Kapleau on Self-Burning

[Sam Ghandchi]

Kapleau on Self-Burning

The self-burning of Mr. Niusha Farrahi in Los Angeles to protest the
Iran-Iraq War; and the recent self-burning of Dr. Homa Darabi in
Tehran to protest the conditions of women in Iran have been two
occasions that have been on my mind a lot of times. In order to
understand this action, I have listened to different ideas. I still do
not have any idea myself about self-burning.

I read the following by one of the few American Zen masters whom I
respect a lot [he is not my guru, teacher, or anything as such;
although if I was a Buddhist or if I was strongly interested in Zen, I
would probably had hoped that he would seek me as a student. As
you know in these practices, if genuine and not commercial junk,
contrary to Western style universities, the teacher chooses the
student and not the other way.]

I read some of Kapleau's works such as THE THREE PILLARS OF ZEN and
have learned a lot from him. I do not follow Zen or any other school
for that matter; but I respect it just like many other spiritual paths.
I also respect Kapleau a lot for his valuable contributions to spiritual
teaching in America and for dealing with issues facing the modern
world. Issues such as abortion and Euthanasia.

The following is from his book ZEN: THE MERGING OF EAST AND WEST
and although the position of the writing is not my position but it is a
very enlightened way of looking at the issue of self-burning.
Actually as I said, I still do not have any specific position on this
practice. The following is Kapleau's passage:

"In Vietnam there were also monks, nuns, and laymen who burned
themselves to death to dramatize the intense sufferings of the
Vietnamese people. This self-immolation must be clearly
distinguished from suicide, which of course is contrary to the first
percept of nonkilling. In ordinary suicide where there is no mental
disturbance, the individual does not really want to die, he wants to
live, but in a way that he feels is being frustrated by his family, his
friends, his work, or his society: or else his life is tedious and, he
feels, devoid of meaning. Too weak to struggle to achieve what he
desperately longs for, he loses all courage and hope. His barren,
pain-producing life becomes unendurable, and in his overwhelming
despair he kills himself. Suicide always has a strong element of ego
in it: "I can't live MY way, so I would rather die." The act of self-
destruction is the suicide's supreme gesture of defiance, symbolic
thumbing of his nose at society-the society that at the same time he
is dramatically accusing of having failed him rather than he it. But
death is not the end, and wherever he is reborn and in whatever
form, he will have to face the karmic consequences of his self-
slaughter.

"That the self-burning of Buddhist monks, nuns, and laymen in
Vietnam sprang from entirely different motivation is clearly seen in
the letter of Thich Nhat Hanh [He is a very highly respected spiritual
teacher from Vietnam, his works have been widely translated to
English-note from samg] to Martin Luther King: "What the monks said
in the letters they left before burning themselves aimed only at
alarming, at moving the hearts of the oppressors, and at calling the
attention of the world to the suffering endured by the Vietnamese.
To burn oneself by fire is to prove that what one is saying is of the
utmost importance. There is nothing more painful than burning
oneself. To say something while experiencing this kind of pain is to
say with the utmost courage, frankness, determination, and sincerity
....The Vietnamese monk by burning himself says with all his
strength and determination that he can endure the greatest of
suffering to protect his people. But why does he have to burn
himself to death? The difference between burning oneself and
burning oneself to death is only a difference in degree, not in nature.
A man who burns himself too much must die. The important thing is
not to take one's life but to burn.... To communicate one's feelings by
burning oneself therefore is not to commit an act of destruction but
to perform an act of construction-that is, to suffer and die for the
sake of one's people. This is not suicide ...."

"To sacrifice one's life in this manner calls for extraordinary courage
and usually strong samadhi power, which in turn require long
spiritual training. Who can forget the news media photographs of
the elderly monk who had himself set on fire while sitting in the
lotus position? The sight of the half-incinerated body toppling over
generated tremendous shock waves in the West, particularly in the
United States. This reaction was due in part to the realization that
behind this act were fearless egoless, and a degree of self-control
almost unknown in the West today."

Roshi Philip Kapleau - ZEN: Merging of East and West, 1989 edition
Pages .254 and 245