Theos-Talk Archives (November 2002 Message tt00873)

Several decades ago, a young man who was depressed and unhappy with life 
consulted a well known "theosophist" and told him that he wants to kill 
himself that way his problem will be solved. The "theosophist" pondered a 
few seconds and talked to him and found out that he had some savings and 
told him to go to a small city in Mexico and live there for a year and see 
how things are working out and at the end of the year, if he is still 
depressed and unhappy, it was ok to kill himself and thus the problem will 
be solved. It is over 3 decades and the man is still living in Mexico.

Recently one of my friends was in the hospital and was not in a good shape 
and he refused all treatment and his family concurred with his decision. I 
went and saw him late in the night and took leave of him. Before I took 
leave, I mentioned that he should give a three month try and see how things 
work out. I do not know what happened that night, a week later I found him 
in a far better shape in the hospital after he decided to take treatment. I 
not sure if any of my comment had any effect on him.

As one exposed to theosophy, when I see a suicidal person I would look at 
the circumstances and see if I can motivate the person to see the bright 
side of the situation and finally let him/her make whatever decision he/she 
feels appropriate.

mkr


At 05:49 PM 11/26/02 -0800, you wrote:
>Now we all know that theosophy does not condone
>suicide yet theosophy does condone selfless,
>altruistic actions. The tricky situation for the
>theosophist is this: should a theosophist support
>suicide when there is a benficial outcome involved?


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