Why are we committing SUICIDE?

[abbiejoice]

I couldn’t help but wonder why suicide had been so prevalent in our times, a time when we have such comforts and riches people in the past never even dreamt of. What is there to lose all interest in the life we’re living in? What kind of depression is there to make us overcome even the fear of death itself rather than face our present lives?

In my previous article MAN’S PURPOSE, I’ve noted how only human beings were asking what meaning there is in their lives. The answer I found was that we are the only ones gifted with free will. Unlike animals, we are not bound to merely do what our bodies were designed to perform, like birds who were meant to fly for instance, or a fish who’s meant to swim. On the contrary, we are gifted with the opportunity to choose how it is we should make use of our lives, how we can live it to the very full.

Yet why the frustration? Why the emptiness and loneliness that went along with it instead? Somehow, I couldn’t help but think that one reason is the death of our belief in a God to whom we are accountable to, and to whom we can offer our lives.

I believe that each of us needs purpose, each needs to be loved, each has the desire to please somebody else other than the self. And in these times when we are bombarded with millions of ideas on self improvement, self gratification and self worship, is it not obvious why we become so frustrated? We get disappointed because we are not perfect ourselves, atleast, not yet. We fail ourselves. And when we do, we have no one else to run into because eveybody else is busy with their own selves, in their own worlds.

In truth, we may be killing ourselves because God has left us, because we thought we couldn’t run to Him anymore in our darkest hour, when all else and everybody else has deserted us. We ARE DYING FOR GOD.

ITAKEOFFTHEMASK.COM

(subscribers can download free e-book on HEALING and LIFE ANSWERS)

[24evita]

Personally I think the reason that suicide is so prevalent today is for 2 main reasons:

1) People have taken religion so out of context over the past hundreds of years that today we get these very hard to live with versions that have little depth and practicality in our lives. So something that is supposed to "save you" is actually "killing you"

For example this whole idea of judgement day and sin, etc. I don't think people are buying it anymore. And besides most Christian religions teach that no matter what you do you will be forgiven (just have to spend more time in purgatory) and so people feel anything is better than living in confusion and without purpose and so they end their physical life here.

AND

2) We live in a world of crazy demands (we did this to ourselves of course) and the ego has a lot to do with this. There is always this not enoughness, not enough friends, love, money, etc. So people just can't keep up with the rat race and they feel that sucide is the only way out.

There are of course isolated psychological cases, but in a direct or indirect way I still think it stems from either number one or two.

[Jennihul]

I think because the consciousness shift is going to occur soon, in the next few years, less enlightened souls are getting a little confused and frustrated at their inability to evolve to a higher spiritual level in time and are coming into new bodies without proper preparation.

Just send them love. What they don't realize is that everything will be ok no matter what your level of enlightenment. The evolved among us will take them higher even if they can't get there themselves.

Jennifer

[missing]

society doesn't really give people anything to live for these days. You really have to figure out your own reason to live and for some people there just doesn't seem any point. Which is a problem when dealing with the hassles of the day to day. Just doesn't seem worth the trouble. Also suicide may be the only powerful act some people feel they can still make.

[Plato]

I don't think I understand what a consciousness shift means. Sounds good though if it will mean a significant change in our culture. We have no morality. We think we do but in reality it's just fragmented parts of what was previously a functional system. We have the language of morality without the teleological beliefs that made it work from the beginning of human civilisation until the reformation. And people actually celebrated the so-called "freedom from superstition" so this disaster was covered up in history and it's only recently that some philosophers have begun to piece the puzzle together.

This idea is pioneered in Alasdair MacIntyre's "After Virtue" which is considered the most important book in philosophy of the last 30 years. It's not easy reading but check it out if you're interested. His conclusion is that Thomas Aquinas' interpretation of Aristotle's ethics is the high point in human efforts to uncover an objective morality- called Thomism.

