[dirk_mcgurk]

The idea of mummifying oneself seems quite specific, especially if they ritualized it and had some cocktail of botanicals they ingested to facilitate the process. Is there a name for this 3rd century Chinese Buddhist monastic culture and practice?

[bakul]

This may be of interest: https://sci-hub.se/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1062719

The "body in buddha" x-ray showed an iron band supporting the head. There is an explanation in the above paper.

[dhruval]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu

[nequo]

Thanks for linking this.

  Sokushinbutsu (即身仏) are a kind of Buddhist mummy. In Japan the term refers to the practice of Buddhist monks observing asceticism to the point of death and entering mummification while alive.

This is so far from what the Buddha taught[1] that is shocking.

  Mendicants, these two extremes should not be cultivated by one who has gone forth. What two? Indulgence in sensual pleasures, which is low, crude, ordinary, ignoble, and pointless. And indulgence in self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, and pointless. Avoiding these two extremes, the Realized One woke up by understanding the middle way of practice, which gives vision and knowledge, and leads to peace, direct knowledge, awakening, and extinguishment.

[1] SN 56.11: https://suttacentral.net/sn56.11/en/sujato?layout=sidebyside...

[maphew]

We call many things Buddhism now as a fuzzy shorthand for a plethora of culture and practices that share a heritage and resemble each other. The reason the passage in [1] exists in the canon is because at Buddha's time both extreme indulgence and asceticism were in vogue. As the article makes clear they've continued past his time as well. (Gautama's not yet succeeded in persuading everyone on the wisdom of the middle way.)

I'm reasonably certain you're quite well aware of this. I just wanted to ensure a between the lines meaning was made explicit in the thread. To remind that Buddhism is nested inside a larger contingent, and that this story lies more in that outer part than in.