To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life; Joy, Empire, and Victory!”
From Prometheus Unbound: Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Requested by Maggy Jones and read at her funeral.
At a the age of twenty, Maggy Jones broke her back and spinal chord in a mountaineering accident in Langdale in the Lakes District. Bending down to pick a flower, she lost her balance and fell over a steep cliff. Maggy spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair.
At the age of twenty one, after her release from hospital, Maggy was back home with her parents again. She found the future daunting, having been refused a place at Manchester University because they didn’t have the facilities to cope with her disability. After some time working on a production line in a factory, Maggy secured a place at York University, though she decided on a marriage.
Maggy served several roles during her time in Samye Ling Monastery. Most memorable were her accompanying visitors to the Victory Stupa and in which her body lay for a short time at her end and until her cremation at Roucan Loch Crematorium, Dumfries. Also, there was her time spent in Samye Ling Library and her ever-mindful dedication and devotion to the onerous task of compiling what became, according to Dr Conrad Harvey, “… one of the most extensive repositories of Buddha dharma in the whole of Europe.”
Maggy also transcribed many of teachings of Ringu Tulku Rinpoche for his Bodhicharya Archive site.
Maggy enjoyed writing short poems and stories but found herself constantly returning to the theme of disability and decided to stay with the subject concerning her condition and the attitude of people towards her. Subsequently, she sold a few stories to papers and magazines.
“Maggy loved nature and only two days before her final trip to hospital she was delighted at seeing the sunlight on the river in Langholm,” says Alice Maxwell, who had known Maggy since the mid-nineties during their work at Samye Ling . She was self-determined and possessed great compassion and a love of life that was evidenced in her stongly-held beliefs for justice and dignity. (See Maggy’s article in the April edition of Many Roads for Bodhicharya.)
Finally, here is a message from Ringu Tulku Rinpoche:
I knew Maggy Jones for over 30 years. She was a good friend and she looked upon me as one of her teachers. She used to drive me and also transcribed and edited many of my teachings. She lived in Samye Ling for most of that time and had a great devotion to Akong Rinpoche. She was able to accept all kinds of challenges, living life in a wheelchair. It was inspiring to see how she took on the challenges of life before her. She always wanted to do something that would be of some use, that would be beneficial to people. She dedicated her life to Dharma and she was very happy to organise the library in Samye Ling. I was in constant contact with her until she could not use her electronic devices any more. I met her for the last time in Samye Ling in July of this year. She was not afraid of death and was looking forward to the challenges of dying. I think she will find her way forward in a good way. I think of her often and will miss her. She will be in all my prayers and dedications.
Maggi requested that Rumi’s poem,When I Die, be read at the end of the ceremony at Roukan Loch.
When I Die
When I die
when my coffin
is being taken out
you must never think
i am missing this world
don’t shed any tears
don’t lament or
feel sorry
i’m not falling
into a monster’s abyss
when you see
my corpse is being carried
don’t cry for my leaving
i’m not leaving
i’m arriving at eternal love
when you leave me
in the grave
don’t say goodbye
remember a grave is
only a curtain
for the paradise behind
you’ll only see me
descending into a grave
now watch me rise
how can there be an end
when the sun sets or
the moon goes down
it looks like the end
it seems like a sunset
but in reality it is a dawn
when the grave locks you up
that is when your soul is freed
have you ever seen
a seed fallen to earth
not rise with a new life
why should you doubt the rise
of a seed named human
have you ever seen
a bucket lowered into a well
coming back empty
why lament for a soul
when it can come back
like Joseph from the well
when for the last time
you close your mouth
your words and soul
will belong to the world of
no place no time
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