have been unbearable pain. In June of 1963 a monk named Thich Quang Duc staged a public protest of the South Vietnamese government’s treatment of Buddhists. On a cushion placed in a Saigon street, he assumed the lotus position. After another monk poured gasoline over him, Duc said, “Before closing my eyes and moving towards the vision of the Buddha, I respectfully plead to President Ngo Dinh Diem
