THEOSOPHY ON SUICIDE

Contents

- Suicide is not Death - W. Q. Judge- Is Suicide a Crime? - Blavatsky- One Suicide's Decision - Endersby- On Suicide - Ponsonby, Small- On Suicide - Maj. H. S. Turner- Quotes on Suicide from The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett

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Suicide is Not Death - William Q. Judge

(originally in The New York World)

As a student of Theosophy and human nature I have been interestedin the discussion of the subject of self-murder to which The World has givena place in its columns. The eloquent agnostic, Col. Ingersoll, planted his viewsin the ground with the roots of them in the grave, giving the poor felo de senothing beyond the cold earth to cheer him in his act, save perhaps thecowardly chance of escape, from responsibility or pain. Those who, as NymCrinkle says, occupy themselves with replying to Col. Ingersoll fall back on themere assertion that it is a sin to kill the body in which the Lord saw fit toconfine a man. Neither of these views is either satisfactory or scientific.

If suicide is to be approved it can only be on the ground that the man isonly a body, which, being a clod, may well be put out of its sufferings. Fromthis it would be an easy step to justify the killing of other bodies that may bein the way, or old, or insane, or decrepit, or vicious. For if the mass of claycalled body is all that we are, if man is not a spirit unborn and changeless inessence, then what wrong can there be in destroying it when you own it, orare it, and how easy to find good and sufficient reason for disposing similarlyof others? The priest condemns suicide, but one may be a Christian and yethold the opinion that a quick release from earth brings possible heavenseveral years nearer. The Christian is not deterred from suicide by any good

reasons advanced in his religion, but rather from cowardice. Death, whenevernatural or forced has become a terror, is named "The King of Terrors." Thisis because, although a vague heaven is offered on the other side, life anddeath are so little understood that men had rather bear the ills they know thanfly to others which are feared through ignorance of what those are.

Suicide, like any other murder is a sin because it is a suddendisturbance of the harmony of the world. It is a sin because it defeats nature.Nature exists for the sake of the soul and for no other reason, it has thedesign, so to say, of giving the soul experience and self-consciousness.These can only be had by means of a body through which the soul comes incontact with nature, and to violently sever the connection before the naturaltime defeats the aim of nature, for the present compelling her, by her ownslow processes, to restore the task left unfinished.

And as those processes must go on through the soul that permitted themurder, more pain and suffering must follow. And the disturbance of thegeneral harmony is a greater sin than most men think. They considerthemselves alone, as separate, as not connected with others. But they areconnected throughout the whole world with all other souls and minds. Asubtle, actual, powerful band links them all together, and the instant one of allthese millions disturbs the link the whole mass feels it by reaction throughsoul and mind, and can only return to a normal state through a painfuladjustment. This adjustment is on the unseen, but all-important, planes ofbeing in which the real man exists. Thus each murderer of self or of anotherimposes on entire humanity an unjustifiable burden. From this injustice hecannot escape, for his body's death does not cut him off from the rest; it onlyplaces him, deprived of nature's instruments, in the clutch of laws that arepowerful and implacable, ceaseless in their operation and compulsory in theirdemands.

Suicide is a huge folly, because it places the committer of it in aninfinitely worse position than he was in under the conditions from which hefoolishly hoped to escape. It is not death. It is only a leaving of one well-known house in familiar surroundings to go into a new place where terror anddespair alone have place. It is but a preliminary death done to the clay, whichis put in the "cold embrace of the grave," leaving the man himself naked andalive, but out of mortal life and not in either heaven or hell.

The Theosophist sees that man is a complex being full of forces andfaculties, which he uses in a body on earth. The body is only a part of hisclothing; he himself lives also in other places. In sleep he lives in one,awakes in another, in thought in another. He is a threefold being of body, souland spirit. And this trinity can be divided again into its necessary seven

constituents. And just as he is threefold, so also is nature - material, psychicalor astral, and spiritual. The material part of nature governs the body, thepsychical affects the soul and the spirit lives in the spiritual, all being boundtogether. Were we but bodies, we might well commit them to material natureand the grave, but if we rush out of the material we must project ourselvesinto the psychical or astral. And as all nature proceeds with regularity underthe government of law, we know that each combination has its own term of lifebefore a natural and easy separation of the component parts can take place.A tree or a mineral or a man is a combination of elements or parts, and eachmust have its projected life term. If we violently and prematurely cut them offone from the other, certain consequences must ensue. Each constituentrequires its own time for dissolution. And suicide being a violent destructionof the first element - body - the other two, of soul and spirit, are left withouttheir natural instrument. The man then is but half dead, and is compelled bythe law of his own being to wait until the natural term is reached.

