What Buddha said about suicide

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BlueLotus
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What Buddha said about suicide

Post by BlueLotus »

A friend said that it is a sin. The person commit suicide will not be born again as a human for a very long time. Because that person rejected human life by choosing to end it. Is there any true in it? What has Buddha said about suicide in pali texts please?

Thanks you!
:anjali:
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Aloka
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Re: What Buddha said about suicide

Post by Aloka »

BlueLotus wrote:A friend said that it is a sin. The person commit suicide will not be born again as a human for a very long time. Because that person rejected human life by choosing to end it. Is there any true in it? What has Buddha said about suicide in pali texts please?
Hi Blue Lotus,

Killing oneself is breaking the first precept. However as far as the results of such an action are concerned, the Buddha said that the precise working out of the results of kamma are unconjecturable.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html

I did a search for suttas about suicide at the Access to Insight website but couldn't find anything, sorry.

With kind wishes,

Aloka
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cooran
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Re: What Buddha said about suicide

Post by cooran »

This might help:

Buddhism, Rebirth and suicide

http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12221

With metta,
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
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Sunyata
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Re: What Buddha said about suicide

Post by Sunyata »

i imagine the karmic results will depend on why a person commits suicide and at what point in their life. a terminally ill person who kills themselves to shorten inevitable suffering will not be the same as a love sick individual who gets frustrated with emotional pain and decides to end it all.
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manas
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Re: What Buddha said about suicide

Post by manas »

In addition to the good replies above, something I've contemplated is that, some folks might think suicide will end their pain and problems. But we just don't know what happens after physical death, so it's a bit of a gamble, and a serious one considering the possible consequences. In general, I think it would tend to increase, rather than decrease one's suffering. Aiui, the cycle of life doesn't come to an end through annihilation, but through seeing. So one might think one will somehow escape some particular painful situation, but one might instead end up in the same situation (or worse) in their next existence anyway, and so will have escaped nothing. So, best to stay put and cultivate the Path, until Nature takes it's inevitable course. We are all going to die anyway, what's the hurry?

metta
:anjali:
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
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Sunyata
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Re: What Buddha said about suicide

Post by Sunyata »

Good points manas. It may be that suicide will not end suffering.... even if a person is already suffering and there is no conceivable reason to believe that suffering will end in that person's life. However, I have to think that there must be cases in which the act of suicide burns karma instead of creates more, and negative karma. There may be times when the killing of ones self is what the universe wants.... like some final step that a person has to take on their journey, the willingness to take ones own life. Just as killing others may be justified in some cases, such as to protect loved ones, maybe killing ones self is right action in some cases. I can't really think of a particular case in which that may be true, other than terminal illness, or maybe some kind of protest or sacrifice? But theorhetically I think it must be true that suicide is right action in some cases. What do you think?

BTW, is my screen name like really arrogant? I just had the word in my head, but apparently it's like a really high Buddhist concept. I don't mean to sound haughty as a noob to Buddhism.
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