On June 11, 1963, he sat down in a Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) intersection and didn't move. But behind the famous photograph is a deeper Buddhist story about:
the monk whose final act shook the Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem regime and forced the world to look at Vietnam differently.
We had to kill Buddhists to rule by force!
It was the visible shape of a lifetime of Pure Land Buddhist practice, pressed all the way to the edge. This is the untold story behind the most powerful photograph of the 20th century and what Buddhism actually teaches about the mind that met that morning.
🔍 DISCOVER:
The real story behind Thich Quang Duc, the Burning Monk
How Buddhist persecution in South Vietnam led to the 1963 Buddhist crisis
How one photograph traveled from Saigon to Washington DC and changed global opinion...
and why U.S. President John F. Kennedy stopped mid-sentence when he saw it at breakfast
The heart relic that didn't burn...and what Vietnamese Buddhist tradition says it means
If this story moves viewers — subscribe. This channel exists to tell the stories Buddhism rarely gets credit for: historically grounded, honestly told [with a moving AI voice that only rarely mispronounces words], without the self-help packaging. New videos every week.
⚠️ CONTENT ADVISORY! This video discusses the dying [by suicide] of Thích Quảng Đức (June 11, 1963) as a historical and Buddhist educational subject. While no graphic footage is shown, the topic involves dying, political persecution, and religious violence. Viewer discretion is advised.
Primary Sources: — Thích Quảng Đức's final letter, June 10, 1963 (translated versions available via Vietnam Buddhist archives) — Malcolm Browne, Muddy Boots and Red Socks (1993) — firsthand account of June 11 1963 https://amzn.to/4980Unr — David Halberstam, The Making of a Quagmire (1965) — eyewitness testimony https://amzn.to/4cLJNKE Buddhist Texts: — The Dhammapada (especially Chapter 1 — the Yamaka Vagga) — Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra — foundational Pure Land text on Amitābha's vow — Larger and Smaller Pure Land Sutras — the practice of nianfo/nembutsu
HISTORICAL AND SCHOLARLY
— Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire (1967) — written in direct response to the Buddhist crisis https://amzn.to/4cWRegz — Edward Miller, Misalliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the Fate of South Vietnam (2013) https://amzn.to/4eEY2ST — Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie (1988) — broader Vietnam War context https://amzn.to/424gBs3 — Mark Moyar, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965 https://amzn.to/42EAx4T On the Relic: — Vietnamese Buddhist Federation records on the heart relic preservation and enshrinement (2025) Historical records on Xa Loi Pagoda, the Hue Vesak crisis, and Buddhist protests in South Vietnam Reporting and archival material on the Diem regime, Madame Nhu, and U.S. reactions to the Buddhist crisis Malcolm Browne’s Associated Press photographs and reporting from Saigon, 1963 This video references and discusses Malcolm Browne's 1963 Associated Press photographs, archival news footage, and other historical materials related to the events of June 11, 1963 in Saigon, South Vietnam.
All copyrighted materials are used solely for educational commentary and historical documentation under Fair Use (17 U.S.C. § 107). Buddha's Wisdom makes no claim of ownership over any third-party material featured or discussed.
How this was made: Altered or synthetic content. Sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated. Learn more
Mysterious monks around the Himalayas – practicing since the Ice Age?
The Buddha was an Indo-Scythian living close to the Himalayan range his whole life.
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Siddhartha failing at asceticism
(FactFile) Sept. 20, 2024: Just as every culture holds its religion dear and follows unique practices, monks and nuns dedicate their lives to a spiritual practice. These monastics are deeply committed to their Doctrine (dharma), their belief system or faith, immersing themselves in meditation and rituals.
The Buddha ("Awakened One") finds success
The Buddha avoided extremes of hedonism and self-mortification, teaching the Middle Way that avoids extremes. He did, however, teach 13 sane ascetic practices (dhutangas) for the overcoming of certain defilements, hindrances, and obstacles to practice to be able to breakthrough to calm and insight (samadhi and vipassana, where samadhi is shamatha and defined as the first four meditative absorptions and insight-practice takes these temporarily purified states and applies them to systematic practice of the satipatthanas or foundations of mindfulness to breakthrough to liberating wisdom, enlightenment, and release from samsara).
Their devotion is a profound expression of their beliefs and play a crucial role in preserving and passing on their spiritual traditions. Through their disciplined practice, they seek to connect with higher truths and guide others on their spiritual journeys.
Let's take a detailed look at some of the world's most mysterious and oldest-known monks. #factfile [This sensationalistic video was originally published under the very misleading clickbait title "Mysterious Monks Found in the Himalayas – And They’ve Been Living Since the Last Ice Age"]
Can Trump get any grosser - SMELLS worse, more orange! (w/Adam Kinzinger) | Bulwark Podcast Clip
(The Bulwark) April 9, 2024: Republicans Adam Kinzinger and Tim Miller discuss Trump's very foul odor. [Could it be his rotten denture breath the hot feces 💩 in his adult diaper and dripping down his pant leg?] What about his cowardice of whining, complaining, and constantly playing the victim like fellow narcissists Taylor Swift and Israel's leaders? Are these signs of weakness or the way to get to the top of popularity but with a backlash?
