- Buddhism and Suicide
- The Case of Channa
- Damien Keown
- University of London, Goldsmiths
Introduction
In his 1983 paper "The 'Suicide' Problem in the Paali Canon," Martin
Wiltshire wrote: "The topic of suicide has been chosen not only for its intrinsic
factual and historical interest but because it spotlights certain key issues in the field
of Buddhist ethics and doctrine."[1] I think Wiltshire
was right to identify suicide as an important issue in Buddhist ethics:[2] it raises basic questions about autonomy and the value of human life, and
plays a pivotal role in related questions such as physician-assisted suicide and
euthanasia.
I will not discuss any of those questions here, since the first priority is to
address the specific "problem" Wiltshire identified in the title of his paper,
namely that suicide seems to be regarded with ambivalence in the Pali canon. Wiltshire
wrote in his opening paragraph: "We should, perhaps, point out that suicide first
presented itself to us as an intriguing subject of enquiry when we discovered that it
appeared to be regarded equivocally within the Canon, that it was both censored and
condoned." The view that suicide is regarded equivocally in the canon goes back at
least to the 1920s. In his 1922 entry on suicide in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and
Ethics, de La Vallee Poussin wrote:
We have therefore good reason to believe (1) that suicide is not an ascetic act leading
to spiritual progress and to nirvaa.na, and (2) that no saint or arhat-- a spiritually
perfect being-- will kill himself. But we are confronted with a number of stories which
prove beyond dispute that we are mistaken in these two important conclusions.[3]
In the same year F.L.Woodward expressed a similar opinion.
There are, however, passages in the Nikaayas where the Buddha approves of the suicide
of bhikkhus: but in these cases they were Arahants, and we are to suppose that such beings
who have mastered self, can do what they please as regards the life and death of their
carcase.[4]
Views of this kind have influenced Western scholarship over the past seventy years.[5] In recent times Becker-- going beyond the evidence of the
texts-- has spoken of the Buddha's "praise" of the suicides of Vakkali and
Channa (1993:136) and claimed that there is a "consistent Buddhist position"
(1993: 137) on suicide (a permissive one).
Various attempts, for the most part along similar lines, have been made to explain why
suicide is prohibited for the unenlightened but permitted for the enlightened. In 1965
Lamotte wrote:
The desperate person who takes his own life obviously aspires to annihilation: his
suicide, instigated by desire, will not omit him from fruition, and he will have to
partake of the fruit of his action. In the case of the ordinary man, suicide is a folly
and does not achieve the intended aim.
This situation is compared with the suicide of an enlightened person:
In contrast, suicide is justified in the persons of the Noble Ones who have already cut
off desire and by so doing neutralised their actions by making them incapable of producing
further fruit. From the point of view of early Buddhism, suicide is a normal matter in the
case of the Noble Ones who, having completed their work, sever their last link with the
world and voluntarily pass into Nirvaa.na, thus definitively escaping from the
world of rebirths (1965:106f).
The significant distinction for Lamotte, then, is that the Arhat acts without desire
whereas the unenlightened person does not. Wiltshire shares this view, commenting that
"suicide is salvifically fatal in most cases, but not for the arahant, since he
cannot be motivated by ta.nhaa (S.I.121).[6] Becker,
too, sees the morality of suicide as turning entirely on motivation, although he
highlights the role of the second of the three "roots of evil" (akusalamuula)
rather than the first. "There is nothing intrinsically wrong with taking one's own
life," he writes, "if not done in hate, anger or fear" (1993:137).
Contrary to views of this kind, it seems to me that Buddhism believes there is
something intrinsically wrong with taking one's own life (or indeed taking any life), and
that motivation-- although of great importance in the assessment of the moral status of
actions-- is not the sole criterion of rightness.[7] My
unease about allowing a determining role to motivation is that it leads in the direction
of an ethical theory known as Subjectivism. Subjectivism holds that right and wrong are
simply a function of the actor's mental states, and that moral standards are a matter of
personal opinion or feelings. For the subjectivist, nothing is objectively morally good or
morally bad, and actions in themselves do not possess significant moral features. The
"roots of evil" approach to moral assessment described above is subjectivist to
the extent that it claims that the same action (suicide) can be either right or wrong
depending on the state of mind of th! e pers on who suicides: the presence of desire (or
fear) makes it wrong, and the absence of desire (or fear) makes it right.
If applied in other moral contexts, however, this reasoning would lead to unusual
conclusions. It would mean, for example, that the wrongness of murder lies solely in the
perpertrator's desire to kill. But this is to take no account at all of the objective
dimension of the crime, namely the wrongness of depriving an innocent person of his life.
In murder, a grave injustice is done to someone, regardless of the murderer's state
of mind. To locate the wrongness of murder solely in desire, is to miss this crucial moral
feature of the act. In suicide, of course, there is no victim, but the comparison
illustrates that moral judgements typically pay attention to what is done, and not
just the actor's state of mind.
To say that suicide is wrong because motivated by desire, moreover, is really
only to say that desire is wrong. It would follow from this that someone who
murders without desire does nothing wrong.[8] The absurdity
of this conclusion illustrates why a subjectivist approach to the morality of suicide is
inadequate. Subjectivism leads to the conclusion that suicide (or murder) can be right for
one person but wrong for another, or even right and wrong for the same person at different
times, as his state of mind changes, and desire comes and goes.
The suggestion that suicide is right for Arhats but wrong for non-Arhats also seems
strange in another respect. Arhats and Buddha's are held up by the tradition as moral
paradigms: in all circumstances to imitate a Buddha or an Arhat is to do right. Suicide,
however, according to the views of Lamotte and others, is an exception to this rule. In
this one respect the unenlightened should not emulate the enlightened. But why should
suicide be the one anomalous moral issue? Why should there be a common morality in
everything else, and a two-tier morality in the case of suicide? There seems no obvious
reason why suicide (and not murder, stealing, or lying) should constitute a "special
case."
The reasons above suggest that the explanation offered by Lamotte and others as to why
Buddhism condones suicide is mistaken. This rejection of subjectivism calls into question
the consensus that Buddhism condones Arhat suicide and suggests that the grounds for this
claim need to be reassessed.
What I wish to do in this paper is take another look at the evidence and see whether it
really does show "beyond dispute," as de La Vallee Poussin thought, that suicide
is condoned. To this end I propose to examine one of the three suicide cases reported in
the Pali canon, namely that of the monk Channa. I have chosen the case of Channa because
it provides the strongest evidence of the three that Buddhism condones suicide under
certain conditions. The case of Channa is well known but has not been examined in detail,
nor have the views of the commentary been taken much into account, something I wish to
remedy here. To anticipate my conclusions it seems to me that on closer examination the
case is less straightforward than has sometimes been thought, both in terms of textual
interpretation and as regards the normative conclusions to be drawn from it.
