Buddhism: in the news (3)

I’m running late – after a weekend hiking trip for my ecology class and yet more (never ending) preparation for the Buddhism course I am teaching I find myself a bit tuckered out.

This week I again caught site of the Dalai Lama gracing the front of the Buddhism section of my news-stream. He was in Buffalo, New York last weekend to talk primarily with lawyers about how Buddhism can influence the legal system (click here for the official website for the visit with photos and video).

Relating back to prior stories about the emergence of American Buddhism, this story about the Dalai Lama’s visit describes one woman who came to see His Holiness:

Trudy Stern, of Buffalo, “took refuge” in Buddhism, a formal acknowledgment of her commitment to Buddhist practice, about a decade ago.

She hasn’t abandoned her Jewish roots, though, and sometimes refers to herself as a “Bu-Jew.”

“There are lots of us,” she said. “I really don’t practice Judaism. But I’ll never not be Jewish.”

It raises the issue of identity amongst contemporary American Buddhists. Everyone who has converted into Buddhism necessarily converted from some tradition or religion (some were raised strictly secular I suppose). What do we keep from those past traditions (which can include secular values such as equality and democracy)? What do give up?

There was also the story of actor Jet Li (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) who is hoping that his new film, Fearless, will help reduce China’s suicide rate (photos from Jet Li’s trip to Tibet).

As an aside, I began the introduction to Buddhist Ethics today in my course and was very quickly asked about just this thing… I’ll post more on this as I find out more, but my initial response was that Buddhism (early Buddhism at least) clearly argued against suicide as an action which must have emanated from a disturbed mind, and that disturbed mind would cause a rebirth in a likewise disturbed place – hence suicide is not an escape from anything.

The question then arose, “what about the monks who burned themselves in protest in Vietnam?” My answer to that was a bit fuzzy, but I did find this letter from Thich Nhat Hanh after class (he argues that these were not ‘suicides’ nor where they ‘protests’…). I also found and read part of the lengthy academic essay by Damien Keown, “Buddhism and Suicide: the Case of Channa” which looks most closely at a case in the Pali Canon (early texts) where the Buddha seems to condone suicide (Keown argues that Buddhism exonerates/states the blamelessness of this case, but does not condone/approve of it).

I’m reminded also of a favorite movie of mine: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring. In it we see a monk self-immolate. And I have yet to discover a good argument or reasoning for why this is accepted in East Asian Buddhism. I am vaguely familiar with stories in some Mahayana Sutras that endorse burning oneself out of devotion and selflessness… and Thich Nhat Hanh’s words above give something of an explanation, but nothing I think that would convince a typical American – or even many other Buddhists (Tibetan and Theravada).

Can this practice of burning oneself (either in the minor sense at ordination or the major sense leading to death) continue in the current world? How are we as American Buddhists to treat it? – as expressions of enlightenment? As a dated practice? As a cultural expression and not necessarily ‘Buddhist’???? Speaking of which, here is the introduction to a book on Critical Buddhism which has some strongly anti-Zen essays, Pruning the Bodhi Tree.

Well, this has veered off from a news posting and into other issues… But suffice to say that the Dalai Lama is continuing to earn his title of ascetic superstar and Jet Li is hopefully on his way to equal rank as a great peace-making martial artist. As for my own musings, well let’s hope I get back to them with more clarity in the very near future. 🙂