The Buddhist Outlook on life Seminar, sponsored by the Buddhist Association of China is held in Chengdu, capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province.[Photo/China Tibet Online]

On Jan. 16, 2013, the Buddhist Outlook on Life Seminar, sponsored by the Buddhist Association of China was held in Chengdu, capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Themed on "Cherishing life with benevolence and kindness, about 40 learned Buddhists from the three sects of Buddhism including the Han Buddhism，the Tibetan Buddhism and the Southern Buddhism as well as Buddhist experts and scholars participated in the discussions.

The Buddhist experts at present pointed out that "mercy" and "no killing" were the core values of the Buddhist outlook on life and the fundamental disciplines of Buddhism a religion with the history of more than 2,500 years., A true Buddhist should unswervingly stick to right beliefs, uphold righteousness , comply with Buddhist disciplines and cherish life with an extensive compassion and mercy.

Regarding the self-immolation cases that took place in the bordering towns of southwest China's Sichuan, and northwest China's Qinghai and Gansu Provinces, the attendees all felt distressed and regretful.

Elder Chuanyin, chairman of the Buddhist Association of China said, as a religion respecting and caring for life, Buddhism strongly opposed any form of killing including suicide. It also denounced the conducts of instigating, encouraging and extolling suicides, regarding them as the same with homicide as a whole.

Jamyang Losang, vice chairman of the Buddhist Association of China said those monks who practiced, participated in or instigated self-immolations violate the Buddhist commandments and disciplines. Gyado Rongnamsa, vicechairman of Sichuan Buddhist Association stated that it was the responsibility of the religious figures to cherish life. He or she should distinguish between right and wrong， and behave and speak properly.

Zhuo Xinping, director-general of the Research Institute on World Religion of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said，religion, as a form of spiritual belief of the mankind, was a sense of respect, care and salvation for life. This was clearly reflected in the Buddhist doctrine of "no killing"， the bottom line toward life.

Representatives also expressed their views to clarify some rumors in foreign countries based on Buddhist teachings.

Experts in the three sects of Buddhism all said that rumors in the foreign countries that "self-immolation does not go against the Buddhist disciplines" were entirety unfounded. First of all, major Buddhist classics like Agama, Dharmagupta-vinaya and Bhikkhupātimokkha explicitly point out that suicide is a foolish behavior which violates the basic Buddhist commandments. Whoever induces, encourages, praises or complies with suicide as well as make it possible for others to kill themselves is considered a murder, or Pārājika in Buddhist term.

Huba Longzhuangmeng, vice chairman of the Buddhist Association of China said, monks would be forever dismissed from Buddhism as long as they were proved to be involved in inciting self-immolations because it was the most serious crime.

From the Buddhist point of view, people who induces or forces others to carry out self-immolations in the name of Buddhism would not free from punishments of karma since it is believed to profane Buddhism and break the dharma, according to Chen Bing, professor of the Sichuan University.

In response to the claim that self-immolation is the highest form of non-violence，the revered Buddhists said that self-immolation was absolutely a kind of violence. It is an extreme act , which has not only done serious harm to the victims themselves, but also caused fears and panic in the society. Both the Shakyamuni and great Buddhist masters in history would sternly condemn such a cruel and shocking act.

"To respect and cherish life has become the consensus of all mankind, so self-immolation is a big enemy and the great pain of the civilized society, " said Shenghui, vice chairman of the Buddhist Association of China.

The religious figures vowed against the fallacy on "reincarnations through self-immolations", and expressed their confusion about some peoples' connection between this nonsense and the Buddhist wisdom and compassions.

It is commons sense that it is an absurd act to burn oneself after being instigated by fallacy. As vice chairman of the Buddhist Association of China Jinghui pointed out, people would die in three forms: physicaldeath, end of the blessing and ill-timed death in Buddhism, and suicide belongs to the third type.

Ruhui, vice chairman of the Buddhist Association of China said that according to the Buddhist teaching, if a person wanted to attain Buddhahood and became cultivated, he had to hold benefaction and keep himself away from evil.

As for the saying that "burning oneself can add to the longevity of his guru", the representatives said it was groundless. And they stressed from the Esoteric Buddhist point of view that a person's Satyadevata or his personal tantric deity, lived with him, so ending one's own life meant murdering his Satyadevata. And this belonged to the fifth Buddhist sins (the other fourare murdering one's father and mother, killing the Arhan and estranging and provoking hatred between Buddhist monks and nuns).

Therefore, judging from Buddhist Karma, the right way to live a long life is to stay away from killing and benefit all sentient beings.

The deputies of the meeting called on every Buddhist figure to teach Buddhist believers the Buddhist outlook on life help people judge right and wrong, to study Buddhist doctrines and to abide by the Buddhist dharma so that they could stay away from evil and keep their lives safe.