There are other aspects of the subject of suicide which deserve consideration, but
which I will not have space to explore. In this paper I offer no definition of suicide
since the cases I will mention create no definitional problems: they are all reasonably
clear examples of self-willed and self-inflicted death. The concept of suicide, however,
is complex, and it is by no means easy to offer a definition which is neither too narrow
nor too broad. Many questions arise from how we define suicide viz a viz other
forms of voluntary death. From a Buddhist perspective these include questions such as
whether nirvana is a kind of suicide[9] (the Buddha was
sometimes accused of nihilism), whether the Buddha's own death was suicide,[10] whether feeding one's body to a hungry tigress is
suicide,[11] and whether the Japanese ritual of seppuku
constitutes suicide.[12] It is with some relief that I
leave these matters to one side as this time!
Visiting the Sick
Of the three canonical suicide cases, two-- those of Channa and Godhika-- are recounted
in the conventional canonical format for describing visits to the sick.[13] Visiting the sick is regarded as a worthy activity for monks.[14] The following pattern is typical of such accounts,
although there is considerable variation:
- Patient is introduced by name with a stock description of his condition
("afflicted, suffering and gravely ill")[15]
- Patient sends an emissary asking for a religious visit[16]
- A senior disciple or the Buddha comes to visit
- Visitor expresses the hope that the condition is improving but patient reports the
condition is deteriorating
- Visitor delivers a sermon then leaves
- Something happens to the patient (recovers, dies, commits suicide)
- News of what has transpired is reported to the Buddha
- The Buddha makes a pronouncement.
Several other cases follow the pattern of the suicides but without ending in
self-inflicted death. Wiltshire, however, treats these as relevant to the issue of
suicide:
Owing to their fundamental resemblance to the indubitable suicide stories, we shall
treat these as relevant to the issue. The problem of decipherment is partly created by the
Paali locution katakaala (lit.,"making an end") which is used both for death by
natural causes and for suicide.[17]
Wiltshire goes astray here in two respects. The first is a minor one: the compound katakaala
does not occur in the canon and the term invariably used is kaalakata. More
important, however, is his suggestion that this term is used for suicides. There is no
reason to suppose from the contexts that any of the 174 occurrences of this term in the
canon involve death by suicide.[18] Kaalakata
simply means "dead," and in the absence of further qualification there is no
reason to think it denotes suicide any more than the use of the English word
"dead" implies a death by suicide. It is noteworthy that the term kaalakata
is not used anywhere in connection with the three bhikkhu suicide cases: instead
all three are said to have "used the knife" (sattha.m aaharesi).[19] By including the other cases in his discussion of
suicide Wiltshire gives the impression that suicide was more ! common than it was.
Assuming these stories to be connected with the three suicides, he writes:
The stories which belong in this category are those of the bhikkhu Assaji (S.III.124)--
this story succeeds Vakkali's in the Sa.myutta text and shares the same format,
apart from not mentioning his death; it was probably thought superfluous to mention this,
as the primary object of these suttas is convey doctrine on the khandhas -- and of
the two upaasakas Anaathapi.n.dika (M.III.258; S.V.380) and Diighaavu (S.V.344).[20]
There is no reason to link any of these stories to the suicides, and it is pure
speculation to assume that any of the deaths involved a suicidal intent. As Wiltshire
himself notes, the suicide cases are clearly distinguished by the reference to the monks
"using the knife," but there is no reference to this in any of the cases
mentioned above. As far as Assaji is concerned, the text reports (S.v.380ff) that he is
gravely ill with a breathing complaint. The Buddha visits and gives teachings but, as
Wiltshire notes, no mention is made of the patient's death. Anaathapi.n.dika is visited
once by Saariputta (unusually, his pains disappear!) and once by Aananda. In neither case
is his death reported nor is there any mention of death being contemplated. The episode of
Diighaavu (A.v.344), a lay-disciple, follows the familiar pattern. Diighaavu is seriously
ill and his condition is deteriorating. He requests a visit from the Buddha who comes and
give teachings. Diighaavu dies and th! e Budd ha reveals that he has been reborn as a
non-returner (anaagaamin).
In fact there are only two cases in the canon which give any reason at all for
thinking that suicide may be condoned, those of Channa and Vakkali.[21] In the third case-- that of Godhika-- the Buddha voices no opinion at
all on the monk's suicide. Even in the case of Vakkali the Buddha simply predicts that
Vakkali's death will not be "ill" (apaapika)[22]
-- a statement which could be interpreted in a variety of ways.[23] Only in one case-- that of Channa-- is anything resembling exoneration
given after the event. This takes the form of a short statement by the Buddha which is
translated by F. L. Woodward as follows:
For whoso, Saariputta, lays down one body and takes up another body, of him I say
"He is to blame." But it is not so with the brother Channa. Without reproach was
the knife used by the brother Channa.[24]
It would not be exaggerating greatly to say that the claim that suicide is permissible
for Arhats rests to a large extent on the above passage. I will come in a moment to some
reasons why the above translation may be doubtful, but even taking it at face value I
think we should exercise caution before interpreting it to mean that suicide by Arhats is
permissible.
The first point to note is that the Buddha does not explicitly state that he condones
suicide by Arhats. He neither says this here, nor does he say it anywhere else. What the
Buddha actually says in the first part of his statement is something slightly different,
namely that what he regards as blameworthy is grasping after a new body. This is little
more than an affirmation of standard Buddhist doctrine.[25] The
Buddha could be seen here, as on numerous other occasions, as skillfully taking advantage
of the context to make an point about the importance of remaining focused on the goal. In
other words, Channa's death becomes a poignant occasion for the Buddha to emphasize the
urgency of putting an end to rebirth.[26]
The trickier bit to explain, however, is the final part of the statement where the
Buddha says "Without reproach was the knife used by the brother Channa." Do
these words not clearly imply, as Wiltshire and others have suggested, an exoneration with
respect to suicide? Yes, I think they do. Nevertheless, I do not think this leads to the
conclusion that Buddhism condones suicide. Exoneration and condonation are two
different things. Exoneration is the removal of a burden (onus) of guilt, while
condonation is the approval of what is done. These two terms reflect the distinction--
well established in Western ethics and law-- between the wrongfulness of acts and the
guilt incurred by those who commit them. Although an act may be wrong in itself, the
burden of guilt incurred in its commission may vary. Self-defence, provocation, duress,
and insanity are all grounds which mitigate otherwise wrongful acts. It is also widely
recognized with respect to suicide in partic! ular t hat there may be psychological and
other factors present which diminish responsibility.[27] This
is one reason suicide has been decriminalized in many jurisdictions.
