The following topics are covered in this section:
Reminiscing with Meaning
Looking Back . . . And Forward
Lessons from Looking Back on Life
Many people have told me how they feel that someone close to them who has died is still with them in a deep and undefined way. They may say something like, ‘They are always in my heart.’
I have heard people explain this by saying, ‘Oh, they live on in our memories.’ But this doesn’t seem to capture it, as memories don’t truly live and often do not last long.
I think what is meant is that a person who has died lives on in our hearts as someone present and alive, much more than simply as a memory.
One could of course dismiss this feeling as mere fancy, but from the Buddhist perspective it makes complete sense. It reflects a deep and natural intuition about what our being is and how we are connected to others. It is this that gives us the sense of some kind of meaningful, living connection, and makes that dead body before us seem like a parody. It is not really them.
(Lama Shenpen Hookham. There’s More to Dying than Death.)
