Ms Rebecca Hart
Ms Rebecca Hart
Dearest Rinpoche,
I am so blessed. I just wanted to try to connect with you in the way that I can. My mother is dying of small-cell carcinoma.
Rebecca Hart is a single mother that suffered greatly at the hands of her husbands. She had my brother who is 41 now, and she had me, I am 29. Mom is 60.
She has been my advocate and always fought for our lives to be better.
She went through not knowing where her schizophrenic son was for over a decade. He was living homeless on the streets and was later discovered and returned home . . .
This isn’t a sob story. This is a true story of impermanence and growth. There have been miracles happening all around my family. The knowledge of impermanence in our lives has opened our lives to many blessings.
Since mom has become ill, we are receiving a flood of help from the people in our lives. People at work have been so kind and compassionate and truly helpful. Also from different forms; Social Security was approved for her in one day when normally it takes months. . . . She credits this with being kind to the phone worker that started her federal application. She tells me to always be kind and when someone helps you, to express how meaningful it is when they do.
In the Christian faith it is said “rejoice in your good labors for that is the Kingdom of God” and “cast away burdens and he will sustain thee.”
Right livelihood of the Noble Eight Fold Path is the Buddhist equivalent, of course.
So I pray for your good labors and the opportunity to simply listen to your teachings . . . which I am 100% confident in.
Love,
Trav
January 8 at 4:08pm
Dear Travis,
What you wrote here is touching and indeed shows the kindness of this woman who is your mom. You are privileged and blessed to have such a mom.
I will offer 108 candles to Medicine Buddha tonight for her and wish her the best for whatever the turn out. I will make offerings of sang (powder incense) and request the Three Jewels to help her when the time comes.
I offer your mother my most humblest prayers and I offer you my humblest congratulations for your appreciation of this wonderful mother you have…
May She be always ok in the bigger sense of the word.
Tsem Rinpoche
January 8 at 4:18pm
Dear Travis,
With your permission, I would like to post your above letter to me on my blog as a post with a picture of your beautiful mom. My intent is I would request everyone to do prayers for her. I wish everyone to know of Ms Rebecca Hart. If you would like to keep it private, I fully understand also. If you are ok… post her picture on facebook and I will put it up on my blog.
A Medicine Buddha puja will be conducted for her tonight at Tsem Ladrang by three of my students after the lighting of the candles.
Tsem Rinpoche
January 9 at 12:13am
Rinpoche,
the kindness that we have received is overwhelming. I know that your words are full of action. I am crying. It has just been a week that we have fully understood her condition. She was working, living “normally” just a second ago . . . now she is on 14 medicines . . . she has breathing treatments . . . it all happens very fast. I would like to share her story as a testament to impermanence and kindness.
I asked her if this would be ok, she said that it was . . . and that you are a sweet man. May I email a picture of her to you??
From Travis
Travis on the right with Mom and brother… nice…
Ms Rebecca Hart and family are in my prayers. I request everyone who come to this blog also to do prayers. I request Travis to light one lamp/candle to Chenresik per day in a safe place and to do 1,000 Om Mani Peme Hungs per day and dedicate it to your mother. Ask Chenresik to bless her mind and take her to a place swirling with perfect delights and practice.
Through you, she is blessed in this way.
When we do true dharma, it is THE BEST WAY to benefit our parents or anyone we love. We owe to them to become kind, giving, accepting and filled with the mind that seeks liberation.
Tsem Rinpoche
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Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this letter from Travis updated his mother condition with us. Ms Rebecca Hart….a 60 year old single mother who have been struggling all her life bringing up two grown up wonderful sons. Having found her schizophrenic son after he has been found living as a homeless over a decade. She now dying of cancer yet she has motivated her sons . Well its a true story of impermanence and growth which could in fact happened to any of us too. What she have gone true , have indeed motivated her son Travis to share with us, a great knowledge to ponder.
