scriptural study is found among certain (though by no
means all) branches of the CHAN SCHOOL, wherein the
study of scripture (especially for the beginning practi-
tioner) is seen as having the potential to mire the mind
in language and in the dichotomies of thought. In these
traditions, then, scriptural study is eschewed in favor
of meditation, or else permitted only after the adept has
a strong foundation in meditative practice. Interest-
ingly, this inverts scholastic Buddhism’s classical order
of praxis by advocating a movement from experience
to words.
See also: Agama/Nikaya; Apocrypha; Canon; Cata-
logues of Scriptures; Commentarial Literature; Merit
and Merit-Making; Printing Technologies; Relics and
Relics Cults
Bibliography
Bond, George D. “Two Theravada Traditions of the Meaning
of ‘The Word of the Buddha.’” Mahabodhi83 (1975):
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Buswell, Robert E., Jr., ed. Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha.Hon-
olulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.
Cabezón, José Ignacio. Buddhism and Language: A Study of Indo-
Tibetan Scholasticism.Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1994.
Coward, Harold. “Scripture in Buddhism.” In Sacred Word and
Sacred Text: Scripture in World Religions.New York: Mary-
knoll, 1988.
Eimer, Helmut, and Germano, David, eds. The Many Canons of
Tibetan Buddhism.Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2002.
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Doniger O’Flaherty. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Religious Stud-
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Scripture? A Comparative Approach.Minneapolis: Fortress,
1993.
JOSE ́IGNACIOCABEZO ́NSELF. SeeAnatman/Atman (No-Self/Self)
SELF-IMMOLATIONSelf-immolation refers to ASCETIC PRACTICESthat in-
clude the voluntary termination of life or the offering
of parts of the body. The most commonly encoun-
tered types of self-immolation in Buddhism are auto-
cremation (the deliberate incineration of one’s own
body) and the burning off of fingers. Buddhist litera-
ture refers to such practices by a variety of terms that
may best be rendered as “abandoning the body.” In the
popular imagination, the best-known examples of self-
immolation are the Vietnamese monks who burned
themselves to death between 1963 and 1975 to protest
the anti-Buddhist policies pursued by the government
of South Vietnam. The autocremation of Thích Quang
Du’c on June 11, 1963, was captured by the American
reporter Malcolm Browne in a series of photographs
that have been frequently reproduced. Autocremation
by Vietnamese Buddhists continues to be reported in
the 1990s and early years of the twenty-first century.
Self-immolation is best attested in Chinese Buddhist
sources, which record hundreds of cases dating from
the late fourth to the mid-twentieth century. Very few
of these acts can be understood as political protest. The
offering of fingers is still recognized and carried out as
an ascetic practice by monks in China and Korea.
Chinese Buddhist sources contain many accounts
of monks, nuns, and laypeople who encouraged insects
to feed on their blood, cut their own flesh (particularly
the thigh), burned incense on their skin, or burned
their fingers, toes, or arms. These practices did not al-
ways result in death, but they were still classified as
heroic examples of “abandoning the body.” There are
also accounts of people who starved themselves to
death, disemboweled themselves, drowned in rivers or
oceans, leapt from cliffs or trees, or fed themselves to
wild animals. Although drowning seems to have been
more common in Japan, autocremation was the most
commonly attested form of self-immolation in China.
The preparations for autocremation usually involved
the construction of a funeral pyre, inside which the
monk or nun would sit. The body was often wrapped
in oil-soaked cloth to expedite the burning process,
and frequently the autocremator would also consume
oil and incense for several days or even months be-
forehand. Autocremation was usually a public event
witnessed by a large audience. In the early medieval
period (fifth to seventh centuries C.E.) Chinese em-
perors and senior officials often attended and later eu-
logized these dramatic acts.SELF