Yesterday someone on facebook contacted me. Something bad happened to a woman, that I am friends with. She tried to commit suicide. This leads me think about death. If people don’t want to live anymore, actually what is wrong about deciding not to live anymore? I know what I am writing here is probably one of the last tabus we have in our public debate: The freedom not to live. It happened last night. She now lies in the emergency room in Berlin-Tempelhof. This woman is Gabriel (name is changed). I met her only twice, I hardly don’t know her. She is one of the volunteers who love to help me out at my Karma projects. I call these type of people Karma Workers. She is poor, gets Hartz IV, has 2 lovely kids, a girl and a boy. Her husband doesn’t live with them, but he cares for them and see them regularly. I have just talked to him on the phone. But the shocking thing is, that someone else via facebook got in touch with me. Gabriel told this person that she cannot trust nobody, except of her husband and one guy in Kreuzberg: Me. Because I am the only one who accepted her the way she was without trying to change her. When I heard that, I felt honor and responsibilty at the same time rising inside of my chest. This woman must be very misunderstood in this world, that she claims me, actually a foreign person, to be the most trustful person in her life. I don’t have any distance to write these words properly. Of course I am shocked and sad and worried about her, but I really know her too little. She has sent me a box with baby clothes for Henri and a box filled with books and food for my homeless project “Unreal Estate House”. She is a good person, too nice for the rude economy, too frank for the egomaniac society. There is no space left in the working class for people like her. She works as a nurse, and worked too hard, and her colleagues mobbed her often. She got paid badly. And she had a burnout, that’s why she stopped working in that hospital, and after that she tried to make an office job, but the same thing happened there. We have to accept: There are many people out there with skills and a big heart, who simply don’t suit the job market. She can’t handle pressure.
10.000 people commit suicide each year in Germany, mostly men. The World Health Organisation guesses that over 100.000 people plan to commit suicide and then fail every year in Germany. In most cases depression is the prolog. In Russia the statistics say, you find most of the suicidents. Here are three persons, that came up in my mind who once talked about death.
1. Seneca about death
“There’s nothing bad about it at all except the thing that comes before it—the fear of it.” said the famous roman philosopher Seneca and committed suicide after a romanian trial. The Conqueror Nero verdicted death penalty against Seneca. Back then it was quite usual to predict suicide as one form of penalty. So Seneca followed without hesitating and drank a poisonous liquor called “hemlock cup”. This kind of drink became famous with Sokrates, who committed suicide the same way. Seneca wrote a lot about dieing with his friends. He somehow discussed the possibility of commiting suicide as something neutral. Interesting background info: When the conqueror Nero was a child, Seneca used to care for him and educated him in the royal house. He must have been a very influencing kind of uncle to him. Seneca taught him to be a wise leader. Mildness was one of the virtues he wanted him to learn. As we know Nero, as a grown up person was not mild at all. Seneca must have been like his inner voice of remorse. When Nero put Seneca to death he must have thought that he can eliminate this inner voice at the same time. History repeats all the time. Recently the young new Conqueror of North Korea Kim-Jung Un executed Jang Song Thaek – the former vice chairman of North Korea’s military body. Jang was Kim’s uncle.
2. Nietzsche about death
“One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly” Friedrich Nietzsche said. Germany’s first so called “Free thinker” invented a new word for “suicide” which somehow heroized the concept of suicide: free death – in german “Freitod”. His book was called “Vom freien Tode”. At that time in german language people used the word “Selbstmord” (self murder) which is the most common expression still today if you talk about suicide. Martin Luther invented this term in the 16th century. Nietzsche who got famous for his polarizing quotes such as “God is dead” had a sincere crisis after beeing rejected from his love Salomé. He didn’t commit suicide but he thought a lot about it. His position is clear: Suicide should not be criminalized! It’s a free choice that one should decide freely.
