My boyfriend lives in a two family house with a roommate. Two weeks ago, his roommate went to the downstairs apartment to check on the occupant (no one had heard from him in a couple of days). He found his body; the man had shot himself in the heart a day before. This man was an alcoholic, had a possible brain tumor, possible liver complications due to the alcoholism, and a deteriorating family life (girlfriend left him with their daughter). So it isn't hard to understand why he felt the need to commit suicide. It's hard to accept that it happened because of the tragedy of the situation and that he felt it was his only choice. Naturally I've been thinking about this for the past two weeks and I know what the Christian philosophy about suicide is. I was just curious what Buddhism would have to say if someone commits it. How does the universe treat his soul after death? I appreciate any insight in this matter. ~SPeace
I've done a bit of reading on Buddhism And from what I've gathered Buddhists see suicide as a tragic loss of life because human rebirths are so precious. It's the only chance we have to learn how to practise Dharma and attain enlightenment. As for his soul I don't think anyone really has the answer, he would probably re-enter the cycle of samsara as he has not yet attained enlightenment. Sorry to hear your loss and I hope that's helped a little.
From a Buddhist perspective, suicide is pointless - you merely get reborn with even more negative karma, and the chance for you to get rid of some negative karma/practise dharma in your old life is gone. People say suicide is a "permanent solution to a temporary problem" but in fact it's a temporary solution to a temporary problem.
buddhism is compassion and so as this person was living in so much physical pain, his choice to leave was within the dharma of compassion and therefore honorable
Thank you all for your input, it was enlightening. My thoughts and prayers have been going out to this man's family. I hope he can find happiness in this life.
Buddhists don't believe in suicide. Japanese Samurai were into Shintoism, a panthienistic religion with elements of other Chinese religions. The problem with committing suicide is it's a defeat of the essence of life to work itself out. If one can't get past that karma then they may have to relive that life over and over. I know from obsessing over a scab and pulling it off for too long and delaying the healing that even that is obsession creating, let alone the karma of past tendencies replaying out over and over. So in Buddhism you do the smart thing and wait for problems to work out and then the snake is like the rope. Finally.
buddhists don't believe in anything, albeit the personal discovery of their own self-realization and enlightenment, which may or may not include the greater good and whole of all the world and humanity i can think of one buddhist monk's suicide in vietnam during its american war era that went a far ways for america realizing that its involvement there was immoral and whose compassion of suicide went a further way to people claiming an agenda of commitment to end the war and end the pain and suffering there
if everything is an illusion, then why not end suffering with a bullet through your brain. The problem is that you might wake up to find yourself reborn into a more cruel world than before.
The monk was Thich Quang Duc. He was only one of a number of monks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thich_Quang_Duc
