The Gift of a Dying Person

This Sunday was my 71st birthday and I spent an enjoyable lunch and afternoon with my wife, daughter and son-in-law.  A few hours later my daughter left a message to say my aunt, her great-aunt, had died at the age of 99 after a serious fall when she had fractured her skull and broken her neck.  Over the last few days she had stopped communicating and drifted into death.  I had not seen her for about 15 years, as she lives on the other side of the continent and we were never very close.  But she was my daughter's favourite and she used to visit my aunt every year or so.

My aunt was the last survivor of 4 sisters and one brother, killed at El Alamein in WWII.  Although the 2nd eldest, she was the rock of the family and I felt she was particularly hard on my mother, the youngest, and even harder on me when I was a teenager.  As I got older, I saw it differently and developed a grudging admiration for her being such a tough, outspoken, self sufficient old bird.  After all, it took a broken neck before she would finally give in to Death!

So on Sunday night I went into Powa and Bardo prayers.  I now realise what a beautiful gift my Aunt has given me as she died.  In the reading I did on Bardo Prayers I slowly became aware that we all have the opportunity to contact those who have been before, no matter how long ago.

Completing this blog 3 months later:  This realisation is enough on its own to be sufficient for this blog.  It is inherent in the Buddhist teachings that we are all connected eternally in our various manifiestations through samsara.  So at any time, through meditiation and contemplation, we can still relate to those who've been before - and - why not - to those yet to come?

May whatever merit there in in these ramblings be for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Yours in Dharma,

Vajramate.