The fate of the suicide is horrible in general. He has cut himself off fromhis body by using mechanical means that affect the body, but cannot touchthe real man. He then is projected into the astral world, for he has to livesomewhere. There the remorseless law, which acts really for his good,compels him to wait until he can properly die. Naturally he must wait, halfdead, the months or years which, in the order of nature, would have rolledover him before body and soul and spirit could rightly separate. He becomesa shade; he lives in purgatory, so to say, called by the Theosophist the "placeof desire and passion," or "Kama Loka." He exists in the astral realm entirely,eaten up by his own thoughts. Continually repeating in vivid thoughts the actby which he tried to stop his life's pilgrimage, he at the same time sees thepeople and the place he left, but is not able to communicate with any oneexcept, now and then, with some poor sensitive, who often is frightened bythe visit. And often he fills the minds of living persons who may be sensitiveto his thoughts with the picture of his own taking off, occasionally leadingthem to commit upon themselves the act of which he was guilty.

To put it theosophically, the suicide has cut himself off on one side fromthe body and life which were necessary for his experience and evolution, andon the other from his spirit, his guide and "Father in heaven." He is composednow of astral body, which is of great tensile strength, informed and inflamedby his passions and desires. But a portion of his mind, called manas, is withhim. He can think and perceive, but, ignorant of how to use the forces of thatrealm, he is swept hither and thither, unable to guide himself. His wholenature is in distress, and with it to a certain degree the whole of humanity, forthrough the spirit all are united. Thus he goes on, until the law of nature acting

on his astral body, that begins to die, and then he falls into a sleep from whichhe awakens in time for a season of rest before beginning once more a life onearth. In his next reincarnation he may, if he sees fit, retrieve or compensateor suffer over again.

There is no escape from responsibility. The "sweet embrace of the wetclay" is a delusion. It is better to bravely accept the inevitable, since it mustbe due to our errors in other older lives, and fill every duty, try to improve allopportunity. To teach suicide is a sin, for it leads some to commit it. Toprohibit it without reason is useless, for our minds must have reasons fordoing or not doing. And if we literally construe the words of the Bible, thenthere we find it says no murderer has a place but in hell. Such constructionssatisfy but few in an age of critical investigation and hard analysis. But givemen the key to their own natures, show them how law governs both here andbeyond the grave, and their good sense will do the rest. An illogical nepentheof the grave is as foolish as an illogical heaven for nothing.

- The Lamp, September, 1894, CanadianTheosophist, vol 58-1, March-April, 1977

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IS SUICIDE A CRIME? - H.P. Blavatsky

[Originally published in The Theosophist, Vol. IV, No. 38, November,1882, pp. 31-32. The rather long but thoughtful letter from an Inquirer isfollowed by serial answers from the pen of H.P.B. They are as timely today asthey were when first published. "Fragments of Occult Truth" refers to a seriesof article written for The Theosophist by Allan O. Hume on the basis ofteachings received from the Adepts.]

The writer in the London Spiritualist for November, who calls the"Fragments of Occult Truth" speculation spinning, can hardly, I think, applythat epithet to Fragment No. 3, so cautiously is the hypothesis concerningsuicide advanced therein. Viewed in its general aspect, the hypothesis seemssound enough, satisfies our instincts of the Moral Law of the Universe, andfits in with our ordinary ideas as well as with those we have derived fromscience. The inference drawn from the two cases cited, viz., that of the

selfish suicide on the one hand, and of the unselfish suicide on the other, isthat, although the after-states may vary, the result is invariably bad, thevariation consisting only in the degree of punishment. It appears to me that,in arriving at this conclusion, the writer could not have had in his mind's eyeall the possible cases of suicide, which do or may occur. For I maintain thatin some cases self-sacrifice is not only justifiable, but also morally desirable,and that the result of such self-sacrifice cannot possibly be bad. I will put onecase, perhaps the rarest of all rare cases, but not necessarily on that accounta purely hypothetical one, for I know at least one man, in whom I aminterested, who is actuated with feelings, not dissimilar to these I shall nowdescribe, and who would be deeply thankful for any additional light that couldbe thrown on this darkly mysterious subject (See Editor's Note 1).

