I want to share some thoughts I have regarding rising suicide in contemporary society and how it might be related to a lack of "equivalent" practices/models more esoteric societies might have had.

It is famous in popular culture that many traditional pre-modern cultures had various rituals that integrated the dying process.
From the shamanic tradition of Shamanic Death, to the myths of say Osiris, or the Phoenix bird, to various cultures assuming sacrificial rituals- of animals or even men.
"If you see the Buddhist patriarch- kill him" is also a famous quote related to variation of this teaching.

These cultures, some in cruel ways, some in more elegant fashion, all formalized the relevance of dying and death as a ritual that can channel inherent self-destructive ambitions into a significant event of personal or social maturity.

In the spirit of "people will give up their values to meet their needs", perhaps the wisdom contained with these traditions is their inclusive nature of making a space for the wish to die (=need) within their canon.
This creates opportunities, at least in theory, for the legitimacy of death within society, not only as a method of cessation but as a method of overcoming.

I am not suggesting what we learn from this is that suicide be legal or that we sacrifice people or animals. This is not wisdom. I am not suggestion we all force ourselves to believe in a hell of a karma repercussion.

I think it's about understanding that what appears to be strong ambition for self-destruction, for suicide, for complete withdrawal etc. isn't necessarily unhealthy, immoral or any other judgment we label it; It may well be an ancient capacity,
one that we have to include within our society and personal lives. It may even be an extreme expression for a hunger to overcome the old to give birth to the new.

It is all the more difficult in a secular, life-prolonging oriented society:

While in the past people might have had more sense of life exactly because death was all over the place, now it is rarefied into some concept that death is, at best, random, and at worst, unresolvable tragedy.
In addition, the mythological aspects aren't resonant with contemporary societies. That is, the myth of Osiris might be an esoteric story but not one we can embody. Especially with secular post-conventional people, for whom established myths (Jesus say) aren't more attractive than alternative ones (Osiris).
The third difficulty is the phenomena of prolonged lifespan as a result of various factors in contemporary societies. People live much longer and have come to expect it. Thus death as a concept is made slightly more distant, "something that mostly happen to old people", thus losing some of its relevance.
Needless to say, few cultures integrated death, but fewer have offered more distraction from the integration of it as ours. It is not only the much-addressed "youth" obsession culture; it's also trivializing death into its childish aspects, from horror\goth subculture to death being merely some byproduct in action movies.

Yet, because we speak in manner of addition ("self-improvement", "doing one's best") and our economy is based on growth, that ancient hunger for surrender, for purification, one that all our myths tell of, goes without a funnel to express itself in a wholesome way, and the result is that more young people confuse this hunger with a wish for a physical death- the only death somehow recognized in our culture.

Our society might need more subtle concepts than the binary "physical death" \enlightenment (which is also hardly accepted).

So, how do we make space for grief as grief, for sorrow as sorrow, as genuine legitimate feelings one need to stay with?
And, how do we make someone ask himself the question: Who needs to die?
And beyond that, how do we give tools that will be experiential yet speak to the person not rooted in mythology  theology?

As I mentioned before, we need to creates opportunities for the legitimacy of death within society, not only as a method of cessation but as a method of overcoming with equivalent experiential rituals but ones that can speak to the capacities and worlds of people in this time of this culture;
we need to create a wholesome internalization of Death within oneself, as a channel for suicidal ideation, so that what burns in flames isn't the body, it's the concept of oneself; that what jumps of the building isn't you, but the tendencies to fulfill other's expectations; that what is hanging itself is one's interest in fate and fatality; and what poisons oneself isn't oneself, but insignificant made significant.

 

Issues concerning Integral Life Practices (ILP) and Integral Transformative Practice (ITP)
Part 1

1.”Comfort Zone”
In a pluralistic set of practices to choose from, most people will tend not choose that which is, in their perception, outside of their comfort zone. While this is healthy in a sense, it can also perpetuate and serve exactly those difficulties and challenges the person wishes to overcome using his or hers ILP. On the other hand, heroic martyrdom (making it the most difficult for you, in simple words) is not always beneficial for growth either.

2.A Hook for neurotic tendencies
The structure of how the ILP and ITP are presented- even if the practices themselves are about overcoming anxiousness, pressure etc.- can be a very potent hook for neurotic tendencies, as they are yet another project, another commitment, more “to do”, more being overwhelmed by choices, lists, set of guidelines etc.
Of course these are specific perspectives towards the material, and certainly not the only ones, but one needs to be careful as to not succumb to the “practice overload” which can feed more sinister anxieties of the “seeking”, “incomplete” and “not enough” variety. Healthy humbleness with the orientation of ‘quality above quantity’ can benefit this situation. Few practices done thoroughly and sincerely are more satisfying and, in my opinion, more effective (“chase two rabbits catch none”).

3. “Striving Hope”, “Immortality Projects” and “False Epiphany”
To continue the idea presented above, some forms of suffering and pain cannot be dealt with a “fix it”, “lets improve” attitude. Even if the actual practice is deeply rooted in the present, seeing that practice in the context of a fix-it remedy can add fuel to what is called “striving hope”, “immortality projects”, “secret hope” etc.- a highly subtle form of harboring a perverted hope, an excited impatience, that by the time X project is complete, everything will be fine.
The falseness is the hope that is being clung to. Although the difference is very fine [between being with the practice rather than being with the practice+hope], healthy impartiality towards the practices is very important to avoid the additional burden of striving.
The concept of “false epiphany”- which has positive qualities such as excitement, can deter the practitioner from deeper aspects of any practice. It serves to build expectations and hopes, easily clung to, in regards to the practice (i.e. remember, “Meditation is not an achievement”).
It is important to emphasize that the hope itself is not as dangerous as the attachment to the hope is, which gives birth to the aforementioned anxiety-impatience complex (In meme terms, a very orange drive).
A good device to apply impartiality is cessation from a certain practice.

*Diane Hamilton refers to this "hope" issue in the following interview (towards the 2nd half of the interview).

4. Root\Source\Cause vs. Branch\Outlet\Symptom
This goes along with the “comfort zone” issue. It takes great self-awareness, intuition and diligence to make distinction between practices which would deal more directly with the root of any given challenge to practices that simply mask a symptom. Sometimes it is simply beyond the person’s awareness to identify the practice that would benefit his growth the most.
Generally speaking, any number of maps can aid this, including AQAL, Spiral Dynamics, broad applications of Chinese five element theory, etc, yet intuition, especially of the post-rational kind, is superior in regards to this issue.
It is important to identify the core- and stop there. Further digging may be unnecessary as well. A practice done well can extend beyond “superficiality” and beyond its most apparent domain of influence (fitness training is an easy example of this- i.e. easily extended into subtle energetic field of awareness).

to be continued...

G