安息吧 師傅

Recently, someone I was once very close to passed away. To me, this person was as a teacher, a father-figure, and a kindred warrior who ceaselessly fought battles of the heart when not fighting those of the flesh. Now he has passed from this life, and many people doubtlessly feel compelled to say goodbye. As I sit here from afar, pondering my own silent maelstrom of emotions, I find that I cannot say goodbye. We say goodbye to the deceased to acknowledge that they are no longer here. We acknowledge that they are gone. However, I cannot say goodbye, because I believe that on the most powerful levels, there is no here, there is no gone, there is only ever-changing existence and how we choose to comprehend it from the confines of our own timid and linear transience. When Siddhārtha Gautama, also known as the Supreme Buddha, was on his deathbed, among other final teachings, he stated the following to his disciples:

“I have just woken up from this dream that you call life. This lifetime of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is like a flash of lightening across the sky, rushing by like a torrent down a steep mountain, but I am now awake.”

Sixteen centuries after the Buddha said the statement above, in a similar mindset, the poet-philosopher known as Rumi wrote the following,

“Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there exists a field. I will meet you there.”

The fight is now over, Master.
Please rest peacefully until we see you again.


GRANDMASTER KALAII KANO GRIFFIN
March 15, 1939 - March 7, 2008

Comments

Anonymous said…
I hope you get to see your friend again one day.
March 18, 2008 at 9:41 PM
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