Tibetan Lama Found Hanging In Delhi Apartment

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The issue of suicide within Buddhist thinking and teaching no doubt invites a complex analysis, on a more general level, life is precious in terms of our existence, more so as a human being, we are considered as very fortunate indeed to incarnate with a human mind. Such is the broader understanding. To take one’s life therefore, from the standpoint of laity, has generated a perception of what other religious followings could describe as a ‘sin’. Buddhist philosophy is not as simplistic.

“From a Buddhist perspective, what a suicidal person wants is to eliminate not his or her own life, but his or her pain, suffering, despair, torment, affliction, depression, stress, or other physical or mental pains which he or she experiences. The suicidal person has confused two things: the elimination of life and the elimination of suffering and pain.” SOURCE

Reading such wisdom infused words it is difficult to understand the reported suicide of a prominent Tibetan Rinpoche, a Buddhist scholar and practitioner of many years who would most surely have known such core principles.

Yet if we are to accept the account featured by the Times Of India then Tsona Gontse Rinpoche, hanged himself possibly due to an electoral loss by one of his relatives! SOURCE

Are witnessing a tragic reminder that no matter the degree of enlightenment or spiritual practice religious teachers are as prone to emotional instability and despair as the layperson? One thing for sure Tibetans will be shocked and baffled at this sad event, others may be wondering if some darker actions may have been behind this death?