If, like Woodward, we translate the Buddha's concluding statement to the effect
that Channa used the knife "without reproach," it could mean simply that--
that the Buddha felt it would be improper to blame or reproach Channa (or someone in his
situation). This need not mean that suicide is morally right: it simply acknowledges that
the burden of guilt in many circumstances may be slight or non-existent.[28] Thus we might say in the present case the Buddha is exonerating Channa
rather than condoning suicide. Wiltshire makes a similar point:
Apart from representing putative cases of suicide, these stories share one further
overriding theme -- each of the protagonists is suffering from a serious degenerative
illness -- So, when we try to understand why they are exonerated, it is initially
necessary to appreciate that their act is not gratuitously performed, but constrained by
force of circumstances.[29]
The discussion so far, then, would suggest that there is no need to see the Buddha's
pronouncement on Channa as establishing a normative position on suicide by Arhats. At the
very least, the evidence falls a long way short of proving "beyond dispute" that
suicide for Arhats is condoned.
So far I have discussed the Buddha's exoneration of Channa out of context. What I would
like to do for the remainder of the paper is take a closer look at the facts of the case.
The closer we look, the less confident I think we will feel about drawing any firm
conclusions from it.
Channa
The story of Channa[30] occurs in two places in the
canon, once in the Majjhima-nikaaya[31] and once in the
Sa.myutta-nikaaya.[32] I will first of all summarise the
narrative in the main text and then consider the views of the commentary.
The Channovaada-sutta relates how Saariputta, Mahaa Cunda and Channa were
residing on Vulture Peak mountain. Channa was "afflicted, suffering, and gravely
ill."[33] Arising from his evening meditation,
Saariputta suggests to Mahaa Cunda that they visit the ailing Channa, which they do.
Enquiring about Channa's health they are told that his condition is deteriorating rather
than improving. The nature of the illness itself is not diagnosed but the symptoms are
described in stock terms identical to those of the layman Anaathapi.n.dika in the
preceding sutta. Both men complain of intense pain in the head and stomach, and throughout
the body generally. The head pain is said to be like having one's head split open with a
sharp sword, or having a leather strap progressively tightened around the head like a
headband. The stomach pain is compared to having one's belly carved up by a sharp knife,
in the way a butcher might carve up an oxe's bell! y. The body pain is likened to tha t of
being roasted over a pit of hot coals. The head and stomach pains are attributed to the
action of "violent winds" (adhimattaa vaataa), but no specific cause is
mentioned for the more diffuse but no less intense bodily pain.[34]
After describing his condition, Channa declares "I shall use the knife, friend
Saariputta, I have no desire to live."[35] On hearing
this the immediate response of Saariputta is to dissuade Channa from taking his life:
Let the venerable Channa not use the knife! Let the venerable Channa live-- we want the
venerable Channa to live![36] If he lacks suitable food, I
will go in search of suitable food for him. If he lacks suitable medicine, I will go in
search of suitable medicine for him. If he lacks a proper attendant, I will attend on him.
Let the venerable Channa not use the knife! Let the venerable Channa live-- we want the
venerable Channa to live!
In response to this entreaty-- which I believe encapsulates the normative Buddhist
stance on suicide-- Channa explains that he lacks neither food, medicine or care. He then
remarks, somewhat obliquely, that he has long served the teacher with love as is proper
for a disciple, before repeating his intention to "use the knife":
Friend Saariputta, it is not that I have no suitable food and medicine or no proper
attendant. But rather, friend Saariputta, the Teacher has long been served by me with
love, not without love; for it is proper for the disciple to serve the Teacher with love,
not without love. Friend Saariputta, remember this: the monk Channa will use the knife
blamelessly.
There is no logical connection between the three ideas in this passage (I have suitable
food -- I have served the teacher -- I will use the knife) which suggests some textual
interpolation may have taken place.[37] More important,
however, is that in claiming that his his action will be blameless (anupavajja)
Channa now introduces a moral dimension to his earlier declaration of suicide.
Or does he? The commentary offers an interesting gloss on the term anupavajja,
the key word which will later be used by the Buddha apparently in exoneration. The
commentary offers two synonyms for anupavajja in this context: the first is anuppattika
meaning "without further arising," and the second is appa.tisandhika
which means "not leading to rebirth."[38] Read
this way Channa is saying "Saariputta, I will use the knife and not be reborn--
remember I said this." According to the commentary, then, Channa is making a factual
statement-- perhaps a prediction-- rather than passing a moral judgement on suicide.
After this the subject changes and first Saariputta and then Mahaa Cunda speak to
Channa on matters of doctrine. Both elders then get up and leave, and soon afterwards
Channa "uses the knife". Saariputta then approaches the Buddha and-- clearly
believing that Channa was not an Arhat-- asks for information about Channa's post-mortem
destination (gati) and future course (abhisamparaaya). The Buddha's response
betrays a degree of impatience and implies that Saariputta should already know the answer:
"But surely, Saariputta," he says, "the monk Channa told you in person of
his anupavajjataa!"[39] What does anupavajjataa
mean here? Since Saariputta's question was about rebirth, the context supports the
commentarial interpretation of anupavajja as meaning "not being reborn"
very well and makes the Buddha's reply perfectly intelligible. The Buddha is saying
something like "Wake up, Saariputta-- you are asking me ab! out th e rebirth of
someone who told you himself he was anupavajja-- not going to be reborn!" To
take anupavajja here in the sense of "blameless" would not fit the
context nearly so well, since Saariputta was asking for simple factual information on
Channa's destiny, not a moral judgement on the way he died.
Immediately after this exchange Saariputta uses the term upavajja again in
the context of Channa's association with certain families in the Vajjian village of
Pubbajira, Channa's home town.[40] He refers to these
families as upavajjakulaani. The point of Saariputta's remark here is not clear,
neither is the meaning of upavajjakula. It could mean "blameworthy
family" or it could mean-- as the commentary suggests-- "a family which is to be
visited."[41] The issue, as the commentary explains
it, concerns the fault of overly-close association with kin (kulasa.msaggadosa), a
fault to which Channa seems to have been prone.
We cannot rule out the possibility that despite the macabre context obscure puns on the
meaning of upavajja-- the sense of which it is now difficult to recover-- are being
made throughout this passage. The most likely explanation for Saariputta's remark about
the kinfolk, however, is that he is pointing to another connection in which he had heard
the term upavajja linked to Channa's name. By doing so he defends himself against
the Buddha's criticism that he should know Channa's fate. He is saying, in effect,
"Well, yes, Channa did tell me his death would be anupavajja, but I wasn't
exactly sure what he meant by that since I have heard this term used of him in another
context in connection with visiting certain families."
