[Buddha-l] Nirvana Sutra Chapter 19

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Chris, Dan and Lance,

I had the impression that the Buddhist attitude towards what we call 
"suicide" has varied quite a lot, but that it generally was considered 
as taking life, leading to bad rebirth. But exceptions were made for 
arhats, until the unfortunate incident of 500 arhats setting themselves 
to fire (by autocombustion or otherwise) and for bodhisattvas in the 
case of offering their life, or saving others in different ways. Even if 
that may lead to a bad rebirth. I don't know how the Law of karma sorts 
out those complex situations and if "selfless" actions somehow count as 
attenuating circumstances. Vajrayanists don't kill themselves, because 
their bodies are mandalas of deities, in other words the macrocosm. One 
doesn't kill the macrocosm. That would be a terrible sin.

Joy

Dan Lusthaus writes:
>> Yes, Chris. There are already Pali suttas in which Buddha declares of 
>> monks who had committed suicide that they were on to good destinies. 
>> Modern sensibilities aside, asian cultures have not been squeamish 
>> about suicide. In China, Korea and Japan, it is built into the moral 
>> codes of the country (esp. in Japan) -- Buddhism was a never a 
>> counteragent to those cultural tendencies. On the contrary...
> I think this is quite wrong. About East Asia I cannot speak, but you 
> may be reading East Asian attitudes into Indian culture. There are a 
> few exceptional cases where someone reaches nirvāṇa after taking their 
> own life, but suicide is generally seen as a form of taking life, 
> bound to lead to a bad rebirth.
>
> Lance
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