'Man lights himself on fire' outside Donald Trump's 'hush money payments' trial in NYC
Was it this man? His self-applied makeup has gone from mango to bronze to tar. Ooh, that smell!
.
(The Sun) Started streaming Friday to a British audience of gawkers. A man [being called a "conspiracy theorist" threw pamphlets into the air revealing shocking truths and then to punctuate their importance] has reportedly lit himself on fire near the courthouse where [ex-Pres. Trump's criminal trial is taking place, charging him with serious felonies that could lead to a sentence of four years in prison for each conviction]. The horrifying scene unfolded on Friday afternoon moments after jury selection wrapped up in Trump's hush money trial in downtown Manhattan. More: the-sun.com/news/11135909...#thesun #donaldtrump #usanews
\
The Great Bible Scam
$69 + tax/shipping for fake leather bound KJV Trump made in China Bible
Donald Trump and Melania: Couples Therapy Ep. 1 (FUN with AI)
(scaredketchup) Feb. 2024 and May 4, 2023: As many know, SK is 90% fan-funded and very grateful for all support. Paypal is the best way to drop him a lil' cheddar: paypal.me/scaredketchup... OR buy him a Covfefe: buymeacoffee.com/scaredke... Get Scared Ketchup Merch here: etsy.com/shop/ScaredKetch... Actors Ben Campbell and Whitney Rice as Trump and Melania. Their look was enhanced using AI technology not a deepfake video.
War is ugly, but Israel doesn't mind. It's a traumatized diaspora read to traumatize others.
MAN SETS HIMSELF ON FIRE NEAR WHITE HOUSE, EXTINGUISHED, ARRESTED
Do I love Gaza or hate being a US soldier?
A man (Aaron Bushnell, an active-duty military serviceman in the US Air Force, who no longer wanted to be complicit in Israel's genocide against Palestine, particularly the US-funded ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank by government-backed illegal Jewish settlers) protested Israel's war in Washington, D.C. Bushnell set himself on fire in a park near the White House and was only saved -- for the moment, as he died later -- by cops, who quickly held him at gunpoint ready to execute him with service revolver cause if he gave them cause, surrounded and extinguished him.
Look at this other American guy set himself on fire (and not blurred out by censors) tmz.com/watch/0-6x0dv368
One of the many reasons Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc was wrong to do this (ritual suicide), even if he was doing the good of calling attention to US war crimes in Vietnam in the summer of 1963 is that he, inadvertently, inspired others to think this was a way to get attention for good causes like protesting bad wars. Is it bad karma? Can one know his thought at the moment of ignition or death? Was there not hatred (aversion, dosa) present at that moment? If he died, his mind clear, no aversion, then it would not condition his rebirth negatively. And if he was enlightened before dying, there would be no rebirth at all. The minutiae of such matters is explained in detail in the Abhidharma ("Doctrine in Ultimate Terms" literature, an explanation of Buddhist psychology).
(Status Coup News) Jon Farina is on the ground at Pro-Palestine, Anti-Genocide demonstrations as they occur, keeping an eye on Zionist-Jewish Israeli genocide troops and the Americans complicit in their war crimes.
(Rising) Aaron Bushnell memorialized by #FREE PALESTINE left
Look at the face, completely calm by dispassion
It's a terrible thing to set yourself on fire to get Netanyahu and his War Cabinet to notice you.
Will it move Zionist Jews to compassion or tolerance for the neighbors they have been abusing, raping, murdering, maiming, displacing, arresting, detaining, lying about, and discriminating against as they dislocate and dispossess them of their land in a "settler colonial project."
We're exterminating them. It's a final solution.
But as bad as all those things are, made worse by U.S. complicity, military funding, and diplomatic cover, ritual suicide is not the answer. Though one makes this a hell on earth for oneself in sympathy with the human beings of Gaza, the West Bank, and all of Palestine (all the Zionist-occupied land), it won't send Bibi, Genocide Joe, or their Ashkenazi and fundamentalist Christian cheerleaders there any sooner. Self-immolation is never a solution.
How to unsafely set yourself on fire
Who's worse, Genocide Joe or lying Trump? Even RFK is pro-CIA money for genocide.
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Come into the present (Thich Nhat Hanh)
Become a Buddhist monastic.
Practice meditation after ordination.
Develop "trance" (jhana, absorption).
Take up insight practices to let go.
Directly perceive ultimate body-mind.
