The first question 1. I guess its really bad Kamma for oneself, in other words, you go straight to the hell realms as a person who's killing?
According to Buddhism, if you commit suicide, you are killing yourself, and yes, according to Buddhism, people who kill go to the hell realms. That's just strict as far as the definition for what happens for someone who kills. They go to the hell realms. If you kill yourself, it's just another person you are killing, who happens to be yourself.
The second question: Do we, actually, admit suicide attempters, people who have tried to commit suicide on this retreat? How do you judge their mentality?
We have a question on the registration form, if you remember, about psychiatric care, about psychology, and whatever else. When people write down that they've tried to commit suicide, we find out when and why. Before we will accept them we find out when and why.
For one person, it was a month before they applied for the retreat, we said, no. It was automatic "no". It was too close.
For a lot of people, it's was way back in their childhood. Very common stories, actually, for a lot of them who tried it as teenagers, it was the parents breaking up, and the family falling apart, and very common. They then went to see a psychiatrist or a psychotherapist for a little while. They got over it. No big deal. It's 10, 20 or 30 years before, we don't worry about it at all.
But if it's very close in time, then we simply wont accept them.
Where's the border of this timeline? I don't think we've ever gotten close the border of the timeline, because for almost everybody it was long ago. I can only remember the one fellow that I personally refused, who was a month before. Six months before, I'd probably say no. One year, I'm not sure, but if I'm in the "not sure" state, I'm going to question them some more. I'm going to try to understand them deeper.
Something else we do for anyone who's had some very heavy Dukkha in their past, especially recent Dukkha within the past few years, is that we watch over them more carefully in the retreat. We will open our eyes in the sitting, and we will look over in their direction and see what they're doing. We will actually take more consideration for those people. We encourage them to write more notes, any time they are feeling bad. We will do a little extra for them, knowing that they had extra heavy Dukkha in their past.
The third question: I remember in the 1970's, those Buddhist monks who, as a protest to their country's terrible conditions/ war/ human suffering, became famous because they committed suicide by sitting down in meditation and setting themselves on fire.
For those of you who don't know, this was in Vietnam, in particular, in the '70's. Setting light to themselves. Then they were consumed in flames. How do we look at this? What does Buddhism say about this?
The conditions of the Vietnam war were quite abnormal, quite horrific to a certain extent. What I read about those monks who actually burned themselves, was that they were not protesting the war, they were protesting the government in South Vietnam. It's interesting, when I read about this it was a surprise for me, because I'd always thought they had protested the war, but the government in South Vietnam, for those of you don't know, was set up by the French and the U.S:. It was a lot of Christian people in charge of a Buddhist country, and in that way the monks were being very political. Trying to make a statement.
According to Theravadin Buddhism, (and that's not the same as Vietnam, which is a Mahayana branch of Buddhism), this is still killing yourself, and this is absolutely not allowed. It's not allowed for the monks to get politically involved. It's part of their rules, way back in the Buddha's day, that they are not to talk about "kings and government", not to talk about politics. So when these monks committed suicide as a protest against the government, they were doing something that is against the rules and the vows that the monks take within Theravadin Buddhism. So, according to Theravadin Buddhism, they were still killing themselves, even though it's not quite the same way.
When we think about it, most people kill themselves in order to "get out" - "I hate my body", "I hate myself", "I want out" - and we assume these monks had a different intention. It wasn't so much 'getting out', they were trying to do something to help other people. How does that work Kammically? I can't tell you that. Their intention is definitely different to most people who commit suicide. Intention is what creates Kamma. Do these monks go to hell? I'm not sure. Do they go somewhere else because they've broken their vows? I'm not sure either, because the Mahayana monks might not have the same vows as Theravadin monks, so I can't answer that either. Its not within my realm to say I know what Buddhism would teach, as to whether they would go to hell or not, but as to Theravadin Buddhism this would still be something that should not be done, and a different way of protesting would certainly make more sense.