On Sunday, June 11, 2006, between 5 and 6 am, Mackenzie Brown Hammond, at her young age of 21 years, left her physical body on this earth plane to enter the world of spirit. It just so happens that it is exactly when my very favorite Aunt Bessie left her body in Warrenton, Georgia, and I know that it wasn’t coincidental. My Aunt Bessie knew that there was someone very special I wanted her to meet---our Mackenzie.
There were signs that Mackenzie’s karma--her mission and purpose in this life--was complete. She came to visit me a few days ago before she went to work. She wanted to sit and visit and have a cup of tea. In retrospect, I now know that it was a farewell visit---just the two of us---not in class or not in a group setting. Usually she brought a friend with her but not this time. On this particular day, she felt, on a deep level, that she was leaving Utah and going somewhere but she didn’t know where. We talked about Reno and California and Colorado. Then, when she stood up to leave, she said, “Carol, look at my red shoes. Do you like them?” I quickly replied, “Yes, I love them!” but the thought went through my mind, “Those red shoes remind me of Dorothy’s red shoes in the Wizard of Oz, and those red shoes took her home.” Then we gave each other a hug, and she was out the door. MacKenzie had heard me teach that communication at the deepest recesses of our mind is in symbols, and her final, departing words communicated just that. Dorothy went home. MacKenzie went home, and like Dorothy, their journey on the yellow brick road kept us on the edge of our seat.
But more than the adventuresome nature of Mackenzie’s life, which her friends could expound on even more than I, I feel I should talk about the unlimited potential I saw in Mackenzie the very first time I met her. Over two years ago, she telephoned me and told me that someday she wanted to take Reiki classes from me. There was something about her voice that I couldn’t forget, and the night before my next Reiki class I telephoned her and said, “You’re supposed to be in my class tomorrow night.” She came to class, and her enthusiasm was absolutely magnetic. Because I have taught thousands of university students, I immediately noticed an extremely bright and articulate Mackenzie, and from that point on, she was a joy as a student. She had great humility, and because of that, she was teachable. She was like a sponge soaking up everything and anything I could offer her. She was respectful. She was kind and compassionate. She was appreciative and grateful; I heard her say "thank you" countless numbers of times. She always wanted to help others and took every opportunity to share healing information. I’ll never forget one day when she was on the floor demonstrating the “pelvic rock” to several women, telling them if did this exercise every day, they would never experience back pain. Mackenzie would get so enthused that her speech would grow faster and faster---she could barely contain her own enthusiasm but it was also so wonderfully contagious. She always brought laughter to my life.
MacKenzie’s life was a teaching for all who knew her. Her teaching for me now is a reminder that all extrinsic and composite phenomenon is impermanent and transitory in nature. As the Buddha expressed, “This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds passing.” Not all of us will grow to be old. The past is past, the future has not yet risen, and even the present thought, as we experience it, becomes the past. The only thing we really have is now--this very moment.
Many years ago, I taught the Death and Dying class at the University of Utah, and I found that my students had one of three attitudes about death and dying: 1) denial 2) naivete or 3) terror or they had actually experienced the loss of a pet, friend or family member and in their grief, couldn’t let go. They wanted to hold on to the passing cloud; thus, I would take my students to the cemetery and we would sit there to remind us that we should always have an awareness of the Law of Impermanence in front of our face. Some thought that this was a weird or morbid thing for me to do in this death denying society of ours--but it wasn’t morbid at all—it is simply the way things are. As we read in Ecclesiastes 3: 1-2:
To every thing there is a season and a time for every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
Sogyal Rinpoche tells a story that he remembers as a child about a young woman, Krishna Gotami, who lived at the time of the Buddha. When her firstborn child was about a year old, he fell ill and died. Grief stricken and clutching his little body, she roamed the streets, begging anyone she met for a medicine that could restore her child to life. Finally she met a wise man who told her that the only person in the world who could perform the miracle she was looking for was the Buddha. So she went to the Buddha, laid the body of her child at his feet, and told him her story. The Buddha listened with infinite compassion. Then he said gently, “There is only one way to heal your affliction. Go down to the city and bring me back a mustard seed from any house in which there has never been a death.” Krisha Gotami felt elated and set off at once for the city. She stopped at the first house she saw and said, “I have been told by the Buddha to fetch a mustard seed from a house that has never known death.” “Many people have died in this house,” she was told. She went on to the next house. “There have been countless deaths in our family,” they said. She continued until she had been all round the city and realized the Buddha’s condition could not be fulfilled. She took the body of her child to the charnel ground and said good-by to him for the last time, then returned to the Buddha.” “Did you bring the mustard seed?” he asked. “No”, she said. “I am beginning to understand the lesson you are trying to teach me. Grief made me blind, and I thought that only I had suffered at the hands of death.” “Why have you come back?” asked the Buddha. “To ask you to teach me the truth of what death is, what might lie behind and beyond death, and what in me, if anything will not die. The Buddha began, “If you want to know the truth of life and death, you must reflect continually upon this: There is only one law in the universe that never changes—that all things change, and that all things are impermanent. The death of your child has helped you to see now that the realm we are in—samsara—is an ocean of unbearable suffering, and there is only one way out, which is the path of liberation. Because pain has now made you ready to learn and your heart is opening to the truth, I will show it to you. Krishna Gotami followed the Buddha for the rest of her life, and near the end of that life, it is said that she attained enlightenment.
