The Search For Enlightenment

I have been writing the piece to be read at Ivor’s funeral today, and just thinking about the Buddhist view of death has lightened my mood enormously. As you may know, death does not represent the end of life, as it does in many other religions, but rather another stage in the eternal Wheel of Life.

As you might expect, I am not going to show the world what I have written just yet, that will rightly be reserved for the ceremony on Friday, but I will publish it here once everything has settled down.

Of course it is not a humorous piece, but I am hoping that it will put a smile on people’s faces, rather than the sombre looks that are typical of funerals. Thinking about how we feel, after the death of a family member or someone close, the sadness is really for the loss of that person. But there is a real joy in knowing that they are moving on to a new life, with all the exciting possibilities that entails.

I am not exactly looking forward to Friday, but I do hope that I will be able to counter any sadness by pointing out the positive side of the Buddhist view.