Going to Hell or Repeating the Moment if You Commit Suicide

[1] This whole “if you commit suicide, you go to hell” or “you just repeat that moment over and over”… who came up with that stuff and who’s spreading it around? Nobody really cares if some stranger they don’t know dies somewhere else, right? What’s the point?

• [6] >>1 I heard a Buddhist monk say in a sermon that affirming an afterlife helps deter crime.

[8] >>6 Ah, so it’s not just based on feelings, huh.

• [13] >>8 Yeah, like “if you do bad things, Buddha is watching,” or “you won’t be able to go to the Pure Land and will suffer instead.” Some people try to do good because they don’t want that.

[10] Even though I think it’s probably not real… it’s scary since we’ve never died, you know………

• [11] Normally you’d just become nothing, but this way you get a last chance called hell.
• [15] When you die, it’s nothingness. Everything returns to nothing.
• [21] I think reality is way more of a hell than some imaginary hell we don’t even know exists, though.

[24] >>21 If it’s just being boiled in a cauldron, I’d almost rather go to hell, yeah.

• [27] >>24 Yeah, being boiled in a cauldron sounds pretty rough (just a normal reaction).
• [23] I’ve let over a hundred spiders go, so I’ll be fine, easy peasy.
• [40] But when you look at things like the Jigoku Zoshi (Hell Scrolls), it makes you wonder how people over 1000 years ago could draw something like that. It almost makes me think hell might actually exist and someone experienced it.

Jigoku Zoshi (Hell Scrolls): Japanese picture scrolls depicting scenes of hell, painted in the 12th century. Multiple versions exist, some designated as National Treasures. As noted in the original explanation, the “Hekija-e” (Pictures for driving away evil spirits), now considered separate from depictions of hell, were also once called Jigoku Zoshi.

• [48] >>40 In a way, maybe it was sarcasm, like demons = officials, because unlike today, reality back then was truly like hell.
• [57] >>48 I don’t know about that… Wasn’t it mostly the nobles above the officials who looked at those scrolls?
• [65] >>57 It’s precisely because the artist wasn’t a noble that it’s sarcasm. Artist: “That damn noble… I know! I’ll draw him as a demon!” Noble: “This demon looks quite good.”
• [42] Becoming nothingness after death seems more like salvation, doesn’t it?
• [46] Aren’t the cultures that affirmed suicide probably long extinct by now?
• [52] Whether you go to hell depends on the religion. Basically, people who commit suicide are seen as pitiful. In Japan, seppuku or suicide weren’t really seen as sins, so in the Japanese religious view (both Shinto and Buddhism), there isn’t a strong value that “suicide is bad.” Even in Christianity, Catholics believe suicides don’t go to hell but to Purgatory, a place between heaven and hell. There, they can accumulate merit and eventually go to heaven. The ancient Mayans had a system where only those who committed suicide by hanging were forgiven. Jumping might involve others, after all. It’s interesting when you research things like this.

Seppuku/Harakiri: A form of ritual suicide by disembowelment formerly practiced by the samurai class in Japan to preserve honor.

Shinto: Japan’s indigenous religion, focusing on the worship of nature and ancestors.

• [58] >>52 Well, in Shinto, there’s also the idea that death is ‘kegare’ (impurity), you know.

Kegare: In Shinto, a state of impurity or defilement believed to be caused by things like death, illness, or blood. Purification rituals are considered necessary.

• [63] >>58 To reiterate, in traditional Japanese ethics, there’s no concept of suicide being a sin. It’s just the Confucian ethic that a child who should be taking care of their parents dying before them is considered filial impiety. If Shinto had such a teaching, it would either be a relatively recent development or, as others mentioned, a concept from a new religious movement. There are quite a few Shinto-based new religions, like Tenrikyo, which is relatively close to Shinto.

[67] >>63 Yeah, I get the part about it being undutiful (‘oya fuko’) for a child who should care for their parents to die before them. That makes sense.

• [71] >>67 In the West, parents and children are treated as completely separate individuals, and there’s an ethic that children should leave home and get their own place when they turn 20 (they shouldn’t live together). So the concept of living with parents to take care of them is less common. The fact that you could agree with that suggests you’re a typical Japanese person strongly influenced by East Asian ethics, like Confucianism from China or Korea.

[74] >>71 Wow, you know a lot. Well, I feel like you should repay the kindness you receive, I guess.

