I am a student of spirituality. Traditional, non-traditional, extra-traditional, esoteric...you name it and it will hook me into listening. My adventure in this life has included, not only working with disenfranchised youth of all colors and cultures, but in exploring and studying the metaphysical beliefs of the world--past as well as present. The 'God Thing'--in all its possibilities--captures me and propels me, still.
While this began in Catholic School, when I was a wee child, the disparity between what Jesus said and what I saw going on in the Church (including the discrepancies between what was demanded of nuns vs. priests...) began to raise serious questions in my adolescent mind. In college, while exploring Bible Study Groups, the Quaker Meeting in the next town, Native American shamanism, and cast in a leading role in "Godspell", I was introduced to all the "forbidden/hidden" books of the Bible--which shocked me. Shocked because they had been withheld from so many people on the grounds that the commoners couldn't handle God's words...(What else had been hidden from us? !) These were the same questions I had in Sacred Heart--where I had been told to stop asking...
Further connections with the world, through multi-cultural romances, voracious reading, ongoing exploration of the arts, and the beginning study of philosophy, whetted my wondering. (And my wandering.)It was clear that this "path" was the one I was destined to travel--wherever it led.
I came across the TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD. Unlike other tomes of ceremonies honoring our deceased, this work actually laid out what happens, from the moment of our last breath, to where one might end up in the next life. It blew my mind. However, it wasn't until after many readings of the book, and years of meditation, that I began to understand its message--began to integrate what was being explained into what I've come to experience for myself.
We are a generation of death. (Maybe more so than anytime since the Great Plague years.) AIDS, global war and famine-- our sheer numbers insure there is more death around than any time in recorded history. On top of that, our communications systems are such that we encounter death up close, sometimes in an hourly manner. (Even our games and entertainment--our music, our dance, our comics--push death under our noses--yet explain nothing.) There is often no comprehension of the panic--the agony--the scarring that sudden ends leave. A vaporized zombie (or on the opposite end, a glorified Juliet) create the same impact: death is all around, yet unreal. No prep needed. No consequences acquired.
The real deal way to prepare for the inevitable eludes most of us. Our ideas of a "good death" involve popularity, drama, money spent. (Commercials for life insurance focus on the bills after death--prey on worries about the image "left behind".)Our Churches decline in regular attendees. Our prayers services become less populated than ever. Multi-cultural votives, mylar balloons and teddy-bears are the best
markers of someone's passing. (If we are fortunate, someone will video the memorial and post it to You Tube...)
Perhaps this has always been true for humans. Famous people had huge funerals. (The King and the Pope were always on top..) But what really happened when someone passed? Who could tell us, beyond the ambiguous "angels" come to call and perhaps "a bright light"? Where do we look for hard answers?
We cling to people who lecture us about "near death experiences". We devour popular books from psychics who claim to be able to talk to those on the other side,giving us some messages of closure. Yet, how often do we ask the real questions? The questions beyond "where is the money hidden" or "Who knocked Auntie Lil upside the head ?"
Why isn't anyone asking "Okay, what happens? Line for line? What does it feel like? What should I do to prepare? Are you naked? Are you old? Do you still have your glasses or crutches or wheelchair? Are you fat? Wrinkled? Can you see us? What ELSE can you see? Who's there? What does Jesus look like? Buddha? Mohammed? Moses? Are they nice? What language is everyone speaking? Does anyone hug or kiss? What does it smell like? Why are you hanging around still? How did you pick out this psychic, when there are millions of people you could communicate with? What does it sound like, there? Where is "there"?"
In the TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, I found the day by day, moment by moment, descriptions of what one may encounter and feel...advice of how to "handle" this transition--which can take up to forty-nine days. Yes--an actual outline--passed down through the ages by prophets and saints--holy adepts who have been given the knowledge of what will occur. What does occur. What one can prepare for--and how. Nothing has been "hidden" or "restricted". It is all there for the masses.Including us.
Yes, I am still a Christian. I found that there is even advice for this...a place to call upon my Lord and my Angels and Saints. A place for them to interact with me, if I do it mindfully. There is even an explanation of the Heaven we heard about at Sacred Heart--and transition to that place. The role of the Christ is there, too...or enough that there is no way I can discount this text based on cultural belief or pagan systems of spirituality.Each time I read the book, the sound psychology and profound spirituality resound in my mind. Give me some kind of war-manual of how to approach my end, actively, regardless of how I get there.
So, as the absurdity of Whitney's body, four floors above the pre-Grammy bash, unfolded, my mind could focus on what the spirit/the essence of "Whitney" may be encountering--even as she was a life-long professed Christian girl. Instead of anger and despair and shock at the way the "death" was being handled, I could have some kind of thumb-nail sketch of what might be going on--for her "soul"--for whatever was still "the Voice". I could pray and meditate and send the words and images off, into space, into the great Void, and know she might hear them and benefit--as is written.
While this may sound crazy or sacrilegious to some, I found surprising comfort in reading the book, again. (Even found comfort in the death of children and close family--knowing what may be happening, and what I might do in the way of sending specific prayers along in my meditation--as well as the usual prayers of
my youth.) It allows me a framework of focus on the essence and soul of the person who has passed, and not on the expired body or the emotional reactions going off around me. There is a calm;a hope and a light that I had not expected, reading such an esoteric book from the past. However, it IS there. It is real. At least for me...it helps.
I find the third edition, and its introduction and commentary by Dr. Carl Jung, as well as the myriad foot-notes for non-Tibetans, by the translators, to be particularly accessible.