[abbiejoice]

Thinking about it, it's really painful to live without a purpose. And more than the physical redemption or going up into heaven one day as popularly referred to as salvation by many religions, I believe we need to be redeemed from within first, to discover who we really are, forgive ourselves of our shortcomings and believe we can be loved for who we really are. Now the last one doesn't sound so easy when we look around and see how we are constantly being ignored. Maybe the real problem is the lack of belongingness and connection to something we can accept as meaningful. For many people, that would be LOVE. But then again, we have stereotyped that love into a romantic affair that we fail time and again to have. Maybe we can define it more broadly into something more tangible yet more lasting, something that is not so exclusive and so elusive as to not be deserving of it, but something that is available to us all. We have put LOVE into a box in the same way that we have put GOD in it, and when things could not fit in, guess what happens?

[abbiejoice]

I agree with you, (missing), that for some, suicide is the only powerful thing they feel they can do. I would like to put it this way, that in committing suicide, they are making a statement. And what statement would that be? That they have been ignored, disregarded and trampled upon by the people around them. Maybe it came with a hope that in the end, even though they die, somebody has noticed them for what they have done. Maybe it is also an angry statement, anger for all the people that failed to see their worth. Yet is it worth it? What do we achieve by doing something for such kinds of people who care nothing at all about us?

[Plato]

abbiejoice- you talk about people being upset at their failures and being ignored by people. I would argue that the most distressing thing in the world is actaully getting everything you ever wanted and realising you are STILL miserable.

[Old Soul]

I think people have lost hope... when you have no hope, you have no dream..

"Sow a seed of hope"
Awaken to a dream
lay upon your bed of faith
and move a mountain
to carry out that dream
The hands of charity
will run to meet you
together we will fulfill the dream
thanking God for the seed sown in all of us
Love
the reason for everymans dream

[Plato]

I think people have misguided dreams... misguided by social conditioning that's telling us that money, fame and fairytale romance will make us happy.

[smartile]

Ask a crappy question and you'll get a crappy answer.

Why not ask better questions?
Could you ask a better question?
Would you ask a better question?
When?

What is your purpose/vision/desire to be alive?
What excites you?
What makes you feel alive?

See what comes of that....

[Jennihul]

Because souls choose their next life before being re-incarnated, you have to basically allow their purpose to unfold. I'm not saying ignore people that seem to need help but when all is said and done, it's their soul-level decision and there is always purpose behind it even if we around them cannot fathom what it is.

It's a truly heroic choice, in the scheme of things, to choose a life of misery and early death as a tool to teach humanity, or another person, or your own soul, a lesson it needs to learn.

Jennifer

[Plato]

Is that a joke?

[Chado2423]

apathy and lonliness is your answer... it is the way a person feels inside... that's it; like there is no one to live for, not even one's self. The other answers are superficial. Read my posts, you'll see.

[Plato]

Chad...I think the question is what causes us to feel lonliness and apathy...

[missing]

Originally Posted by Plato

We have no morality. We think we do but in reality it's just fragmented parts of what was previously a functional system. We have the language of morality without the teleological beliefs that made it work from the beginning of human civilisation until the reformation. And people actually celebrated the so-called "freedom from superstition" so this disaster was covered up in history and it's only recently that some philosophers have begun to piece the puzzle together.

I agree with this though I would replace "morality" with "values" though the two are intertwined. The things most people claim to live for ring very hollow when spoken about. Even on this forum, a step up from society at large, it's chockful of cliches and tired advice. Sure you can find a gold nugget by digging a bit but when you are surrounded by so much deadness on a mass scale it starts to weigh down on you. You lose the energy and ability to dig deeper for these nuggets which are really all the keeps you going. Eventually you run out of energy and give up. I should mention I think Steve Pavlina has talent for mining these nuggets and bringing them to the surface for others to see (I suppose that's why he rakes in the $$$, that combined with his technical skills). But he is one small voice in the greater scope of society and can only do so much to help.

