Thanks to Jung’s comment to the recent Zennist blog, Becoming decent and nice Buddhist nihilists I learned about ‘Sarco', a suicide machine developed in the Netherlands by Exit Director Dr. Philip Nitschke and Engineer Alexander Bannink. Sarco will enable its user, who has a special access key, to peacefully exit from this life just by pressing a button!
This quick exit is made possible for the user by liquid nitrogen which enters the death capsule where the user is comfortably reclining, dropping the oxygen level to about 5 percent. There is no asphyxiation. The inventors say death is relatively painless coming in just a few minutes. The capsule can be subsequently used as a coffin.
As I thought more about Sarco, I began to see it as something akin to a ‘nirvana machine’ which might have great appeal for secular Buddhists who, in my opinion, have a nihilistic outlook (there is no atman, no pure Mind, Buddha-nature, and no transmigrant such as consciousness). Whenever you die, that’s it. There is no more. This is secular nirvana.
I decided to do a little ad hoc test. I wanted to see how Buddhists reacted. So I posted on Reddit (/r/Buddhism) the following submission titled: Sarco, the hi–tech Nirvana machine? It wasn’t ten minutes before it was banned by the moderators. (Wow, talk about PC in Buddhism!)
It seems these Buddhists were uncomfortable with the idea of a nirvana machine based on suicide. It was my impression (maybe more of a guess on my part) that they were quite happy hanging on to their psychophysical bodies even though they firmly believed there is no ātman, no Buddha-nature and, importantly, consciousness is not the transmigrant although the Buddha said otherwise.
“Just as a silkworm makes a cocoon in which to wrap itself and then leaves the cocoon behind, so consciousness produces a body to envelop itself and then leaves that body to undergo other karmic results in a new body” (Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra 寶積經).
I even asked this question, “Using Sarco, since there is nothing left over after one dies, what would be the harm?” One Buddhist answered (note the bad grammar): “there isnt nothing left when one dies.” True, if you are a secular (nihilist) Buddhist. But if you are an old fashioned Buddhist like I am—if you decided to Sarco yourself, the deed is retained in consciousness which then moves on to another conditioned body. What’s more, this ain’t nirvana. It is samsara. Then someone accused me of a gross misunderstanding of Buddhism.
But I look at it this way. Modern Buddhists are pretty much secular Buddhists and nihilists to boot. They can accept the worldly parts of Buddhism that don’t bother their modern beliefs, but they will furiously deny that they are also nihilists. The way I see their denial, it is like someone denying that they are an alcoholic despite the heavy drinking that helps to carry them through each day.
If Dr. Philip Nitschke and Alexander Bannink’s suicide machine works as anticipated (which I think it might), it may take us to a brave new world (Huxley) where palliation and suicide machines will engender a new age of living without pain (the secular Buddhists I am sure will like this). Too old? Life too painful? Have too much debt? Are you depressed? If meds and ECT are not working for you, try Sarco, the nirvana machine.