3. Heini Staudinger about death
Heini is an austrian enterpreneur who got famous in Austria and Germany for his unique leading methods. He doesn’t want to have more money than employees. He lives in the kitchen of his shoe factory. And he uses his monthly advertising magazine “brennstoff” not just to promote his products but foremost to promote his visions of a better world. In his moving talks on youtube, recorded at the Goldegg conference or at the Vision summit he explains his “5 theses for brave enterpreneurs”. The last thesis is the most breathtaking: Jump – please jump. The poem lover Heini repeated two quotes, one is a buddha quote about consumption and the other one was the famous “Panther” poem bei Rainer Maria Rilke. This poem describes an animal in a french zoo, which feels no life inside of his body, his eyes and his heart. It closes with the following verse:
“Just now and then the pupils’ noiseless shutter
is lifted. – Then an image will indart,
down through the limbs’ intensive stillness flutter,
and end its being in the heart.”
It is not said, that the panther physically dies, but the whole poem describes the panther more dead than alive. Heini also speaks about his best friend. They both shared the first adventure if their life and travelled from Austria to Tansania on a motor bike. If you do travelling like this (he also walked the Road to Santiago several times), you start to think about life and death in other dimensions. His best friend committed suicide after the trip. He simply didn’t want to live anymore. Heini describes in a very breathtaking manner his relationship to this friend, his relationship to the “Freitod” and to life without judging, without remorse, without explaining.
And I don’t really understood what he exactly wants to say when he prompted his listeners to “jump – please jump”. I won’t say this was a prompt to commit suicide. But I have learned that it is important to know your position to these issues.
In the meanwhile I received news from Gabriel. She has four broken ribs and a mild concussion. She is still placed in an artificial coma. But obviously out of danger. Maybe I will go to visit her this weekend. One thing is clear: I won’t judge her for the things that happened. I know about the responsibility you have for others. She would leave three kids behind. But does it help her to judge her?
Actually this is my learning of all these three stories. It’s wrong to judge death. I love life. But if you love life, you also have to love death. Because life lives from being limited. Life lives from death.Yesterday someone on facebook contacted me. Something bad happened to a woman, that I am friends with. She tried to commit suicide. This leads me think about death. If people don’t want to live anymore, actually what is wrong about deciding not to live anymore? I know what I am writing here is probably one of the last tabus we have in our public debate: The freedom not to live. It happened last night. She now lies in the emergency room in Berlin-Tempelhof. This woman is Gabriel (name is changed). I met her only twice, I hardly don’t know her. She is one of the volunteers who love to help me out at my Karma projects. I call these type of people Karma Workers. She is poor, gets Hartz IV, has 2 lovely kids, a girl and a boy. Her husband doesn’t live with them, but he cares for them and see them regularly. I have just talked to him on the phone. But the shocking thing is, that someone else via facebook got in touch with me. Gabriel told this person that she cannot trust nobody, except of her husband and one guy in Kreuzberg: Me. Because I am the only one who accepted her the way she was without trying to change her. When I heard that, I felt honor and responsibilty at the same time rising inside of my chest. This woman must be very misunderstood in this world, that she claims me, actually a foreign person, to be the most trustful person in her life. I don’t have any distance to write these words properly. Of course I am shocked and sad and worried about her, but I really know her too little. She has sent me a box with baby clothes for Henri and a box filled with books and food for my homeless project “Unreal Estate House”. She is a good person, too nice for the rude economy, too frank for the egomaniac society. There is no space left in the working class for people like her. She works as a nurse, and worked too hard, and her colleagues mobbed her often. She got paid badly. And she had a burnout, that’s why she stopped working in that hospital, and after that she tried to make an office job, but the same thing happened there. We have to accept: There are many people out there with skills and a big heart, who simply don’t suit the job market. She can’t handle pressure.
10.000 people commit suicide each year in Germany, mostly men. The World Health Organisation guesses that over 100.000 people plan to commit suicide and then fail every year in Germany. In most cases depression is the prolog. In Russia the statistics say, you find most of the suicidents. Here are three persons, that came up in my mind who once talked about death.
