Aug 16, 2025

The Opposite of Suicide II.

A deeper exposé on the opposite of suicide.

Back on the opposite of suicide kick. This had the strongest response to anything I’ve ever written. My old HighExistence essay, "The Ridiculously Obvious Meaning of Life" is a close second. Now, the time has come. Let’s dig deeper, down into the next layer.

Suicide, the ultimate and final act, is never a spontaneous event.

There are months—sometimes years—of deliberation.

Innumerable missed opportunities, self-sabotaging decisions, overwhelming pain, careful planning. Suicide is the invisible, unspoken death by 1000 cuts that culminates in a great and final crescendo.

But as we’ve discussed, if suicide exists, its equal opposite must also exist.

Similarly, the opposite of suicide is not a singular, spontaneous event.

It too is the result of deliberate planning, profound contemplation, self-affirming decisions, intentionally cultivating joy, and fierce vitality through 1000 tiny victories.

What is most important is that the opposite of suicide also culminates in an ultimate and final act: the lion’s roar.

An absolute decision. A permanent yes. Complete openness to Reality. A solemn and profound commitment to check in and show up fully from that point forward.

You sit here now, reading this, nodding along, stroking your ego, imagining that you have already made this solemn commitment to Life.

That you have already made the Absolute Decision.

Be honest with yourself...

This is between You and God. A private pact between Creator and Creation...

How many innumerable ways do you run away from life each day?
How much of yourself are you still holding back from the world?
How frequently do you resist the present reality of your experience?

You’re tempted to maybe admit that you resist Life once or twice a day. A few moments of anxiety here, a delayed email reply over there.

How about once or twice a second? How vast our range of resistance is. How frequent the moments of fear. How many psychological defence mechanisms have you carefully constructed around your heart? How sophisticated is the labyrinth you’ve built to prevent anyone from discovering who you are?

Every distracted twitch to your phone. Every statement withheld out of fear. Every dream abandoned. Every duty left unattended. Every friendship neglected. Every contraction in the body, every pang of anxiety, every habit streak broken, every…

IS THIS THE FULLNESS OF YOUR SPIRIT, BROTHER?

IS THIS YOUR FULL LION’S ROAR?

Where is the fire in your eyes? Where is the gravity behind your commitment? When did you accept this level of complacency? When did you abandon yourself?

What do you mean you were tired today? What are you saying, you’ll ‘get to it later’? Why are you starting that project ‘next week’ as if Monday has some Holy Significance to you?

These are not the tiny victories toward full vitality. These are the tiny deaths that lead to annihilation.

Are you LIVING or are you DYING?

CHOOSE.

Choose again, and again, and again, and again, and again. Immediately, instantly, infinitely.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” ― Frank Herbert, Dune

This Lion's Roar on the other side of the Final Fear leads you somewhere fairly close to the great Bodhisattva Vow of Mahayana Buddhism:

“For as long as space endures,
and so long as beings exist,
may I likewise remain,
to drive away the sorrows of this world.”

The sacred yes to all Life. To all things, in all times, everywhere.

Let me hear that roar,
EB. 🦁