Queen Elizabeth II, Mandala Principle and Values
Queen Elizabeth Passing and Mandala Principle and Values
It has been quite a big event, the Queen's passing and King Charles III taking her place at the centre of the kingdom's Mandala. I'm very struck with how a constitutionalist country works in the form of a mandala. The way the succession works, the way the institutions are set up with one central principle surrounded by the hierarchy of institutions. The samaya commitment, the customs, vows and swearing allegiance that binds the mandala together. The way they have the guards and the gateways and the whole structure, mandala is so beautifully illustrated by the way a monarchy works, central principle the enthronement and coronation and so on. And how the central principle is the unifying principle of the Mandala and how aware we become of that, at a time like this, when the Queen has passed away, it gives a sense of stability which was, I was talking about it with Gendun as a German is saying, how the queen, even for him, represented stability somehow in some kind of tangible way.
It's been so heartening to see how the values that the Queen represents such as integrity, honesty, kindness, care, a sense of service and duty, of steadfastness, are so appreciated at this time. These are all qualities that we can aspire to and try to live up to instead of the values that are kind of drummed into us through our education system. Once I'd moved past the first moments of grief and sobbing and sharing with everybody else, this sense of almost disbelief that it had now actually happened, as the King said, “the moment that we all dreaded, has now happened”. And in the aftermath, I find myself thinking of the King and the role he now has to play, the way he has stepped into it and how moving I found his address to the nation. And, in a way, how unifying it's been to share with so many people this sense of love, affection, admiration and gratitude to Her Majesty the Queen. And I found it very moving hearing, King Charles making his commitment to follow in her footsteps, as I'm sure many people did.
I was also very impressed by all the people who made such a huge effort to go down to London and or even other places. But particularly the long queue and stoicism, with which people are waiting to simply show their respects to the Queen. I found that tremendously heartening that death can bring us all together in such a strong way. And for me, it definitely feels like a member of my family has passed away, I'm sure many of us feel the same. We recited the Samantabhadrachaya Pranhidnana on the evening we heard the news and then again on Monday at the time of the funeral and since then we’ve been reciting it every Thursday and will continue to do so for 7 weeks total.
At the Hermitage many of us watched the funeral together to feel part of the whole thing, to share that sense of togetherness. Anyways, we've had a lot to listen to and talk about as there has been so much about the Queen’s passing on the media. I’m grateful we have been able to participate in that way as well, it has been quite wonderful really. Here is a piece from Rupert Spira Reflections on the Death of Queen Elizabeth II. It expresses my own feelings so exactly and I feel grateful to him for that! I have also included images of the Bhutanese Royal family paying homage to Queen Elizabeth that Sally Somersby shared with me as well as a news clipping from The Himalayan Newspaper that Deden emailed me. Even though people these days say they don't believe in anything and maybe they don't even believe in life after death. And yet, somehow, we know there's something more to what a person is than simply their mortal form.
Love
Shenpen