The Buddha then concludes the discourse with the statement quoted at the start which
has been taken as condoning Arhat suicide. I think that when we place the Buddha's
statement in context, we see that the Buddha is offering not an exoneration of suicide but
a clarification of the meaning of anupavajja for Saariputta's benefit. This is how
his statement might be translated:
True, Saariputta, there are these clansmen and relatives who were visited (upavajjakula)
[by Channa],[42] but I do not say he was "saupavajja"
on that account (ettaavataa). By "saupavajja" I mean that someone
lays down this body and takes up another. That is not the case with respect to Channa.
Channa used the knife without being reborn (anupavajja). This is how you should
understand it, Saariputta.[43]
It is noteworthy that in the Sa.myutta version quoted above, the term anupavajja
is contrasted not as we might expect with upavajja-- the normal word for
"blameworthy"-- but with saupavajja, a word which seems created
specifically for this context, since the only two ocurrences in the entire canon are found
in the passage just quoted. This seems to confirm that upavajja is not being used
here in its everyday sense of "blameworthy," and that the contrast intended is
between anupavajja as "not reborn" and saupavajja as "is
reborn."
By taking the key term anupavajja in the way suggested by the commentary,
which I think fits the context well, the Buddha's concluding remark becomes not an
exoneration of suicide but a clarification of the meaning of an ambiguous word in a
context which has nothing to do with ethics.
The Commentary
The main text makes no reference to Channa gaining enlightenment. We know that Channa died
an Arhat by inference from the Buddha's closing statement, although there is no
corroborating evidence that Channa was an Arhat and no indication of when he became one.
Curiously, it is this question of the timing of Channa's enlightenment which
concerns the commentary most, and it devotes a good deal of effort to show that Channa was
not an Arhat before he committed suicide. It seeks to establish this in two ways.
First, it volunteers a rationale for the specific teaching given to Channa by
Mahaa Cunda. The commentary suggests that Mahaa Cunda gave this teaching because he
deduced from Channa's inability to bear the pain of the illness, and his threat to take
his life, that he was still an unenlightened person (puthujjana).[44] The attribution of this motive to Mahaa Cunda is speculative, since the
text says nothing at all about his motives for selecting the teaching in question. Nor is
Channa referred to in the text as an "unenlightened person" (puthujjana).
Second, the commentary reconstructs Channa's last moments of life to make it very
clear that enlightenment was gained at the last second:
"He used the knife" means he used a knife which removes life-- he cut his
throat. Now in that very moment the fear of death possessed him, and the sign of his next
birth (gatinimitta) arose. Knowing he was unenlightened he was stirred (sa.mviggo)
and aroused insight. Apprehending the formations (sa"nkhaara) he attained
Arhatship and entered nirvana simultaneous with his death (samasiisii hutvaa).
The claim of the commentary is thus that Channa was a samasiisin ("equal
headed"), that is to say someone who dies and attains nirvana simultaneously.[45] This reconstruction of Channa's death is likewise
speculative, since no details at all are supplied in the text. Horner's verdict on the
commentarial version of events is: "The facts could not have been known, and it seems
a rather desperate effort to work up a satisfactory reason for this supposed
attainment."[46] While it seems true that the
commentary's reconstruction can never be verified, the possibility of achieving
"sudden enlightenment" at the critical point "betwixt the bridge and the
brook, the knife and the throat"-- as Robert Burton put it in The Anatomy of
Melancholy[47] -- is recognised in Pali sources, and
there are several examples of people gaining enlightenment just as they are about to kill
th! emselves.[48] The commentarial claim that Channa was
not an Arhat until his death seems also to be widely accepted in the secondary literature.
Wiltshire is of the opinion that none of the three suicides were Arhats before their
deaths. Discussing the case of Godhika he writes:
It so happens that in the other bhikkhu suicide cases, those of Channa and Vakkali, it
is also made quite clear that they too were not arahants until the event of their death,
after which the Buddha pronounces them parinibbuta.[49]
More interesting than the truth or falsity of the commentarial version of events,
however, is the question why the commentary should take such pains to establish that
Channa was not an Arhat. The reason would appear to be that some aspect of Channa's
behaviour was incompatible with the concept held by the tradition of how an Arhat should
conduct himself. In other words, there must be one or more features of Channa's behaviour
that the tradition found hard to swallow in an Arhat. I think there are three things the
commentary might have taken exception to.
The most obvious thing is that the tradition simply found it inconceivable that
an Arhat would be capable of suicide. Although this is nowhere mentioned in the text or
commentary on this episode, it is often stated elsewhere that it is impossible for an
Arhat to do certain things, the first of which is intentionally to kill a living creature.[50] Death-dealing acts of any kind are certainly not in
keeping with the canonical paradigm of the calm and serene Arhat.
We are given a hint as to the second reason why the commentary might be unhappy
with the notion of Channa being an Arhat prior to his suicide attempt in the motivation
attributed to Mahaa Cunda for providing his homily to Channa. The suggestion is made by
the commentary that Mahaa Cunda gave this particular teaching because he saw that Channa
was "unable to tolerate the intense pain" and was seeking death in order to
escape from it. The inability to tolerate pain shows a lack of self-mastery unbecoming to
an Arhat. The danger of a lack of self-mastery is that a monk might do things unbecoming
to his office and thereby cause the Order to lose face in the eyes of society. By
maintaining that Channa was unlightened until the very end, the image of the Arhat remains
untarnished by Channa's all-too-human show of weakness in the face of pain.
The third reason the commentary might have taken exception to suicide by an Arhat
is a sectarian one. Suicide by voluntary fasting (sallekhanaa) is a well-known Jain
practice, and suicide may also have been customary among the Aajiivikas.[51] Channa's suicide, and the two others, might have been seen as
uncomfortably close to a distinctive sectarian practice and perhaps an unwelcome throwback
to the discredited path of self-mortification. The commentary's rejection of suicide by
Arhats, therefore, may also carry an implicit rejection of Jainism.[52]
What is most striking, however, is not what the commentary does say, but what it
doesn't say. I refer to the complete absence of any discussion of the ethics of suicide.
