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Life on Edge: Step Back

nava October 12th, 2008

“In this world we are influenced by two sentiments, Joy and Pain.”

According to ‘Abdu’l-Baha, every human being, from monarch to peasant, wealthy to impoverished, from darkest brown to palest beige, is influenced by joy and pain. The second part seems obvious. We’ve all grieved. But often we forget the first. Especially in times of grief, how easily we forget that joy is frequently right around the bend.

BBC News recently published an article about fears of escalating suicide rates in Japan due to the economic downturn. The article was published on October 6, and the economic travail ransacking global markets has only gotten sharper. The collapse of some major institutions and fragile condition of others reminds us that even the most elite are vulnerable to loss, are subject to affliction.

Such is this mortal abode — a storehouse of afflictions and suffering. It is negligence that binds man to it for no comfort can be secured by any soul in this world, from monarch down to the least subject. If once it should offer man a sweet cup, a hundred bitter ones will follow it and such is the condition of this world. The wise man therefore does not attach himself to this mortal life and does not depend upon it; even at some moments he eagerly wishes death that he may thereby be freed from these sorrows and afflictions. Thus it is seen that some, under extreme pressure of anguish, have committed suicide.

Abdu’l-Baha

Yukio Shige spends his nights patrolling Tojimbo Cliffs, a popular suicide venue for many in Japan, hoping to persuade another would-be jumper to step back.

Life on the edge. It’s hard.

According to Yukio, many of the men he speaks to want someone to talk them out of their plan to end their lives. They just need someone to listen. Even a stranger will do, as demonstrated by the fact that Yukio has managed to persuade over a hundred fifty people to step back. The article explains that:

“For a lot of them it’s a cry for help. They are really hoping someone will stop them before they take their own lives.” Sometimes grown men burst into tears in front of him, he says. “I say to them ‘You must be in a lot of pain, tell me what happened’.”

Volumes could be written about the psychology involved in the decision to end one’s own life, but the reality is, life is hard. Life is painful and some do not believe themselves capable of withstanding it. It’s not true, though. We all have the capacity to endure whatever comes along our path. Perhaps if we really understood our purpose in life-a journey of growing closer to our Lord, our Beloved-we would not be perturbed by the pain that we know will inevitably visit, and revisit, us. As explained in the article about faith in times of crisis, tests, which often bring us sorrow, are the means through which the soil is ploughed. Tests are an important part of growth, a way of building and revealing our nobility of character.

Perhaps what is most tragic about suicide is the fact that it won’t actually end the suffering of the grieved person who committed it.

Whoever commits suicide endangers his soul, and will suffer spiritually as a result in the other worlds beyond.

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi)

More to the point, it simply does not work. Grief is not a state of the body, it is a condition of the soul. The soul is not destroyed even when its body is. ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains that:

The spirit is changeless, indestructible. The progress and development of the soul, the joy and sorrow of the soul, are independent of the physical body.

Thus it stands to reason that by killing our body, we’re destroying the wrong thing. The body manifests the pain, but is not the source of it. Killing it will not kill the grief. So now the sorrow for him who has ended his life only amasses. Continue Reading >

When dark thoughts enter our minds, we should remember that God is always ready to assist us. He wants us to be happy. To be joyful. To laugh. And to grow closer to Him. His tests are a sign of His love, actually. Bahá’u'lláh says, “My calamity is My providence. Outwardly it is fire and vengeance, but inwardly, it is mercy and light.”

Abdu’l-Baha also explains that even in a world of pain, there is a remedy. He says,

Today, humanity is bowed down with trouble, sorrow and grief, no one escapes; the world is wet with tears; but, thank God, the remedy is at our doors. Let us turn our hearts away from the world of matter and live in the spiritual world! It alone can give us freedom! If we are hemmed in by difficulties we have only to call upon God, and by His great Mercy we shall be helped.

God is the author of life, and He alone is to determine when our life on this earthly plane should come to an end. When we take our lives, we do it prematurely. Which means that we still have to fulfill our purpose, our growing nearer unto God, only now, we have no vehicle. In the act of suicide, we seriously cripple ourselves. Handicap ourselves along this journey. It doesn’t mean the journey’s end will never be met, or that those who kill themselves are permanently hell-bound and will never fulfill the purpose of their lives. We are, upon our passing, immersed in the ocean of God’s mercies; however, they have seriously set themselves back. In an attempt to ease pain, they’ve increased it.

Perhaps even more ironic still is the fact that we just never know what’s hiding right around the corner. Today’s sorrow can be tomorrow’s joy. Imagine that a young man killed himself because a lady he loved did not return his affections, and the pain of separation was too intense, too difficult. Imagine that when he dies, he is able to see the kind of life he would have continued to lead had he not ended it prematurely. In that life, after a few more weeks of depression, sadness, he meets someone new. Someone infinitely more suited to him. He is a husband and a father. Because of his own bouts with depression, he becomes a wonderful, compassionate counselor to others who have undergone similar states of melancholy. But he never gets to live this life. Can you imagine the weight of that regret? The life he deprived himself of because he didn’t trust in God. Wasn’t patient enough to weather the storm? Didn’t ask himself what he could do to change the impact of the storm on his life?

That is why ‘Abdu’l-Baha says the wise man does not attach himself to this life and does not depend on it. Because it is too inconstant, always changing. But it is not meaningless, it is not without purpose, and it is not for us to decide when we’ve had “enough” of it. That decision is absolutely not our own to make. Because, more often than not, we don’t know what is best for us anyway.

As Yukio’s story exemplifies, sometimes all it takes is reaching out to change someone’s entire life–not just in this world but in the worlds beyond, as well. So we should all do our utmost to reach out. To make sure that those who are living life on the edge step back, to make sure that they know stepping back is even an option.