Suppose, then, that an individual, whom I shall call M., takes to thinkinglong and deep on the vexed questions of the mysteries of earthly existence,its aims, and the highest duties of man. To assist his thoughts, he turns tophilosophical works: notably those dealing with the sublime teachings ofBuddha. Ultimately he arrives at the conclusion that the FIRST and ONLYaim of existence is to be useful to our fellow men; that failure in thisconstitutes his own worthlessness as a sentient human being, and that bycontinuing a life of worthlessness he simply dissipates the energy which heholds in trust, and which, so holding, he has no right to fritter away. He triesto be useful, but - miserably and deplorably fails. What then is his remedy?Remember there is here "no sea of troubles" to "take arm against," nooutraged human law to dread, no deserved earthly punishment to escape; infact, there is no moral cowardice whatever involved in the self-sacrifice. M.simply puts an end to an existence which is useless, and which therefore failsof its own primary purpose. Is his act justifiable? Or must he also be thevictim of that transformation into spook and pisacha, against which FragmentNo. 3 utters its dread warning? (2)

Perhaps, M. may secure at the next birth more favorable conditions, andthus be better able to work out the purpose of Being. Well, he can scarcelybe worse; for, in addition to his being inspired by a laudable motive to makeway for one who might be more serviceable, he has not, in this particularcase, been guilty of any moral turpitude (3).

But I have not done. I go a step further and say that M. is not onlyuseless, but positively mischievous. To his incapacity to do good, he finds headds a somewhat restless disposition which is perpetually urging him on tomake an effort to do good. M. makes the effort - he would be unutterlyunworthy the name of man if he did not make it - and discovers that hisincapacity most generally leads him into errors which convert the possible

good into actual evil; that, on account of his nature, birth, and education, avery large number of men become involved in the effects of his mistaken zeal,and that the world at large suffers more from his existence than otherwise.Now, if after arriving at such results, M. seeks to carry out their logicalconclusion, viz., that being morally bound to diminish the woes to whichsentient beings on earth are subject, he should destroy himself, and by thatmeans do the only good he is capable of; is there, I ask, any moral guiltinvolved in the act of anticipating death in such a case? I, for one, shouldcertainly say not. Nay, more, I maintain, subject of course to correction bysuperior knowledge, that M. is not only justified in making away with himself,but that he would be a villain if he did not, at once and unhesitatingly, put anend to a life, not only useless, but positively pernicious. (4)

M. may be in error; but supposing he dies cherishing the happydelusion that in death is all the good, in life all the evil he is capable of, arethere in his case no extenuating circumstances to plead strongly in his favour,and help to avert a fall into that horrible abyss with which your readers havebeen frightened? (5)

M.'s, I repeat, is no hypothetical case. History teems with instances ofworthless and pernicious lives, carried on to the bitter end to the ruin ofnations. Look at the authors of the French Revolution, burning with as ardenta love for their fellowmen as ever fired the human breast; look at themcrimson with innocent blood, bringing unutterable disasters on their countryin Liberty's sacred name! apparently how strong! in reality how pitifully weak!What a woeful result of incapacity has been theirs? Could they but have seenwith M.'s eyes, would they not have been his prototypes? Blessed, indeed,had it been for France, if they had anticipated M.

Again, look at George III of England, a well-meaning, yet an incapableSovereign, who, after reigning for a number of years, left his countrydistracted and impoverished by foreign wars, torn by internal dissensions, andseparated from a kindred race across the Atlantic, with the liberties of hissubjects trampled under foot, and virtue prostituted in the Cabinet, inParliament and on the Hustings. His correspondence with Lord North andothers abundantly proves that to his self-sufficiency, well-meaning though itbe, must be traced the calamities of Great Britain and Ireland, calamities fromthe effects of which the United Kingdom has not yet fully recovered. Happyhad it been for England if this ruler had, like M., seen the uselessness of hislife, and nipped it, as M. might do, in the bud of its pernicious career!

- AN INQUIRER

EDITOR'S NOTES(1) "Inquirer" is not an Occultist, hence his assertion that in some cases

suicide "is not only justifiable, but also morally desirable." No more thanmurder, is it ever justifiable, however desirable it may sometimes appear. TheOccultist, who looks at the origin and the ultimate end of things, teaches thatthe individual - who affirms that any man, under whatsoever circumstances,is called to put an end to his life - is guilty of as great an offense and of aspernicious a piece of sophistry, as the nation that assumes a right to kill in warthousands of innocent people under the pretext of avenging the wrong doneto one. All such reasonings are the fruits of Avidya mistaken for philosophyand wisdom. Our friend is certainly wrong in thinking that the writer ofFragments arrived at his conclusions only because he failed to keep beforehis mind's eye all the possible cases of suicide. The result, in one sense, iscertainly invariable; and there is but one general law or rule for all suicides.But, it is just because "the "after-states" vary ad-infinitum, that it is erroneousto infer that this variation consists only in the degree of punishment. If theresult will be in every case the necessity of living out the appointed period ofsentient existence, we do not see whence "Inquirer" has derived his notionthat "the result is invariably bad." The result is full of dangers; but there ishope for certain suicides, and even in many cases A REWARD if life wassacrificed to save other lives and that there was no other alternative for it. Lethim read para. 7, page 313, in the September Theosophist, and reflect. Ofcourse, the question is simply generalized by the writer. To treat exhaustivelyof all and every case of suicide and their after-states would require a shelf ofvolumes from the British Museum's Library, not our Fragments.