We might expect at least a mention of the third paaraajika, which was introduced
specifically to prevent suicide by monks.[53] What can be
the reason for this silence? Perhaps the simple explanation is that Channa's suicide was
not seen to raise any pressing moral or legal issues: only if Channa was an Arhat would
such questions arise. In the eyes of the commentary, Channa was an unenlightened person (puthujjana)
who, afflicted by the pain and distress of a serious illness, took his own life. Presented
in this light, few ethical problems arise: suicides by the unenlightened are a sad but all
too common affair. By holding that Channa gained enlightenment only after he had
begun the attempt on his life, the commentary neatly avoids the dilemma of an Arhat !
breaking the precepts.
Conclusion
Where does all this leave us with respect to the seventy-year consensus that suicide is
permitted for Arhats? I think it gives us a number of reasons to question it. First, there
is no reason to think that the exoneration of Channa establishes a normative position on
suicide. This is because to exonerate from blame is not the same as to condone.
Second, there are textual reasons for thinking that the Buddha's apparent exoneration
may not be an exoneration after all. The textual issues are complex and it would not be
safe to draw any firm conclusions. It might be observed in passing that the textual
evidence that suicide may be permissible in Christianity is much greater than in Buddhism.
There are many examples of suicide in the Old Testament: this has not, however, prevented
the Christian tradition from teaching consistently[54] that
suicide is gravely wrong. By comparison, Theravaada sources are a model of consistency in
their refusal to countenance the intentional destruction of life.
Third, the commentarial tradition finds the idea that an Arhat would take his own
life in the way Channa did completely unacceptable. Fourth, there is a logical point
which, although somewhat obvious, seems to have been overlooked in previous discussions.
If we assume, along with the commentary and secondary literature, that Channa was not an
Arhat prior to his suicide attempt, then to extrapolate a rule from this case such that
suicide is permissible for Arhats is fallacious. The reason for this is that Channa's
suicide was-- in all significant respects-- the suicide of an unenlightened person.
The motivation, deliberation and intention which preceded his suicide-- everything down to
the act of picking up the razor-- all this was done by an unenlightened person. Channa's
suicide thus cannot be taken as setting a precedent for Arhats for the simple reason that
he was not one himself until after he had performed the suicidal act.
Fifth and finally, suicide is repeatedly condemned in canonical and non-canonical
sources and goes directly "against the stream" of Buddhist moral teachings. A
number of reasons why suicide is wrong are found in the sources[55]
but no single underlying objection to suicide is articulated. This is not an easy
thing to do, and Schopenhauer was not altogether wrong in his statement that the moral
arguments against suicide "lie very deep and are not touched by ordinary
ethics."[56] Earlier I suggested that the "roots
of evil" critique of suicide-- that suicide was wrong because of the presence of
desire or aversion-- was unsatisfactory in that it led in the direction of subjectivism.
The underlying objection to suicide, it seems to me, is to be found not in the emotional
state of the agent but in some intrinsic feature of the suicidal act which renders it
morally flawed. I believe, however, there is a way in whi! ch the two approaches can be
reconciled. To do this we must locate the wrongness of suicide in delusion (moha)
rather in the affective "roots" of desire and hatred.
On this basis suicide will be wrong because it is an irrational act. By this I do
not mean that it is performed while the balance of the mind is disturbed, but that it is
incoherent in the context of Buddhist teachings. This is because suicide is contrary to
basic Buddhist values. What Buddhism values is not death, but life.[57] Buddhism sees death as an imperfection, a flaw in the human condition,
something to be overcome rather than affirmed. Death is mentioned in the First Noble Truth
as one of the most basic aspects of suffering (dukkha-dukkha). A person who opts
for death believing it to be a solution to suffering has fundamentally misunderstood the
First Noble Truth. The First Noble Truth teaches that death is the problem, not the
solution. The fact that the person who commits suicide will be reborn and live again is
not important. What is significant is that through the affirmation of death he has, in his
heart, embraced Maara! . From a Buddhist perspective, thi s is clearly irrational. If
suicide is irrational in this sense it can be claimed there are objective grounds for
regarding it as morally wrong.
Notes
[1]. Wiltshire, Martin G. (1983) "The 'Suicide' Problem in the Paali Canon," Journal
of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 6, pp. 124-140. I am grateful to
Lance Cousins, Peter Harvey and Richard Gombrich for comments on an earlier draft of this
paper. A fuller discussion of suicide will be found in a forthcoming book on Buddhist
ethics by Peter Harvey to be published by Cambridge University Press entitled An
Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values and Issues, and I am grateful to
the author for sight of an advance copy of the relevant chapters.Return
[2]. The literature on suicide includes L. de La Vallee Poussin
"Suicide (Buddhist)" in The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed.
James Hastings (Edinburgh, Clark: 1922) XII, 24-26; Woodward, F.L. (1922) "The Ethics
of Suicide in Greek, Latin and Buddhist Literature," Buddhist Annual of Ceylon,
pp. 4-9; Gernet, Jacques (1960) "Les suicides par le feu chez les bouddhiques
chinoises de Ve au Xe siecle," Melange publies par l'Institut des Hautes Études
Chinoises II, pp. 527-558; Filliozat, Jean (1963) "La Morte Volontaire par le feu
en la tradition bouddhique indienne," Journal Asiatique 251, pp. 21-51; Jan,
Yün-hua (1964-5) "Buddhist Self-Immolation in Medieval China," History of
Religion 4, pp.243-268; Rahula, W. (1978), "Self-Cremation in Mahaayaana
Buddhism," in Zen and the Taming of the Bull, Gordon Fraser, London; Van Loon,
Louis H. (1983) "Some Buddhist Reflections on Suicide," Religion in S!
outhern Africa 4, pp. 3-12; La motte, E. (1987) "Religious Suicide in Early
Buddhism," Buddhist Studies Review 4, pp. 105-126 (first published in French
in 1965); Harvey, Peter (1987) "A Note and Response to 'The Buddhist Perspective on
Respect for Persons'," Buddhist Studies Review 4, pp. 99-103; Becker, Carl B.
(1990) "Buddhist views of suicide and euthanasia," Philosophy East and West
40, pp. 543-556; Becker, Carl B. (1993), Breaking the Circle: death and the afterlife
in Buddhism. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press; Stephen Batchelor,
"Existence, Enlightenment and Suicide: the Dilemma of~Naa.naviira Thera,"
unpublished paper given at The Buddhist Forum, School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London, December 8th 1993. Woodward refers to a discussion of the Channa
episode in "Edmunds, Buddhist and Christian Gospels, ii, 58" but I cannot locate
this passage. For more general treatments see Thakur, Upendra (1963), The History of
Suicide in India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal; Suicide in Different Cultures,
ed. Norman L. Farberow, Baltimore: University Park Press, 1975; Young, Katherine K.
