On a week day, my niece drove me across Penang Bridge to Penang Island. Then, a friend from Penang had told me about the recent spike in suicide cases in the island. Apparently, in the month of May, eight people tried to jump off Penang Bridge; four men and four women. One men and three of the women survived the attempts; the other four perished. Days before that my friend had told me that suicide is not encouraged in Buddhism, citing these reasons: First, it's not easy to be born as a human and the first of the five Buddhist Precepts, Panatipata veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures clearly states that life is not to be taken, ours included. Ajahn Brahm, in one of his talks, stated that suicide doesn't solve problems since it will be carried forward to the next life and a person who commits suicide has a tendency to commit the same act again. This perhaps need to be contemplated on.
Here's Penang Bridge!
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