World: THE FAITH THAT LIGHTS THE FIRES

THE readiness of South Viet Nam's Buddhist monks and nuns to burn themselves to death as a means of protest against the government both moves and repels the West. On the surface, it seems an odd phenomenon in a religion generally regarded as passive, gentle and full of reverence for life. The paradox is caused by the fact that Buddhism, though detached and otherworldly, can at times convulse itself into action, and that its view of life as transitional can lead to an almost indifferent embrace of death. Self-immolation is not merely a sit-in carried to Oriental extremes. Although it has not occurred often—and apparently never before in Viet Nam—the practice is deeply linked to the basic nature of Buddhism, the world's fourth largest religion.

Nirvana & Dharma. Buddhism consists of three spiritual components, two traditions, and a multiplicity of sects. The first of the three components, common to all Buddhists, is the legendary life of a handsome Indian prince named Gautama, who, about 600 years before Christ, abandoned his luxurious existence after seeing four facts of life for the first time: a sick man, an old man, a dead man and a holy man. He fled to the forest to seek enlightenment, tried and abandoned the ways of the hermit and the ascetic, and, after meditating under a sacred Bodhi tree for 49 days, at last achieved Buddhahood—enlightenment, or nirvana. He spent the rest of his life walking through India with his disciples, teaching until he died at 80, leaving a final admonition: "Work out your salvation with diligence."

Gautama's teaching, the second chief component of Buddhism, is summed up in the Four Noble Truths: 1) man suffers all his life, and goes on suffering from one life to the next; 2) the origin of man's suffering is craving—for pleasure, for possessions, for cessation, of pain; 3) the cure for craving is the practice of nonattachment to everything—even to the self; 4) the way to nonattachment is the Eightfold Path—right views, right intentions, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right meditation. The Buddha said nothing about God; no divine judgment, but an inexorable law of cause and effect called dharma determines man's weal or woe.

Third essential component of Buddhism is the vast body of monks and nuns called the sangha. In addition to celibacy and vegetarian nonviolence, monks practice poverty; traditionally the only possessions permitted are robes, a begging bowl for food, a needle, prayer beads, a razor (to shave the head once a fortnight), and a filter to remove bugs from the drinking water so as not to kill them.