{"id":8482,"date":"2024-10-23T22:29:34","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T21:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/?p=8482"},"modified":"2024-10-24T09:17:47","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T08:17:47","slug":"maggy-jones-31-05-41-28-09-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/maggy-jones-31-05-41-28-09-24\/","title":{"rendered":"MAGGY JONES: 31\/05\/41 ~ 28\/09\/24"},"content":{"rendered":"

To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;<\/span><\/h4>\n

To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;<\/span><\/h4>\n

To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;<\/span><\/h4>\n

To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates<\/span><\/h4>\n

From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;<\/span><\/h4>\n

Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;<\/span><\/h4>\n

This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be<\/span><\/h4>\n

Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;<\/span><\/h4>\n

This is alone Life; Joy, Empire, and Victory!\u201d<\/span><\/h4>\n
\u00a0From Prometheus Unbound:\u00a0 Percy Bysshe Shelley.
\n<\/em><\/span>Requested by Maggy Jones and read at her funeral.<\/em><\/h5>\n

At a the age of twenty, Maggy Jones broke her back and spinal chord in a mountaineering accident in Langdale in the Lakes District.\u00a0 Bending down to pick a flower, she lost her balance and fell over a steep cliff.\u00a0 Maggy spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair.<\/h4>\n

At the age of twenty one, after her release from hospital, Maggy was back home with her parents again.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 After some time working on a production line in a factory, Maggy secured a place at York University, though she decided on a marriage.<\/h4>\n

Maggy served several roles during her time in Samye Ling Monastery.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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,\u00a0 \u00a0 “… one of the most extensive repositories of Buddha dharma in the whole of Europe.”<\/h4>\n

Maggy also transcribed many of teachings of Ringu Tulku Rinpoche for his Bodhicharya Archive<\/em><\/a> <\/span>site.<\/h4>\n

Maggy enjoyed writing short poems and stories but found herself constantly returning to the theme of\u00a0 disability and decided to stay with the subject concerning her condition and the attitude of\u00a0 people towards her.\u00a0 Subsequently, she sold a few stories to papers and magazines.<\/h4>\n

“<\/em>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,”\u00a0<\/em>says Alice Maxwell, who had known Maggy since the mid-nineties during their work at Samye Ling .\u00a0 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<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/h4>\n

Finally, here is a message from Ringu Tulku Rinpoche:<\/h4>\n

I knew Maggy Jones for over 30 years. She was a good friend and she looked upon me as one of her teachers.\u00a0 She used to drive me and also transcribed and edited many of my teachings.\u00a0 She lived in Samye Ling for most of that time and had a great devotion to Akong Rinpoche.\u00a0 She was able to accept all kinds of challenges, living life in a wheelchair.\u00a0 It was inspiring to see how she took on the challenges of life before her.\u00a0 She always wanted to do something that would be of some use, that would be beneficial to people.\u00a0 She dedicated her life to Dharma and she was very happy to organise the library in Samye Ling.\u00a0 I was in constant contact with her until she could not use her electronic devices any more.\u00a0 I met her for the last time in Samye Ling in July of this year.\u00a0 She was not afraid of death and was looking forward to the challenges of dying.\u00a0 I think she will find her way forward in a good way.\u00a0 I think of her often and will miss her.\u00a0 She will be in all my prayers and dedications.<\/em><\/h4>\n
Maggi requested that Rumi’s poem,<\/em>When I Die, be read at the end of the ceremony at Roukan Loch<\/em>.<\/span><\/h5>\n

When I Die<\/a><\/h4>\n

When I die
\nwhen my coffin
\nis being taken out
\nyou must never think
\ni am missing this world<\/h4>\n

don’t shed any tears
\ndon’t lament or
\nfeel sorry
\ni’m not falling
\ninto a monster’s abyss<\/h4>\n

when you see
\nmy corpse is being carried
\ndon’t cry for my leaving
\ni’m not leaving
\ni’m arriving at eternal love<\/h4>\n

when you leave me
\nin the grave
\ndon’t say goodbye
\nremember a grave is
\nonly a curtain
\nfor the paradise behind<\/h4>\n

you’ll only see me
\ndescending into a grave
\nnow watch me rise
\nhow can there be an end
\nwhen the sun sets or
\nthe moon goes down<\/h4>\n

it looks like the end
\nit seems like a sunset
\nbut in reality it is a dawn
\nwhen the grave locks you up
\nthat is when your soul is freed<\/h4>\n

have you ever seen
\na seed fallen to earth
\nnot rise with a new life
\nwhy should you doubt the rise
\nof a seed named human<\/h4>\n

have you ever seen
\na bucket lowered into a well
\ncoming back empty
\nwhy lament for a soul
\nwhen it can come back
\nlike Joseph from the well
\nwhen for the last time<\/h4>\n

you close your mouth
\nyour words and soul
\nwill belong to the world of
\nno place no time<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
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