(2) No man, we repeat, has a right to put an end to his existence simplybecause it is useless. As well argue the necessity of inciting to suicide all theincurable invalids and cripples who are a constant source of misery to theirfamilies; and preach the moral beauty of that law among some of the savagetribes of the South Sea Islanders, in obedience to which they put to death withwarlike honours, their old men and women. The instance chosen by "Inquirer"is not a happy one. There is a vast difference between the man who partswith his life in sheer disgust at constant failure to do good, out of despair ofever being useful, or even out of dread to do injury to his fellowman byremaining alive; and one who gives it up voluntarily to save the lives eithercommitted to his charge or dear to him. One is a half insane misanthrope -the other, a hero and a martyr. One takes away his life, the other offers it insacrifice to philanthropy and to his duty. The captain who remains alone onboard of a sinking ship; the man who gives up his place in a boat that will nothold all, in favour of younger and weaker beings; the physician, the sister of

charity, and nurse who stir not from the bed-side of patients dying of aninfectious fever; the man of science who wastes his life in brainwork andfatigue and knows he is so wasting it and yet is offering it day after day andnight after night in order to discover some great law of the universe, thediscovery of which may bring in its results some great boon to mankind; themother that throws herself before the wild beast, that attacks her, children, toscreen and give them the time to fly; all these are not suicides. The impulsewhich prompts them thus to contravene the first great law of animated nature -the first instinctive impulse of which is to preserve life - is grand and noble.And, though all these will have to live in the Kama Loka their appointed lifeterm, they are yet admired by all, and their memory will live honoured amongthe living for a still longer period. We all wish that, upon similar occasions, wemay have courage so to die. Not so, surely in the case of the man instancedby "Inquirer." Notwithstanding his assertion that "there is no moral cowardicewhatever involved" in such self-sacrifice - we call it decidedly "moralcowardice" and refuse it the name of sacrifice.

(3 and 4) There is far more courage to live than to die in most cases.If "M." feels that he is "positively mischievous," let him retire to a jungle, adesert island; or what is still better, to a cave or hut near some big city; andthen, while living the life of a hermit, a life which would preclude the verypossibility of doing mischief to any one, work, in one way or the other, for thepoor, the starving, the afflicted. If he does that, no one can "become involvedin the effects of his mistaken zeal," whereas, if he has the slightest talent, hecan benefit many by simple manual labour carried on in as complete asolitude as can be commanded under the circumstances. Anything is better -even being called a crazy philanthropist - than committing suicide, the mostdastardly and cowardly of all actions, unless the felo de se is resorted to, ina fit of insanity.

(5) "Inquirer" asks whether his "M." must also be victim of thattransformation into spook and pisacha! Judging by the delineation given ofhis character, by his friend, we should say that, of all suicides, he is the mostlikely to become a seance-room spook. Guiltless "of any moral turpitude," hemay well be. But since he is afflicted with a "restless disposition which isperpetually urging him on to make an effort to do good" - here, on earth, thereis no reason we know of, why he should lose that unfortunate disposition(unfortunate because of the constant failure) - in the Kama Loka. A "mistakenzeal" is sure to lead him on toward various mediums. Attracted by the strongmagnetic desire of sensitives and spiritualists, "M." will probably feel "morallybound to diminish the woes to which sentient beings [mediums and believers]on earth are subject," and shall once more destroy, not only himself, but his

"affinities," the mediums.

- Theosophia, Summer, 1953----------------

One Suicide’s Decision - Victor Endersby

Here sits a man - calm and unmoved, to all appearances. He has justdecided that tomorrow morning he will walk off of the San Francisco BayBridge. He feels no regrets. This is a choice. Has he been a failure in hisbusiness, in his profession, in his chosen field of activity? Not at all. He hascome face to face with a fact. He has always known, or felt within himself,that sometime this choice would come - and now it is here. What stakescould be so high?

