Suicides Resulting from the Financial Crisis

Whatever we may think of the financial industry, we don’t want to see stockbrokers jumping out of widows like it’s 1929. And even though many western Buddhists talk about the romance of being poor, no one wants to see people have their homes taken away from them. This article on the suicides or attempted suicides resulting from the current financial crisis makes very sad reading:

Notes left on the table revealed months of planning. She’d picked out her funeral home, laid out the insurance policy and left a note saying, “pay off the house with the insurance money.”

Integral Options Cafe has a video with Bob Thurman on whether Buddhism can save you from the financial crisis. (This reminds me that Dogo Barry Graham wrote recently that “Over the last couple thousand years, much mythology has been attached to the Buddha, so much so that in some stories he sounds like a hybrid of Superman and Yoda.” There was this exchange in a debate in Tricycle‘s Spring 1997 issue:

Stephen Batchelor: I have difficulty with the idea of seeing the Buddha as a kind of superman. Tricycle: Bob? Robert Thurman: I’m sure Buddha was Superman! Beyond Superman!