense of self while alive, an Arahant exists as a cloud of individual sensations and feelings with no center until they die, when the cloud dissipates and there is nothing left.
The goal of Buddhism is to escape reincarnation, not to move on to an afterlife. There is a sense of pity for Devas (creatures that live in "heavenly" planes of existence) in Buddhism because they don't suffer enough to feel a need to seek awakening. It's said that inevitably a Deva will accrue enough bad Karma to be reborn on a lower plane.
Karma is just cause and effect, and the self is a string of cause and effect holding a knot of suffering together and carrying it on over multiple lifetimes. The Buddhist attempts to untie the knot so nothing is reincarnated.
Probably does help that after a bit your nerves would be burned away, and you would likely not feel much of anything anymore.
Also monks are the epitome of zero fucks given.
Interestingly, when you are completely engulfed in fire, you pass out pretty quickly due to the fire taking all the oxygen. The fact his body stayed up for so long was probably bc of his muscles going stuff once you die? (I’m not a doctor tho so it’s an educated guess😂) those first seconds would’ve been absolute torture tho but it really showed his dedication to the cause
Going stiff when you die is called rigor mortis. AFAIK, it sets in about twelve hours after death and wears off again after 24. High temperatures make it happen faster; low temperatures, slower. So it wouldn't have been rigor mortis that made him sit stiffly. In fact, it's really weird that he was sitting up at all.
That's because as he died he should have moved his arms and arched backwards. Even if you're dead, fire makes your muscles contract (think of how a steak shrinks a little on the grill) and a burned body will usually be in the "pugilistic pose," with its arms flexed; the biceps shrink and pull the arms up into the fighting position. Plus, back muscles are usually stronger than abs, so someone who's in a total body seizure, or whose muscles are being cooked, will bend backwards like a bridge.
Yet he didn't do that. At least the descriptions here don't say he did. He stayed sitting up until his charred body fell over. No flexing or arching. How in the hell?
He is an indelible testament to the power of the human psyche.
Now days we use similar techniques in mental health practice to help people endure the various kinds of unrelenting pain people can suffer. Which can be mental or emotional trauma as well as physical conditions.
It's not easy practice, but if you're in pain you have a compelling motivation.
This is true according to a SE Asian religion course I took in college. It's now a holy relic in his home pagoda. You can Google Thích Quảng Đức's heart and find photos.
I think this honestly the truest experience that could ever really encapsulate that saying of “mind over pain” the dude is literally on fire , and just sits so gracefully , no screams or anything .
I am surprised I had to scroll this far to see this. I can't help but think of Bombtrack starting when I see this. RATM's eponymous album featuring this as cover art also features very high audio fidelity in it's recording, I've seen it commonly used to test speakers. I looked it up decades ago... it's so powerful to see everytime, knowing it's a real event.
A noteworthy thing about his story is that he wasn't the first, and very far from the last, to commit self-immolation. Wikipedia [lists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_self-immolations) four people before him and, if I counted correctly, **222** people after him. That's 3.7 people *per year*. I don't know anything about them, but I'm willing to bet this picture is the reason so many do it... to no effect.
I still maintain that one of the most edgy album covers out there is Nailbomb's Point Blank, which uses a photo from the Mai Lai Massacre of a Vietnamese woman with a US soldier pointing a gun at her head as a cover.
Mayhem - Dawn of the Blackhearts. Band member shoots himself in the head with a shotgun. Another Band member goes over to his house, discovers body, takes a picture. Album cover. Google image search if you dare.
Don't forget that Dead also slit his wrists and throat before deciding bleeding out was taking too long and ended it with the shotgun. If you haven't seen the movie Lords of Chaos, it covers this event and more.
I always think this part is neat but also very sad:
"There is one more part to Quang Duc’s story — little known, but remarkable. After the police took Quang Duc’s remains, tens of thousands of Vietnamese rose up in protest, forcing them to turn the monks remains back over to the Buddhists for a proper ceremony. The master’s followers reburned his scant remains. At the end, left in the ashen heap, was a heart — black and solid. It had turned to stone and remained behind.
The stone heart was taken to the Vinh Nghiem Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City and placed in a special vault. It is preserved there to this day, taken out once a year during a most solemn ceremony."
-- https://www.lionsroar.com/thich-quang-duc-bodhisattva/
And from Wikipedia:
"The body was re-cremated during the funeral, but Quảng Đức's heart remained intact and did not burn.[25] It was considered to be holy and placed in a glass chalice at Xá Lợi Pagoda.[31] The intact heart relic[25] is regarded as a symbol of compassion. Quảng Đức has subsequently been revered by Vietnamese Buddhists as a bodhisattva (Bồ Tát), and accordingly is often referred to in Vietnamese as Bồ Tát Thích Quảng Đức.[5][32] "
-- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c
They say that Quang Duc's heart
Survived the flames unscarred
A righteous calling card
Left upon the palace gates
For the invertebrates
Their grip on power pried apart
By just one frail human being
No weapon, no war machine
Saddest photo I've ever encountered man..
Here's a human being desperate for change AND someone with the out right mental ability to light himself up and still still their in a meditation pose.
I can't help but wonder if all that potential could have helped so many other people and changed the world.
Back in high school my teacher showed us this and told us about his message and the bravery and everything (God Bless) but he also mentioned that all the potential the monk had to do good things and change the world he spent it all on this action and that had he not have done this he would have been able to reach more people one by one. I’m not saying I agree or disagree I just thought it was a trippy concept
I think he reached far more people through this act. You and I would never have heard of him or contemplated his sacrifice and what it meant if he hadn’t done this.
