Romancing suicide

“…SUICIDE IS painless
It brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.”
The song from M*A*S*H – that ‘60s smashing TV-series-turned-movie-hit set in the Korean War, for those not old enough to remember – first came to mind upon hearing of former Secretary Angelo Reyes taking his own life.
A silent prayer, requiescat in pace, for the Lord to shine his perpetual light upon him, but even before ending with Amen, some shuddering set in when I realized what I had been just reading, Bushido: The Soul of Japan originally published in 1905, opened to Chapter XII titled “The Institutions of Suicide and Redress.”
Bu-shi-do, literally translating to military-knight-ways, is the code of honor of the samurai. Part of that code is the ritual of seppuku, more popularly known as hara-kiri meaning self-immolation by disembowelment. The ritual – performed before spectators in elaborate ceremonies – culminated in the samurai plunging the tanto, a short sword, into his abdomen and moving it from left to right in a slicing motion.
Why in the abdomen? An old anatomical belief put the seat of the very soul and the font of all affections in that particular part of the human body.
In effect, the samurai – in slicing his belly – is saying: “I will open the seat of my soul and show you how it fares with it. See for yourself whether it is polluted or clean.”
Clearly, from there, seppuku is all a matter of honor. A point taken by the 17th century English physician and poet Sir Samuel Garth in his poem of six cantos The Dispensary thus:
“When honour’s lost, ’tis a relief to die;
Death’s but a sure retreat from infamy.”
(Yes, there is universality in ritual suicide to salvage one’s honor. The ancient Romans with their morte prima di disonore finding fulfillment in Cato and Brutus and now appropriated by most military units, most manifest in the slogan “Death Before Dishonor” popularized in the tattoo of a coiling scroll wrapped around a dagger.)
So I read Bushido… author Inazo Nitobe, himself descended from the samurai class, thus: “Death involving a question of honour, was accepted in Bushido as a key to the solution of many complex problems, so that to an ambitious samurai a natural departure from life seemed a rather tame affair and a consummation not devoutly to be wished for.”
By seppuku, “warriors could expiate their crimes, apologize for errors, escape from disgrace, redeem their friends, or proved their sincerity.”
Furthered Nitobe of seppuku, “…it was a refinement of self-destruction, and none could perform it without the utmost coolness of temper and composure of demeanor, and for these reasons it was particularly befitting the profession of bushi.”
A matter of honor. So Secretary Angelo Reyes did his own self-immolation, preferring the modern gun over the ancient sword: piercing the heart rather than spilling the guts, the former now universally recognized as the seat of affection, of the purity of love. Some messages Reyes wanted to send there?
A matter of honor. Was it but a couple days before Reyes did the ultimate act that Senator Antonio Trillanes, himself a former military man, a coup pal of the Magdalos at that glared and blared at his former superior: “You have no reputation to protect”?
“No honor” in Trillanes there, “attacking and then taking refuge behind the now much-abused parliamentary immunity of lawmakers,” Reyes himself retorted in a statement: “All I am asking is for Senator Trillanes to fight in a level playing field instead of confederating with a lynch-mob to subject me and my family to a trial by publicity. For when a man imputes malice and calumny against another man, he must make himself answerable for his accusations.”
Honor – however little is left of it – Reyes salvaged by going the way of the samurai.
Honor – whatever little remains of it – the parliamentary immunity-shielded Trillanes now is in dire need of salvaging.
“The game of life is hard to play
I'm gonna lose it anyway
The losing card I'll someday lay
so this is all I have to say.
'Cause suicide is painless
it brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.
The only way to win is cheat
And lay it down before I'm beat
and to another give my seat
for that's the only painless feat.
'Cause suicide is painless
it brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.”
Yeah.