Those crazy Buddhists

by **Haggis_McMutton** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:39 pm

I have just accidentally stumbled upon the intriguing ritual of Sokushinbutsu. (if it was common knowledge, excuse my ignorance)

Seems rather, erm, extreme.
Quite interesting how they managed to survive that long though, 6 years on seeds and bark + that lovely tea, how is that even possible?

And i though seppuku was pretty bad.

by **brooksieb** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:45 pm

Haggis_McMutton wrote:I have just accidentally stumbled upon the intriguing ritual of Sokushinbutsu. (if it was common knowledge, excuse my ignorance)

Seems rather, erm, extreme.
Quite interesting how they managed to survive that long though, 6 years on seeds and bark + that lovely tea, how is that even possible?

And i though seppuku was pretty bad.

ok.... Extremism anyone?

by **DaGip** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:56 pm

Fucking Government! These people should be allowed to practice their religion! That's why America needs to take over the whole figgin' world!

by **packrat31306** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:31 pm

ummmm.....yea sure!.....er something......

by **nukie** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:43 pm

Yeah.. okay, thats like a really obscure branch of Buddhism that no one actually knows. I assure you that the mainstream Buddhism which 95% of Buddhist are have a little more sanity than that.

Theyre probably doing that because in the stories, Buddha did that for 49 days and then he got 'his powers'... but beleive what you want...

by **MeDeFe** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:52 pm

I saw a program about that a while ago, was pretty interesting.

by **Haggis_McMutton** on Thu Aug 14, 2008 1:41 am

nukie wrote:Yeah.. okay, thats like a really obscure branch of Buddhism that no one actually knows. I assure you that the mainstream Buddhism which 95% of Buddhist are have a little more sanity than that.

Theyre probably doing that because in the stories, Buddha did that for 49 days and then he got 'his powers'... but beleive what you want...

I didn`t mean that all buddhists are crazy, the title was mainly a joke. And yeah, i know it`s basically a sect that does that. Besides, since most of the ones that do it are supposedly quite old, and it`s not like they`re hurting anyone except themselves, I`m not sure I`d even be against it.

Still i find it odd that they actually manage to survive the process for that long.

by **mandalorian2298** on Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:12 am

nukie wrote:Yeah.. okay, thats like a really obscure branch of Buddhism that no one actually knows. I assure you that the mainstream Buddhism which 95% of Buddhist are have a little more sanity than that.

Theyre probably doing that because in the stories, Buddha did that for 49 days and then he got 'his powers'... but beleive what you want...

It's not about 'powers', anime-lover. This is not Goku trying to become powerful enough to fight the next big villain. These are people who dedicated their life to transcending their limitations through will and discipline. As for those Buddhists who define themselves as 'mainstream' Buddhists, I neither know nor care what they are trying to transcend (I'm guessing that transcending being a big, fat poser would be an appropriate start for most of them. :roll:

).

I really don't get why this ritual is outlawed, it's not like everyone would be doing it and the law is the only thing standing in their way. The person who decides to die this way does no harm to others and should be allowed to die as he/she wants.

by **Skittles!** on Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:53 am

It's not powers.. it's just enlightenment from samsara and such.

As for that thing, it's stupid how the site is explaining it. Sure, they may find it extremely stupid, but it's something called respect for what others believe in.

by **jonesthecurl** on Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:01 am

I was gonna come up with some sort of mummy pun, but in the face of that I feel it would be trivial.
The article gives no idea why one would want to do this - I mean if yer dead, what does it matter if your body hangs around looking like that?
Presumably this helps you exit from the "wheel", so you don't come back again. Aren't you beyond caring what your dead body looks like?

by **Haggis_McMutton** on Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:41 am

I`m going to answer that with a quote from another article(i`ve been researching this thing, it`s just too odd)

So truly devote Buddhist priests are not afraid of death; but they don't normally seek it either, as this too would be an abnormal obsession with the physical world. The priests that chose to practice self-mummification were usually all older men, who knew they had limited time left to their lives anyway... and since the practice takes years to lead to a successful death and mummification, it cannot be characterized as an attempt to reach enlightenment quickly as a normal suicide might be. Rather, the intended purpose of this practice for these priests is to both push their ability to disregard their physical selves to the limit of their ability, and to try and leave an artifact of this struggle that will stand as a symbol of their beliefs to those that are priests after them.

Apparently if the mummification was successful (which was very rare), the respective monk would be considered a Buddha and his body would be placed in a temple for viewing and such.

by **GabonX** on Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:54 am

I couldn't tell you how man times I've met "Buddhists" who seem to know nothing about Buddhism. It's pretty common for hippies to take to it because it's trendy but contrary to popular belief it is not a religion where "you're allowed to smoke pot and do drugs dude!" If anything Christianity is more open to drug use than Buddhism.