[MMM]

Originally Posted by Kelvindegrez

Thanks MMM I really do appreciate your concern about my comment. I shall take your recommendation (which i've been doing more so since I have more free time), because it really is important to me. Also can you point me to research material that has made a impact to you personally that would help me along the way?

I am sorry, that is your mission. I cannot recommend anything that has helped me.

Originally Posted by Kelvindegrez

i also would like to note however that, Friedrich Nietzsche, by his view of the world came to the conclusion of nihilism. Some people hold that belief in that sort of thinking, some of that group take their lives because of no meaning. It can be taken for granted that ideas do have consequences.

I don't think Nietzsche really applies here, because you are assuming people in Japan are committing suicide because their lives have no meaning. I think suicides in Japan happen for other reasons.

Originally Posted by Kelvindegrez

You said so yourself earlier: "My feeling is that Japanese culture treats life and death a little differently than we do in the West." I agree, but how do you think that came about?

I am sure a book could be written to answer that question. You wouldn't assume all cultures see life and death the same way, would you?

Originally Posted by Kelvindegrez

Many things play into how a culture views and values things: History, Religion, even just geographical location, etc. To discount anyone of them eventually hinders solutions, and ultimately creates more problems.

To say Buddhism and Shinto were partially the cause of why Japanese have a high suicide rate makes as much sense as saying seaweed and chopsticks are also partially to blame. You are barking up the wrong tree.

Originally Posted by Kelvindegrez

Also i'm aware of the cultural baggage that I bring to the table. However I seek to understand in all ways not just one. I don't only want to view this as a western thinker. Nor do I only want to view it an eastern thinker. I seek knowledge as a whole. That mean's acquiring all,of the "lenses" that this issue could be viewed through.

I think at the end of the day regardless what's most important to me is their lives as human beings. My heart has started the engine, my mind will be the fuel to go, and my body will make it happen

Their lives, meaning who? Japanese people? I wish you the best, but really, get educated. If you start talking about how Shinto, the most innocuous and peaceful way of thinking I have ever experienced, has anything to do with why people commit suicide you are not going to get many people to listen to you. You have a long and difficult path ahead, but I hope you are up for it.