Wynn Alan Bruce self immolated himself on April 22nd 2022 in front of the Supreme Court in Washington DC. It was earth day.
The place where he did it was because of recent court decisions: In West Virginia versus EPA, the court's decision on the case could limit or revoke the ability of the United States Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, and the conservative majority on the court has indicated that they may do so.
A Buddhist and a climate activist, he earned a living with a photography studio in Boulder Colorado.
The people who marginalize his message, call him mentally ill, or as Sujato writes, "It tells us only of the nihilistic despair into which he fell." (Source) have been jammed up in just the way his message is supposed jam people up. Those who don't concern themselves with the gravity of climate change will wander off to condemn his act and dishonor it.
There is a long history of self immolation in Buddhism, and a long history of people trying to downplay the messages that are sent through self immolation. The message of Wynn Bruce is simple. The government needs to stop getting in it's own way, and act more in it's own self interest.
Now right there the polarizers are going to counterclaim I'm polarizing the issue, which means we can't even have a discussion of climate change with their dada communication style.
There is obvious and accumulating evidence that humans are having an impact on climate change, and that the right, in their infinite wisdom of always opposing the liberal imagination, just denies. We can do some things to curb the worst effects. People who aren't climate scientists deny that. The amount of climate scientists who deny that is insignificantly miniscule. The ideological denial of common knowledge is what makes these times feel so gaslit. The right has resorted to psychological and informational warfare.
What will happen will happen and time will tell. Outside of political ideologies, which never seem to get it all right. That confirmation bias is a thing and people see what they want to see, we can go around in circles. One person’s modus ponens is another person’s modus tollens.
The polarization is a mental virus of the right in recent years, dastardly tactics, that history won't judge them well. We are entering an information age, we're just at the very beginning. Information is increasing and flowing more democratically, sometimes. That is not all good, people with proclivity to believe nonsense and malarkey are flipping the script and using intelligent sounding reposts for their conversation destroying nonsense. "Woke" and "virtue signaling" and other right wing buzz phrases are trying to be owned by the common sense people, but there's a real battle between what I consider to be the death instinct, and acting in our own best interest.
I wish Wynn Bruce was alive, just like I wish we had a more pro-life world in the sense that people didn't see having children as a catastrophe because it would cost money, ruin careers and educations. I wish we didn't have weapons of mass destruction. I wish there was no war. I wish children didn't die in the USA for the ease at which people can get guns and misuse them.
A utilitarian is pro-life, death is a bad result. But in the right's death cult, it's OK to be for the freedom to spread Covid instead of the freedom from Covid. To imagine guns are a right. They're flipping the script and accuse the left of being bad actors when that's all they do.
They seem to have a sparse parsimonious approach to the world, but it's filled with abstract ideas and contradictions. Let's take a hard cold look at what's going on, and act in our own best interest, and not the best interest of the conservative imagination that has panic attacks about certain things, but what is really going on.
The deSantos law to forbid gender discussion means elementary schools can't have gender names on the bathroom. Does that make sense? It's all ishkabibble. Their feeble minds only draw the conclusions they want it to. It's not reasoning, it's retroactive nonsense.
Reason is public discussion of action. A powerful dictator or autocrat doesn't want discourse, he's just gonna do what he's gonna do. Maybe he'll poop out a justification.
Use reason to create democratic public discourse, to act in our own best interest. That's all Wynn Bruce was trying to say, specifically about climate change.
The majority on the supreme court is unqualified ideologues that the right cheated to get onto the court. The court is a joke now. I'm not sure why more people aren't self immolating themselves, except the survival instinct is strong, and you might do more by being alive than a dramatic self immolation. It's a pretty blunt instrument. Wynn Bruce didn't even leave note as to why he was doing what he was doing. We can only guess from his Facebook posts that he was deeply upset about climate change, and his location tells us that he did not like the drift of the court decisions to neuter the government in climate change fighting.
The idea that self immolation is not Buddhist is kind of funny. The glorious Buddhist movie Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall...Spring! has a self immolation scene in it. The Buddhist monks who did it during the Vietnam War of American Aggression.
The amount of malarkey spouting from people is quite disturbing. It's not Buddhist? He was just mentally ill? People, use the principle of charity to assume the best line of reasoning. The supreme court just ruled that the EPA can't act to curb climate change. That's a disgusting result that needs to be overturned. Please think about it. Wynn Bruce did, and he is dramatizing our need to be just a little more aware, to act in our own best interest.
I know I'm converting this blank into my own message. I'm aware of that. Still doesn't diminish the message. And I think I'm following reason and Buddhism (and utilitarianism and ethics....).
Just like meditation isn't just Buddhist, self immolation isn't just Buddhism protest. (See below.)