So, as we mourn our dead, this week, whether viewing the ceremonies from cyber-space or attending the services at a gravesite, in the cold, I offer this a piece of comfort; a wee bit of enlightenment to aid us all. Namaste.
While this began in Catholic School, when I was a wee child, the disparity between what Jesus said and what I saw going on in the Church (including the discrepancies between what was demanded of nuns vs. priests...) began to raise serious questions in my adolescent mind. In college, while exploring Bible Study Groups, the Quaker Meeting in the next town, Native American shamanism, and cast in a leading role in "Godspell", I was introduced to all the "forbidden/hidden" books of the Bible--which shocked me. Shocked because they had been withheld from so many people on the grounds that the commoners couldn't handle God's words...(What else had been hidden from us? !) These were the same questions I had in Sacred Heart--where I had been told to stop asking...
Further connections with the world, through multi-cultural romances, voracious reading, ongoing exploration of the arts, and the beginning study of philosophy, whetted my wondering. (And my wandering.)It was clear that this "path" was the one I was destined to travel--wherever it led.
I came across the TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD. Unlike other tomes of ceremonies honoring our deceased, this work actually laid out what happens, from the moment of our last breath, to where one might end up in the next life. It blew my mind. However, it wasn't until after many readings of the book, and years of meditation, that I began to understand its message--began to integrate what was being explained into what I've come to experience for myself.
We are a generation of death. (Maybe more so than anytime since the Great Plague years.) AIDS, global war and famine-- our sheer numbers insure there is more death around than any time in recorded history. On top of that, our communications systems are such that we encounter death up close, sometimes in an hourly manner. (Even our games and entertainment--our music, our dance, our comics--push death under our noses--yet explain nothing.) There is often no comprehension of the panic--the agony--the scarring that sudden ends leave. A vaporized zombie (or on the opposite end, a glorified Juliet) create the same impact: death is all around, yet unreal. No prep needed. No consequences acquired.
The real deal way to prepare for the inevitable eludes most of us. Our ideas of a "good death" involve popularity, drama, money spent. (Commercials for life insurance focus on the bills after death--prey on worries about the image "left behind".)Our Churches decline in regular attendees. Our prayers services become less populated than ever. Multi-cultural votives, mylar balloons and teddy-bears are the best
markers of someone's passing. (If we are fortunate, someone will video the memorial and post it to You Tube...)
Perhaps this has always been true for humans. Famous people had huge funerals. (The King and the Pope were always on top..) But what really happened when someone passed? Who could tell us, beyond the ambiguous "angels" come to call and perhaps "a bright light"? Where do we look for hard answers?
We cling to people who lecture us about "near death experiences". We devour popular books from psychics who claim to be able to talk to those on the other side,giving us some messages of closure. Yet, how often do we ask the real questions? The questions beyond "where is the money hidden" or "Who knocked Auntie Lil upside the head ?"
Why isn't anyone asking "Okay, what happens? Line for line? What does it feel like? What should I do to prepare? Are you naked? Are you old? Do you still have your glasses or crutches or wheelchair? Are you fat? Wrinkled? Can you see us? What ELSE can you see? Who's there? What does Jesus look like? Buddha? Mohammed? Moses? Are they nice? What language is everyone speaking? Does anyone hug or kiss? What does it smell like? Why are you hanging around still? How did you pick out this psychic, when there are millions of people you could communicate with? What does it sound like, there? Where is "there"?"
In the TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, I found the day by day, moment by moment, descriptions of what one may encounter and feel...advice of how to "handle" this transition--which can take up to forty-nine days. Yes--an actual outline--passed down through the ages by prophets and saints--holy adepts who have been given the knowledge of what will occur. What does occur. What one can prepare for--and how. Nothing has been "hidden" or "restricted". It is all there for the masses.Including us.
Yes, I am still a Christian. I found that there is even advice for this...a place to call upon my Lord and my Angels and Saints. A place for them to interact with me, if I do it mindfully. There is even an explanation of the Heaven we heard about at Sacred Heart--and transition to that place. The role of the Christ is there, too...or enough that there is no way I can discount this text based on cultural belief or pagan systems of spirituality.Each time I read the book, the sound psychology and profound spirituality resound in my mind. Give me some kind of war-manual of how to approach my end, actively, regardless of how I get there.
So, as the absurdity of Whitney's body, four floors above the pre-Grammy bash, unfolded, my mind could focus on what the spirit/the essence of "Whitney" may be encountering--even as she was a life-long professed Christian girl. Instead of anger and despair and shock at the way the "death" was being handled, I could have some kind of thumb-nail sketch of what might be going on--for her "soul"--for whatever was still "the Voice". I could pray and meditate and send the words and images off, into space, into the great Void, and know she might hear them and benefit--as is written.
While this may sound crazy or sacrilegious to some, I found surprising comfort in reading the book, again. (Even found comfort in the death of children and close family--knowing what may be happening, and what I might do in the way of sending specific prayers along in my meditation--as well as the usual prayers of
my youth.) It allows me a framework of focus on the essence and soul of the person who has passed, and not on the expired body or the emotional reactions going off around me. There is a calm;a hope and a light that I had not expected, reading such an esoteric book from the past. However, it IS there. It is real. At least for me...it helps.
I find the third edition, and its introduction and commentary by Dr. Carl Jung, as well as the myriad foot-notes for non-Tibetans, by the translators, to be particularly accessible.
So, as we mourn our dead, this week, whether viewing the ceremonies from cyber-space or attending the services at a gravesite, in the cold, I offer this a piece of comfort; a wee bit of enlightenment to aid us all. Namaste.
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