No one has really ever understood the Suicide, save the Suicide himselfperhaps (and those who can perceive the laws of mind at work on the innerside of human nature). How could anyone else understand, when the motiveis buried within the consciousness of each one who makes that decision?The reason for suicide is not the same in any two cases.

Here is a man who holds the "top" position in his organization, andtherefore is able to delegate responsibility which he himself feels no necessityfor ever assuming. How did this man know that some day he would face thischoice? Because even as a little child he sought "oblivion" - especially, heobliterated the sense of responsibility about to impinge upon him - by meansof excitement or over-stimulation of one kind or another. Not any one kind,but one kind after another - anything from excessive consumption of candy,and drinking a whole series of carbonated drinks (the place of carbon inhuman bio-chemistry is far from being understood) to saturation with sexualsensations. An exhilarating effect was enjoyed, followed by an "all-is-well-with-me-and-the-world-again" feeling. But eventually, the power to obliterateuneasiness and insecurity diminishes.

Theosophically speaking, what has been happening? The Egoicindividuality from time to time reminded its alter-ego (the personal self) thatnow is the time to be about "his father's business." In the slumberingunconscious totality, however lay bundles of habits "conditioned" by the self-satisfaction gained from gratifying the demands of the irresponsiblepersonality. Among these defensive habits the prodding of the Ego stirred

only rebellion. Facing the resulting conflict was repeatedly avoided and putoff - the personal self retreating into an "oblivion" which was beloved becauseit created the sensory effort of "at-well ness." As the mind has become moremature, it at the same time has become more fearful and more defiant. TheEgoic will, striving to assert itself as "master" - which is the dominant drivebringing all self-conscious beings into incarnation - has been successfullymaterialized (by the ideas of the personal man) and transformed into acompelling desire for dominance. This has been successfully accomplished,but somewhere along the line, the moral equation has been left out and theback-wash of the rip-tide now begins to sap away at the feeling of self-sufficiency.

As the surety of self-sufficiency ebbs, fear arises. A panic ensues. Thepanic is deadened or drugged again and again by excesses of one kind oranother, but ever the surges of mounting fear arise with each new washingback upon the consciousness of unassimilated debris. First, perhaps as achild, the rejection of fear took the form of "temper-tantrums" - an attempt toassert the will as stubbornness; "I am going to do what at I want, whether Iought to or not..." But, finally, anger begins to replace the "temper-tantrums."Anger (and "righteous indignation") now is one of the few remainingsatisfactions. Like sexual excesses, the force of anger galvanizes thepersonal self into a "factitious life" - precisely comparable to the falseanimation of a kama-lokic "shell." Anger also brings a spurious sense ofoblivion, an apparent calm, since it obscures the real issues at stake, coversover the perception of principle, and renders the mind opaque.

But the inner voice speaks again, and the mind knows that an Egoicchoice is upon it. This path of oblivion to the needs of others and to the realityof one's identification with all selves cannot be pursued further. The innervoice gives warning; anger must be surmounted. Anger is the preserver ofthe oblivion and the "destroyer" of the Perceiver, so far as his connection withthat particular personality is concerned. Coldly, the intellect - "divorced fromsoul and spirit" - can make the decision. If it is made in anger, the personalman will lose his soul. If made without anger, only the body will be lost, andthat is the preferable choice. Always in the background is the Egoicrealization that the oblivion of anger will in time quickly snap the life-linebetween soul and body, and the path between will, for the incarnation, bedestroyed. The lower mind of the man is not always aware of this, but hissoul is. The personal man sees suicide as preferable to trying to fight his wayback to full control, or to facing the inevitable moral dissolution.

This, then, may be the decision made in the horrible solitude of theParanoid type of Manic-Depressive.

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UNSEEN CAUSES OF SUICIDEThe analysis in the foregoing article seems true. The statement

regarding the conditions of "loss of soul" or otherwise on the part of thesuicide, in the last paragraph, is perhaps an over-simplification. Such anoutcome, we believe, will be largely determined, not merely by the suicide'sstate of mind, but by his course over many past incarnations. Some mightdraw an implication that there can be a choice between less and greater evilsin suicide; but suicide itself is the choice of greatest evil by the personality.

The article brings up the tendency toward reasonless despair withsuicidal tendencies, increasingly found in the young who, apparently witheverything before them, succumb to black despondency in the absence of anyfitting cause. We believe that this "causeless" melancholy is about what theGermans call "Weltz-Schmertz, or "world-pain." Certainly commonobservation shows that extreme moods are due, not to circumstances, but tothe individual as a variable. What drives one man to despair and suicide, willsometimes be passed off by another as a minor problem, or even aheartening stimulus to effort. Numbers do away with themselves for reasonsthat no other human being is ever able to find out, even when the victim isapparently "on top of the world."

