
The Japanese Art of Self-Mummification - journeeman
http://www.damninteresting.com/sokushinbutsu-the-ancient-buddhist-mummies-of-japan/
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eva1984
Such practice is quite common within east asia. It is called 'sokushinbutsu'
in Japanese, kanji of which translated into 即身仏, which means 肉身佛 in Chinese,
literally 'flesh body buddha'. From wikipedia, monk Hui Neng, dating back to
638 A.D. tang dynasty, seems to be believed the first of such example.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huineng](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huineng)

I cannot say I understand how this is explained from Buddhism within, because
I am not practitioner. But if such thing happens, it is usually viewed as some
kind of wonder/miracle by the locals, and also means the monk has ascended to
be Buddha.

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seren
Previous discussion :

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10650278](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10650278)

(With a less catchy title)

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acqq
And Wikipedia

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_mummies](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_mummies)

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javajosh
How could someone who is fully enlightened, full of joy and love for all
living beings, and totally at peace with oneself choose to indulge in such a
practice?

This was less about enlightenment and more about pride and ritual, two
powerful forces in all human cultures but, arguably, a greater force in
medieval Japan than anywhere else, before or since.

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acqq
Fear, like in all religions. In abrahamic religions people take the "Hell"
story seriously. It's to be avoided as nobody wants the eternal torture. Now
the eternal torture in the religions which believe in cyclical births and
deaths is simply this thing of permanent new births and deaths! Therefore, as
long as the body doesn't decay, the cycle doesn't repeat and that's the
achievement.

~~~
ue_
>Therefore, as long as the body doesn't decay, the cycle doesn't repeat and
that's the achievement.

As far as I know, this is false. The cycle stops repeating when one has
reached enlightenment; to my knowledge, what happens after that point is
irrelevant - one can't go back from enlightenment, and certainly not due to
the body decaying (which is a major topic of Buddhist meditation anyway).

Is there any Pali canon source (I'm only interested in Theravada) that backs
up the concept of no decay = no rebirth?

This idea, known in the text as annihilationism, was rejected by the Buddha as
far as I know.

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acqq
Nirvana is "the liberation from the cycle of birth and death." The cycle is
the main cause of suffering. Observing it this way, the first Budda (being
born in Hindu environment) who recognized that the enlightment "frees from the
cycle" that is, not beleiving in religious stories achieves the freedom. The
follovers made the religion from that too.

~~~
ue_
>that is, not beleiving in religious stories achieves the freedom

The way to achieve enlightenment is via the Noble Eightfold Path. This does
not require non-belief. At some point, one eradicates doubt about the
teachings because one has realised the truth for oneself through insight
meditation.

Enlightenment is nothing as benign as removing faith - it's the removing of
the need for faith via direct experience.

Besides, the teachings cover a far wider range of ideas than rebirth. Not only
that, but the Buddha is written to have said that an enlightened person can
recollect his or her previous births.

~~~
acqq
I don't write about teachings of the religion made later. I just consider the
context of Budda trying to save himself from Hinduism in which he grew up. He
had a simple solution: deciding not to worry about Hindu beliefs of eternal
torture through eternal rebirths and lives and deaths, thus achieving his own
personal Nirvana.

~~~
gerbilly
His solution, if you believe it was one, was far from simple though.

It wasn't just a momentary decision to ignore Hinduism that let to his
enlightenment, but a deliberate practice of self examination.

Buddhism is actually a kind of psychology, a study of the mind, and the
historical Buddha studied his mind methodically for years using introspective
techniques (meditation) that he adapted from Hinduism.

But it's also more than that. Just like you can't learn a difficult skill like
hitting a baseball by looking at pictures of others doing it, or by thinking
about it or by being told how it feels to do so, you can't realize
enlightenment without striving for it.

So buddhism is a set of teachings about the nature of your mind, combined with
practices to help you fully realize (come to know) the truth of these
teachings in your own mind and body.

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tezza
If you find this sort of quirky ( by Western European standards ) behaviour
interesting, then I highly recommend The Naked Eye and Known Unknowns by
Charles Saatchi.

The self mummification is one of his short essays.

[http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Naked-Eye-Charles-
Saatchi/dp/186...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Naked-Eye-Charles-
Saatchi/dp/1861543409)

[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Known-Unknowns-Charles-
Saatchi/dp/18...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Known-Unknowns-Charles-
Saatchi/dp/1861543603)

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fsloth
With all respect - this feels to me like the most extreme kind of extreme
sport. Absolutely pointless, absolutely deadly - and totally awe inspiring.

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ekianjo
> These monks also believed deeply in self-sacrifice in service to others.
> This manifested in a lot of the usual community service: feeding the poor,
> caring for the elderly, treating the sick.

Boy, did that change. Now monks in Japan are all about extorting money from
people for any kind of service, and ride in ridiculously expensive cars.
Buddha would be proud.

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xfinitywifi
How did the monks of Kiev Lavra end up mummified?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiev_Pechersk_Lavra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiev_Pechersk_Lavra)

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fredley
In the 80's and 90's you would pay a lot of money for a cassette deck that
would minimise hiss. Here we are in 2015 adding it in artificially.

~~~
adrianN
That's supposed to be the sound of insects, cicadas, I think.

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greggman
Yes, especially in Japan they put that sound in pretty much any audio to
indicate summer because that's what summer sounds like in Japan. Some of the
cicadas are louder than ambulances

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE-
_kNWJXNw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE-_kNWJXNw)