(1989), "Euthanasia: Traditional Hindu Views and the Contemporary Debate," in Hindu
Ethics. Purity, Abortion, and Euthanasia, eds. Harold G. Coward, Julius J. Lipner, and
Katherine K. Young, McGill Studies in the History of Religions, ed. Katherine K.
Young, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, pp. 71-130, esp. pp.103-7. There is
additional literature on ritual suicide in Japan (seppuku), but I see this practice
as bound up with the Japanese Samurai code and as owing little to Buddhism (Becker
apparently disagrees).Return
[3]. 1922:25. In a more recent encyclopedia entry
Marilyn J. Harran writes: "Buddhism in its various forms affirms that, while suicide
as self-sacrifice may be appropriate for the person who is an arhat, one who has attained
enlightenment, it is still very much the exception to the rule" s.v. "Suicide
(Buddhism and Confucianism)" in The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. in chief
Mircea Eliade (New York: Macmillan), vol. 14 p.129.Return
[4]. 1922:8.Return
[5]. Views of this kind with certain variations are expressed by
Poussin (1922), Wiltshire (1983), van Loon (1983), Lamotte (1987), Taniguchi, Shoyu (1987)
"A Study of Biomedical Ethics from a Buddhist Perspective," unpublished MA
Thesis, Berkeley: Graduate Theological Union and the Institute of Buddhist Studies,
p.86-89, Young (1989), Florida, Robert E. (1993) "Buddhist Approaches to
Euthanasia," Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 22, pp. 35-47, p.41.Return
[6]. 1983:134.Return
[7]. On the criteria for moral evaluation in Buddhism see Peter
Harvey "Criteria for Judging the Unwholesomeness of Actions in the Texts of
Theravaada Buddhism," Journal of Buddhist Ethics 2 1995: 140-151. See also
Keown, Damien (1995), Buddhism & Bioethics. (London: Macmillan), pp. 37-64.Return
[8]. It may be objected that it is impossible to murder without
desire or hatred. Regardless of whether this is psychologically true, the theoretical
possibility of desireless murders being regarded as not immoral reveals the inadequacy of
the subjectivist account. Another defect in the account is that the gravity of murders
would be nothing more than a function of the amount of desire present. A "crime of
passion," therefore, would be far more serious than a random "drive-by"
shooting. The fact that courts often take an opposite view gives cause to question this
conclusion.Return
[9]. This is suggested at Miln. 195f.Return
[10]. As suggested, for example, by Florida, Robert E. (1993)
"Buddhist Approaches to Euthanasia," Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses
22, pp. 35-47, p.45. Cf. Poussin, "In the case of "Saakyamuni we have to deal
with a voluntary death" (op cit). We must bear in mind, however, that the Buddha had
rejected Maara's overtures in this direction at the start of his teaching career
(D.ii.102) and did so again three months before his death (D.ii.99).Return
[11]. The story of the hungry tigress is found in the Jaataka-maala
and the Suvar.naprabhaasottama-suutra.Return
[12]. See Fairbairn, Gavin J. (1995), Contemplating Suicide.
London: Routledge, pp. 144ff. Fairbairn suggests that seppuku is not suicide since
the samurai does not seek to end his life, but only to perform his duty.Return
[13]. For example S.v.344 (Diighaavu); S.iv.55, M.iii.263
(Channa); S.iii.119 (Vakkali); S.iii.124 (Assajji); M.iii.258, S.v.380 (Anaathapi.n.dika).Return
[14]. V.5.230(167):2. bhagavataa kho aavuso gilaanupa.t.thaana.m
va.n.nita.m. References in this format are to the BUDSIR edition of the Thai Tipi.taka on
CD-ROM. The present reference is to volume V, p.230, paragraph (or item) 167, line 2.Return
[15]. It is unclear whether Godhika is suffering from an illness
or not.Return
[16]. In the case of Channa item 2 is absent and Saariputta and
Mahaa Cunda visit on their own initiative.Return
[17]. 1983:132.Return
[18]. The same may be said of the 137 occurrences of kaalam
akaasi ("died").Return
[19]. I take this (with the commentary) in a literal sense to mean
that a knife (or similar sharp instrument) was actually employed. The commentary states
that Channa "severed his windpipe" (ka.n.thanaala.m chindi). It is
possible that "using the knife" could be a locution which denotes suicide by any
means, but I think this unlikely given that, as Wiltshire notes (1983:130), a razor is
part of a monk's "kit" (although apparently not referred to as sattha).
It seems likely that "using the knife" is meant in a literal sense, since the
layman who commits suicide at M.ii.109f is not said to have "used the knife" but
to have cut or ripped himself open (attaana.m upphaalesi). Return
[20]. 1983:132.Return
[21]. Other canonical suicides include those of the unnamed monks
in the Vinaya whose deaths led to the promulgation of the third paaraajika.
At M.ii.109f (supra) a husband kills his wife and then himself so they will not be
separated. Cases of attempted suicide leading to enlightenment include those of the monk
Sappadaasa in the Theragaathaa (408), and the nun Siihaa in the Theriigaathaa
(77) (both discussed by Sharma, 1987:123f. Cf Rahula 1978:22f). At Ud. 92f. the aged Arhat
Dabba rises in the air and disappears in a puff of smoke. There is a similar passage on
Bakkula at M.iii.124-8.Return
[22]. Maa bhaayi Vakkali -- apaapaka.m te mara.na.m bhavissati
apaapikaa kaalakiriyaa.Return
[23]. It may be intended as simple reassurance to Vakkali that he
has nothing to fear from death, or a prediction that he will die an Arhat.Return
[24]. Kindred Sayings, vol. IV p.33. In her introductory
essay to the Majjhima translation Horner seems to suggest that the compilers of the
canon had actually "rigged" the text in order to exonerate Channa. Of the
Buddha's exonerating statement she writes "they make him [the Buddha] sanction the
unworthy act of the poor little sufferer" (p. xi.).Return
[25]. The use of the word "blameworthy," however, is
unusual. The Buddha does not elsewhere describe those who are reborn as
"blameworthy."Return
[26]. For example, when asked about worshipping the six directions
in the Sigaalovaada-sutta he deftly switches the context to social relationships.Return
[27]. This distinction is made clear in Catholic teachings. The
Declaration on Euthanasia prepared by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith states: "Intentionally causing one's own death, or suicide, is therefore
equally as wrong as murder -- although, as is generally recognized, at times there are
psychological factors present that can diminish responsibility or even completely remove
it" (Boston: St. Paul's Books and Media, 1980), p.7.Return
[28]. This is similar to Christ's reaction to the woman taken in
adultery: in defending the woman with the words "Neither do I condemn thee,"
(John 8, 11) Christ is not endorsing adultery but displaying compassion for the woman who
has sinned.Return
[29]. 1983:132.Return
[30]. Three Channas are known in the canon: a paribbaajaka,
Gotama's charioteer, and the elder (thera) who commits suicide. Details in DPPN.Return
[31]. Sutta 144.Return
[32]. In the Majjhima-nikaaya it occurs in The Division of
the Sixfold Base (Salaayatanavagga), the fifth and last division of the "final
fifty" (upari-pa.n.naasa). Here, it is the second of the five "advisory" (ovaada)
style discourses which form the first half of the division. In the Sa.myutta-nikaaya
it is found in the Salaayatana-sa.myutta, where the rationale for its inclusion
seems to be the passage in which Saariputta gives teachings to Channa about the six
sense-consciousnesses [S.18.72(107):10ff.].Return
[33]. aabhaadhiko hoti dukkhito baalhagilaano.Return
[34]. The nature of Channa's complaint is not easy to diagnose
from these symptoms. One medical opinion I have received is as follows: "The head
pain is typical of migraine, which is universal and has been recognized for centuries.