Even though its an old post , i do wish her well and thanks Travis for sharing a mother’s love and motivation.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to each and everyone of you for your kindness, compassion, concern and many, many prayers! I am deeply touched by the heartfelt sincerity and outpouring of genuine love that is shown to me during this difficult time. My heart is joyous and I am thankful for each moment that I have here but I am also preparing for the transition which I shall embrace and not fear. Each day is different as far as the cancer–some days are spent very ill and in bed. Other days are better and I am able to accomplish small tasks. My appetite is fading away and I’m losing about 5 pounds per week, so I’m trying my best to eat proper nutrition but that is very difficult due to nausea. I’m amazed at how much I feel so loved, even by those people that I’ve never met before–I cried when I saw the pictures of the candle lighting ceremony. May each of you and your family be blessed and have a glorious day where ever you may be! Thank you for offering support to Travis, my beloved son, as leaving my two sons will be the most difficult thing for me to do at the time of death. My heart aches for them already and I pray their hearts will be healed through the grieving process. Love to all!
Dear Travis,
Your mother is a truly lovely person.From your responses in Rinpoche’s blog, you show yourself to be already with much Dharma in you, because you have truly practiced what your mum had taught you, that is to be truly kind and caring towards others as well as loved ones.
Also your faith in Rinpoche and his teachings and your putting his ( and Lord Buddha’s) message about recognizing and repaying the kindnesses of others into practice is Dharma.
Your mum has created the cause to be loved and to receive much kindness and compassion by her own loving care and compassion. With Rinpoche’s prayers and many people’s prayers for her, as well as your own prayers and practice of kindness and love and acceptance, your mother will have a calm and peaceful end in this life and go to a new life where she will embrace the Dharma and practice it so as to be totally released from suffering. May the Three Jewels be with her at her time of passing.
Thank you, Rinpoche, for posting the story of Rebecca Hart on this blog.
Thank you, Travis, for sharing your mother’s story with us and showing us, through her story,how impermanent life is, and how it is(as Rinpoche always tells us) nothing matters in the end, but Dharma.
Dear Travis, last Wednesday, 12 Dec, I dedicated my performance of lead-chanting of our weekly Medicine Buddha puja to your mother’s well-being all the way to her next rebirth.This Wednesday, we shall again dedicate the puja to your mother.Meanwhile we continue to pray for her.
Thank you both. My mother gave great care to her mother. Grandma had Alzheimer’s disease. My mom took care of her for over a decade. When you take care of others, you are taking care of yourself. It is my honor to care and love this wonderful being. May the candle of compassion be lit in your minds always.
Thank you Rinpoche for posting the letter from Travis re her mother Ms Rebecca Hart who is 60 years old and dying of small cell carcinoma. Being a single mother I can imagine how she would have suffered physically and emotionally. And after her children have grown up she is still continuing with suffering healthwise and is dying soon. But one thing I can say is that she will die happy and in peace to see her children so filial and caring to her. The fact that she is going to die will show us that one day we are going to die too. And no one is spared. So we have to let go cause live is impermanent. So we must prepare ourselves for that day and create the cause for good things to happen in our live. Rebecca Hart when she fell ill she had lots of people coming to support and help her. This was because she had been kind and helpful to people. In return she gets back what she has given out. That is cause and effect.
Travis,
My Grandmother was diagnosed with lung cancer and I truly know what you are going through. I will keep her in my daily prayers…Om Mani Peme Hung…..
Dear Travis,
Your relationship with and appreciation for your mother is very inspiring. She sounds like a wonderful loving mother and a “beautiful” person. May I also offer prayers for her and you that you will have the strength to provide her with all the comfort and support she will need in coping with this illness.
Martin,
We are all stronger than we give ourselves credit. Mom’s very good best friend had a double mastectomy, went through radiation and chemo, AND lost her 38 year old daughter unexpectedly in the past 6 months. Death happens to us all. Don’t let sickness remind us of it. Be open to it while you are doing the laundry too. Miracles will fall from the sky.
Love Trav
Dear Travis, thank you for sharing your mom’s condition with us, especially the motivation behind it. May I also offer prayers to your mother and your family. You are the courage and inspiration that I need at this moment. Thank you Ms Rebecca Hart and Travis.