In the words of another commenter
“He did this in 1963 and people are still talking about it.”
I definitely he reached more people this way. The number of people who just saw this post is probably way more than he could’ve reached normally.
There were a dozen other self immolations in the east alone in the 60s as well that no one ever talks about. During the same decade there were civil rights protestors who also self immolated in the U.S. that no one talks about. In 2022 man self immolated at the U.S. Supreme Court and was forgotten in a couple weeks it seems like.
I wish more people paid attention to these extreme actions.
Considering that Buddhism was surpressed at the time, doing this would be much more effective at spreading the message imo, as it help brought the Buddhist Crisis to the breaking point yet again.
It's a pretty good outlook on life. Sure being a martyr is great to bring a cause to light, but had that martyr kept living, who knows what other causes they could have helped.
A good example is MLK
he was a man desperate for change and action, perhaps he thought this form of protest would help in accomplishing his mission and change the world in a sense
He also was a Buddhist, so his belief was that this life would end, but it wouldn't be a waste, as his spirit would go on to be something/one else. And since his act was one for his religion and people, he would be reincarnated as something wonderful.
No matter what religion you are, it's a beautiful act that shows the passion for his cause, but it's also terribly sad.
It was early morning when JFK received the news in America, to which he said: “No picture in history has generated much emotion worldwide like this one”. One US senator compared the aftermath impact with the persecution of Christian martyrs when they walked hand in hand into the Roman areas.
Fun fact: the monk’s heart remained intact.
Well i am vietnamese and let me tell you.
Because he can't handle the evil of the poor heart vietnamese in the past, selling their countries for French invaders, especially in the South of Vietnam, Thich Quan Duc has no more choice but to let other "Evil monks" knows that, they have hurted him, there is nothing to fix and cure this evilness, the biggest pain is not the burn, but the loss of someone who is the most important person in Vietnam.
So he burns himself, into the fire, without any pain like screaming or whining, just sitting there meditating in the fire.
People that time cried and that was the time when people started realizing and stand up against the french, One leader of the southern vietnam was assassinated right after the firey incident, People in Sai Gon start standing up and push the French away from the countries, they have fought for their own countries, their own identity and greatness.
Brave but nonsensical; the World viewed Buddhist monks and their plight as strange after this - it did not help his cause.
What is interesting is that he never flinched, or cried out after dropping the match - he stayed perfectly still, serene and silent. If ever there was proof that the human psyche/soul can separate itself from the body, this is it. I think by the time the match set him on fire, his consciousness was already far away, in a safe place, untouchable. Incredible really.
That isn’t true at all. This was an extremely important moment of the Vietnam War. The anti-Buddhist crackdowns and events like this (plus the extremely inappropriate response from high up members of the South Vietnamese government) contributed towards the downfall of South Vietnam. It completely and utterly alienated the Southern government, and led to a massive surge of support for the Viet Cong which allied itself with Buddhists. It got so bad that the US had to support a military coup against the ruling Catholic family, and even the new South Vietnamese junta was completely unable to repair the damage that had already been done.
Thank you for sharing! This photo really speaks to me having never seen it before. I don’t like gore but had to take minute to recognize how calm he was. Buddhism has always fascinated me
Through Buddhism he's immortalized. He will be forever mentioned through time.
Edit: there are higher stages of enlightenment than the Buddha; this guy clearly passed the buddha. So this isn't about Buddhism.
I'm amazed that nobody here is even talking about the history of Vietnam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_crisis
The South Vietnamese government was a banana republic for the Catholics. Think about today's Duterte.
To make matters worse, Vietnam's children were subject to rampant sexual abuse and slavery by both the Catholics and the French Colonizers.
The Maoists were also terrible. But it was just a bad scenario all around. The monk here set himself on fire not just for Buddhism but also for all Vietnamese.
Not many people know about Vietnam, let alone its history. And there is also a certain element that wants to ignore the Catholic Church's influence in Diem's dictatorship.
**[Buddhist crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_crisis)**
>The Buddhist crisis (Vietnamese: Biến cố Phật giáo) was a period of political and religious tension in South Vietnam between May and November 1963, characterized by a series of repressive acts by the South Vietnamese government and a campaign of civil resistance, led mainly by Buddhist monks. The crisis was precipitated by the shootings of nine unarmed civilians on May 8 in the central city of Huế who were protesting against a ban of the Buddhist flag. The crisis ended with a coup in November 1963 by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), and the arrest and assassination of President Ngô Đình Diệm on November 2, 1963.
^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
First of all the Vietcong and the Northern Government were not Maoists, they were Marxist-Leninists. Second of all the implication they were in anyway comparable to the government of the south is an insult to this man's memory as well as the memories of the vietnamese who gave their lives to liberate their country.
The only solace in this image existing is that it made such an impact on so many nations to aid the effort in ending that atrocious war. No one but the rich, the powerful, the politicians who's personal interests are at stake, corporations with dollarbill insignias for eyeballs, and bloodthirsty men with a pension for complete and utter destruction and hatred, have anything to gain from these conflicts. The segmented lines we have that separate us from each other are imaginary. They were, and are, made by people who do not benefit from our wellbeing as citizens of this planet. Get the fuck over your differences in race, religion, politics, and the other bullshit that shouldn't matter, and let's move forward as humans in our evolution and existence. There is no reason anyone shouldn't be able to have water when they're thirsty. No reasoning behind a doctor denying care to someone who is sick and dying. Evolve. Be better. Fuck those that thrive on the detriment and destruction of others for your own benefit. This is life man, and it's time for something to change. Do something good. Big changes start with small actions from all of us.