"This guy was my friend. He meditated with our sangha. This act is not suicide. This is a deeply fearless act of compassion to bring attention to climate crisis. We are piecing together info but he had been planning it for at least one year. #wynnbruce I am so moved." (Twitter Profile, actual tweet)
"Bruce’s act of sitting down and setting himself on fire was reminiscent of the events of June 11, 1963, when Thich Quang Duc, a Vietnamese monk, seated cross-legged, burned himself to death at a busy Saigon intersection. He was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government led by Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunch Catholic." (Denver Post)
Also from Denver Post, quoting TTH, “To burn oneself by fire is to prove what one is saying is of the utmost importance. There is nothing more painful than burning oneself. To say something while experiencing this kind of pain is to say it with utmost courage, frankness, determination and sincerity.”
"The International Campaign for Tibet says 131 men and 28 women — monks, nuns and laypeople among them — have self-immolated since 2009 to protest against Beijing’s strict controls over the region and their religion."
What can we do? Margaret Klein Salamon suggest climate activism. She created Climate Emergency Fund. Here is another introduction.
There is also PAEAN from Thanissara.
Here is a list of climate change organizations.
Links:
Wikipedia: Self-immolation of Wynn Bruce.
NY Times Climate Activist Dies After Setting Himself on Fire at Supreme Court
The denial of Sujato of his act being Buddhist. (Discussion on Reddit)
Buddhist Journal of Ethics: Buddhism and Suicide: The Case of Channa by Damien Keown
One poor person is questioning Buddhism (Reddit)
Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center
14 year old girl self immolates in India over a reported threat to withdraw a rape allegation.
Alejandro Alvarez's tribute on Twitter
The middle period, chapter 10, has rapid fire stories in The Life of the Buddha. I can't help but think of that number Love Thy Neighbor from Prom, when you get to the monk who is abandoned, because he is of no use to his fellow monks when he's sick.
There is the ancient epistemology tract in the Kalama Sutta.
"It is hard to know a man by his appearance
Nor can you judge him at a passing glance."
That's the upshot from the section where a leper becomes a stream entrant.
There is the bit where the Buddha doesn't want his teachings put into the formal religious language of the times.
There is the bit about tuning the lute strings just right.
So many teachings.
I just downloaded the version of this book by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu & Khematto Bhikkhu.
I watched all 4 Ip Man movies, and while the history of martial arts and Buddhism is mixed, what I like is that Ip Man is humble and doesn't want any special favors, doesn't want to shame anyone, and is patient. He believes in virtue and justice.
There was a discussion about Pema Chodron on Reddit.
I've completed my novella Robot Monk. I'm looking for readers for feedback.
One way to combat the wellbeing and perhaps inflated sense of self after meditation is to play a chess game. I always think I'm going to crush in a chess game and raise my rating, but I never do after meditation. It puts me in my place.
I began by reading the following books: Awakening The Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das, After the Ecstacy, the Laundry by Jack Kornfield, and Everyday Zen and Nothing Special by Charlotte Joko Beck. That gave me a Mahayana, a Theravada and a Zen perspective. Then I read the Dhammapada.
After I started meditating, I read Sangharakshita, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ayya Khema, Jack Kornfield. Later I dug into the Middle Length Discourses, Long Discourses, Connected Discourses and the Numerical Discourses. Bodhicaryāvatāra is awesome. I read the Mahayana sutras and Ten Thousand Songs of Milarepa, Perfection of Wisdom texts. Lately I've been reading the Chinese hermit monks translated by Red Pine. The Eternal Legacy by Sangharakshita is an overview of Buddhist literature. If you're into Zen, I thought The Circle of The Way by O'Brian was interesting, helped me to realize some Zen writers I hadn't picked up yet. I love all the literature of Buddhism and it's quite a project to read it all.
I got this book in the mail, not sure who it was from. But I like this folk tale.
This is a great story. Just when you think something bad happened, it turns out to be lucky. It makes me think about how we often can't see the whole picture, and things that seem bad, might not be that bad.
My daughter likes this book.
Every country celebrates the Buddha‘a birthday on different days. Today Japan celebrates.
Tiantishan Caves look like an amazing placeQing Ming, a traditionally Chinese Buddhist holy day commemorates the dead by making offerings to those that have passed, are passing and will pass with tea and food (rice). There are also sweets left as well as peanuts (far left, back). This is also the day people will go to a cemetery and clean the tomb or tombstone of the departed. This is also practiced throughout Asia and in the West for Buddhist practitioners. While not strictly a 'Buddhist' practice in general, it is adopted as a very good mindfulness exercise of remembrance, compassion and respect. May all beings be happy, may they be free from worry, may they be free from affliction and violence, may they live happily. (Source)
There's an article about a sect of Buddhist monks in Thailand that is a grift. Reddit is going bonkers over it, so many people imagined Theravada was the holiest of the holies.
The Dhammakaya tradition: It's a yogavacara tradition founded by Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro. You can watch a 10 minute video about him.
There's a page of articles in the Bangkok Post about the current leader Phra Dhammajayo "Luang Por Dhammajayo's approach to Buddhism seeks to combine the ascetic and meditative life with modern personal ethics and social prosperity." I guess you can go too far blending in with modern times.
Such a wide variety of reactions from "that's not Buddhism" to "yea, that shit happens all the time."
