Snippets of the Cavern House Temple altar and some of our plants in the early summer morning.
We had a sudden death in our family this weekend. I witness my father’s grief and sorrow as he is shocked with the loss of his closest sibling, his best friend, his youngest brother. I honor my uncle for the kindness he showed in fleeting moments, and the long life he had with our family. My Catholic family struggles deeply with death and the general end-of-life transition. I give thanks to the deaths of my friends and other family because that pain led me closer to the Dharma. I give thanks to the Buddha for transmitting the Dharma so that death is never a true surprise or a confusing event for me. I give thanks for the ability to see beyond the material realm; I know that the spirit goes on, that this life here is a pinprick of light on a multidimensional spectrum that we might call a journey.
In this lifetime my uncle met a bodhisattva and the bodhisattva tested him. My uncle will purify in the realms that mirror what he made here on earth, and then return to some other form of life. My uncle is not separate from my father, from his children or grandchild, or from myself. We are consciousness together, shining and sharing our energies, doing our duties here for a time. May my family’s suffering be comforted by visions of my uncle in the enjoyment heaven and of emptiness beyond, and the sublime joy that comes with it. May our beloved dead visit us and then move on to the next part of their life cycle. May our spirits heal in this realm and the next.