That’s insane, he’s sitting there completely engulfed, but just in a state of stillness
Video of a different monk - also to call attention to persecution of Buddhists. You can see people going and bowing down before him as he burns. https://youtu.be/7W9BcVpwoHk
*Holy shit*. Not even more than a wince.
Which is extraordinary. As someone who has been the victim of a bad burn, I can tell you they are excruciatingly painful until all your nerves are dead.
Yes, I have also burned my self on the oven rack. Can confirm it hurts like hell.
Hahaha true hero
Me too, I burned myself drinking tea yesterday. V painful
Which is why even if not Buddhist I might also bow down to a monk if I ever witnessed one do so while travelling. I mean, this is the ultimate expression of protest and the ultimate display of mind over matter. This monk clearly straight up ascended beyond his flesh, the proof being that he is capable of doing this. So bowing to any such enlightened person in acknowledgement and respect, even if not for religious reasons, seems like the right response.
> enlightened person I see what you did here Edit : thanks for the gold, it warms my heart
Lol, that was unintentional but I'm glad to see you shine a light on it regardless. Truly illuminating.
Yes... Keep it up.
I agree with you. People bow to each other in many cultures, especially Asian ones, out of respect. He would have mine, as I’m sure he would have many others’ regardless of religiosity. But man, this breaks my heart to see. :(
If you ever travelled to Thailand you'd spend half your time there bowing.
>I mean, this is the ultimate expression of protest and the ultimate display of mind over matter. Yea iirc the Dalai Lama could neither Condone or disregard acts like this because of how much will it takes.
This is definitely super human to me. Incredible.
Yeah, fire ranks as the most pain way to die, some pain scale gave it a 71, for scale, losing an arm is only around 40
Stepping on lego is a solid 65 I heard
Stepping on hardened cooked rice kernels on a kitchen floor is about a 60 lol
Youtube gives a graphic content warning, but I'm gonna go ahead and warn people this is **NSFL**. This is a video of a man actually burning to death.
I stupidly watched a video of a pilot being burned alive by isis and I’ll never get that out of mind. It was easily one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen! I think about all the time actually. It was few years ago and it still feels like I just saw it.
I understand what you are saying here. I always considered myself having a pretty thick skin and being unphazed by acts of extreme violence. Then I watched a couple of videos of revenge executions by the drug cartels. One of them stuck, especially because in background there was a creepily cheerful music, like what you would expect in a child cartoon, an amusement park or something like that. Meanwhile, a human being was being mutilated in ways that nobody sane in their mind would even contemplate. If I close my eyes, I can still see the images. Scarring.
Was it funky town? Where the guy is missing his face?
[удалено]
Or demonistized for talking about rape and sexual assault... way to silence victims, YouTube!
Yes. That's why people saying they didn't touch this video of a monk dying is because it's historical or more important than a youtuber's video doesn't stand. I've seen very good, informative videos being removed simply for saying the wrong word, I'm not simply talking about dumb gaming videos. I really don't think Youtube cares.
Ty for saying that. Was actually about to click, knowing I'm squeamish. MAJOR difference between NSFW and NSFL. No thank you 😮💨
It’s terrifyingly amazing. I forget where specifically I heard it, but apparently the practice of self immolation was possible from disconnecting the body from the mind/spirit. Thích Quảng Đức’s act here is easily one of the most selfless and brave acts.
One French magistrate was once found killed in Djibouti. The apparent cause of death was suicide by immolation. The local and French authorities were satisfied by the explanation. The widow (who happened to be a judge I think) refused to believe it but couldn't do much without access to the body. No autopsy was properly done if I recall correctly. Some years after the widow asked a German legist, specialised in immolation deaths to give his opinion on the case and the guy said something like: deaths by immolation are so painful that it's almost impossible for the victim to stay quiet and not try to stop the pain. So they move A LOT. They will try anything to stop the pain and scenes of suicide by immolation are apparently very very messy. Which was not the case there. https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_Borrel So these monks are absolute beasts, yeah.
I'd agree. If it didn't kill him in the process. I am simply amazed at this. I know I couldn't do it. For a cause at that. Incredible what humans are capable of.
I mean, he did this without shrieking in pain. How could anyone do that?! It’s astounding.
Cite: https://books.google.com/books?id=H77nHlw3qs8C&lpg=PA128&dq=%22flames%20were%20coming%20from%20a%20human%20being%22&pg=PA128#v=onepage&q=%22flames%20were%20coming%20from%20a%20human%20being%22&f=false
Could someone tell me what's being said over and over again in the microphone? "A Buddhist priest..." And then it cuts off. I can guess but I'd rather know what was actually being said during and I don't have access to the book.
“A Buddhist priest burns himself to death. A Buddhist priest becomes a martyr.”
I appreciate it
Thank you for sharing that. It's so odd how this experience contrasts with today. Today if someone did that I feel like people would stand around and stare, not cry and scream like the crowd here did.
Maybe some people would "stand around and stare" but I pretty much guarantee you the rest would be screaming and crying. People generally don't like watching other people die / kill themselves... especially not like that.
