Tibetian Monks Self Immolate

[boomerang]

http://www.news24.com/World/News/Two-Tibetan-monks-self-immolate-in-China-20130425

Is this a sign of strength, weakness, religious fanaticism, a desperate cry for self-rule enacted in a non-violent fashion or something else?

It's funny how movies can have an effect on us. When I read of something like this I nearly always think of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.

I remember when I was with Special Forces--it seems a thousand centuries ago--we went into a camp to inoculate it. The children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for polio, and this old man came running after us, and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went there, and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile--a pile of little arms. And I remember...I...I...I cried, I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out, I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it, I never want to forget. And then I realized--like I was shot...like I was shot with a diamond...a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought, "My God, the genius of that, the genius, the will to do that." Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they could stand that--these were not monsters, these were men, trained cadres, these men who fought with their hearts, who have families, who have children, who are filled with love--that they had this strength, the strength to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men, then our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral and at the same time were able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, without judgment--without judgment. Because it's judgment that defeats us.

I can't envision this being done here in the U.S. What drives people to perform such an act? The article states that since 2009 more than 110 Tibetians have self-immolated. It's clearly a strategy that is not working. Is it a manifestation of mental illness? Is it pure strength? I really can't understand what drives one to do this. It's a horrible way to die.

 

[Anubis]

strength. they have basically reached enlightnement

 

[zsdersw]

Unless you're Buddhist you probably will never understand.

 

[xBiffx]

Unless you're Buddhist you probably will never understand.

Sort of like how I can't understand gay people unless I'm gay?

I can never understand anything that I am not? What kind of ignorance it that?

With thinking like that, why do anything.

 

[zsdersw]

Sort of like how I can't understand gay people unless I'm gay?

I can never understand anything that I am not? What kind of ignorance it that?

With thinking like that, why do anything.

Self-immolation is a different animal than "understanding gay people" or "understanding anything that I am not". Is it not?

 

[xBiffx]

Self-immolation is a different animal than "understanding gay people" or "understanding anything that I am not". Is it not?

When it comes to understanding the actions of others, no. Both require the same open mindedness to completely understand.

Your original comment, however, was severely close minded.

 

[zsdersw]

When it comes to understanding the actions of others, no. Both require the same open mindedness to completely understand.

Yes, understanding suicide/self-immolation is infinitely more complex than understanding homosexuality or any other inherent characteristic. Open-mindedness is one piece of a much larger puzzle, and no amount of open-mindedness alone will lead someone to understand suicide/self-immolation.

"The actions of others" is a very broad generalization, and some actions of others are easy to understand, others are nearly impossible to understand. Open-mindedness is less important than objectivity.

Your original comment, however, was severely close minded.

No it wasn't. You're saying it is because you like to argue.

 

[IronWing]

When Vietnamese monks committed similar acts it helped catalyze the opposition to government rule. In the case of Tibet, where the Chinese are intent on obliterating Tibetan identity if not outright genocide, the same result is not likely. The Chinese will simply increase their oppression.

 

[xBiffx]

No it wasn't. You're saying it is because you like to argue.

Pot, meet kettle.

 

[zsdersw]

Pot, meet kettle.

Never claimed I didn't.

 

[monovillage]

Anyone got any marshmallows?

 

[Moonbeam]

I can never understand anything that I am not? What kind of ignorance it that?

It is the ignorance that comes from not understanding that we are all the same.

 

[Moonbeam]

When Vietnamese monks committed similar acts it helped catalyze the opposition to government rule. In the case of Tibet, where the Chinese are intent on obliterating Tibetan identity if not outright genocide, the same result is not likely. The Chinese will simply increase their oppression.

The Chinese are no different that the Vietnamese. There is one truth and it covers us all. That truth will manifest among all people everywhere, at all times, endlessly. It is our true identity. The enlightened Buddhist is just like the enlightened anybody else, a person who knows what being human really means. All the pain in the world is cause by the separation and the longing for this. The Chinese are trying to destroy what they truly are when they try to destroy Tibet. This is the same illness that infects all humanity, the manifestation of self hate.

 

[piasabird]

When you live without God any evil is possible. Hate lives and can not be killed. First they say abortion is legal and then they say partial birth abortion is OK, next there will be dumpsters to throw you unwanted children in. Where does it end?

 

[woolfe9998]

When you live without God any evil is possible. Hate lives and can not be killed. First they say abortion is legal and then they say partial birth abortion is OK, next there will be dumpsters to throw you unwanted children in. Where does it end?

So legal abortion has a connection to Tibetan monks immolating themselves?

Fascinating theory...

 

[Moonbeam]

When you live without God any evil is possible. Hate lives and can not be killed. First they say abortion is legal and then they say partial birth abortion is OK, next there will be dumpsters to throw you unwanted children in. Where does it end?

It ends with the fact that your joker thesis never begins with the huge majority of people. All that is required of a person to do the best he or she can is real self respect. We were all born the same and perfect except perhaps some born with a genetic defect regarding empathy.

 

[Moonbeam]

So legal abortion has a connection to Tibetan monks immolating themselves?

Fascinating theory...

We all suffer from self hate which is like an unconscious monster within, the source of werewolves and vampire fantasy, the fear of the monster of the id. For many, the fear of God keeps these folk on the straight and narrow and because of their terrible fear, in this case of the devil, their true feelings about themselves, they believe that without their God crutch they would succumb to that devil within and commit every manner of mayhem. They don't realize that God is just an externalization or the mirror that is the true self that lies even deeper within. They are believers but they have little true faith.

 

[Zorkorist]

Folks that would burn themselves, have lost all sight of what makes each of us human, and that is our selves.

They believe in some higher power, rather than believing in themselves.

Once people realize that they are, each of them, the higher power, then we can again begin to move forward, as a society.

-John