When you really think about human needs and what it means to be happy, you may find that the attributes number to a sum to difficult to handle with simplicity. That is if you fail to categorize them into subgroups so that only a handful of traits are formed; traits that house a list of conceptual ideas that seem true and seem related. What you might end up with is something similar to attributes like power, freedom, fun, love and belonging. Taking consideration to William Glasser’s Choice Theory it is believed people strongly behave in accordance with their variation of mentioned attributes. A person of power will find controlling those makes him happy, at least it is the path of satisfaction, but when control goes too far it infringes on the power of other power players. In such an example you can see how related these attributes really are as they are not bound by strict guidelines.

What I plan to do is bring to question as to why we do the things we do. Mankind behaves in ways that many may deem odd, strange, inhuman, and so forth. I am not going to be the hand of judgment, nor the voice, as there is enough of that already. What I will do is open our eyes to what some may consider to be the darker pockets of our world, secrets that were buried by silence with our mere ignorance being the soil that covers. This purpose of this column to show how complicated, intertwined, chaotic, and unordered our questionable reality is. What we believe is biased to what we do not know, and what we will find here may just be the final straw that breaks the camel’s back.

An important aspect of anyone’s life seems to be religion, and no matter what you hold as your belief it seems to carry a great weight upon the decisions and actions throughout your life. Even with that said there is a deviation in the faithfulness and/or dedication (for those that find the word faith appalling) that can be seen in every belief, regardless of structure, legality, and presence. Place Atheists in a group and a few might say the name “God” as her o she normally would in response to certain situations, while some may very well treat the very acceptance of the name as futile. Furthermore, some Christians favor the scripture as a loose guideline, while others are strict to the letter and consider any other practice heresy. Now, consider Buddhism, some may practice meditation and harmonizing of spirit, while others may take it much, much further.

Japanese Buddhist monks found salvation in the practice of Sokushinbutsu, an ancient practice where for 1000 days the monks would willingly starve themselves with a special diet of only nuts and seeds, while drinking a tea that that caused a rapid loss of bodily fluids and the poison of the drink would free the body from maggots.

To further traverse into the world of self-mummification, we should take note that these participants are willingly doing this, and I do not mean that in any loosely implied way. No, they are willing to consume the diet and only it; they are accepting of the tea and drink it even though it causes vomiting and other unpleasant situations; they choose for themselves this fate and even seal themselves in a stone tomb.

For a human being to willing practice such an a thing may appear off at first and questionably suicidal; however, if we take into account the sheer dedication they gave to their beliefs it would be similar to those that die for them, only difference being that the monks mummification was self inflicted. That statement might have agreeable elements to it, but it isn’t the whole concept, but rather a variant of perspective.

What we should think about is how they convinced themselves of being trapped in an earthly body.  They gave up freedom, fun, love and belonging for power in an exercise of complete self-denial, but at the same time they believed that there would in return be endless of all attributes with power not being needed. That sort of concept is difficult to argue as what you would be arguing about are abstract ideas and theologies, but even then we know personally how true it feels to live by your own values; your own religion.

So it would be useless to throw away the questions simply because they do not agree with you, because what we are really questioning is what would cause someone to do something like this and why. A question like this, as it has to do with a belief is simple on the surface: theology. Man has a creative mind when it comes to formulating and designing abstract concepts; concepts that can reshape the world or even reshape one’s perspective of self. In this case we see that mankind highlighting such noble qualities. These monks took on the Buddhist theologies and expanded it with a more extreme and painful way to reach a status similar, if not equal of that of Buddha. 

When a human creates such powerful ideologies it becomes intoxicating to those that are closest to the origin and then concepts of fun, freedom, power, love and belonging can often find themselves questioned. In this case the power the monk exercised was the control of his body; managing what he eats, forcing the endurance while the pain increase. Denying any once of freedom of self through relentless pain. Taking away any concept of fun with pure dedication taking place. These are concepts that seem ideal for someone that volunteers for misery, but for the monks it was worth the sacrifice.

I am interested in what you, the readers, have to say about this practice, and if anyone knows if it is still currently practiced let me know.