Other causes may be an intracranial tumour causing raised intracranial pressure, but this
is often accompanied by vomiting and specific neurological signs which appear to be
missing in this description. The abdominal pain is more difficult. Peritonitis causes this
kind of severe, unremitting pain, and may result from any cause which leads to peritoneal
infection such as a ruptured appendix, perforated ulcer, leaking bowel etc. Another cause
of such pain could be a strangulated intestine, often due to vascular causes in older
people or to twisting of the bowel with loss of blood supply. A third cause in this region
of the world could be intestinal infection such as cholera or typhoid, often accompanied
by diarrhoea. The general! body pain is most difficult. There are not many things that
cause generalized pain. This is typical of myalgia, aching of the muscles, and it may
occur in severe generalized infections, often of viral origin, and in rare metabolic
diseases of muscle in which certain enzymes are lacking. The combination is strange."
I am grateful to my brother Dr Paul A. Keown for this opinion (personal communication 23rd
September 1995). A second opinion, for which I am indebted to Dr Steven Emmett is as
follows: "Both the head and abdominal pain are 'sharp' which tends to point to a
vascular phenomenon, but the pain throughout the body tends to points to an infectious
etiology -- though any severe process can have concomitant body pain -- my guesses would
be lupus erythematosus, viral illness, and possibly syphilis, though I don't know if it
were present in that area of the world at that time, and what would be the chances of holy
men contracting it -- assuming two people had similar illnesse! s at the same time (I
don't know h ow far apart in time the two suttas were) -- but if they were coeval, then an
infectious illness, presumably viral, though possibly bacterial, would be the cause"
(personal communication, 14th September 1995).Return
[35]. Sattha.m aavuso Saariputta aaharissaami naavaka.nkhaami
jiivitan ti. Return
[36]. Maayasmaa Channo sattha.m aaharesi, yaapetaayasmaa Channo
yaapenta.m maya.m aayasmanta.m Channa.m icchaama.Return
[37]. In her translation of the Majjhima passage, Horner
seems to suggest that Channa regards his previous reverence for the teacher as the
justification for his planned course of action: "No, friend Saariputta. I am not
without proper food. I have it. I am not without proper clothing. I have it. I am not
without fit attendants. I have them. I myself, friend, waited on the Master for many a
long day with service that was delightful, not tedious. That, friend, is the proper thing
for a disciple to do. 'In so far as he served the Master with a service that was
delightful, not tedious, blameless (must be accounted) the brother Channa's use of the
knife': so should you uphold, friend Saariputta." Kindred Sayings, vol.II p.31. The
text reads: Eta.m hi aavuso saavakassa pa.tiruupa.m satthaara.m paricareyya manaapeneva no
amanaapena ta.m anupavajja.m channo bhikkhu sattha.m aaharissatiti evameta.m aavuso
saariputta dhaarehiiti. Horner's reading arises fr! om tak ing the ya.m -- ta.m
construction as a separate sentence having the sense of "In so far as -- to that
extent." However, the ta.m is not present in all manuscripts, and in any event
a more plausible reading is to take the ya.m clause as correlative to the initial Eta.m
rather than the ta.m, in the sense of illustrating what is "proper" (pa.tiruupa)
to a disciple rather than announcing a state of affairs which is subsequently justified in
the ta.m clause. Bhikkhus~Naa"namoli and Bodhi do not follow Horner in their The
Middle Length Discourses of The Buddha (Wisdom, 1995).Return
[38]. MA.10.237(390). I am grateful to Lance Cousins for his
observation that the commentary apparently takes the term as deriving from the root VRAJ
(to go, walk, proceed). This term includes associations with rebirth: "with punar
'to return to life'" (Monier Williams, s.v. VRAJ). Another possible derivation is
from PAD. See CPD s.v. "an-upavajja." Woodward suggests: "Sa-upavajjo
(culpable: really 'attended by a supporter')" (1922:8).Return
[39]. Nanu te Saariputta channena bhikkhunaa sammukhaaya eva
anupavajjataa byaakataa ti.Return
[40]. DPPN s.v. "Channa."Return
[41]. Upavajjakulaaniiti upasa"nkamitabbakulaani. This seems
to confirm the derivation from Sanskrit upavrajya, "to be gone to." Cf.
CPD "upa-vajja."Return
[42]. Or, "who are blameworthy."Return
[43]. Honti hete Saariputta Channassa bhikkhuno mittakulaani
suhajjakulaani upavajjakulaaniiti. Na kho panaaha.m Saariputta ettaavataa saupavajjoti
vadaami. Yo kho Saariputta ima~nca kaaya.m nikkhipati a~n~na~nca kaaya.m upaadiyati
tamaha.m saupavajjoti vadaami. Ta.m Channassa bhikkhuno natthi. Anupavajja.m Channena
bhikkhunaa sattha.m aaharitanti evameta.m Saariputta dhaarehiiti [S.18.74(111)].Return
[44]. It introduces this explanation in its elucidation of the
word "Therefore" (tasmaa). "Therefore" means that [this
teaching is given] because Channa was unable to bear the great pain and said he would use
the knife. The venerable Channa was not enlightened (puthujjana), so Mahaa Cunda
tells him to pay attention to this teaching. (Tasmaati yasmaa maara.nantikavedana.m
adhivaasetu.m asakkonto sattha.m aaharaamiiti vadati, tasmaa. Putthujano aayasmaa, tena
idampi manasikarohiiti diipeti.)Return
[45]. The same claim is made about Vakkali and Godhika. The
concept of the samasiisii is put to good use by the commentary in these cases.