Of course I can't "prove" the above, it's more a feeling I get. I also don't think we as individuals are "dead", but most do get trapped into going through the motions via convention. Even though they don't think that's what's happening to them as they are too busy distracting themselves with "life". Despite the pronouncements of "rugged individualism" so pervasive in our culture I believe we need more from society. It is a powerful physical manifestation and reminder of our unity deep down, but when all it can offer is the chance at dead material wealth we suffer emotionally and lose contact with our true being. It's this cultural failure that makes us feel more alone than we really are, and drives us to drastic self destructive acts like suicide (amongst other things). When you add in the pain and suffering that life often brings naturally, the isolation and lack of true meaning starts to feel like a big cosmic joke, and I don't mean the funny kind but the sick kind.

abbiejoice

I agree with you, (missing), that for some, suicide is the only powerful thing they feel they can do. I would like to put it this way, that in committing suicide, they are making a statement. And what statement would that be? That they have been ignored, disregarded and trampled upon by the people around them. Maybe it came with a hope that in the end, even though they die, somebody has noticed them for what they have done. Maybe it is also an angry statement, anger for all the people that failed to see their worth. Yet is it worth it? What do we achieve by doing something for such kinds of people who care nothing at all about us?

most people do care but we've been trapped by a system that forces us to suppress our natural empathy to survive. I think this is what suicide makes us most aware of, and it's the reason it angers most people. They don't like thinking about how they themselves have also been played in the same cosmic joke, but suicides force them to confront this reality.

[Plato]

Yes, I suppose if we are talking exclusively virtue ethics the word value is more appropriate than morality. The question is, who is going to carve out a new culture for us that defines people in terms of their roles rather than as individuals? How could that possibly come about? It's not the kind of thing you can take a vote on...

[Chado2423]

Originally Posted by Plato

Chad...I think the question is what causes us to feel lonliness and apathy...

That my friend is an answer I can't give you. If I knew what to do in my case, I'm sure I'd be a lot better. Its not just about ethics and world values. Its about the nature of your being, of what you think, AND how you feel, beyond that there is no real answer... sorry

(*somone suffering from depression*)

[Old Soul]

apathy

Maybe apathy is a symptom of lost hope...

[bellemeadows]

I think that we are taught to focus on the wrong things, and unless we learn how to shift our focus to the things that matter, we find despair and hopelessness at the end of that path (or sometimes at the beginning of the path, or in the middle).

We in western-european cultures are marketed to all the time; bombarded with marketing. We grow up with it. It is such an intrinsic part of our thinking that it is very difficult to separate what we are from what we think we are from the perspective of what the marketers have told us we are. From a marketing perspective we are the person who needs things or people, or beauty, or houses, or cars. . . . . We are needy, and they are happy to help us fulfill those needs. The thing is, if you start from the core belief that you are needy, NOTHING will change that. You can win the 200 million lottery and still be needy; just not needy with money. Still needy; and needy is a painful place by design.

To find some peace within yourself, you must choose to go beyond needy, and find that you are fulfilled. Whether you have stuff or not, whether you have beauty or not, whether you have

insert whatever you are currently chasing

or not.

Happiness is a choice, not something you fall into. You must choose happiness, if you want it.

As for having a set of morals to live by; I find that those who are truly happy have morals. They don't need morals to be dictated to them by some outside agency that again has the hidden agenda of controlling them -- like the traditional churches. The happy person quickly discovers they don't need to envy (it makes them unhappy, so they choose not), they don't need to steal (it undermines their happiness, so they choose not), and on and on.

They find that independence and self-reliance support a state of happiness, the state they choose, so they go for it. They find that kindness and cooperation support a state of happiness, the state they choose, so they go for it. Honesty, etc, all the things we think of as virtues really do support being happy. Have you ever noticed how happy some of those saints were; some of them were so happy they glowed. But from a conventional modern western-european cultural perspective it makes no sense. They were willing to give all the other stuff away -- they choose happiness, instead. I think we can choose it too, even those of us who aren't saints. And I do.

I like Joseph Camplell's directive to all of us -- Follow your bliss!

My question to you is, what do you choose? I choose happiness today, because happiness is a choice only I can make for myself. What about you?

Blessings from Belle,

[Plato]

Originally Posted by Chado2423

That my friend is an answer I can't give you. If I knew what to do in my case, I'm sure I'd be a lot better. Its not just about ethics and world values. Its about the nature of your being, of what you think, AND how you feel, beyond that there is no real answer... sorry

(*somone suffering from depression*)

Why don't you think having a purpose would help? I'm not disagreeing with you- I want counter arguments to what I'm saying.