• [76] People say you become nothingness after death, but has anyone actually seen this world of ‘nothingness’? If you think about it, what even is nothingness?
• [77] >>76 It’s ‘nothingness’ precisely because we don’t know, right?
• [78] >>76 Isn’t it maybe like dreamless sleep? Just guessing though.
• [90] I seem to recall that religions started for reasons like preventing uprisings among the masses, so those kinds of superstitions spread by religions are probably just about wanting to control others.

[94] In the end, we won’t know until we die, huh. Maybe there’s unexpectedly a Stage 2 waiting for us.

• [95] >>94 At least I hope I can start on Easy mode in the next life.

[96] >>95 At least I wanna be able to choose or create my own character.

• [97] >>96 I want to be taller… (Seriously).
• [98] >>94 Maybe there’s a review session where you look back on your life with your ancestors.
• [106] If you commit suicide or die young, the difficulty level automatically gets set to maximum.

[108] I looked it up, about 20,000 people commit suicide per year [in Japan]. Is that a lot or a little?

• [115] >>108 Depends on your standard for “a lot” or “a little,” but thinking about it as living beings, it’s abnormal, isn’t it?
• [114] Worldwide, 800,000 people commit suicide annually. That’s one person somewhere in the world every 40 seconds, 365 days a year.
• [120] Since this thread started, 60 people have already committed suicide somewhere in the world.

[122] >>120 Hey, don’t make it so easy to visualize, that’s scary.

• [123] >>122 Another one just died.
• [129] An acquaintance of mine also hanged themselves last year.
• [135] 160,000 people die every day. That’s 16,000 per hour [correction: calculation error in original, should be ~6,667/hour]. About 20 minutes after this thread started, roughly the same number of people as died in the Great East Japan Earthquake will have died somewhere.

[136] It’s interesting when you look into it, like the male suicide rate being nearly double the female rate, and other stuff.

• [149] I don’t need a next life or an afterlife. When I die, I just want the comfort of sleep to last forever, maybe with the occasional dream.
• [152] The definitions of paradise or heaven are pretty vague too, aren’t they?

[154] After death, I just want a room with nothing but a futon. And make it so I don’t get hungry.

• [162] >>154 If you commit suicide, you’ll work 24/7/365 shifts at the Watami Hell Branch.

Watami: Name of a Japanese restaurant chain company. Sometimes used metaphorically due to past controversies regarding harsh working conditions.

• [165] >>162 That sounds like a really rough place. Probably wouldn’t get any customers.
• [167] >>165 The customers are all hell wardens, so it’s fine.
• [158] It’s scary to think about eternal darkness after death. I’d at least like there to be an afterlife. If I’m being greedy, I want to go see God and get the answers to the universe.
• [175] Endless lectures? (Just guessing)
• [176] >>175 Endlessly recreating the situation that drove you to suicide and making you flash back to it sounds rough too.
• [180] >>176 That’s just torture, lol… lol…

[178] >>176 After death, you’d be invincible, right? You’ve already escaped.

• [179] >>178 Someone with the mentality of ‘it’s fine as long as I escape’ probably wouldn’t commit suicide in the first place.

[181] >>179 Isn’t suicide something you do intending to escape? That’s what I thought.

• [183] >>181 If you committed suicide to escape, returning to the pre-death situation afterwards would be the ultimate hell, wouldn’t it? And this time, it’s an impossible game you can’t escape by dying.

[184] Yeah, looping the cause of death seems tougher than the moment of dying itself.

• [185] It seems like relief would be greater than regret at the moment of death, anyway.
• [190] But I also wonder about pushing someone who was driven to the brink even further. Makes you think there’s neither God nor Buddha.
• [194] >>190 If society became a place where even the option of suicide only offered despair, suicides would probably decrease (though it sounds dystopian).

[196] >>194 Maybe the result of that is what they call antinatalism.

• [198] >>196 If we made a society where those who don’t have kids before dying suffer the torments of hell, the birth rate would skyrocket!

[199] >>198 Trying to actually create a dystopia is hilarious.

[210] Well, if it’s just nothingness after death, that would be a relief. Can’t know until you try it, though. Anyway, I’m gonna sleep. Later.

• [211] There’s no way it’s nothingness. As long as space allows, mass doesn’t disappear. Consciousness fades, fades to the absolute limit, and stops.
• [212] Conversely, birth is a means of strengthening information transmission by connecting mass in circuits. This causes activation of integrated information, making consciousness feel strong.
• [217] Nobody knows stuff like that.
• [33] Tetsuro Tamba said he was surprised when he died.
• [140] Stop living for the next life, live for the now.