Suicide
Question: There is one question that has been on my mind for awhile. Since we are spiritual beings, don't we have the right to kill ourselves like King Saul in the Bible? Or are we imprisoned in the physical form until death desires to come? I desire death of the body now... can't I just do that? Since we do not belong in this world anyway, what is wrong with committing suicide?
Answer: Any human being who takes his or her own life not only fails to escape the pain that drove them to this act, but insures that even on the other side they will continue to experience this conflict in their consciousness. The physical body and its many complex relationships -- both physical and invisible -- is a special type of cauldron in which the aspiring soul is purified, balanced, and brought into Spirit through this process. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can escape any lesson that God intends for you. Stay the course.
(Letter 2000)
Question: I'm afraid I will be swallowed up by a recent loss of mine. I feel so alone, so in the dark. What can I do about these tormenting thoughts that are telling me, "It just isn't worth it!"?
Answer: We are not alone. We have not been abandoned. But there are forces that want us to believe we are... certain dark, despairing energies whose only task is to convince us that God has separated Himself from us. And these evil spirits succeed far better than is known. Every time we fall prey to feeling sorry for ourselves or express anger out of our spiritual frustration, or weep in defeat and accept depressed states within ourselves as ourselves, these dark forces have won. But it does not have to be this way. It must not be this way. We always have the power, regardless of how powerless we may feel, to hold our hearts and minds before God and to give to Him our weakness, our shame, or whatever it may be. We cling mistakenly to what is ourselves. And this kind of spiritual error can only occur in the darkness within us that the darkness gets us to accept as being the only alternative. But we can do better than despair -- far better than giving up -- as long as we fight for ourselves by holding on to what we know is true, instead of allowing what is untrue to convince us that we're alone. God never stops loving, never stops giving Himself, any more than the sun could stop shining. So if we feel cold, surrounded by darkness, it's because of where we are standing. Any time we see this, we can and will move back into the life-giving Light.
(Letter 1999)
Question: I understand completely that life is given to us and it is up to us what to do with it, and if not, it will pass us by -- and all with wonderful compassion – and that we should not judge ourselves and know where we are is the best we can possibly do. So what if an individual commits suicide? I am trying to understand how to unite those two viewpoints. Is it because otherwise love would give itself up completely? And in terms of awareness being in everything all the time, is it that God wants to get to know Himself? What is the meaning?
Answer: It's a question of understanding levels, and that we must become inwardly still and receptive enough to see that taken in one world alone, these two ideas that you have inquired about cannot be reconciled. But when we understand that ALL things and times serve God's good, and His wish for our awakening, then we can see a new truth such as follows: even though a terrible tragedy makes no sense to the sense-bound, wrongly sentimental self at the time of its unfolding, it is the suffering born of this moment (as we work to understand it) that causes us to see a solace outside, or beyond what our thought nature can provide. So, even the darkest of life's moments -- when they can fall on the Right parts of us -- become a source of Light, Love, and Mercy, because they lead us to the Real Source of Life. This is a true miracle that occurs to us more and more as we give our hearts and minds to God.
Question: I have read so much religion and philosophy over the years… and now I only want to die. I am convinced that there is simply no such thing as a life worth living. I seek only absolute death, total extinction, pure non-being as the only good.
Answer: Each of us must make the choices that seem right to us, but before you act out any such self-destructive impulse -- especially one from which the consequences are worse than can be imagined -- ask yourself this one question:
What makes you think that the so-called state of "non-being" promised to you by the dark states exists as promised? Believing that negative thoughts and feelings know the way to release one from misery is like asking the proverbial fox to guard the hen house. The truth is completely different:
There is no such state as non-being; there is only being that is either growing in its relationship with the Living Light, or the opposite: a state of being that gets darker and ever-denser because it has been seduced (by the darkness) into believing that one can find freedom through resistance. Resistance to whatever is unwanted ensures the one resisting the condition remains its captive.
(Letter, 2009)
