Thich Quang Duc

I've been thinking about this subject for a while!  It's sub-human.  It's honerable and horrible at the same time.  What Thich Quang Duc did is so incredible I don't think I can explain it.

So he kneeled and meditated quietly while a fellow monk emptied 5 gallons of gas over him.  He was meditating on a busy intersection in Vietnam and sat perfectly still.   The cold gasoline made it's way down his head to the ground he knelt on.  The cold would soon be turned into extreme heat and torture.  He sat still and prayed until the flames took him.  He didn't move.  He sat there until he burned to death without saying a word.

He burned himself to death in the hopes that a message would be understood by his government.
Think about that for a minute.  This guy sat in harmony during the most horrible torture possible.  He volunteered for the torture.  He martyred himself because of an idea.

The power of the human mind and spirit is unmeasurable.  We're are taught the opposite.  Have mind pain?  take tylenol to get rid of it.  Need a cavity filled?   We'll have to numb the whole jaw.  Imagine not being able to breathe because the smoke from your burning flesh is fogging the air.  That's pain.

I'm don't think we're getting weaker.  I just think that maybe we're taught that pain is bad.  Pain is something we should never encounter.  If it hurts there's something wrong.  Maybe it hurts because it should hurt.  Maybe we should embrace the pain in order to accept it.