Sandy.
Thank you so much for sharing that with us.
I have known friends who have ended their own lives. As a nurse, I came into contact with people who did also.
My conclusions are much like yours, that it is an utterly selfish act.
I too have spent many days contemplating the value of my own life. Considering, if my place in this world, is of any more value to others, than it is to me.
Like Julie, I too, went through periods of agnosticism.
As has been said, none of us can ever demonstrate, one way or the other. It is a matter of looking at the logic and applying the faith.
I haven't studied Wikka, but I have looked at the Eastern religions. They too view everything as a cycle. We are reborn. Depending upon how you look at it, our next incarnation reflecting the condition of our soul after this one.
This has developed, in many areas, into an attitude of acceptance of events. That every event is a component of what will happen. On most levels we seek to create events because we are each also a component, but events that have happened become an absolute. We cannot change an absolute.
Islam, of course, doesn't accept reincarnation, but takes the absolutist view of events. Their view is that everything is leading to what God has determined.
Reading the Gospels, in isolation from the rest of the Bible, Jesus also seems to allude to this view, of accepting the inevitable.
For my own part, the best decisions I've ever made have been not to end my own life. That it was not intended to end is evidenced by my being here. The effect I and everyone has upon those around us is evidence of mine and everyone's usefulness to what continues to happen.
But equally, I am also very grateful for those feelings, which thankfully are increasingly rare in recent years. My own existence however wretched and possibly pointless, it may seem, it is part of the common experience of all humanity.
Like everyone else, I cannot say what happens after death. I know that, through successive rebirth, Hindus hope to reach a state of awareness where their souls can be absorbed back into the singularity of the Godhead.
On the other extreme, some believe that they will be reborn in a paradise where all problems are eliminated.
My faith tells me that our awareness will continue, though how I cannot say. My logic tells me that our existence and its effects will continue for as long as their is life.
I do apologise for this little bit of mental meandering. I have to say, I am deeply affected by what has been posted in this thread so far. Thank you all for that.
Post Merge: February 10, 2010, 03:35:28 pm
Julie.
My mother lost a child of 2 years, before I was born. She spent many years, deeply disturbed by that and the manner of his death.
She once told me, after I was an adult, that he had come to her, much as he had been when she last saw him and said almost exactly the same.
My wife was incredibly attached to her parents. Throughout her working life, she kept going for them, every month, sending them a portion of her wages.
After her father died, she bought a small shrub. We put it into a pot and it sits on a table in our porch. Every so often, for no apparent reason, it seems to release a perfume. When that happens, she thanks her father because she knows he is still there for her.
These events, like yours, could be easily dismissed, Equally, a patronising explanation could easily be applied.
I can't say why, but I believe these to be real and I believe these to represent what those affected say they are.
I don't have such a connection with anyone, personally. Possibly because, other than my wife, I have never had a very strong connection with anyone.
But I'm reminded of the person who falls in love. For them, the connection is real. For others it is what that person claims it is and little more.
Just as we can never prove the existence of love, we can't dismiss it because of that.