Attain enlightenment (awakening) and nirvana (slaking all craving) by knowing-and-seeing things as they really are thereby becoming disenchanted and dispassionate, a Buddhist "saint."
Form the intention to show everyone how detached you've become: "Look, everyone, look how not attached I am to this body! And, politicians, please stop your mass killings."
It's this last one that's the problem. Will unenlightened, undetached, unabsorbed "ordinary uninstructed worldlings" see you and follow suit, ending up in a terrible rebirth for (self) murder, dying full of revulsion for the Mossad, Israel, Netanyahu, Biden, Pentagon, Shin Bet, CIA, and hypocritical genocide-defenders and apologists in the mainstream media.
Light candles, not human bodies
Instead, be safe. Protest but bring lots of water. One need not ruin oneself to rage against the machine or call the world's attention to war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and internationally-recognized genocide. Why? The slightest criticism already earns one the hateful labels "blood libel" and "antisemite," "self-hating-J," "baby beheader." Hypocrites have many kneejerk responses, reinforced by endless repetition on the TV, at their disposal.
What was Rage Against the Machine on about by using this Buddhist monk on the CD cover?
They hit back. Now we must kill them all.
Once upon a time, long long ago, America was behaving badly in the fabled jungles of Buddhist Vietnam. It was killing, slaughtering innocents, bombing villagers, setting trees on fire with jellified gasoline (napalm), causing it to rain by controlling the weather, causing floods and devastation to farmland and villagers. America was trying new weapons, bombing as many ordinates as it could get rid of to profit by ordering more from contractors connected to the weapons trade.
The Jewish Bible says it's okay to kill to win war.
It dropped so many bombs that it ran out of targets, when glorious warlord National [War] Adviser and Sec'y of State Kissinger devised a way to get rid of more bombs: drop them all over neighboring countries not involved in the war, killing countless innocent civilians in war crimes unimaginable after the greatest war crime of all, dropping nuclear bombs on Buddhist Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) as demonstrations to the world:
"Hey, look everybody, we have the biggest bombs the world has ever seen since they were used on Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro (Indus Valley Civilization city-states of ancient pre-India or Great Bharat, as Oppenheimer well knew)! We'll gladly drop them on your civilian populations if you cross us! Go on, we dare you!"
Friends: Dr. Rev. MLK and Thich Nhat Hanh
Then, in their desperation to bring attention to America's crimes, Vietnmese Buddhist monks spoke up. But it wasn't enough, until one brave/senseless monk decided to do the unthinkable. It was the only way to get the world's attention: He set himself on fire, self-immolation, protected by exquisite mindful meditation to see all things as
impermanent, hurtling towards destruction,
unsatisfactory (unable to fulfill one or quench the flood of desires), and
impersonal (not "I" but an empty process of consciousness, carrying on from one existence to another.
Now a non-monastic, non-meditator (though perhaps one who prays to the great Allah until samadhi), and presumably a non-Buddhist Palestinian female in the USA has done the unthinkable: She has set herself on fire in Atlanta to bring attention to the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank under the tyranny of US-sponsored Israel and Netanyahu's murderous, genocidal rightwing government.
Zionist Jewish Israel has been doing settler colonialism and genocide for a long time, killing medics, journalists, children and anyone else standing in the way of Israel's total conquest of the Middle East to devour states all around it and become the new world leader, imposing capitalism and phony-democracy on everyone around.
Palestinian supporter sets self on fire outside Israeli consulate in Atlanta, USA
(LiveNOW from FOX)
Dec 1, 2023: A person in possession of a Palestinian flag set herself on fire outside the Israeli Consulate building in Atlanta, USA.
The protester was badly burned (partially immolated) then transported to a hospital in critical condition.
A guard attempted to intervene but was unsuccessful. The guard was burned on his leg and wrist. The guard's exact condition is now unknown.
Police said the incident was not a terrorist act but rather an "extreme act of political protest."
Subscribe to LiveNOW from FOX (youtube.com/livenowfox...) Where to watch LiveNOW from FOX: livenowfox.com. Follow @LiveNOWFOX on Twitter: twitter.com/livenowfox. Raw and unfiltered. Watch a non-stop stream of breaking news, live events, and stories across the nation. Limited commentary. No opinion. Warning: May cause insomnia or clinical anxiety if combined with caffeine. Experience LiveNOW from FOX.
Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet, the heart of Tibetan Buddhism, overtaken over by China.
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Dalai Lama's 80th birthday invites celebration and contemplation
To
hear the Dalai Lama laugh, his face lighting up in a beatific smile, it
is easy to forget the cascade of disasters endured by the Tibetan
Buddhist [Vajrayana] movement over the course of his life. VIDEO
Taking the Buddha's message to heart? No. Completely misunderstanding. Why torch and hasten the destruction of something that is already burning? Protesters in India call attention to occupied Tibet and Chinese abuses, March 2012 (Jampa Yeshi/GlobalPost.com).
