Is suicide selfish and cowardly?

[hallow]

Originally Posted by SlayerOfLight

Title says all. As for my opinion, it depends on the situation and circumstances. For example, it may be justified if someone is all alone and has no one left in their life to give them a reason to live. However, if this is not the case and someone is leaving loved ones behind such as parents, wifes/husbands and kids then it would be rather selfish indeed and a cowardly act. A good example is Kurt Cobain. No shots fired hopefully...

what I been told about it, if you do you'll have to live that life over again from the start. In my opinion if you feel that low why would you want to have to go through that again?

[Botticella22]

Precisely, Greenslade.

iamthat... "Lifestyle choice" may not be the best way to put it, or the proper word choice. Being suicidal or committing suicide is not a lifestyle choice; and committing suicide is pretty much final, unless unsuccessful and doing so repeatedly, then that means a person is suicidal. Which, again, is not a lifestyle choice.

A lifestyle is made up of attitudes, tastes, moral standards, economic level, culture, religious traditions, etc., that all together constitute a way of life, a way of living for a person or a group of people that have those things in common. It's a way of life you choose to have that is "decided" by any of those aforementioned things. (Even by your job, sometimes.) Like, choosing to go vegan - that's a lifestyle choice. Or like being a chain smoker, versus refusing to smoke; choosing to work out every day, versus a person who doesn't live an active lifestyle and prefers to always stationary (or because they can't due to disabilities or obesity, etc) - those are lifestyle choices, habits that affect your life.

You can Google search "lifestyle choices" or "bad lifestyle choices" or "examples of lifestyle choices" (like I just did for the past forty-five minutes) and look at result link after result link after result link and none of them mention being suicidal or committing suicide as a lifestyle choice.

Originally Posted by Greenslade

Lifestyle choice? I'm guessing you've never been in that situation, if not pray that you never find yourself there.

Originally Posted by iamthat

I just question the value of killing yourself as a lifestyle choice.

[Botticella22]

If this is what really happens, then perhaps it doesn't mean living that life over and over again repeatedly with the same outcome; but rather, living the same life again to learn missed life lessons again that were imperative, in order to change things to prevent the same outcome(?). Food for thought.

Originally Posted by hallow

what I been told about it, if you do you'll have to live that life over again from the start. In my opinion if you feel that low why would you want to have to go through that again?

[iamthat]

A lifestyle choice is choosing how to live your life.

So choosing to end your life rather than continue struggling would seem to be such a choice. I question whether this particular choice actually achieves anything.

Peace.

[Dargor]

Originally Posted by hallow

what I been told about it, if you do you'll have to live that life over again from the start. In my opinion if you feel that low why would you want to have to go through that again?

Not sure, maybe some people probably don't believe in an afterlife so they feel motivated enough to give it a go. But what kind of moron forces you to live it over again?

[iamthat]

My understanding is that you don't repeat that same life but you do have to face similar challenges in a new life.

If the intention is to learn from overcoming obstacles then at some point we have to overcome these obstacles.

Peace.

[hallow]

Originally Posted by SlayerOfLight

Not sure, maybe some people probably don't believe in an afterlife so they feel motivated enough to give it a go. But what kind of moron forces you to live it over again?

I am sure there's a lot of people who don't believe it. It's not my place to tell people to believe what I do. I never felt the need to take myself out. But before my wife and I met she was in that spot. She explained to me how it felt in grave detail. But she's very happy now she didn't. There was a whole lot of good waiting for her. At the time we didn't know each other. But if she did we would have never met and I would still would all messed up and stupid. If you're 1 step away from giving up take a fast 2 steps your always 1 step away from wining. It's usually right after the step of giving up.

[hallow]

Originally Posted by Botticella22

If this is what really happens, then perhaps it doesn't mean living that life over and over again repeatedly with the same outcome; but rather, living the same life again to learn missed life lessons again that were imperative, in order to change things to prevent the same outcome(?). Food for thought.

there's really no hardcore proof of anything spiritual. I am learning the spiritually seems to an emotion developed to help you get through life's ups and downs. If it doesn't hurt you or anyone else and it gets you through the day do what you need to do whatever your beliefs are.

Originally Posted by iamthat

A lifestyle choice is choosing how to live your life.

So choosing to end your life rather than continue struggling would seem to be such a choice. I question whether this particular choice actually achieves anything.

Peace.

To me a lifestyle choice is a choice within/for Life, and suicide ends that Life so it no longer has/is a lifestyle.

If there are Karmic Obligations at play here then a Soul has chosen that as a valid experience and a way to end the Journey, and that makes it as valid as dying through anything else. There is also the Karmic Obligations of those that are left, and yes suicide leaves more mess than even you would probably imagine but that doesn't make it any less valid if a Soul/Souls have chosen that. It might well be that a Soul has chosen to go through the experiences of despair and everything else that leads up to suicide - and the act of suicide itself - so that the people around them can have that experience. That makes it an expression of Love, perhaps the ultimate expression. You see, we don't 'develop Spiritually' through all the feel-good sunshine and roses.


And quite frankly, when you come to that state of mind achievements and Spirituality are the last things you consider. In that state of mind logic, reason, Spirituality and everything else we would define as 'normal' goes straight out of the window. Yes it leaves a mess behind but what many don't consider is that the person who commits/attempts suicide sees their actions as a way to leave their Loved ones with less of a mess - suicide to them can be the lesser of two evils.

If you can still Honour their Path after their making the choice to commit suicide, if you can simply accept that they made their choices and neither condemn nor condone the understanding comes. If all you have is condemnation that says nothing about the person committing suicide, it says everything about the Spirituality of the person expressing it. If Love, empathy, sympathy and Spirituality are all conditional as set against sensibilities and/or ignorance, what does that say? Because really, if you haven't been in that situation yourself then it's an argument in ignorance. It's not Spirituality but mentality. Those people actually Lived those experiences, they went to the depths of despair and went to places people who haven't committed/attempted suicide fear to tread.

Nothing in this thread is an expression of Spirituality, everything is an expression of the person behind the post.

Originally Posted by Botticella22

If this is what really happens, then perhaps it doesn't mean living that life over and over again repeatedly with the same outcome; but rather, living the same life again to learn missed life lessons again that were imperative, in order to change things to prevent the same outcome(?). Food for thought.

To keep it very simple - yes, petty much. The person would have had 'lessons to learn' but at the same time we're not always here just for our lessons but for the lessons of others too. The aftermath of suicide is quite a lesson/experience for those that have gone through it. While human sensibility would baulk at the thought of choosing a Life of 'sacrifice' God gave his only son - didn't Jesus have a choice, and if he did then was his crucifixion 'planned'?

Sometimes we can choose more than we can cope with, which is probably another 'good' explanation for suicide. In which case we are given the opportunity to go through the same lesson, only the context will be different. The only real 'outcome' in Life is you, Life itself has no inherent meaning or purpose other than the one you give it. Existence is about 'you', in whatever shape or form you think that takes. Te bottom line is that you have Free Will, so if you decide you want to change direction you can.