Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume One A -L Robert E. Buswell

B ODY, PERSPECTIVES ON THE
body has immense value, more precious than a wishfulfilling
jewel. Hence the Buddha is reported to have
affirmed in the Sam yuttanikaya (Connected Discourses;
1.62) that the body, with its attendant psychic
processes, is the locus of salvation, the path to a transcendent,
deathless condition.
Subtle bodies, salvific bodies
Thus the body may present the face of a friend or a
foe, depending on what goals one wishes to achieve in
life and how well one invests the body’s resources in
achieving those goals. Monastic training, like a regimen
of physical training, develops capacities unknown
to those without self-discipline. If one dedicates oneself
to the disciplined cultivation of Buddhist virtues
(i.e., salutary physical, moral, and cognitive states),
those virtues will be instantiated in the form and appearance
of one’s body. Buddhist texts promote the
goal of bodily transformation, promising sweetsmelling,
beautiful, and healthy bodies to those who
cultivate virtue, even while teaching that in their natural
condition all bodies are smelly, impermanent
havens of disease and death. Given this emphasis on
bodily transformation through the cultivation of
virtue, it should come as no surprise that Buddhists
advocate contact with and contemplation of the bodies
of buddhas and saints such as ARHATs and BOD-
HISATTVAs. Contact with such beings is salutary not
just because such beings are virtuous and helpful, but
because their discipline has transformed them to the
point where their bodies exude medicinal effects. Like
walking apothecaries, Buddhist saints are said to heal
disease upon contact with the afflicted just as their
words heal the disease (duhkha) that according to Buddhists
afflicts all unawakened beings.
Accounts of the salutary effects of seeing buddhas,
arhats, and bodhisattvas—or even formulating the aspiration
to have such experiences—are commonplace
in many genres of Buddhist literature. Seeing their radiant
skin, bright eyes, and decorous deportment engenders
serenity and joy; the sight is said to be at once
tranquilizing and stimulating. This Buddhist emphasis
on the benefits of seeing the body of the Buddha or
other religious virtuosi can in part be explained by the
South Asian milieu in which Buddhism arose. Many
South Asian religious traditions promote the practice
of participatory seeing (darśana) whereby the observer
participates in the sacrality of the observed by visual
contact. If one cannot gaze upon the bodies of Buddhist
saints, one can nevertheless recollect the features
of the body of the Buddha. The contemplative practice
of recollecting the extraordinary features of the
body of the Buddha, with its thirty-two major and
eighty minor distinguishing marks, is common to all
Buddhist traditions. The Buddha is also embodied in
his teachings (dharma). While some Buddhists insist
that this body of teaching is the only proper object of
reverence and that adoration of the physical form is
misguided, Kevin Trainor notes that textual passages
warning against attachment to the Buddha’s physical
form are outnumbered by passages advocating such
devotion.
The gift of the body
In accordance with the principle that the body has no
intrinsic value, but gains value through the manner in
which it is used, Buddhists extol the practice of offering
one’s body to others out of compassion. Tales of
the former lives of the Buddha narrate many occasions
in which the Buddha-to-be offered his flesh to starving
animals at the expense of his life. Whereas THER-
AVA DA Buddhists regard such altruistic practices as
praiseworthy but not necessarily to be imitated, MA-
HA YA NA Buddhists regard self-sacrifice as an essential
component of the Buddhist path.
In addition to offering their bodies as food for starving
beings, followers of the bodhisattva path also gain
merit by burning the body as an act of religious devotion.
The locus classicus for the practice of SELF-
IMMOLATION is an incident narrated in the LOTUS
SU TRA (SADDHARMAPUN D ARIKA-SU TRA). In a previous
life, the bodhisattva Bhaisajyaraja ingested copious
amounts of flammable substances and then set fire to
his body as an offering to the buddhas. The burning
of the entire body or parts of the body, such as an arm
or a finger, is highly celebrated in Chinese Buddhist
texts composed from the fifth through the tenth centuries.
The practice continues today in symbolic form
in Chinese Buddhist monastic ordinations: The ordinand’s
eagerness to make such an offering is signaled
by the burning of several places on the head with cones
of incense. In preparing the body for immolation, Chinese
Buddhists reportedly followed special grain-free
diets that drew on Daoist traditions associated with the
pursuit of immortality. James Benn has demonstrated
that these grain-free diets were also used by Buddhist
adepts in preparation for self-mummification,
whereby the deceased adept’s body would serve an
iconic function as an object of worship.
Self-immolation has also been developed in interesting
ways in Southeast Asia. During the Vietnam War,
Vietnamese monks and nuns used self-immolation as
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