There will be no protesting the U.S. war on Vietnam by Buddhist monastics! Pepper-spray torturerJohn Pike and the military-industrial complex agree (theburningplatform.com).
Wait! Everything's burning? (SuckerPunch)
Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Gaya, at
Gaya Head, together with a thousand monastics. There he addressed them.
"Meditators, all is burning! And what is the all that is burning?
"The eye is burning,
forms are burning,
eye-consciousness is burning,
eye-contact is burning, and
whatever is felt as pleasant, painful, or
neither-painful-nor-pleasant which arises with eye-contact as its
indispensable condition, that too is burning!
I say it is burning with [re]birth, aging, and death, with sorrows,
with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.
"The ear is burning, sounds are burning...
"The nose is burning, fragrances are burning...
"The tongue is burning, flavors are burning...
"The body is burning, tangibles are burning...
"The mind is burning, ideas are burning, mind-consciousness is
burning, mind-contact is burning, and whatever is felt as pleasant,
painful, or neither-painful-nor-pleasant which arises with mind-contact as its indispensable condition, that too is burning!
Burning with what?
Burning with the fire of lust,
with the fire of hate,
with the fire of
delusion!
I say it is burning with [re-]birth, aging, death, with sorrows,
with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.
The remains of Gaya Head today (W)
"Meditators, when a noble follower who has heard (the truth) sees thus,
that person finds estrangement in the eye, finds estrangement in [visible] forms, finds
estrangement in eye-consciousness, finds estrangement in eye-contact,
and whatever is felt as pleasant, painful, or neither-painful-nor-pleasant which arises with eye-contact as its indispensable
condition, in that too one finds estrangement.
"One finds estrangement in the ear... in sounds...
"One finds estrangement in the nose... in fragrances...
"One finds estrangement in the tongue... in flavors...
"One finds estrangement in the body... in tangibles...
"One finds estrangement in the mind, finds estrangement in [mind objects one might call] ideas,
finds estrangement in mind-consciousness, finds estrangement in
mind-contact, and whatever is felt as pleasant, painful, or
neither-painful-nor-pleasant which arises with mind-contact as its
indispensable condition, in that too one finds estrangement.
It was ALL wasting away incredibly fast.
"When one finds estrangement, passion fades away. With the fading away of
passion, one is liberated. When liberated, knowledge spontaneously arises that one is
liberated. For one understands: 'Birth is exhausted, the higher life has been
lived, what can be done has been done [is accomplished], of this there is no more beyond.'"
That is what the Blessed One said. The meditators were glad, and they approved his words. Now during [the Buddha's] utterance, the hearts of those thousand meditators were liberated from the taints through letting go and clinging no more (SN 35.28). More
Southern California is burning away and being reduced to smog and ashes(latimes.com).
The eye and five other sense bases: the six, beginning with the eye and ending with the mind, are called the six "Bases for Contact in oneself." They are are also known as the six "doors" of perception.
Their
corresponding objects are called "external bases." (Translating the term as "sense-organ" is
both too material and too objective because the emphasis here is on the
subjective faculty of seeing and so on. It is not the sensitive piece of flesh seen
in someone else or in the mirror which, in so far as it is
visible, is not [the act of] "seeing" but "form" as the "external" object of the
seeing "eye in oneself."
And insofar as it is tangible, it is the object of
the body-base in oneself. And insofar as it is apprehended as a "bodily
feature," it is the object of the mind-base in oneself. Here the eye should
be taken simply as the perspective-pointing-inward-to-a-center in the
otherwise uncoordinated visual field consisting of colors [and shadows], which makes
them cognizable by eye-consciousness, and which is easy to mis-conceive of as
"I." The six Bases in Oneself are comparable to an empty village, and the
six External Bases to village-raiding robbers.
FORMS and other external sense media: the first of the six External Bases, respective objective
fields or objects of the six Bases in Oneself. The Pali word rupa
[fine material] is used for the eye's object as for the first of the Five Aggregates (or Categories) of Clinging,
but here in the plural. Colors, the basis for the visual perspective of
the eye, are what is intended, primarily. More
Cyclone Pam
In Vanuatu, powerful Cyclone Pam (satellite image pictured) causes at least eight deaths, with dozens more reported but unconfirmed
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It's this last one that's the problem. Will unenlightened, undetached, unabsorbed "ordinary uninstructed worldlings" see you and follow suit, ending up in a terrible rebirth for (self) murder, dying full of revulsion for the Mossad, Israel, Netanyahu, Biden, Pentagon, Shin Bet, CIA, and hypocritical genocide-defenders and apologists in the mainstream media.
![Fight war [the state] not [its] wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_profiteering#/media/File:Fight_the_state,_not_wars.jpg){kind=link}
