(crossposted from dkos)
I don’t know Mrs Schiavo, but I wish her a clear journey home. I hope that her spirit will be raised by our voices to carry her & all beings to Liberation or a good birth.
If we have souls, our souls can find joy in the release of souls from the gravity & grief of our realms.
Blessings & release for all souls entering the Bardo.
Blessings and peace to their loved ones.
From The Tibetan Book Of The Dead:
Oh Buddhas and Bodhisattvas abiding in the ten directions, endowed with great compassion, endowed with pre-knowledge, endowed with impeccable vision, endowed with love, affording protection to sentient beings, consent through the power of your great compassion to accept these offerings actually laid out and mentally created.
Oh you compassionate ones possessing the wisdom of understanding, the love of compassion, the power of acting, and of protecting in incomprehensible measure, one is passing through this world and leaving it behind. No friends does (s)he have, (s)he is without defenders, without protectors and kinsmen. The light of this world has set. (s)he goes from place to place, (s)he enters darkness, (s)he falls down a steep precipice, (s)he enters a jungle of solitude, (s)he is pursued by karmic forces, (s)he goes into a vast silence, (s)he is borne away on the great ocean, (s)he is wafted on the wind of karma, (s)he goes where there is no certainty, (s)he is caught in the great conflict, (s)he is obsessed by the great affecting spirit, (s)he is awed and terrified by the messengers of death. Existing karma has put her into repeated existence and no strength does (s)he have although the time has come to go alone.
Oh you compassionate ones, defend who is defenseless, protect who is unprotected, be his kinsman, protect her from the suffering in the depression of the Bardo, turn her from the storm wind of karma, turn her from the great awe and terror of the Lords of Death, liberate her from the long narrow way of the Bardo.
Oh compassionate ones who do not allow the force of your compassion to be weakened in assistance, who do not allow one to be in the miserable states of existence, forget not your ancient vows, you who do not allow sentient being to be influenced by habit, and protect from the misery of the Bardo.
Oh conquerors and your offspring abiding in the ten directions, Oh ocean congregation of the peaceful and the wrathful, Oh gurus and devas, you dakinis and faithful ones, Hearken now out of your great love and compassion, Obeisance to you, oh assemblage of gurus and dakinis, Out of your great love, lead us along the path
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http://www.buddhistinformation.com/tibetan/the_tibetan_book_of_the_dead.htm”
What does it mean to be dead, dying or alive?
What is your most enduring memory of a death or funeral?
Is the afterlife a place the dead go to, or a state of comfort for those left living?