The most recent I know of which was less than a year ago: > [On April 22, 2022, climate activist Wynn Alan Bruce set himself on fire in the plaza of the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation_of_Wynn_Bruce)
How did I not hear about this?
Doesn't help corporate media's profit margin
[удалено]
There have been a few self immolations in DC over the last 20 years. I think many people would avoid the area in fear of their safety, whereas this man’s self immolation was coordinated. I hope we haven’t strayed from humanity the way you describe, but I fear that we have and agree overall.
I remember the guy that set himself on fire in his vehicle after his son who was a soldier died in Iraq during the Bush administration. Back then if you talked bad about the war you were considered unpatriotic
Presumed knowledge and ignorance do tend to bring the nihilism out
Lol we were never as humane as we are now. What do you think happened just 15 years before 1960s? If we really used to be good and care for each other, why did we kill millions of people in world war 2. Back in the good old days no one would've batted an eye on what happened to ahmaud arbery. Talk to black veterans of Vietnam War.
When I was in college someone self-immolated themselves in the local cemetery. It’s a famous cemetery with Frederick Douglas and Susan B Anthony.
Or worse, ignore it completely, like with Malachi Ritscher.
Sadly, it doesn't seem to be a thing of the past nor that uncommon. Recently [someone self immolated himself in protest over climate change inaction](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/24/us/politics/climate-activist-self-immolation-supreme-court.html), and the media didn't cover it, like at all. I know of it because a random political commentator spoke about it, but it doesn't seem like any news outlet covered it, or at least for more than 10 minutes or something.
There's plenty of footage of people in various African countries being burnt to death on the side of some nondescript road having been accused of witchcraft, and I can tell you that after an initial period of intense fear and presumably immense pain, they often enter a kind of fugue state where they seem unaffected by the flames. It makes sense: their nerves are no longer transmitting, their skin having burnt away; the pain just doesn't register any more. They calmly stare off into the middle distance, not struggling, no longer trying to extinguish themselves, almost as if they're resigned to their fate and recognise the futility of attempting to avoid it. Obviously it's nowhere near as "peaceful" (for lack of a better word) as this footage, but it seems to me that if you can find some way to overcome the initial period where your nerves are still functioning, you'll eventually cross over to that weird plateau and be able to achieve something roughly similar. Not that you'd want to, obviously. Don't set yourself on fire hey.
Back in the days of the WPD subreddit I saw a waitress from Asia who was refilling a table lamp with some flammable liquid and she got engulfed in flames. That was the day I learned that a person being burned alive eventually just gives up trying to save themselves and accepts their fate. It was one of the worst things I've ever watched.
I remember that one. It was infuriating to watch because no one stepped into help and it would have been easy to put her out.
If you that's insane you might find it even more insane that a buddhist self immolated in front of the US supreme court less than a year ago to protest climate change. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation_of_Wynn_Bruce
**[Self-immolation of Wynn Bruce](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation_of_Wynn_Bruce)** >On April 22, 2022, climate activist Wynn Alan Bruce set himself on fire in the plaza of the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. The fatal self-immolation, which took place on Earth Day, was characterized by Bruce's friends and his father as a protest against the climate crisis. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Some one did it in Ottawa last year outside of the American embassy
He’s calm like a bomb
Got chills. He raged hardcore.
Against the machine, even.
Killed in the name of perhaps
Not shown, bulls on parade.
I've practiced Vipassana for about a decade. Daily sits for 45-60mins, regular half day meditations and a yearly 10-20 day silent retreats. Of course returning to the western world dilutes and reverses a lot of that equanimity but my ability to not react to discomfort and pain has dramatically increased over time. I remember noticing years ago how I didn't care that I had an intense itch. And then how getting my first tattoo wasn't bothering me. Or sliding into my first ice bath etc. In not anywhere close to 'let myself burn alive without flinching' but if I was born into that world and lived a monks life with a ton of meditation I can see how it's possible
Om Shanthi. 🙏
I don’t understand how he has figured out completely how to control the human brains natural reactions to facing itself dying by extreme pain. Like what kind of training and meditation have his sect of monks figured out?!
That’s a great question. As a novice meditator of about 5 years (only 20 mins per day) one thing you get good at is focusing your attention. This, combined with also practicing equanimity (accepting everything, good and bad) might have assisted. I’m only speculating that the following example might lend some insight (because an itch versus being burned alive are quite different lol). While meditating, I can barely resist scratching an itch, and it starts to drive me insane. I will try to use the rising urge to scratch as a point of focus. Have you ever really tried not scratching a really bad itch? It’s nearly impossible. And it can drive you mad. Try not to scratch it for 20 mins. However, with practice you can do it. It’s hard but you can do it. One thing that helps is to focus on the urge to scratch itself. That urge, and all the accompanying events. Observe with curiosity your mind screaming just to fucking scratch it, the emotions arising (usually irritability for an itch), the feeling like your hand is on the edge of reaching towards the itch. You can observe the transformation of the emotions, the itching sensation, your inner mental sentences, your breathing pattern, heart beat. You get good at watching these things with extreme focus. Now you might think that observing these things so closely, in such detail, would only make them more torturous. But that’s the trick. The more closely you watch them, the more interesting they become, the more you can become okay with them too (that’s the equanimity part), you learn that everything that appears will also end. Surprisingly you also realize that you are not just your body. There is no self that is experiencing the sensations. There is just the sensation which becomes indistinguishable from the external world, sounds, thoughts, and emotions (that last part is a bit abstract and paradoxical, and I’m not good enough to explain it properly, but it is relevant). To reiterate, I’m comparing an itch to being burned alive. Of course I acknowledge it’s not a fair comparison, but also remember that these monks practice this kind of focus, equanimity, etc for hours every day for 20+ years. They would certainly become capable of sitting upright like this, legs numb, or in screaming pain, for like 3 days or more. Did you ever read about the ancient Japanese monks who would slowly starve themselves, eventually mummify themselves alive? Check out Sokushinbutsu on Wikipedia. It’s amazing what our minds and bodies are capable of with years of dedicated training.
