Thoughts on Death…
“There is no death, only a change of worlds.” ~ Chief Seattle
[Life]…”It is a flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.” ~ Crowfoot
“What is born will die, what has been gathered will be dispersed, what has been accumulated will be exhausted, what has been built up will collapse and what has been high will be brought low.” ~ Sogyal Rinpoche
Kisa Gotami and the Mustard Seeds (not to be confused with the Christian parable of the Mustard Seed ).
In this story our protangonist, Kisa Gotami, is a waif of a girl from a poor family who marries the son of a rich man because they see that she is enlightened (even if she doesn’t yet know it).
Kisa Gotami has a single son. And there are various versions of the circumstances but the bottom line is that her beloved son dies at an early age.
She is frought with grief and goes into a state of denial so complete that she carries her small boy from house to house begging anyone who will listen for a medicine to cure her baby boy.
The townsfolk feel pity for her but believe that she’s gone mad. One doctor that she goes to sees her pain and tells her that she should speak with the Buddha. The doctor tells her that the Buddha can ‘cure’ her son.
The Buddha tells Kisa Gotami that she must find some mustard seed from a home that death has not visited. She rushes off to find this miracle cure. Of course she is unable to find a home that had not been touched by death. In her search she realizes that she is not alone in her sorrow and she accepts that her son is, in fact, dead.
She returns to the Buddha and cremates her son. Then she joins the Buddha as a follower and becomes a nun.
The moral is that all things die and we can’t change that. We must love our children (and parents, siblings, friends) but not have such attachment that when the inevitable comes we are disabled with grief and sorrow. We must continue living in the presence of death and continue functioning through the grief.
The point is NOT that we should not grieve or feel loss but that we should not let those things overrrun us.
At least that’s my interpetation.
Below you’ll find several other translation\interpretations:
- From The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin
- From BartholomewKlick on HubPages I think this one is especially well written…
- From the Internet Sacred Texts Archive
- From the Noble Path
- From The Mindfullness Method
- From Access to Insight Also tells about Patacara whose story is similar but far more distressing…
- And everyone’s favorite… Wikipedia
Dedicated to anyone who’s lost someone (which is everyone). I’ve reached that age where my friends parents are starting to ‘shuffle off this mortal coil’. I find it more disturbing with each loss – somehow it always seems so unexpected and wholly unbelievable. I still have both of my parents and I am eternally greatful. For my friends and loved ones who’ve lost your Mom, Dad or both - I am truly sorry and I love you all.
Current Mood:
Sad
Marcus 1 Ellie 0
So Marcus got the first point in the very amusing game of giving Mom heart-failure today. We were at Menards looking for carpet and I had the twinnkies in one of those car-carts. I had looked down at them thru the little back window and saw both their hats were gone so I started retracing my steps to find them. After I found the 2nd hat I looked again and Marcus was gone! Somehow he’d gotten out of the seatbelt & out of the car when I had stopped the cart. I went into full-on panic mode. I was running through the isles calling for him and practically tackled the first store person I saw who immediately got on his handset. Thankfully he’d only gotten around the corner and an older female associate had captured him. I think I snatched him out of her arms so fast she probably thought I was insane… and well maybe just then I was. Needless to say he had to ride in the regular cart seat, tightly belted in, for the rest of the visit.
He also earned the first point in truly irritating his brother tonight. When we got home I gave the babies their bath. Once they were done they were running buck wild around the bathroom. Marcus climbed back into the tub (empty now) and decided to do some business. I scooped him up and got him cleaned up and diapered and had Austin watch Ellie. Once I had Marcus squared away and was getting Ellie in her jammies I told Austin that since he had late homework again his new punishment was to clean up the mess his brother had made in the bathtub. Then I told him that from now on anytime he had late homework he’d have to cleanup baby messes. He thought that was a pretty good incentive to do his homework on time.
Marcus also had his early learning screening today. Which I am happy to report came out far better than the initial one. They are going to come back in January to check him again. They think he should be talking more than he is. I’m not sure I agree with their findings but it was tonnes better than what the doctor thought at the 18-month checkup.
So all my monkeys are in bed where they are supposed to be! I am going to just veg out for a little bit because it just seems to have been an extremely long week and I am very glad the weekend is here. Oh… I did get some carpet after all that! We’ll see how that adventure goes tomorrow!
Happy Halloween! Happy Samhain! Happy All Hallow’s Eve! Happy Harvest! Whatever your pleasure here’s to you!
Ellie & Marcus are 18-months old!
18-month check-ups were on Friday, Oct 15th. They both did well at their check-up even though Ellie gave the Doctor a bit of a hard time. They also got their flu shots and thankfully have had no ill effects from that.
Having some well-deserved chocolate milk after their flu shots!
- 26 pounds 15 ounces (4 oz gain)
- 33 inches (1/2 in gain)
- Head circumference – 19.09 inches
- 90th % length-for-age
- 80th % weight-for-age
- 23 pounds 10 ounces (1 lbs 5 oz gain)
- 32.25 inches (1.25 in gain)
- Head circumference – 19 inches
- 50th % length-for-age
- 25th % weight-for-age