Perhaps there is among us an unrecognized number of men who haveprogressed to the twilight fringe of that ordeal of Initiation spoken of as the"Dark Night of the Soul." It is a condition in which all things fail and darknessbecomes absolute without, leaving the man alone with whatever of inner lightand higher will he may have acquired. This state has a history leading up toit, and a purpose in it. Fascination with the delights of matter is foreign to theSelf, which is embroiled in it only for learning and the discharge of ancientduties. So far as that Self is concerned, one lesson in one particular materialexperience is enough. But incessant repetition, based upon the illusion thatmatter is itself worthy of seeking, finally brings the soul-knowledge of thehollowness of such things down into the unprepared consciousness of thelower self, where the enforced recognition can bring only despair. From thematerial plane this despair necessarily appears causeless; because what liesback of it is not having to put up with inferior enjoyments, but theunconscious, unformed recognition that matter is all joyless in essence. Insuccessful Initiation met by one duly prepared, the despair following upondiscovery of the worthlessness of material living is short-lived, giving way tothe "light that never shone on land or sea," the light that never dies, which canbe seen only when the veils of matter are rent and have fallen. Those who

meet such a revelation unprepared, unknowing of its nature, without themomentum of a developed spiritual will to carry them through where all visionand knowledge are gone for a while - these are among those who fall intostupefying vice, insanity, or self-murder.

So we think.

- Theosophical Notes, Feb., 1952

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ON SUICIDE

QUESTION 4 - I read in today's paper (December 8, 1972) that aMethodist minister is in favor of setting up clinics to help certain peoplecommit suicide with dignity. Could you tell me whether the Theosophicalphilosophy could support such "euthanasic suicide," even if such, as thisreport indicates, "could be carried out with the loving understanding of familyand friends?"

IRENE R. PONSONBY - No. Theosophy can never support suicideunder any circumstances. With pity for the victims and sympathy for thoseconcerned, the theosophical student considers the act and the abovesuggestion are due to profound ignorance of the universal law of humanexistence.

Theosophy maintains that man is a spiritual, composite entity, aninseparable, integral part of the Universe, his Home, in which he lives andevolves under the guidance and protection of its laws.

Fundamental among these laws are Reincarnation - rebirth in a body offlesh and adapted to development on Earth - and Karma: the law of causeand effect. Man has lived on Earth many times before, and in those lives hehas, by his harmonious or discordant thought and action, made himself to beexactly what he is today - happy or miserable, healthy or diseased, fortunateor unfortunate.

At his birth in any given life, he possesses his individual reserve ofuniversal life-force. This force vitalizes his composite constitution untilexhausted at his natural death.

No law may be broken with impunity; and the law of Karma is verystrict, completely impartial and just, its accuracy tempered by compassion sothat ultimate good may result. Therefore several factors in suicide must be

taken into account.No one who commits self-murder can be considered quite sane at the

time of his fatal act: his motive, age, and the quality of his life just ended actas ameliorative factors. Nevertheless, the immediate future of the suicide isvery dreadful. He has repudiated his kinship with the Universe. He hasruthlessly destroyed the physical structure of his own building, and defieduniversal law. As a result the then excarnate entity, after an indeterminateperiod of unconsciousness, finds itself in the kama-loka, where is must liveover and over again the last dominating impression left on his consciousnesswhen on earth: the act of suicide, until the last drop of the ego's life-force isexhausted, which happens only when the time of death would have comenaturally. Then only is the excarnate being free to continue its journeythrough the inner worlds in the majestic process we call 'death'.

Finally, to the individual who feels he is at the end of his endurance,Theosophy says: You and the Universe are one; its powers and strengthsare yours; trouble and suffering are means of growth; they will pass. Callupon your spiritual strength, the real man or woman of you. Face the futurewith courage. This is the Way of Universal Wisdom.

(References: The Key to Theosophy, H.P. Blavatsky, pp. 227-28;Collected Writings, H.P. Blavatsky, IV, pp. 189, 259-61; The Ocean ofTheosophy, W. Q. Judge, pp. 107-08; Studies in Occult Philosophy, G. dePurucker, p. 617; The Esoteric Tradition, G. de Purucker, pp. 693-99).

