What can be said about people who commit suicide and their relationship with death?

A friend has asked: some people commit suicide. What do you have to say about them? Are these people not afraid of death?

Mind has become completely empty... mind has become empty... mind has become empty. Only a flame has remained burning... a flame of knowing... of seeing. For all the rest, as if death has happened... the body will be seen lying at a distance... your own body will be seen so far away... your own breathing will seem to be so far away. Inside... more inside... drown... let go completely... do not keep any grip... let go... let go... let go completely. Let go totally. If the body wants to drop, let it drop... let go completely... become a void... become a void completely. Mind has become a void... mind has become a void... only a flame of knowing has remained inside... everthing elso has become a void... eveything has disappeared. Let go... let go completely... show the courage to die... die completely from outside. The body has become lifeless... we…

A friend has asked: Osho, some people commit suicide—what do you say about them? Are they not afraid of death?

Now I suggest: experience along with me. The body is becoming relaxed… feel it: the body is becoming relaxed… the body is becoming relaxed… the body is becoming relaxed… the body is becoming relaxed. Keep letting go; feel: the body is becoming relaxed… the body is becoming relaxed… the body is becoming relaxed. The body is becoming relaxed… it is going toward death… going toward death. We are slipping inward… to where life is. Let go… let go… leave the wave; become the ocean. Leave the body completely… if it falls, let it fall; do not worry about it. Do not hold it back… do not cling… let go. The body is becoming relaxed… the body is becoming relaxed… the body is becoming relaxed… the body is becoming relaxed. The body is becoming completely relaxed… the body is becoming relaxed… the body is becoming relaxed. Let go… as if it…

Osho, a person who commits suicide also tries, of his own free will, to kill himself. And until he actually dies, he remains aware of the process of dying—“now it’s getting cold, colder, colder.” But he does not return from the final state. So isn’t suicide too an experiment in arranging death voluntarily?

So Mahavira sanctioned Santhara—the self-willed death—for the sake of spiritual practice, so that if someone wishes to test himself on the ultimate touchstone, even in death, he may do so. This is a weighty matter and one to be pondered, for Mahavira alone on this whole earth gives such a permission. There are two reasons. First, Mahavira has a firm certainty that no one dies; therefore there is no need to be overly anxious about “dying.” With that certainty that no one dies, there is no harm—make an experiment. Second, he has the experience and the firm certainty that for a person to desire death, without doubt and with unwavering intent, for fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, a hundred days—this is such a great event that it is no ordinary thing. For a moment or two, the thought of dying comes to all of us. It is hard to find…

Beloved Osho, I have attempted suicide a number of times, and I feel really attracted to death. This disturbs me, but at the same time gives me joy. Will you say something about it?

Seeing the notes, immediately he was back, perfectly healthy. He walked down the hill laughing, and told the peon, "You should not listen to this man, he is dangerous. He almost killed me!" He told the other professor, "This is not right, that you suggested to me that I must have had a heart attack." He told the postmaster, "You are my neighbor, and is this right, to push me towards death?" He was very angry with his wife. He said, "I can think that he persuaded other people -- he has everybody impressed by him -- but I cannot believe that my own wife deceived me, listened to him. We were in an argument; it was a question of my prestige, and you destroyed it!" But the wife said, "You should be grateful to him. He has given proof that man can be programmed for something which does not…

Beloved Osho, I come from a family where there are four suicides on the maternal side, including my grandmother. How does this affect one's death? What helps to overcome this perversion of death which runs as a theme through the family?

Heidegger has said: "Death isolates me and makes of me an individual." It is my death, not that of the multitude to which I belong. Each of us dies his own death; death cannot be repeated. I can sit an examination twice, or thrice; compare my second marriage with my first, and so on and so forth. I die only once. I can get married as many times as I like, I can change my jobs as many times as I like, I can change my town as many times as I like... but I die only once. Death is so challenging because it is at once certain and uncertain. That it will come is certain, when it will do so is uncertain. Hence there is great curiosity about death, about what it is. One wants to know about it. And there is nothing morbid about this contemplation of death.…