If we are always aware of the impermanence of mortal life, we will question, “Have I done what I agreed to do before I arrived on this earth?” It is our humanness that says, “This life journey is too hard. I want to renege on all those difficult things I agreed to do for my Highest Good.” But, our time here grows shorter. Our mortal body is simply the temporary car we are riding around in, and like all cars, they wear out and break down. It is so consoling to know: I am NOT my body. I am so much more than my physical body. I am beginningless-endless consciousness, spirit, awareness, soul, mind (meaning consciousness, not head or brain); however, whatever it is you want to call it, that consciousness, when we recognize it, is clear light and indestructible joy. Even Elizabeth Kubler-Ross who was renowned for her expertise on death and dying and defined the bereavement process that follows death, said, at the conclusion of her life, “I’ve been mistaken. Death is an illusion. There is no death.” As we view Mackenzie’s car that she rode around in—that we became so familiar with---it brings us comfort to know that we are not left with her empty car or her cocoon. We know that Mackenzie left that cocoon just as a butterfly takes wings on flight, and she is just in a different manifestation now. This spiritual understanding is what gives us comfort.
Mackenzie’s purpose here on this earth was dynamic. She touched and changed the lives of those who knew her. She was spiritually and metaphysically gifted, which can be so challenging for a child. For example, I have a friend who was clairvoyant as a child, and she knew whenever a natural disaster was going to occur on this planet but in her knowing this and because she couldn’t talk about it, she started to believe that she must have caused these disasters and thus, she had a very troubled, isolated and painful childhood. We need to recognize these children who are so gifted and thus, have special needs—the indigo children, the crystal children and others with special powers because they can easily feel as though they’re a square peg trying to fit into the round hole of this conditioned world that they find difficult to understand. MacKenzie had recently taken a greater leap in her ability to see with her spiritual eyes—all in preparation for where she is now. MacKenzie was a gifted healer, and she so desperately wanted to help others heal. Only two months ago she wrote a testimonial for my website at http://www.carolwilson.org/testimon
It was impossible for me to see any “stuff’ when it came to MacKenzie. I always saw her trying to connect with her unlimited potential and her divine essence. All of the spiritual teachers of humanity have told us that the purpose of life on earth is to achieve union with our fundamental, enlightened nature, and Mackenzie was a seeker of this universal truth. It brought such joy to my life. Whenever I pointed my finger at the moon, she didn't see my finger. She knew that I was directing her to her own potential that was within her and not outside of herself. Yet, she also opened her door and her heart to the world and was always looking beyond the next corner, knowing there was always more to learn in order to grow.
Mackenzie’s mother, Susan, told me on the phone the other day, “MacKenzie loved you because you understood her.” I understood her—because I loved her. Love is the greatest teaching that Jesus brought to this earth, who taught in 1 Corinthians 13:7: "Love bearest all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." Love breaks down walls and barriers between people and transcends our differences and dualistic concepts—the you and me—the he and she—the this religion or that religion—and once transcended, we realize that we’re in the universal consciousness in oneness, interdependent and not independent of each other just as a wave may appear to have a distinct form but is actually in oneness with the ocean. The Buddha compared the universe to a vast net woven of a countless variety of brilliant jewels, each with a countless number of facets. Each jewel reflects in itself every other jewel in the net and is, in fact, one with every other jewel. Mackenzie has been, and will always be, a jewel among us in our universal net, and thus, we can feel her reflection and her presence whenever we wish--when we watch a golden sun set on the horizon--when we gaze at a glimmering northern star in the black of night--when we notice the beauty of a flower--when we sit in silent meditation, piercing through the obscurations that rob us of awareness, and thus, rob us of living.
Mackenzie does not want us to grieve or mourn but rather, she wants us to celebrate her life. This celebration is the best thing we can do for Mackenzie---to pay tribute, with gratitude, for the wonderful gift she was for all of us. And, because she is acutely aware of our thoughts now, the greatest gift we can give her is to send loving, positive thoughts and prayers to her, or when we think of her to immediately say the mantra of the Buddha of Compassion, OM MANI PEME HUNG.
MacKenzie’s passing is her ultimate teaching, and as we understand and gain meaning from that teaching, it will bring greater love and light and compassion and wisdom to our lives and to all sentient beings. Karmapa Chenno.
Copyright © Carol A. Wilson 2006
NOTE: This talk does not reflect the outpour of love from Mackenzie's friends who were also on the program and the more than 200 people who were in the audience. After the service, a couple of those people shared with me their experience of being healed after Mackenzie channelled Reiki for them (Mackenzie was also a Licensed Massage Therapist with a specialty in Cranial Sacral). Mackenzie Brown Hammond not only had the heart of a Master, but her healing work included Master level experiences. She eagerly awaits her Advanced Reiki Training class that is scheduled for July 9, 2006, and, at that time, I will also attune her to Reiki Mastership--a big dream of hers that she often talked about. According to the Seven Universal Laws or Principles (also known as the Seven Hermetic Principles from The Kybalion by the Three Initiates based on the teachings of Hermes Trimegistus), the Second Law, the Law of Correspondence states, "As above, so below; as below so above." Another example of this law is found in the Lord's Prayer, "On earth as it is in Heaven." It shall be so recorded.
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