Tuesday, December 28, 2021,
The image shown in today's post is a famous photograph where, in June of 1963, a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, named Thich Quang Dur, self-immolated, burning himself to death as a protest for religious freedom in his country.
It's a frightening image and it's a frightening thought, but this now famous photograph commands respect for the monk who did this as a form of protest, and makes one reflect on one's own life (and how feeble one's faith, resolve, and conviction is compared to this holy man's faith, resolve, and conviction). What would he have been thinking knowing he was going to do this....."what happens to my body is irrelevant"....."what happens to me is meaningless"....."my death will force change".....and it did. A shrine to this monk was erected on the streets of Saigon on the very location where he self-immolated.
Accounts of the event describe the crowd, shocked as they were, as being mostly quiet. Some began crying and wailing as they watched this man end his life, but, according to witnesses, many began praying. Police, who were present to maintain order, and keep the crowds from becoming unruly, apparently threw themselves on the ground, bowing to this man as he burned.
Your body is your body is your body.....it's made of bones, and meat, and blood, and muscle. It will always be imperfect and ugly, and it will decay and die and return to dust...bones and all. Your spirit is encased within your body. It is made of fire, and it is perfect and divine. If left un-nurtured and un-exercised/un-fit, your spirit can shrink and become covered and forgotten.
When I look at this photograph I'm reminded of the importance of detaching from the world. The world will fall away and be destroyed eventually; the world is finite. Your spirt is the only part of you that is infinite.
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