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him enough.'"
Suicide seems to be the only exit -- not a very brave, not a very courageous one, but it looks like an escape. In existentialist circles this has been a continuous problem, that if we feel that suicide is the only thing then we should commit suicide. And the answer was always, "Who knows? After suicide things may be even worse. We don't have any way to compare, we don't have any alternatives, we cannot come back. If we commit suicide and then we think, `My God, what have I done? This is a far bigger hell that I have entered.' Now there is no going back... So we cannot live peacefully, and we cannot die peacefully."
It is not something new. In the West it is new, but in the East, as far back as we can see, the question has been asked but has taken a totally different turn. In the West they think, "How to get out of this boring anguish that we have been told is life?" In the East we have also thought about life -- but not going out of it, going beyond it.
That is the difference between Western existentialism and Eastern existentialism. In the East there never existed a particular school because every seeker was seeking a beyond. Only more life can dispel the boredom -- more radiant life, more vibrant life, more eternal life.
The Western existentialism seems to be defeatist, a failure: this life is not worthwhile, the only way is to jump in a lake. But you should be aware that the whole East, in its long history -- which is longer than the West's -- has never thought about suicide as a solution, because life continues. By suicide you simply miss a great opportunity for transcendence. Every master in the East has been against suicide because if you are so ready to commit suicide, then why not try a jump beyond life? You have nothing to lose; at the most it may be a suicide.
Meditation is a jump beyond life. It is not getting out of life, it is getting to the very center of life. The people who have entered at the very center of life have shown such grace, such beauty, such presence that they have even become a tremendous inspiration for millions. Just their very presence has transformed people. The question is not of
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