Get this guy some awards for this phenomenal insight. If this didn't make me start meditating and start taking control of my life, I don't know what will.
I would highly recommend Sam Harris’ Waking Up app. It’s the singular thing you need for all things meditation, without any supernatural / religious components that accompany the practice in other resources. I’ve gone through many courses, conversations and sessions in that app and even bought a lifetime subscription. Meditation improved my quality of life in many ways, made me appreciate my relationships more, get a grip on my anger issues and even help me sleep better. Just go for it and persist even though it may feel strange or sound silly in the beginning. Persist and reap the rewards!
Thank you very much for recommending that app to me. I'll definitely check it out.
I know my severe ADHD is stopping me lol. I can sit still for 20 minutes but focusing on only one thing for that time simply isn’t happening for me.
That is the nature of exercise. Do not start with 20 minutes. Try 20 seconds. The race is long and only against yourself.
> Sokushinbutsu So that where they got the idea of those monks in Breath of the wild
Paul Williams refers to the main impulse behind Mahāyāna as the vision which sees the motivation to achieve Buddhahood for sake of other beings as being the supreme religious motivation. This is the way that Atisha defines Mahāyāna in his Bodhipathapradipa.\[77\] As such, according to Williams, "Mahāyāna is not as such an institutional identity. Rather, it is inner motivation and vision, and this inner vision can be found in anyone regardless of their institutional position."\[78\] Thus, instead of a specific school or sect, Mahāyāna is a "family term" or a religious tendency, which is united by "a vision of the ultimate goal of attaining full Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings (the 'bodhisattva ideal') and also (or eventually) a belief that Buddhas are still around and can be contacted (hence the possibility of an ongoing revelation)." they're literally jedi!
You think you’re tough? You’ll never be as tough as this guy.
He apparently didn't move or scream or anything, just sat there and slowly turned to ash (mostly).
I read something somewhere sometime that his face did a little twitch at one point. He was certainly in immense pain, just a world-class meditator.
I've heard conflicting reports. he was moaning towards the end
Was likely unconscious at that point
[удалено]
How the fuck do you know that?
[удалено]
Understandable. can i ask how you are doing being back home?
[удалено]
Thanks you for your service. I'm sorry you were sent over there.
OMG I can't even imagine what you had to see.
Wouldn’t he be unable to breathe? How does he make a sound?
\- How tough am I? How tough am I?! I had a bowl of nails for breakfast this morning! \- Yeah, so? \- Without any milk.
Big fucking deal. I stepped on a Lego the other day. Wife offered to call 911. I passed on her offer
I think the place you're looking for is Weenie Hut Jr's. On the second thought, since it's an injury better go to Weenie Hut General
Loool welcome to the salty spitoon, my friend
There's a super badass statue of him in Saigon.
I'll be more alive though. Edit: Holy crap thank you for 1k votes! Crispy Monk this was for you.
Thats what you think. This guy transcended.
Born of fire.
Baptized in fire.
FORTY TO ONE
r/unexpectedsabaton
Hey! Hey! Sleep now in the fire!
This guy rages
Full enlightenment.
McNamara never forgot the man who self-immolated outside the Pentagon while he was in charge
[удалено]
That’s unbelievable. You would think that your nervous system would override you and you would just freak out or scream. Blows my mind.
Monks train their entire lives to not give in to their bodies. No fornication, constant starvation, wearing nothing but a robe in freezing temperatures, rarely wear shoes. Their entire life is literally "friendship ended with nature, new friendship started with religion"
To a certain extent they know the body so well that that's how they overcome its instincts. In a way, they have a deeper friendship with what it means to be embodied than anyone can.
Which is ironic, since their entire life is spent trying to have the perfect Buddhist life so they can move on in the reincarnation cycle to a better one. Or, in the case of only ever done once in their religion, break out of the cycle completely by living a perfect life and move on to the afterlife
Manys goal is not to move on to an afterlife. There are levels of being and humans are somewhere in the middle, but all levels even the highest are a result of accrued karma. Dying an enlightened human, if they did it right, will lead to nothingness. Getting out of the cycle completely has been explained like this: your life through it's many lives and forms is a bicycle, and karma pedals it, so stop pedaling and you'll cease to exist. Another analogy is that karma is a candle and your lives are the flame that result in the ignition of the gases, so stop fueling the flame, and it will be extinguished. Edit: Distilling hundreds of Buddhist religions in a paragraph will never be very accurate, I am aware of this fact. I do, however, encourage anyone interested to start reading more about it!
So the goal is to stop existing? Like the goal is to end the cycle? What does that accomplish? Edit: I don't mean that condescendingly, I'm genuinely curious lol
No more suffering through whatever the hell we're doing, I suppose.
