心靈=Spiritual; 正念=覺知=Mindfulness=Awareness; 因果=Cause and Effect=Causality=Causation; 佛教人物=Buddhist; 喇嘛=Lama; 慈悲心=Compassion=Metta=Loving Kindness=Maitri
摘要
This heuristic Project Demonstrating Excellence studies the question,‘What is the Experience of Contemplating Death?’ A Tibetan Buddhist Perspective. The research is based on in-depth interviews with six Tibetan Lamas between the ages of 40–80. Many common themes emerge from the Lamas' descriptions of their own contemplation of death, including (a) the importance of meditating on the transitory nature of the world resulting in an amelioration of one's disillusionment with life, (b) the importance of a continuing conscious awareness of the preciousness of human birth, (c) the crucial attentiveness to the nature of the impermanence of all beings in the universe, and (d) the principle of karmic cause and effect. This question has not been previously researched. Future research possibilities are included with a projected, follow-up study of the homecare method of caretaking and spiritual support given to the dying at the Jamgon Kongtrul III Memorial Home for the Destitute Elderly and Children in Kalimpong, India. For the destitute elderly and orphans of Himalayan ethnicity is a unique model for providing compassionate service to those who, with awareness, face their own deaths.
