For Sherrie
I still can't really believe it.
"The immortal things which people leave on earth are their friends, their children, and their relationships." - from The Zen of Living and Dying
However, since I won't be able to make her funeral, I've decided to have a virtual one. To that end, I've turned to a book called The Zen of Living and Dying for appropriate words. I've decided to leave this entry open just in case.
A prayer to invoke the bodhisattvas for the benefit of Sherrie.
O Compassionate Ones,
abiding in all directions,
endowed with great compassion,
endowed with love, affording protection to
sentient beings,
consent through the power of your great
compassion to come forth;
consent to accept these offerings
laid out and mentally created.
O Compassionate Ones,
you who possess the wisdom of understanding,
the love of compassion,
the power of doing divine deeds and of
protecting in incomprehensible measure:
Sherrie is passing from this world to the next,
She is taking a great leap.
The light of this world has faded for her.
She has entered solitude with her
karmic forces.
She has gone into a vast Silence.
She is borne away by the Great Ocean [of birth and death].
O Compassionate Ones,
protect Sherrie, who is defenseless,
Be to her like a mother and a father.
O Compassionate Ones,
let not the force of your compassion be weak,
but aid her.
Now, this poem is directed to Sherrie,
The Flowers Poem
The world is a flower.
Gods are flowers.
Enlightened ones are flowers.
All phenomena are flowers.
Red flowers, white flowers, green flowers,
yellow flowers, black flowers,
all the different kinds of the colours of
flowers, all the different kinds
of love shining forth.
Life unfolds from life and returns to life.
Such an immense universe! Oh many lives!
Flowers of gratitude, flowers of sorrow,
flowers of suffering, flowers of joy,
laughter's flowers, anger's flowers,
heaven's flowers, hell's flowers.
Each connected to the others
and making the others grow.
When our real mind's eye
opens this world of flowers,
all beings shine,
music echoes through mountains and oceans.
One's world becomes the world of millions.
The individual becomes the human race.
All lives become the individual--
billions of mirrors
all reflecting each other.
Sherrie, there is death and there is life,
there is no death and no life.
There is changing life, there is unchanging
life.
Flowers change colour, moment by moment.
Such a vivid world! Such a bright you!...
Sherrie, you were born out of those flowers,
you gave birth to those flowers.
You have no beginning and no ending,
you are bottomless and limitless,
even as you are infinitesimal dust...
Sherrie, you are the flower,
You are love.
All beings shine out of their uniqueness,
all melt into the oneness of colours.
You are one, you are many,
only one moment, only one unique place,
only the unique you.
Beside you there is nothing:
you dance, appearing in all.
From nowhere you came, to nowhere you go.
You stay nowhere. You are nowhere attached.
You occupy everything, you occupy nothing.
You are the becoming of indescribable change.
You are love. You are the flower.
Thanks Sherrie for the time I got to spend with you. I hope you've found peace. My life is certainly better having known you.
"The immortal things which people leave on earth are their friends, their children, and their relationships." - from The Zen of Living and Dying
However, since I won't be able to make her funeral, I've decided to have a virtual one. To that end, I've turned to a book called The Zen of Living and Dying for appropriate words. I've decided to leave this entry open just in case.
A prayer to invoke the bodhisattvas for the benefit of Sherrie.
O Compassionate Ones,
abiding in all directions,
endowed with great compassion,
endowed with love, affording protection to
sentient beings,
consent through the power of your great
compassion to come forth;
consent to accept these offerings
laid out and mentally created.
O Compassionate Ones,
you who possess the wisdom of understanding,
the love of compassion,
the power of doing divine deeds and of
protecting in incomprehensible measure:
Sherrie is passing from this world to the next,
She is taking a great leap.
The light of this world has faded for her.
She has entered solitude with her
karmic forces.
She has gone into a vast Silence.
She is borne away by the Great Ocean [of birth and death].
O Compassionate Ones,
protect Sherrie, who is defenseless,
Be to her like a mother and a father.
O Compassionate Ones,
let not the force of your compassion be weak,
but aid her.
Now, this poem is directed to Sherrie,
The Flowers Poem
The world is a flower.
Gods are flowers.
Enlightened ones are flowers.
All phenomena are flowers.
Red flowers, white flowers, green flowers,
yellow flowers, black flowers,
all the different kinds of the colours of
flowers, all the different kinds
of love shining forth.
Life unfolds from life and returns to life.
Such an immense universe! Oh many lives!
Flowers of gratitude, flowers of sorrow,
flowers of suffering, flowers of joy,
laughter's flowers, anger's flowers,
heaven's flowers, hell's flowers.
Each connected to the others
and making the others grow.
When our real mind's eye
opens this world of flowers,
all beings shine,
music echoes through mountains and oceans.
One's world becomes the world of millions.
The individual becomes the human race.
All lives become the individual--
billions of mirrors
all reflecting each other.
Sherrie, there is death and there is life,
there is no death and no life.
There is changing life, there is unchanging
life.
Flowers change colour, moment by moment.
Such a vivid world! Such a bright you!...
Sherrie, you were born out of those flowers,
you gave birth to those flowers.
You have no beginning and no ending,
you are bottomless and limitless,
even as you are infinitesimal dust...
Sherrie, you are the flower,
You are love.
All beings shine out of their uniqueness,
all melt into the oneness of colours.
You are one, you are many,
only one moment, only one unique place,
only the unique you.
Beside you there is nothing:
you dance, appearing in all.
From nowhere you came, to nowhere you go.
You stay nowhere. You are nowhere attached.
You occupy everything, you occupy nothing.
You are the becoming of indescribable change.
You are love. You are the flower.
Thanks Sherrie for the time I got to spend with you. I hope you've found peace. My life is certainly better having known you.