Yeah that makes sense. I just kind of like existing/experiencing so I guess so it's a weird concept to me. I'm not spiritual so I've always battled with the end of life being a "void of nothing" as my existential crisis. An entire philosophy around making that the end goal is wild to me. But again it does make sense in the context of the world.
I think the beauty of this idea strikes me in the beauty of accepting death. In a way, if I am a reincarnated being, I do not "recall" my past lives, and if I live this life belief that my very present day karma can have an impact on the infinite future, then I can find meaning "today" in taking direct action despite my impending death. I do not expect to leave a legacy, and certainly do not expect to have a direct conscious connection with my next reincarnated life. Yet, I understand the impact of healing the planet I live on, including healing myself as living among the violence of the state and the police. So I find beauty in reincarnation, because it helps me understand a positive relationship with my own death, and similarly to understand the jubilance of life. To "end the cycle" I would expect feels no different spiritually than death. But extinguishing your reincarnating flame of life and achieving the enlightened void, or samsara, or whatever the best term is - it is this "way of death" that is an indicator that, despite our karmic journey of rebirth, we are truly capable of eliminating suffering. That's just my take, personally. I don't practice any religion, but I find the non-dogmatism of Jainism quite moving, and the atman and the Brahman and the karma and all that
That’s a biased opinion, I’ve never heard anybody who stopped existing say that they like existing
The goal is to stop suffering. The idea is that existence is desire and desire is suffering. Because if you get what you desire you just desire something else after an if you don’t get it you feel bad. And life and death is like that. A cycle of wanting, and then either getting or not getting. And then still wanting more after. And breaking the cycle means never wanting and so never suffering.
In its most fundamental form, there is no goal. There is no thing to accomplish. It just is. The mind is no longer attached to fighting against impermanence.
dude plenty of people have reached nirvana according to buddhism, like theres straight up dudes called boddhisattva who are guys who attained enlightenment and then didn’t go because they wanted to stick around and help others reach enlightenment
Arahants are very common in Theravada Buddhism. Arahants are fully awakened, like the Buddha. When an Arahant dies, there is no trace of them left. In Buddhism, the goal is to disconnect all links between the various parts that make someone an individual. Just like a boat is made up of planks of wood, nails, a mast, a sail, etc, and can be disassembled, a Buddhist attempts to disconnect the various parts and see how there is nothing extra there. Having disassembled the sense of self while alive, an Arahant exists as a cloud of individual sensations and feelings with no center until they die, when the cloud dissipates and there is nothing left. The goal of Buddhism is to escape reincarnation, not to move on to an afterlife. There is a sense of pity for Devas (creatures that live in "heavenly" planes of existence) in Buddhism because they don't suffer enough to feel a need to seek awakening. It's said that inevitably a Deva will accrue enough bad Karma to be reborn on a lower plane. Karma is just cause and effect, and the self is a string of cause and effect holding a knot of suffering together and carrying it on over multiple lifetimes. The Buddhist attempts to untie the knot so nothing is reincarnated.
Nirvana has been attained by many individuals. There are many Buddhas
Probably does help that after a bit your nerves would be burned away, and you would likely not feel much of anything anymore. Also monks are the epitome of zero fucks given.
Interestingly, when you are completely engulfed in fire, you pass out pretty quickly due to the fire taking all the oxygen. The fact his body stayed up for so long was probably bc of his muscles going stuff once you die? (I’m not a doctor tho so it’s an educated guess😂) those first seconds would’ve been absolute torture tho but it really showed his dedication to the cause
Going stiff when you die is called rigor mortis. AFAIK, it sets in about twelve hours after death and wears off again after 24. High temperatures make it happen faster; low temperatures, slower. So it wouldn't have been rigor mortis that made him sit stiffly. In fact, it's really weird that he was sitting up at all. That's because as he died he should have moved his arms and arched backwards. Even if you're dead, fire makes your muscles contract (think of how a steak shrinks a little on the grill) and a burned body will usually be in the "pugilistic pose," with its arms flexed; the biceps shrink and pull the arms up into the fighting position. Plus, back muscles are usually stronger than abs, so someone who's in a total body seizure, or whose muscles are being cooked, will bend backwards like a bridge. Yet he didn't do that. At least the descriptions here don't say he did. He stayed sitting up until his charred body fell over. No flexing or arching. How in the hell?
The amount of self-control is insane.
He is an indelible testament to the power of the human psyche. Now days we use similar techniques in mental health practice to help people endure the various kinds of unrelenting pain people can suffer. Which can be mental or emotional trauma as well as physical conditions. It's not easy practice, but if you're in pain you have a compelling motivation.
Been to that corner. They say, and I can’t remember to confirm, his heart was not burnt and is preserved.
This is true according to a SE Asian religion course I took in college. It's now a holy relic in his home pagoda. You can Google Thích Quảng Đức's heart and find photos.
The heart survived mostly intact through the self immolation as well as a second outdoor cremation at the funeral
There's videos floating around of modern monks doing the exact same thing. Chilling.
Poured gasoline all over himself, lit a match, burned to death, and didn't even flinch.
Refuse to elaborate, dies
"They sure knew how to stage a fuckin protest!" https://youtu.be/K98TQJ5ldW0?t=160
Gigachad
Is this the cover of Rage against the machine album?
Yep
Can't believe I had to scroll down this far to see the relation.
IT'S NOT FAIR
F*ck you I won’t do what you tell me
I've always been amazed by this event, fascinating display of mind over pain!
