I arose early this morning, and somehow went out to check email before eight am, unlike what I usually do, and there found the email from my friend that her brother had died, died while listening to her voice on the phone. He's been a long time passing, and he was ready to go, and he had the sweetest support from family and friends for over three years. My friend and I had listened to an especially beautiful dharma talk by our teacher yesterday morning, and wept a bit, and felt so soothed, quieted in spirit and comforted by the truth of life. It was a perfect day for her to let go of her brother. It was also my root teacher's birthday, and I also had a lovely afternoon with my younger daughter, and then watched the perfect film for such a day: "The Burmese Harp" by Kon Ichikawa. It is about a Japanese solder in Burma who, overcome with the suffering of the war, leaves his group and impersonates a Buddhist monk, until, ultimately, he IS a monk, and finds his true path. Then as I was taking out that DVD, I saw that the Ken Burns documentary about the Civil War dead was on, and I had heard the Pres of Harvard interviewed on radio about her book on the subject, so I watched the whole thing until eleven pm.
It was a day for sitting with death, and appreciating this life we're given. The synchronicity was amazing. I'm sad for my friend and her brother, but also glad. Because they faced his death with gentleness and compassion.
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