Monks doing Puja & cremate earthquake victims in Yushu County, Qinghai Province, China
The 2010 Yushu earthquake struck on April 14, 2010, and registered a magnitude of 6.9, killing 1434 people
This article was sent to me by a friend here who can read Chinese. So I extracted and posted..I don’t read Chinese, but the pictures will tell the story…
Very Tragic. Very kind of the Sangha to get involved and help with the dead and living. Tsem Tulku
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Such touching scenes – i guess it would be rather overwhelming for most of us living here. i mean the corpses we see are nicely prepared and put into nice-looking coffins; and some funerals are really extravagant affairs locally. When i saw the pictures, i saw a little of the reality of samsara – life is very uncertain; we cannot plan for the nice death, the beautiful funeral we want; karma decides! “Mindful of death…. And after death my good and bad Karma follows me….”. “Having gained firm certainty of this…. abandon even the slightest harm…. And practise every possible virtue.” Thank you, Rinpochela, for pointing out!
These are indeed gripping scenes. Probably not everyone would be comfortable watching them. I can just imagine how devastated their loved ones are. Very sad.
At the end of the day, it does not matter whether we are old or young, beautiful or rich – we still die the same. In the end, we still rot away.
No one knows when their time is up. So, best to think about how we can make the most of our time on earth while we still can. And making the most of our time on earth does not mean, taking everything and enjoying our life like there is no tomorrow.
It means, loving the people we love like there is no tomorrow and benefiting others like we may never see them again.
How else can we face death and still say, I have lived a meaningful life?
I find it very disturbing to see corpses of young children, even though it is not my first time viewing these corpses. Although I realise that natural disasters are beyond our control and it is due to the fruition of our past karmas that we are born in places that are at the mercy of nature wrathness, I can’t help but feel sad looking at the corpses of young children, knowing that their mothers would cry in agony and pain as they suffered the lost of their precious ones.
One shall refrain from committing the non-virtuous act of killing in order to prevent one from being reborn in places where there is much violence, war, many problems, etc. and where food, drink and medicine have little power. In order for the action – killing to be complete, i.e. to bring the full karmic result, all four components must be present. These four are:
a) basis: a living being other than oneself
b) intention i) recognition: you recognize unmistakenly the person or being you intend to kill; ii) motive: you intend to kill; delusion: you are motivated to kill out of anger, attachment or ignorance. For example, out of anger, killing an enemy or a being that annoys you; out of attachment, killing an animal for its meat or skin; out of ignorance, killing an animal as a sacrifice to a worldly god, believing this to be virtuous.
c) deed: you carry out the killing by some means, e.g. weapon, poison, black magic, etc., either directy by yourself or indirectly by ordering someone else to kill.
d) final step: the other person or being dies before you do.
(**Extracted from “The 10 Non-Virtues” prepared by Ven. Sangye Khadro for teachings at Kadampa Center (Summer, 1996))
If we study carefully the above 4 basis for the act of killing to be complete, aren’t consumption of meat constitues approximately to killing as well?
I myself don’t read Chinese. Like what Rinpoche say the pictures will tell it all. The earthquake must have been very bad
when more than a thousand people, young, old, male and female can die without preparation for death. So this is also a
teaching that we must be ready for death at any time. I can see lots of Tibetan monks were there in the earthquake zone to
help in carrying and burning bodies. And also chanting prayers for those who died. I am sure people who died in mass death
needs to be cremated to take away the stench and smell of the dead bodies. The monks chanting prayers is also good for
those people who have died to take a good rebirth.
If I were to read Heartspoon by Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche after viewing the pictures above , ( http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/2010/07/heartspoon-kyabje-pabongka-rinpoche.html ), each single verse in Heartspoon would pop out in your face. Each verse excruciatingly true and true to the core.
But yet,old habituations creep back in after a while. As I age, a sense of urgency arises, the need for greater mind transformation thru dharma practice. Time is running out. Time ran out in a snap of a finger for those victims above. Rinpoche has mentioned, if we don’t do our dharma practice NOW. What makes us think we are going to do our dharma practice in our next life ? And after adding in another lifetime of negative habituations it’s going to be more and more difficult.
Rinpoche, please continue to be close to us. Please continue to guide us. Your teachings inspire us, your presence inspires us. Until we can stand on our own two feet we need your guidance and support . Rinpoche, you made a choice to get enlightened aeons ago, we didin’t. With aeons of negative karma / habituations in our account, we really need all the help we can get !
( for exp :- i will never ever eat another beef/chicken/fish burger ever again. That is thru Rinpoche’s constant blogging on vegetarianism. I’ve come to value life more. Perfect example of a successfull rehabituation. Now on to the next habit . )
Great on you yew seng
Lets help to spread the message of kindness to animals 
In a way, I sort of envy those people carrying the corpses. Where I live,.. I never get to see death. The closest is old people. Sometimes I see dead animals but it rarely hits home that that was alive at one time. Just imagining touching such gross things, I shudder, I wouldn’t want to do that, but I’d like to face death now (without losing a family member or friend). I don’t want some emotional/sentimental breakdown, I just want to really acknowledge death.
I feel very sad when looking at the photos of the dead people being placed on the cremation tray. I cannot bear to feel how sad the loved ones of the dead would be. I hope that those who have passed on because of the earthquake will have better future lifetimes. I hope the monks who have been doing the Puja will have a smooth, long life as they have been helping the earthquake victims who have past away find a better future life and also have been giving peace to the loved ones of the dead as they believe that their loved ones will be going to a better place.