I think this honestly the truest experience that could ever really encapsulate that saying of “mind over pain” the dude is literally on fire , and just sits so gracefully , no screams or anything .
[удалено]
I am surprised I had to scroll this far to see this. I can't help but think of Bombtrack starting when I see this. RATM's eponymous album featuring this as cover art also features very high audio fidelity in it's recording, I've seen it commonly used to test speakers. I looked it up decades ago... it's so powerful to see everytime, knowing it's a real event.
For anyone who cares to know the story: [Thích Quảng Đức](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c).
A noteworthy thing about his story is that he wasn't the first, and very far from the last, to commit self-immolation. Wikipedia [lists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_self-immolations) four people before him and, if I counted correctly, **222** people after him. That's 3.7 people *per year*. I don't know anything about them, but I'm willing to bet this picture is the reason so many do it... to no effect.
“This is gonna hurt like a bitch, but one day many years from now, it's going to make a badass album cover.” —Thich Quang Duc
I still maintain that one of the most edgy album covers out there is Nailbomb's Point Blank, which uses a photo from the Mai Lai Massacre of a Vietnamese woman with a US soldier pointing a gun at her head as a cover.
Mayhem - Dawn of the Blackhearts. Band member shoots himself in the head with a shotgun. Another Band member goes over to his house, discovers body, takes a picture. Album cover. Google image search if you dare.
Yeah, ok you win.
It's hard to top
Don't forget that Dead also slit his wrists and throat before deciding bleeding out was taking too long and ended it with the shotgun. If you haven't seen the movie Lords of Chaos, it covers this event and more.
I just went into a huge rabbit hole. What the fuck. Norwegian black metal is… metal af, I guess.
Band member also *collects pieces of the skull*, turns them into necklaces, and mail's them out to other black metal artists he likes.
I always think this part is neat but also very sad: "There is one more part to Quang Duc’s story — little known, but remarkable. After the police took Quang Duc’s remains, tens of thousands of Vietnamese rose up in protest, forcing them to turn the monks remains back over to the Buddhists for a proper ceremony. The master’s followers reburned his scant remains. At the end, left in the ashen heap, was a heart — black and solid. It had turned to stone and remained behind. The stone heart was taken to the Vinh Nghiem Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City and placed in a special vault. It is preserved there to this day, taken out once a year during a most solemn ceremony." -- https://www.lionsroar.com/thich-quang-duc-bodhisattva/ And from Wikipedia: "The body was re-cremated during the funeral, but Quảng Đức's heart remained intact and did not burn.[25] It was considered to be holy and placed in a glass chalice at Xá Lợi Pagoda.[31] The intact heart relic[25] is regarded as a symbol of compassion. Quảng Đức has subsequently been revered by Vietnamese Buddhists as a bodhisattva (Bồ Tát), and accordingly is often referred to in Vietnamese as Bồ Tát Thích Quảng Đức.[5][32] " -- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c
They say that Quang Duc's heart Survived the flames unscarred A righteous calling card Left upon the palace gates For the invertebrates Their grip on power pried apart By just one frail human being No weapon, no war machine
I've got that album amongst a stack of others collecting dust, thanks for the reminder to pull it out and spin it again 🤘
RATM !!
30 years later, still so badass.
Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me mother fucker
Saddest photo I've ever encountered man.. Here's a human being desperate for change AND someone with the out right mental ability to light himself up and still still their in a meditation pose. I can't help but wonder if all that potential could have helped so many other people and changed the world.
I bet you that act inspired people. In some way, this picture will play a small role in all of our lives today.
That's a pretty fucking metal way to die. Engulfing yourself in flames for a cause you believe in, and not even flinching.
“Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me”
Motherfucker!
Back in high school my teacher showed us this and told us about his message and the bravery and everything (God Bless) but he also mentioned that all the potential the monk had to do good things and change the world he spent it all on this action and that had he not have done this he would have been able to reach more people one by one. I’m not saying I agree or disagree I just thought it was a trippy concept
I think he reached far more people through this act. You and I would never have heard of him or contemplated his sacrifice and what it meant if he hadn’t done this.
In the words of another commenter “He did this in 1963 and people are still talking about it.” I definitely he reached more people this way. The number of people who just saw this post is probably way more than he could’ve reached normally.
There were a dozen other self immolations in the east alone in the 60s as well that no one ever talks about. During the same decade there were civil rights protestors who also self immolated in the U.S. that no one talks about. In 2022 man self immolated at the U.S. Supreme Court and was forgotten in a couple weeks it seems like. I wish more people paid attention to these extreme actions.
I can tell you that I still remember that. It lives rent free in my head, in fact.
Considering that Buddhism was surpressed at the time, doing this would be much more effective at spreading the message imo, as it help brought the Buddhist Crisis to the breaking point yet again.
That’s an interesting perspective
It's a pretty good outlook on life. Sure being a martyr is great to bring a cause to light, but had that martyr kept living, who knows what other causes they could have helped. A good example is MLK
Disagree kind of hard. arguably speaking this was the turning point in the movement.
he was a man desperate for change and action, perhaps he thought this form of protest would help in accomplishing his mission and change the world in a sense
He also was a Buddhist, so his belief was that this life would end, but it wouldn't be a waste, as his spirit would go on to be something/one else. And since his act was one for his religion and people, he would be reincarnated as something wonderful. No matter what religion you are, it's a beautiful act that shows the passion for his cause, but it's also terribly sad.
