Prayers for the Living

As I grow older, I get to hear more about people dying. As someone who can see some glimmer of the future and who can feel time slip through my fingers, I have always been sensitive to the separation of the soul from the body. In some people, it is an easy transition. For others, it is a scary lonely time.

Infraternam Meam writes about his experience with dealing with his little brother's cancer.

As with all situations involving a transition from this life to another, the details are heart wrenching. It is as if the world will end and nothing else matters. I remember when my mother passed away. The grief at knowing that you are alone in this world was almost unbearable.

I say almost unbearable because you are never alone. In my situation, there was my sister and my brother. My family was still there. I simply had to find a philosophical construct in how to include my mother and my deceased father.

No, I did not find it in religion. I simply thought about things for the longest time. Then, I realized that people will stay in your heart and in your conciousness as long as you care for them to do so. So if I miss my mother, I simply recall the happy and wonderful events of her life which was a part of me.

Dying is easy for the dearly departed because they are done with this earth. For those remaining here, it can serve as an anchor or it can serve as a liberation. My teacher told a story of how when his mother died, the old women pointed at him and laughed and said that "You are now free."

My teacher wondered about that statement. What does that mean? He finally realized that it meant that his mother is now in his heart. No physical ailment or physical wound can hurt her. She is free to be with him forever.

The mind is a powerful device to create various realities. In this ever changing world, I try to use mine to make life a little bit more fun and interesting.

I offer my prayers to those who are living because we need it more than those who have departed.