W.E.S. - Dying with dignity and 'suicide with dignity' are two differentthings. They both concern an attitude of mind, and in this regard thetheosophical philosophy is most helpful. Theosophy helps one know himself.When he is faced with problems of almost overwhelming psychological forcehe knows he cannot avoid a solution by 'blanking out' so to say; suicide is nohelp; for he will have that same problem to face - eventually, in some futurelife, and it will be more difficult then. He knows also that for some reason oranother he is responsible for his mental condition of turmoil, and thattherefore in the long run only he can change it. But he knows too that he isnot essentially an evil person; he has performed good deeds in this life andother lives, and the fruit of these acts at the right cyclic time will come to himas a benevolent force which will help him in solving seemingly impossibleproblems. He must learn, therefore, to cooperate with universal nature; learnto quiet the stormy tempest of his intermediate nature, so that the waves thatseem so overpowering and uncontrollable will gradually subside and theforces tearing him apart become neutralized. He can then pursue his waywith growing degree of calmness.

Dying from the attacks of incurable disease is altogether another matter.Here the patient is facing his last months or weeks or days knowing that themedical prognosis is that he cannot recover; he is in great and perhapsconstant physical pain. Is then "euthanasic suicide ... carried out with theloving understanding of family and friends" justifiable? 'Suicide' is the wrongword. The wise physician, with the cooperation of patient and family, is in theposition to alleviate the patient's pain by medicine and drugs. He does not putan end to life, but he does not galvanize a body into continued tortuousexistence against the very protest of the body just for the sake of keeping italive; he cooperates with Nature in easing the way out for the soul, preparedin degree and ready for release. This is not taking the patient's life before thedestined time has come; it is not suicide on the patient's part; it is merelysensibly cooperating with Nature in these last moments when the RealIndividual must separate itself from the temporal personality. To keep a body'alive' by stimulants and drugs in its last hours is not 'dying with dignity'; butto let the reincarnating soul continue on its journey, aiding its release by wisemedical care administered to the body, seems, as I understand thetheosophical philosophy, a sensible and wise course to pursue. This is a farcry from euthanasia in any form, an act or practice we are not as a peoplemorally fit to use, nor is it ever right to seek to contravene Nature's ownmajestic processes. Once we come to understand that man is an immortalsoul, and as such is essentially deathless, destined to return life after life inorder to learn in this great schoolhouse of the Universe, and that he isresponsible for his acts and thoughts, then the difficulties surrounding thisproblem fade away.

- Eclectic Theosophist, March 15, 1973

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Thoughts by the Wayside - On Suicide

[by Maj. Hubert S. Turner]

Spread over the front pages of most of our larger newspapers, quiterecently, was a news report covering the suicide of a very prominent banker.The article covered the subject matter of some notes that this internationally

known man had left behind him, when he decided to try and improve hiscondition, by committing the error of destroying his body, the only thing whichwould allow him to improve his condition.

The following are a few extracts from these notes: "I have no troublesof any kind, nor am I in bad physical health - but for a long, long time I havepreen depressed MENTALLY, and suffered from melancholia that steadilygets worse. Except for this MENTAL depression, I have everything to live for:good friends, lovely business associates, and a good future in this world, withfinancial ease. But I am unhappy - MENTALLY."

The presidency of the bank he headed paid him $72,000 per year[[1945]], so financial worries were not even a contributory cause to hisproblem. He owned a beautiful country estate, so an unpleasant environmentcould not have helped bring on his depression. The loss of his wife, two yearsago, is the only thing that can be found in the record, that might account forthe despondency noted.

It is an interesting case, especially when so many people are assuredthat HAPPINESS always follows in the train of wealth and the possession ofmany THINGS. This man had all that, yet he reiterates he was MENTALLYunhappy. Searching for a key to the problem, we find it in his own repeatedwords "Mentally Unhappy." It is quite a common error to consider Happinessor Unhappiness as a MENTAL function. In reality these two Intangibles ofLife are functions of the HEART and not the mind. The error comes fromconfusing the meaning of the words HAPPINESS and PLEASURE. The latteris something that tickles and appeals to the Mind, which is why Pleasure canbe found in a Night Club, but never happiness. Happiness comes from aheart throbbing and invariably involves someone or something outside of theHappiness Feeler, which acts as recipient of the Feeler's Bounty. This is whyHappiness is felt in the presence of a Loved One, the latter being the centeror focus of that which is poured out. Pleasure is felt in the presence ofsomething, which appeals only to the MIND and which operates from outside,poured out towards the individual who "Feels Pleasure."

From this we can see that this victim of his own folly could not findhappiness, merely because he looked for it on the Mental Plane of Life,instead of looking for it on the Spiritual Plane, where it belongs. The heartresponds to influences of a Spiritual Nature only. It is the attachment tothings and the conviction that all else is confined to the mind, that is the causeof all the Unhappiness in the world. The heart is simply starved, contact withanything Spiritual stops and the mind and body left alone with themselves,find the tie unendurable, so the MIND causes the body to destroy itself.

