Enter the Lotus Sutra, considered one of the most significant Buddhist scriptures in East Asia.

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But people don't burn themselves to death "simply because the Lotus Sutra says to do it, " emphasized UC Berkeley's Sharf.

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And it was this part of the Lotus Sutra that Vietnamese monks and nuns pointed to when it came to self-immolation in the 1960s.

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Even through self-immolations took place in medieval China and 20th-century Vietnam, even though the Lotus Sutra praises "burning for Buddha" as the supreme self-sacrifice, Buddhists are very reluctant to condone violence.

CNN: The politics of Tibetan self-immolations