"A career in self-sacrifice : the Medicine King's self-immolation in the Sanskrit Lotus Sūtra"

Modern self-immolation as political protest finds its roots in religious textual precedence in the ancient Buddhist Sanskrit Lotus Sūtra, a Mahāyāna scripture composed in central Asia some time between the first century B.C.E. and the third century C.E. Although ancient Indian sects rejected this marginal teaching, the Lotus Sūtra found fertile ground across eastern lands and seas. I argue that the Sanskrit Lotus Sūtra reveals important insights into the spiritual power and efficacy of self-immolation found throughout the multi-lifetime career of the bodhisattva and bhāṇaka Medicine King Bhaiṣajyarāja, self-immolator par excellence. As an intermediary to the Buddha and an expounder of his dharma, I examine how this bodhisattva’s individual self-sacrifice embodies exemplary worship, and thus access to the Buddha’s power through the perfections of giving, teaching, and service. His six chapters throughout the Lotus Sūtra may indicate an authorial commitment to the bodhisattva ideal during an early stage of the Mahāyāna tradition’s doctrinal and practical development. Using the editions of Kern and Nanjio with Watanabe, I examine Sanskrit passages based on the Lotus Sūtra’ main manuscript recensions from Kashgar, Nepal, and Gilgit. I employ textual analysis to investigate the message and messaging of self-sacrifice through self-immolation and self-mutilation.