Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780824829926)

Burning for the Buddha is the first book-length study of the theory and practice of "abandoning the body"(self-immolation) in Chinese Buddhism. It examines the hagiographical accounts of all those who made offerings of their own bodies and places them in historical, social, cultural, and doctrinal context. Rather than privilege the doctrinal and exegetical interpretations of the tradition, which assume the central importance of the mind and its cultivation, James Benn focuses on the ways in which the heroic ideals of the bodhisattva present in scriptural materials such as the Lotus Sutra played out in the realm of religious practice on the ground.

Author: James A. Benn
ISBN-10: 0824829921
ISBN-13: 9780824829926
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Language: English
Published: 02/28/2007
Pages: 376
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.63lbs
Size: 9.15h x 6.08w x 1.16d

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 05/01/2007 pg. 20