And that causes us to consider that perhaps that very same thing is

what is happening to the entire world. The World Soul has shriveled up oratrophied from disuse. The World Mind and Body are simply appalled athaving to get along together alone, so the World Mind devises frightfulEngines of Destruction to destroy the World Body; in order that World Mindmay live alone with itself.

MORAL: - If you are Unhappy, unlock your heart and get interested insomething outside of yourself, and HAPPINESS will always follow.

And that's Heart Doctrine Theosophy!

- The Wayfarer. (From Theosophia, May-June, 1945)

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Quotes on Suicide from The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett

....But there is another kind of "Spirits," we have lost sight of: the

suicides and those killed by accident. Both kinds can communicate, and bothhave to pay dearly for such visits. And now I have again to explain what Imean. Well, this class is the one that the French Spiritists call -- "les EspritsSouffrants." They are an exception to the rule, as they have to remain withinthe earth's attraction, and in its atmosphere -- the Kama-Loka -- till the verylast moment of what would have been the natural duration of their lives. Inother words, that particular wave of life-evolution must run on to its shore. Butit is a sin and cruelty to revive their memory and intensify their suffering bygiving them a chance of living an artificial life; a chance to overload theirKarma, by tempting them into opened doors, viz., mediums and sensitives, forthey will have to pay roundly for every such pleasure. I will explain. Thesuicides, who, foolishly hoping to escape life, found themselves still alive, --have suffering enough in store for them from that very life. Their punishmentis in the intensity of the latter. Having lost by the rash act their seventh andsixth principles, though not for ever, as they can regain both -- instead ofaccepting their punishment, and taking their chances of redemption, they areoften made to regret life and tempted to regain a hold upon it by sinful means.In the Kama-Loka, the land of intense desires, they can gratify their earthlyyearnings but through a living proxy; and by so doing, at the expiration of thenatural term, they generally lose their monad for ever.... (MLs, p. 109,

Theosophical University Press edition. [fate of accident victims following this])

.....The rule is, that a person who dies a natural death, will remain from"a few hours to several short years," within the earth's attraction, i.e., in theKama-Loka. But exceptions are, in the case of suicides and those who die aviolent death in general. Hence, one of such Egos, for instance, who wasdestined to live -- say 80 or 90 years, but who either killed himself or waskilled by some accident, let us suppose at the age of 20 -- would have to passin the Kama Loka not "a few years," but in his case 60 or 70 years, as anElementary, or rather an "earth-walker"; since he is not, unfortunately for him,even a "shell." Happy, thrice happy, in comparison, are those disembodiedentities, who sleep their long slumber and live in dream in the bosom ofSpace! And woe to those whose Trishna will attract them to mediums, andwoe to the latter, who tempt them with such an easy Upadana. For in graspingthem, and satisfying their thirst for life, the medium helps to develop in them --is in fact the cause of -- a new set of Skandhas, a new body, with far worsetendencies and passions than was the one they lost. All the future of this newbody will be determined thus, not only by the Karma of demerit of the previousset or group but also by that of the new set of the future being. Were themediums and Spiritualists but to know, as I said, that with every new "angelguide" they welcome with rapture, they entice the latter into an Upadanawhich will be productive of a series of untold evils for the new Ego that will beborn under its nefarious shadow, and that with every seance -- especially formaterialization -- they multiply the causes for misery, causes that will makethe unfortunate Ego fail in his spiritual birth, or be reborn into a worseexistence than ever -- they would, perhaps, be less lavishing theirhospitality..... And now, you may understand why we oppose so stronglySpiritualism and mediumship.... (MLs, pp. 112-13)

....As well call a suicide a man who meets his death in a storm at sea,

as one who kills himself with "over-study.".... Would Mr. Hume call her [HPB]a suicide were she to drop down dead over her present work? Motive iseverything and man is punished in a case of direct responsibility, neverotherwise. In the victim's case the natural hour of death was anticipatedaccidentally, while in that of the suicide, death is brought on voluntarily andwith a full and deliberate knowledge of its immediate consequences. Thus aman who causes his death in a fit of temporary insanity is not a felo de se tothe great grief and often trouble of the Life Insurance Companies. Nor is heleft a prey to the temptations of the Kama Loka but falls asleep like any other

victim. (p. 132)

....suicides who are not dead but have only killed their physical triad,

and whose Elemental parasite, therefore, are not naturally separated from theEgo as in real death.... (p. 171)

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