Someone asked on behalf of a person close to them: someone under their care had been carrying a heavy heart for some time, and recently made the decision to end their own life. This has left the person who cared for them deeply troubled — worried about where the departed has gone, and further unsettled by others around them speaking negatively about what happened. They asked for guidance on how to help free the departed from suffering.

This is the result of the law of karma. The departed had carried out a similar act of self-harm in a past life, and in this life the same karmic pattern bore fruit again. Regardless of where they were or who surrounded them, the outcome tends to follow the same direction — it has nothing to do with the people around them in this present life. Each person plays their own role, carrying it forward as it comes; the departed's karma simply expressed itself according to causes already set in motion long before.

An act like this — whether harming oneself or another — leaves the mind clouded afterward. Once the mind is clouded, it tends to repeat the same pattern of cause again. So the people nearby bear no real connection to what happened; they were simply an outer circumstance.

For those wishing to help the departed, what can be done is to practice giving, keep the precepts, meditate, study and practice the dhamma, and then dedicate the resulting merit to the departed continuously. Close relatives especially — children or a spouse — should keep building these good causes consistently: giving, precepts, meditation, study of the dhamma, and dedication of merit. Doing so will gradually help improve the departed's condition over time.