supportive quotes

Personally, I have found peace in several ideas from Eastern Religion. Below are excerpts of the letter my sister read at Ellis's funeral. I have found comfort in her words:

"A few days ago your mother herself called to tell me a story that someone close had shared with her. Those that believe in reincarnation believe that in order to reach nirvana, we must be completely free of bad karma, and that each time we are reincarnated we are to spend that lifetime striving to work off the bad karma accumulated in previous lifetimes. Once the point is reached that all bad karma has been worked out and only good karma remains, you are reborn one more time, and then quickly pass from this world as we know it into the peaceful state of nirvana. We find this to be beautiful and comforting, and after holding you in our arms and feeling the power of your soul, we feel certain that this must be true.

Within that same culture is the parable of the mustard seed. The story is about a woman of
a great and ancient city who suffered the loss of her only son. Holding the child in her arms
and near madness with grief and sorrow, the mother went to see all of the wise and educated homes in the village to find help for her deceased child. One of them suggested she see the Buddha, and believing he could help she sought him out at the monastery. The Buddha said, “I can give you medicine to heal your deceased son, but you must bring the mustard seed from five homes who have not known the cold burden of death.” The mother thanked the exalted one and began her search from home to home. The mother went to all of the homes in the village only to find that none had mustard that would meet the Buddha’s criteria. And then suddenly she understood why, and she ran with her son’s body outside of the city and she cried “Dear little son - I thought you alone had been overtaken by this thing man calls death. Yet you are not alone as no thing born of this earth can escape death, this law is common to all mankind.” And she laid her son down upon the ground and let go of her grief and sorrow by understanding the impermanence of all things big and small. As much as we all loved you and we are hurting for our loss, we understand that this is the way of the universe, and that we must learn to continue on."