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Who would they chose?
ThailandTom
Veteran
If there was a very unlikely situation where a buddhist monk was in great peril, but another monk of the same sect was also in great peril, would this monk save himself or his fellow monk? He is only able to save either himself and let this fellow monk die, or save his fellow monk and he subsequently dies. They are of similar age and rank..
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Comments
In the case of suicide, I'm of two different minds.
Being that these would be monks, and therefore both would likely know the concept of compassion very well, the self-sacrifice for another would likely win out as the choice.
That having been said, these are monks and they could also possibly possess the insight to recognize a possibility of mutual escapes thus making this situation nothing more than a "close call". As others have said though, we would need more specific info to make a determination.
Nanimo:om:
Let's say the person is deaf, and maybe blind, so you can't shout a warning and the person cannot see the truck..... what do you do?
if you leap into the road the chances are you might be able to push the person clear but you will be hit and killed yourself.... what do you do?
The fact is there are many variables; is the person young with all his / her life ahead of him /herself, is the person old and will die soon anyway, can you reach them, can you not....
The fact is this is all speculation and we can sit and discuss it for days but to be honest I don't think anyone knows what they would do until they are actally faced with the situation itself. Let's hope, perhaps, that we are not faced with it at all!
talk, talk, talk, what if, what if, what if... the original post was talking about monks in particular but surely this is more than a simple 'Buddhist' question, it is a 'humanity' question perhaps?
Mr Scott, beam me up!
The only answer I can give to the first post on this thread is that one should first see to saving his fellow monk. On this point I believe all spiritual teachers agree, namely that there is no greater love than for someone to be willing to lay down his life for a friend. Only a very depraved mind IMNSHO would even consider calling that suicide.
There are just some things that seem very clear to me. To be alive and not to have love throbbing in your heart is no life at all. I can imagine no greater adventure nor more noble endeavor than boldly to act to save the life of a friend.