This always brought up the question: Is it not Buddhism if it's worldly? Do the crimes people commit as Buddhists stick to their non-Buddhist parts? That goes along with the idea that Buddhist's can't engage in war. If you were in Ukraine would it be right to fight tyranny over democracy? Or should you retreat further into the woods to meditate?
The majority of Buddhism on the internet is a plea to buy a course of the teachings, and/or trying to establish a brand for a book or a course or a retreat, or all three. I don't really think you need to buy anything, but if you do, buy a hard copy of the word of the Buddha to carry with you, though more than likely you already have a smartphone with a free app that accesses the Pali Canon, for free.
Next maybe spend the minimum to go on retreat.
Of course transport to sangha night costs.
I get it that people try to make a profession out of something they love. Best wishes to you. I don't think you have to be chronically poor either. I have no problem supporting teachers for your sangha, not saying don't do that.
Buy whatever you want. Not trying to control you. Expressing my feeling of distaste for social media in Buddhism to be all about selling. Perhaps I'm wrong to look at social media for teachings, true. Need to get off social media.
Friday sundown to Saturday sundown is a media cleanse for me. I end up reading a lot more.
Bonus Link: Upali's Becoming a Monk (YouTube)
Reddit quote from u/huianxin
I studied a bit of East Asian and Buddhist art history in college as an undergrad.
The picture from OP is a copy of Ding Guanpeng's (丁観鵬) 1758 painting, Supreme Bliss World. Ding Guanpeng was one of the Qianlong Emperor's favorite court artists. As one of the Imperial academic artists, Ding Guanpeng was known for his landscape paintings, as well as paintings of Buddhist subjects.
This one specifically appears to be a copy of the original painting. Digging around some academic papers, I found a 2018 Masters thesis discussing this painting and its copies, and this specific one appears to be credited as
Anonymous, Weaving a Brocade Scroll of the Supreme Bliss World on an Azurite-colored Ground (Shiqing di jile shijie zhichengjin tuzhou 石青地极 乐世界织成锦圖軸). Song brocade tapestry. 448 x 196 cm. In the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing.
The Masters thesis is quite excellent and contains very detailed analysis of the work, so I won't say too much here. Here are some main points. Ding Guanpeng was commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor, who was a devotee of Tibetan Buddhism, to create a painting of the Western Paradise modeled after Guanxiu 貫休 (832-912)’s painting. Guanxiu's painting of the Western Paradise unfortunately does not exist today. As others have identified, the central figure is Amitābha, the figure to the left is Avalokiteśvara, and the figure to the right is Mahāsthāmaprāpta. On the flanks of Amitābha are two groups of five arhats, below them, two groups of eleven arhats. Between Amitābha and Avalokiteśvara and Amitābha and Mahāsthāmaprāpta are groups of several bodhisattvas. Behind Avalokiteśvara is a group of eighteen individuals that appear as officials, one appears taller than the others, likely the male patron of the piece. Behind Mahāsthāmaprāpta is a similar group, with a central female patron. At the bottom in the lotus pond are figures standing on lotus flowers, likely devout practioners reaching the Pure Land.
This painting was copied a couple times and reflected the Qianlong Emperor's interest and devotion to the Western Pure Land. The painting by Ding Guanpeng used historical pieces as reference, but added unique elements for its imperial and Manchu patrons.
Reference: Shiyu Zheng, Emperor Qianlong’s Pictorial and Physical Sites for Western Paradises, University of Washington 2018 (may be downloaded for free)
This is part 2 of another essay I wrote.
Not In My BackYard is the idea where you don't want things in your neighborhood because you want it pristine and pure. No group homes for disabled people. No foster homes for troubled youths. No sober houses. No sex offenders.
Those people should go elsewhere. I deserve a pristine untroubled place. It's a natural instinct to protect you home, and by extension neighborhood, and to keep things the way they are.
They want to build an 8 story building near me. It's been approved for 2 floors, which they've already built. There's a town hall meeting to discuss. This is the second one. I can't make it, so it's a moot point whether I go.
My daughter had the ethical clarity to say, "why not, people need places to live." She doesn't think about crowding, parking issues, crowding at the park. She can't anticipate problems. Mo people mo problems.
My nature loving relatives built houses where there were none, and decreased the amount of wild land. I think living in the city is the best thing, after going vegan and not flying a lot, for the environment. But living in the city you are alienated to some extent from more wild settings in nature. Those are important too.
Gated communities are the fantasy of NIMBY. Controlling who can even walk down the street.
As the climate changes, if income inequality increases, these problems are just going to be exacerbated.
In a way going to a monastery is about choosing conditions for your spiritual growth. It's not at the expense of others, hopefully. They seem so infrequent and benign. They were repositories of learning and culture in a crazy wild world. One of my favorite movies is The Secret of Kells.
Yesterday was Kwan Yin's birthday. She who hears the cries of the world. Needless to say Nimby isn't a kind stance, but to an extent an understandable one and not bad in certain circumstances like a monastery.
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