I’ve been keeping in mind an unborn child, and the woman who is carrying it. And the father too. When the child is eventually born into this world it will lead to death, the child’s death. Although the unborn child’s heart is beating now it will not be able to sustain life outside of the mothers body. This is a medical matter and the inevitable outcome is outside of anybodies control.
Yesterday I made two tiny white knots, knots of eternity, which will become part of a token kesa. That will be placed around the neck of the dead infant during a Funeral Ceremony. The token kesa represents the Buddhist Precepts, Buddhahood.
In the photographs you see a statue of Jiso with very many tiny white Jiso’s with red bibs on. The pictures was taken last year in Japan. Each little Jiso is a memorial for a baby or infant that didn’t live long in this world. As you can see there are offerings that children would like.
During the war, in an air raid in London, my pregnant mother jumped out of a window to save herself and a heavy man landed on top of her. The fetus aborted. In those days mothers were not permitted to see the dead fetus, perhaps it was thought ‘better’ for the mother not to see. My mother wanted to see, she couldn’t and that was a great grief for her. A few years latter I came along into her life.
So, the presence of all those little Jiso statues are a way to see, recognize and accept a death. Any woman who has had life growing in her and that life end, knows the utter devastating grief that is involved. The scene I am standing before in the first picture I remember well. It was a field of Compassion made manifest. Compassion is the appropriate response.
Do spare a thought for the situations described and for all such life dramas playing themselves out within Eternal Life.
Namo Amida Bu
Dear Rev. Mugo…thank you for this reminder…I’ve had a difficult past week…not sure if you heard of the high school in Bailey, Colorado…my home town high in the Rockies where a 53 year old man entered the school and took kids hostage in a classroom and let everyone go except for the young blond female teenagers…he sexually assaulted them, and as the police entered he killed Emily, the sixteen year old girlfriend of my nephew, Jared. It has been a hard long week for everyone involved…but throughout it all I have seen really an ocean of Compassion. What was really amazing is all the surrounding towns got together and knitted scarves, which they called “prayer scarves” and as the kids had their first day of school after a week this Thursday, when they arrived each one was given a scarf to remember Emily, who was killed, and all those who were injured and to let the students know they were “surrounded by love”. I thought this was a lovely idea…and it helped my hurt living far away on another continent. With training I have really come to see this Ocean of Compassion which embraces everything…thank you for reminding me once again. I will also keep this precious and fragile unborn life in mind. In gassho…Jack
Dear Jack,
May an OCEAN of Compassion washes over the tragic event in Bailey, Colorado on September 28th. A transfer of merit will soon be on our Transfer of Merit board for Emily Keyes who was shot, for the man who held the group of student?s hostage and who shot himself and for the families and the wider community of Bailey Colorado, USA.
Compassion is an appropriate response.
Thanks also to Ray.