Buddhaghosa explains there are three kind of samasiisii. i) Iriyaapatha-samasiisii:
someone selects one of the four postures and resolves not to change posture until they
attain Arhatship. The change of posture and Arhatship occur together. ii) Rogasamasiisii:
someone recovers from an illness and attains Arhatship at the same time. iii) Jiivita-samasiisii:
the destruction of the aasavas (aasavakkhaya) and the end of life (jiivitakkhaya)
occur simultaneously. It is the third which is intended here [SA.11.175(159):6-11].Return
[46]. Kindred Sayings V. p.33Return
[47]. Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Part 1,
Section 4, Member 1. Quoted in Battin, Margaret Pabst (1982), Ethical Issues in Suicide.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, p. 53.Return
[48]. There are cases of "sudden enlightenment" reported
in Pali sources as well as Mahaayaana ones. Rahula writes: "Examples of this kind of
'sudden' awakening or 'sudden' attainment of arahantship are not lacking also in Pali
commentaries." He cites three examples, the last from the Theragaathaa
commentary which is of relevance to our present theme: "Mahaanaama Thera, living on a
mountain, was thoroughly disgusted with his life because he was not successful in getting
rid of such impure thoughts as lust, and just at the moment when he was about to commit
suicide by jumping from the top of a rock, he attained arahantship." Rahula, W.
(1978), Zen and the Taming of the Bull. Towards the Definition of Buddhist Thought,
London: Gordon Fraser, p.22. At S.v.69f someone attains enlightenment at the moment of
death.Return
[49]. 1983:134. Wiltshire does not say where this is "made
quite clear." In fact-- as already noted-- the main text makes no pronouncement on
the matter one way or the other, and contains nothing inconsistent with the view that
Channa was an Arhat before the time he began to contemplate suicide. Poussin, in his entry
on suicide in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, gives the suicides of Vakkali and
Godhika as examples of suicide by Arhats, but gives no evidence for his claim that they
were Arhats. In his capsule summary of Godhika's suicide, moreover, he states
"Godhika reached arhatship just after he had begun cutting his throat." This
hardly counts as a suicide by an Arhat. What is most surprising, however, is the absence
of any reference to Channa in his entire discussion. Return
[50]. D.iii.235. At D.iii.133 nine things are mentioned, and the
commentary says that even a stream-winner is not capable of such things (DA.iii.913).Return
[51]. With reference to Gosaala, Poussin cites Uvaasagadasaao,
app. ii. p. 23 and comments: "Suicide is permitted to ascetics who have reached the
highest degree of perfection" (1922:25).Return
[52]. This line of though, which I cannot pursue here, was
suggested to me by Richard Gombrich's article "The Buddha and the Jains. A Reply to
Professor Bronkhorst" (Asiatische Studien XLVIII, 4, 1994: 1069-1096). The Pali canon
suicide cases could provide interesting evidence in connection with Bronkhorst's theory
regarding "non-authentic" elements in the Buddhist texts. The criterion for such
examples is as follows: "Perhaps the only hope ever to identify non-authentic
elements in the Buddhist texts is constituted by the special cases where elements which
are recorded to have been rejected by the Buddha, yet found their way into the texts, and,
moreover, are clearly identifiable as belonging to one or more movements other than
Buddhism" (quoted by Gombrich, p.1070). The suicide cases seem to fit this
requirement in every way: suicide is rejected by the Buddha (in the Vinaya and elsewhere,
see note infra), finds its way into the texts (in the three suic! ide cases), and is
identifiable as a Jain practice. Whether these cases add weight to Bronkhorst's theory,
however, is another matter. Return
[53]. Vin.iii.71.Return
[54]. Certainly from the time of St. Augustine onwards. The
anomalous cases in the O.T. are explained by St.Thomas as exceptions resulting from a
direct command by God. On suicide in the early Church see Amundsen, Darrel W. (1989),
"Suicide and Early Christian Values," in Suicide and Euthanasia, ed.
Baruch A. Brody, Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 77-153. With
reference to Judaism and Christianity see Droge, A.J. and J.D. Tabor A Noble Death:
Suicide and Martyrdom among Christians and Jews in Antiquity. San Francisco: Harper
Collins, 1991. With reference to classical antiquity see van Hooff, Anton J.L. From
Autothanasia to Suicide. Self-Killing in Classical Antiquity. London: Routledge, 1990.Return
[55]. Reasons why Buddhism might be opposed to suicide include the
following: 1) It is an act of violence and thus contrary to the principle of ahi.msaa.
2) It is against the First Precept. 3) It is contrary to the third paaraajika (Cf.
Miln. 195). 4) It is stated that "Arahants do not cut short their lives" (na . .
. apakka.m paatenti) Miln. 44, cf. D.ii.32/DA.810 cited by Horner (Milinda's Questions,
I.61n.). Saariputta says that an Arhat neither wishes for death not wishes not to die: it
will come when it comes (Thag. vv.1002-3). 5) Suicide destroys something of great value in
the case of a virtuous human life and prevents such a person acting in the service of
others (Miln. 195f.) Wiltshire states that altruism is also cited in the Paayaasi Sutta
as a reason for not taking one's life (1983:131). With reference to the discussion here
(D.ii.330-2) he comments "This is the only passage in the Sutta Pi.taka in
which the subje! ct of suicide is considered in the abstract, and even then
obliquely" (1983:130). Kassapa states that the virtuous should not kill themselves to
obtain the results of their good kar ma as this deprives the world of their good influence
(D.ii.330f). 6) Suicide brings life to a premature end. As Poussin expresses it: (op cit)
"A man must live his alloted span of life . . . To that effect Buddha employs to
Paayaasi the simile of the woman who cuts open her body in order to see whether her child
is a boy or a girl" (D.ii.331). 7) Self-annihilation is a form of vibhava-ta.nhaa.
8) Self-destruction is associated with ascetic practices which are rejected since
"Buddhism had better methods of crushing lust and destroying sin" (Poussin, op
cit). 9). There is empirical evidence provided by I Tsing. Poussin notes: "The
Pilgrim I-tsing says that Indian Buddhists abstain from suicide and, in general, from
self-torture" (op cit). 10) As noted above, Saariputta's immediate reaction is to
dissuade Channa in the strongest terms from taking his life. Saariputta's reaction
suggests that suicide was not regarded among the Buddha's senior disciples as an option
even ! meriti ng discussion.Return
[56]. Foundation of Morals, Section/Paragraph 5, quoted in
Battin, Margaret Pabst (1982), Ethical Issues in Suicide. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall. p. 74.Return
[57]. On life as a basic value for Buddhism see Buddhism &
Bioethics, pp. 44-50.Return