By Michael Dokuza Maniscalco
"Thereupon he swallowed various perfumes, sandalwood, kunduruka, turushka, prikka, aloes, and liquidambar gum, and he also drank the fragrant oil of champaka and other kinds of flowers, doing this for a period of fully twelve hundred years. Anointing his body with the fragrant oil, he appeared before the Buddha Sun Moon Pure Bright Virtue, wrapped his body in heavenly jeweled robes, poured fragrant oil over his head and, calling on his transcendental powers, set fire to his body. The glow shown forth, illuminating worlds equal in number to the sands of eighty million Ganges. The Buddhas in these worlds simultaneously spoke out in praise, saying: 'Excellent, excellent, good man! This is true diligence. This is what is called a true Dharma offering to the Thus Come One.” - the Lotus Sutra, Chapter Twenty-three
Self-sacrifice takes on an important theme in the Lotus Sutra. In chapter 12, Devadatta, The Buddha addressed the assembly explaining that throughout past incarnations he sought the Lotus Sutra through ascetic practices, “Wanting to fulfill the six perfections I diligently carried out practices: unstintingly giving elephants, horses, the seven precious treasures, countries and cities, wives and children, male and female servants, my head, eyes, marrow and brains, the flesh of my body, hands, and feet, without stinginess, not even hesitating to give my own life.”
In the Perseverance chapter The Bodhisattvas vow to spread the Dharma in spite of any cruelty that they might endure in the evil Saha world, saying, “We will not be attached to our bodies or lives. We only desire the highest path.” Still yet, after revealing his original enlightenment, in chapter 16, the Buddha tells the assembly, “When the sentient beings become sincere, mild, and receptive, and, wanting wholeheartedly to meet the Buddha, are willing to give unsparingly of their bodies and lives, then I, together with the sangha, will appear on Eagle Peak.”
It is in the very opening of the 23rd chapter of the sutra that we learn from Bodhisattva Constellation King flower that not only had Bodhisattva All Beings Delight in Seeing undertaken “bitter practices” for an incalculable amount of time, but then Buddha describes Bodhisattva All Beings Delight in Seeing as enjoying ascetic practices. Dissatisfied with his previous offerings to the Buddha Virtue Pure and Bright Like the Sun and Moon, the Bodhisattva All Beings Delight in Seeing self-immolates.
The act of sacrificing the body is by no means isolated to the Lotus Sutra. Many examples of this extreme practice are found in the Jataka Tales, one of the oldest types of Indian Buddhist literature.[i] In the Tale of the Selfless Hare, a bodhisattva reborn as a rabbit, throws himself into a fire so that Sakra, Lord of the Devas, can have a meal.[ii] Historically, acts of self-immolation by Chinese Buddhist and Japanese Buddhist, as a bodhisattva practice, beginning in the late fourth century, justified their actions using Chapter 23 of the Lotus Sutra.
Self-immolations continue even in modern times, but the intent of these actions have changed from that of religious practices into those of political protest. Most recently, Wynn Bruce, climate activist and Buddhist, burned to death from self-immolating in front of the United States Supreme Court on April 22, 2022, to heighten awareness to the climate crises. Following Wynn’s death, his father commented to the Washington Post, “I agree with the belief that this was a fearless act of compassion about his concern for the environment.”[iii]
Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Duc set himself ablaze on June 11, 1963, in protest of the persecution of Buddhist by the South Vietnam government led by its staunch catholic president Ngô Đình Diệm. Following Duc’s death, Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) addressed a letter to Rev. Martin Luther King entitled In Search of the Enemy of Man saying, “The importance is not to take one’s life, but to burn.”[iv]
While self-immolation is tolerated in some Buddhist traditions, Nichiren Shu does not have a tradition of self-mutilation or religious suicide.[v] Like Thay, Nichiren too believed that the body must burn – burn with devotion!
“From the beginning, I pursued my studies because I wanted to master Buddhism and attain Buddhahood, and also to save the people to whom I am indebted. It seems to me that on the path to attain Buddhahood it may invariably be when one has done something like lay down one’s life that one becomes a Buddha. I think that perhaps it is encountering such difficulties as have already been explained in the sutra—being cursed, vilified, attacked with swords and staves, shards and rubble, and banished again and again—that is reading the Lotus Sutra with one’s life.” - Banishment to Sado, WND1, #25
Nichiren saw his persecutions, and those of his followers, as the giving of the body for the Dharma and leading down the path to Buddhahood. Instead of using self-immolation as a dramatic means of shattering a societies’ unwillingness to address the issues of the day, Nichiren employed the method of skakubuku to spotlight the improper Buddhist teaching of his day and he refers to its use numerous times in his writings. But the Shonin’s view of giving oneself is best and most eloquently expressed in his letter entitled The Gift of Rice.
“Life is the foremost of all treasures. It is expounded that even the treasures of the entire major world system cannot equal the value of one’s body and life. … When we carefully consider what exactly earnest resolve refers to, it is the doctrine of observing the mind. When we inquire into what exactly the doctrine of observing the mind refers to, it means that offering one’s only robe to the Lotus Sutra is equivalent to peeling off one’s skin; and that in a time of famine, offering the food that is the only means for sustaining one’s life that day to the Buddha is offering one’s life to the Buddha. The blessings from this are in no way inferior to those Bodhisattva Medicine King gained by burning his arms, or the boy Snow Mountains gained by offering his body to a demon. Thus, what is appropriate for sages is offering in actuality [offering one’s life itself for the Law]. What is appropriate for ordinary people is offering in principle [offering what is important to one’s own life]. This is the teaching called the pāramitā of almsgiving….” - The Gift of Rice, WND1, #170
[i] Skilling, Peter (2010). Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia, pp. 161-162.
[ii] O'Brien, Barbara. "The Jataka Tale of the Selfless Hare." Learn Religions, Aug. 25, 2020, learnreligions.com/the-jataka-tale-of-the-selfless-hare-450049.
[iii] Silverman, Ellie and Shapira, Ian, The Washington Post, April 26, 2022
[iv] https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/letters/in-search-of-the-enemy-of-man/
[v] Stone, Jacqueline I, Giving One’s Life for the Lotus Sutra in Nichiren’s thought, Journal for the Comprehensive Study of the Lotus Sutra, 2007.