Buddhists: Why does the path to enlightenment sound eerily close to suicide?

Answer 1

Because it's annihilation of the self.
And as far as you take your"self" to be just that--
you can understandably be worried by the practice.

Answer 2

Buddhist concept of the Non-Self, by all scholars seen as a property of the Enlightened Mind, to have "eliminated" its "ego" or "self", by which such a "person" (or "stone"?) becomes invulnerable, free from suffering. This view utterly leads to the consequence, that Enlightenment is the total extinction of the (immortal) soul, being the "self". After the last physical death, there is no longer a "personality", a "self", an immortal soul left, so reaching Enlightenment could be seen as spiritual suicide? This interpretation of the Non-Self makes Buddhism appear as a negative religion, or philosophy and many thick books have been written by Buddhist scholars in trying to get around this, yet maintaining the Non-Self as the extinction of Self. Of course they ever failed and always will fail to bring any logic, let alone clarity, in this matter - their books only will increase in numbers and become thicker and thicker.
Whatever Siddhartha Gautama Buddha meant with the Non-Self, it was not an "extinction". He may have believed that during the period of his cave life and his disciples then failed to correct this misconception in later writings; possibly ..we will never know for sure.

Answer 3

I am not a Buddhist, but what I understand is that enlightenment means the knowledge of unity of life realizing which you will know that you are part of the entire creation and the true knowledge will release you from birth and death.It is the same thing as eternally living with God as mentioned in the scriptures of other religions.Suicide is death of physical body and the man who commit suicide is bound to take birth again as per the law of karma and has to face the consequences of his actions done in the previous births An enlightened soul attains nirvana, the liberation from the cycle of births and deaths.I request my Buddhist friends to correct me if I am wrong...

Answer 4

Enlightenment is without the burden of the painful attachments, but if suicide itself is a willful act of annhilation, how can that be enlightenment? I have not come to the complete enlightened answer myself. There was a Buddhist leader that set himself on fire, and burned to death in protest. His government allowed him to die, and I was left with this feeling-- gee you only have ONE chance to enlightenment by death, and if you are leaving this earth to make a point to another about thier incivility, isn't that an act of attachment, and thus NOT enlightenment?

Living without pain, emanating love, enjoying a connectedness to this earth.. It would seem that in order to die, you would need to sever all that, rather than maintain it.

Answer 5

The path to enlightenment, like suicide, is a conscious act one takes to surrender. In enlightenment it is the false self and in suicide it is the physical and emotional self.

Answer 6

Do you mean the whole annhiliting the self stuff. Ah no-whats meant there is removing the ego, and recognizing that The "Self" is merely an illusion which interacts with the illusion of the world. Read into it a bit and you'll see.

Answer 7

When someone is fully submerged in Buddhism, it is easy to see the flaws. There is only one truth, and although there are benefits to the meditation that Buddhism teaches (the Bible teaches meditation), and there is also benefit to some of its principles (karma in the Bible is defined as "what you sow, you shall surely reap")...there is still the underlying questions that surface when one searches for the truth that can only be answered by the truth. Of course many, many people will beg to differ, and the Bible predicts such as it always accurately does, but the God of Israel is the only LIVING GOD, the God who announces himself as the ONLY God, and is the God of Love. Jesus also claimed to BE the truth...not to have the truth, or to preach the truth, BUT TO BE the truth. Again, only those who seek will find, but this answers your question.

Answer 8

because you misunderstand it.

First off there is no one path to enlightenment.

But I suspect the part that is giving you this idea has to do with abandoning ego.

But since you give no details, it's hard to respond in any detail. Perhaps you should speak with some Buddhists, or read more about it.

Answer 9

Its funny but Buddhism and suicide do draw their roots from depression of life. Both are escapism and only certain branches of Buddhism do anything to help other people. So depending on which branch you look at it does parallel suicide to some degree.

Answer 10

because you've completely misunderstood it. take a look at the book *the complete idiot's guide to toltec wisdom*. strangely enough, it will provide you with informative insights on buddhist concepts of consciousness and other good stuff.