1. Seneca about death
“There’s nothing bad about it at all except the thing that comes before it—the fear of it.” said the famous roman philosopher Seneca and committed suicide after a romanian trial. The Conqueror Nero verdicted death penalty against Seneca. Back then it was quite usual to predict suicide as one form of penalty. So Seneca followed without hesitating and drank a poisonous liquor called “hemlock cup”. This kind of drink became famous with Sokrates, who committed suicide the same way. Seneca wrote a lot about dieing with his friends. He somehow discussed the possibility of commiting suicide as something neutral. Interesting background info: When the conqueror Nero was a child, Seneca used to care for him and educated him in the royal house. He must have been a very influencing kind of uncle to him. Seneca taught him to be a wise leader. Mildness was one of the virtues he wanted him to learn. As we know Nero, as a grown up person was not mild at all. Seneca must have been like his inner voice of remorse. When Nero put Seneca to death he must have thought that he can eliminate this inner voice at the same time. History repeats all the time. Recently the young new Conqueror of North Korea Kim-Jung Un executed Jang Song Thaek – the former vice chairman of North Korea’s military body. Jang was Kim’s uncle.
2. Nietzsche about death
“One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly” Friedrich Nietzsche said. Germany’s first so called “Free thinker” invented a new word for “suicide” which somehow heroized the concept of suicide: free death – in german “Freitod”. His book was called “Vom freien Tode”. At that time in german language people used the word “Selbstmord” (self murder) which is the most common expression still today if you talk about suicide. Martin Luther invented this term in the 16th century. Nietzsche who got famous for his polarizing quotes such as “God is dead” had a sincere crisis after beeing rejected from his love Salomé. He didn’t commit suicide but he thought a lot about it. His position is clear: Suicide should not be criminalized! It’s a free choice that one should decide freely.
3. Heini Staudinger about death
Heini is an austrian enterpreneur who got famous in Austria and Germany for his unique leading methods. He doesn’t want to have more money than employees. He lives in the kitchen of his shoe factory. And he uses his monthly advertising magazine “brennstoff” not just to promote his products but foremost to promote his visions of a better world. In his moving talks on youtube, recorded at the Goldegg conference or at the Vision summit he explains his “5 theses for brave enterpreneurs”. The last thesis is the most breathtaking: Jump – please jump. The poem lover Heini repeated two quotes, one is a buddha quote about consumption and the other one was the famous “Panther” poem bei Rainer Maria Rilke. This poem describes an animal in a french zoo, which feels no life inside of his body, his eyes and his heart. It closes with the following verse:
“Just now and then the pupils’ noiseless shutter
is lifted. – Then an image will indart,
down through the limbs’ intensive stillness flutter,
and end its being in the heart.”
It is not said, that the panther physically dies, but the whole poem describes the panther more dead than alive. Heini also speaks about his best friend. They both shared the first adventure if their life and travelled from Austria to Tansania on a motor bike. If you do travelling like this (he also walked the Road to Santiago several times), you start to think about life and death in other dimensions. His best friend committed suicide after the trip. He simply didn’t want to live anymore. Heini describes in a very breathtaking manner his relationship to this friend, his relationship to the “Freitod” and to life without judging, without remorse, without explaining.
And I don’t really understood what he exactly wants to say when he prompted his listeners to “jump – please jump”. I won’t say this was a prompt to commit suicide. But I have learned that it is important to know your position to these issues.
In the meanwhile I received news from Gabriel. She has four broken ribs and a mild concussion. She is still placed in an artificial coma. But obviously out of danger. Maybe I will go to visit her this weekend. One thing is clear: I won’t judge her for the things that happened. I know about the responsibility you have for others. She would leave three kids behind. But does it help her to judge her?
Actually this is my learning of all these three stories. It’s wrong to judge death. I love life. But if you love life, you also have to love death. Because life lives from being limited. Life lives from death.