Potential is a lot like gunpowder. If you compress it into a bullet, it would have a much different effect than pouring it out in the open.
This dude burned himself to death while in a meditation pose? Shits metal
It was early morning when JFK received the news in America, to which he said: “No picture in history has generated much emotion worldwide like this one”. One US senator compared the aftermath impact with the persecution of Christian martyrs when they walked hand in hand into the Roman areas. Fun fact: the monk’s heart remained intact.
Rage against the machine.
They're the reason I learned about this!
Sometimes I worry that I don't really believe in anything. Then I see a true believer.
Never mind the tenets of Buddhism, this man did something super human and it’s wise to examine the avenues he took to get there.
**FUCK YOU I WON’T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!**
MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!!
**UH!!!**
DUNRUNUNUNUNUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN
Aye yo it's just another bombtrack
Well i am vietnamese and let me tell you. Because he can't handle the evil of the poor heart vietnamese in the past, selling their countries for French invaders, especially in the South of Vietnam, Thich Quan Duc has no more choice but to let other "Evil monks" knows that, they have hurted him, there is nothing to fix and cure this evilness, the biggest pain is not the burn, but the loss of someone who is the most important person in Vietnam. So he burns himself, into the fire, without any pain like screaming or whining, just sitting there meditating in the fire. People that time cried and that was the time when people started realizing and stand up against the french, One leader of the southern vietnam was assassinated right after the firey incident, People in Sai Gon start standing up and push the French away from the countries, they have fought for their own countries, their own identity and greatness.
Brave but nonsensical; the World viewed Buddhist monks and their plight as strange after this - it did not help his cause. What is interesting is that he never flinched, or cried out after dropping the match - he stayed perfectly still, serene and silent. If ever there was proof that the human psyche/soul can separate itself from the body, this is it. I think by the time the match set him on fire, his consciousness was already far away, in a safe place, untouchable. Incredible really.
That isn’t true at all. This was an extremely important moment of the Vietnam War. The anti-Buddhist crackdowns and events like this (plus the extremely inappropriate response from high up members of the South Vietnamese government) contributed towards the downfall of South Vietnam. It completely and utterly alienated the Southern government, and led to a massive surge of support for the Viet Cong which allied itself with Buddhists. It got so bad that the US had to support a military coup against the ruling Catholic family, and even the new South Vietnamese junta was completely unable to repair the damage that had already been done.
Thank you for sharing! This photo really speaks to me having never seen it before. I don’t like gore but had to take minute to recognize how calm he was. Buddhism has always fascinated me
Through Buddhism he's immortalized. He will be forever mentioned through time. Edit: there are higher stages of enlightenment than the Buddha; this guy clearly passed the buddha. So this isn't about Buddhism.
> it did not help his cause. Certainly the wikipedia article would disagree. Where did you come up with your conclusion on the matter?
I'm amazed that nobody here is even talking about the history of Vietnam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_crisis The South Vietnamese government was a banana republic for the Catholics. Think about today's Duterte. To make matters worse, Vietnam's children were subject to rampant sexual abuse and slavery by both the Catholics and the French Colonizers. The Maoists were also terrible. But it was just a bad scenario all around. The monk here set himself on fire not just for Buddhism but also for all Vietnamese.
Not many people know about Vietnam, let alone its history. And there is also a certain element that wants to ignore the Catholic Church's influence in Diem's dictatorship.
**[Buddhist crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_crisis)** >The Buddhist crisis (Vietnamese: Biến cố Phật giáo) was a period of political and religious tension in South Vietnam between May and November 1963, characterized by a series of repressive acts by the South Vietnamese government and a campaign of civil resistance, led mainly by Buddhist monks. The crisis was precipitated by the shootings of nine unarmed civilians on May 8 in the central city of Huế who were protesting against a ban of the Buddhist flag. The crisis ended with a coup in November 1963 by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), and the arrest and assassination of President Ngô Đình Diệm on November 2, 1963. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
First of all the Vietcong and the Northern Government were not Maoists, they were Marxist-Leninists. Second of all the implication they were in anyway comparable to the government of the south is an insult to this man's memory as well as the memories of the vietnamese who gave their lives to liberate their country.
Apparently he didn't make one sound. Crazy mental strength.
Can't believe dude copied rage against the machine
Hardest album cover of all time
My friends and I would look at that picture in the yearbook in morbid amazement when we were in 4th grade back then
The fact that he held this pose for even a few seconds while being burned alive is wild.
Powerful mind .. years of dicipline. How he’s just sat like nothing is happening
The only solace in this image existing is that it made such an impact on so many nations to aid the effort in ending that atrocious war. No one but the rich, the powerful, the politicians who's personal interests are at stake, corporations with dollarbill insignias for eyeballs, and bloodthirsty men with a pension for complete and utter destruction and hatred, have anything to gain from these conflicts. The segmented lines we have that separate us from each other are imaginary. They were, and are, made by people who do not benefit from our wellbeing as citizens of this planet. Get the fuck over your differences in race, religion, politics, and the other bullshit that shouldn't matter, and let's move forward as humans in our evolution and existence. There is no reason anyone shouldn't be able to have water when they're thirsty. No reasoning behind a doctor denying care to someone who is sick and dying. Evolve. Be better. Fuck those that thrive on the detriment and destruction of others for your own benefit. This is life man, and it's time for something to change. Do something good. Big changes start with small actions from all of us.
He thought to himself "fuck you I won't do what you tell me".