@riverlover Indeed. Thank you for doing that difficult and necessary work.

TY both for caring for him, plus all the external help.

@JtC

Folks, the lesson to take is our time on this rock is short, let us grab each other and hold on while we can.

For we never really know what we've got until it's gone -- and then we miss it horribly!

your words touched us all and will be sorely missed. We'll all be along shortly.

Thank you for your graciousness in letting us know the sad news, Claude.

Folks, the lesson to take is our time on this rock is short, let us grab each other and hold on while we can. My days were made brighter by native's presence here, as is the case with all of you guys and gals. I have grown to love you all.

Peace.

@Anja Geitz

Thank you.

And hoped that whenever his passing would come, it would be peaceful. Thank you for letting us know it was. I did not have the opportunity of a enjoying a personal relationship with Roger Schuyler Lake, and yet, as a fellow Buddhist, my heart is filled with recognition and gratitude that his lovely soul passed through this life and touched many lives.

I took the liberty of finding some quotes on the Buddhist View of Life and Death by a Buddhist philosopher, Daisaku Ikeda, from a speech Mr. Ikeda delivered at Harvard University back in 1993, titled "Mahayana Buddhism and Twenty-First-Century Civilization". Since Native was also a Buddhist, I thought it appropriate.

Death weighs heavily on the human heart as an inescapable reminder of the finite nature of our existence. However seemingly limitless the wealth or power we might attain, the reality of our eventual demise cannot be avoided. From ancient times, humanity has sought to conquer the fear and apprehension surrounding death by finding ways to partake of the eternal. Through this quest, people have learned to overcome control by instinctual modes of survival and have developed the characteristics that we recognize as uniquely human. In that perspective, we can see why the history of religion coincides with the history of humankind.

Modern civilization has attempted to ignore death. We have diverted our gaze from this most fundamental of concerns as we try to drive death into the shadows. For many people living today, death is the mere absence of life; it is blankness; it is the void. Life is identified with all that is good: with being, rationality, and light. In contrast, death is perceived as evil, as nothingness, and as the dark and irrational. Only the negative perception of death prevails.

We finally seem to be ready to recognize the fundamental error in our view of life and death. We are beginning to understand that death is more than the absence of life; that death, together with active life, is necessary for the formation of a larger, more essential, whole. This greater whole reflects the deeper continuity of life and death that we experience as individuals and express as culture. A central challenge for the coming century will be to establish a culture based on an understanding of the relationship of life and death and of life’s essential eternity. Such an attitude does not disown death, but directly confronts and correctly positions it within the larger context of life.

Buddhism speaks of an intrinsic nature (hossho in Japanese, sometimes translated as "Dharma nature") existing within the depths of phenomenal reality. This nature depends upon and responds to environmental conditions, and it alternates between states of emergence and latency. All phenomena, including life and death, can be seen as elements within the cycle of emergence and latency, or manifestation and withdrawal.

Cycles of life and death can be likened to the alternating periods of sleep and wakefulness. Just as sleep prepares us for the next day’s activity, death can be seen as a state in which we rest and replenish ourselves for new life. In this light, death should be acknowledged, along with life, as a blessing to be appreciated. The Lotus Sutra, the core of Mahayana Buddhism, states that the purpose of existence, the eternal cycles of life and death, is for living beings to "enjoy themselves at ease." It further teaches that sustained faith and practice enable us to know a deep and abiding joy in death as well as in life, to equally "enjoy ourselves at ease" in both. Nichiren describes the attainment of this state as the "greatest of all joys."

Farewell Native. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

@MarilynW
Marilyn, beyond this site, back to Joe's pre-c99 Evening Blues and CStMS' Google Group. It's been a while, no? But we still hang on. Thank you.

Everything ends.

And as JtC writes: our time is short.

I'm glad to have spent some time on your site, JtC. Thank you.

@Steven D Me too.

We really must get together.

Wish I had known him in person and not just online.

@dance you monster

You've so sweetly magnified, what must be an essential part of native's contribution to life. His is the kind of spirit one wants to share. Thank you.

. . . connotes a backstory, an enduring attachment or connection or belonging, that some of us interlopers may not have. A belonging that makes the transitory presence in a singular physical vessel only a piece of something longer and richer.

If this is true of our friend, I'll only ask him (if he can decipher keystrokes where his more enduring existence has gone) to hold a light. When it's my turn to move on, I'm gonna want to find him. Something better will be happening wherever he hangs his hat.

@claude

Although I post photos I do so in a very round-about way, and I'm sure Johnny or Joe would be happy to guide you.

so, I can't seem to master the intricacy of posting photos here. I have some lovely ones of Schuyler a couple of years ago, here, looking like the guy you will want to remember him as.
Advice?

@Unabashed Liberal

It is my understanding that the powerful mantra below is meant to motivate compassion, and alleviate suffering.

Ah, the Mantra of Avalokiteshvara! Specifically, the version on the "back lot" of the Tibetan Incantations album, an old favorite of mine! I owe this chant, as recorded on that album, my entire mental health many times over! Recommended strongly!

A non-Amazon source for the CD.

In the original Sanskrit, the words are "OM mani padme hum", using standard Latin pronunciation. The Tibetan "accent" renders it more like "OM nami pedme hum". In both cases, the meaning is the same: "Hail/praise (i.e., OM) to the Jewel in the Lotus", a veneration of That Which is at the core of all things, and is known by many names among humans: Avalokiteshvara, Tara, OM, JAH, IAO, Satchitananda, The Ultimate, the Buddha, etc. Among Alchemists this is also known as the Philosophers' Stone, the Ultimate Medicine, the Ultimate Reality, the Rose in the Cross, etc. Buddhist tradition states that Avalokiteshvara is the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion and ascribes this Mantra to Him/Her.
a good article on Avalokiteshvara

And let the Compassion of the Buddhas and the Boddhisattvas not be small for our friend native; may their compassion-hooks obtain him in the dangerous path of the Bardo, and grant him Liberation! (From the Bardo Thotrol (The Tibetan Book of the Dead) and my memory.)

your wife, and to all who loved Native.

'Light offerings' symbolize removing darkness, and shining the light of wisdom.

via GIPHY

It is my understanding that the powerful mantra below is meant to motivate compassion, and alleviate suffering.

Good night, dear Native . . .

Mollie

@irishking

[video:https://youtu.be/rkY_zTKzPCY]

he had so many friends.
thx.

@Amanda Matthews Or inseminating.
Many random elements are involved. Some plants have immune systems to avoid self-pollenation. They are mapped by DNA sequence.

Me? Save seeds. Could get a sport.

of ‘strangers’ like us, I can only imagine how wonderful it would be to have known him personally.

I’m so glad he passed peacefully in his sleep. I hope he sees what an impact he had on people, I believe that the spirit never dies. He could be reading this as I type. As WE type. And if I’m right he’ll understand how much kindness he spread around, how much knowledge he gifted us with, and how very much he will be missed.