On Saturday, April 3, 2021, Sandra Hay passed away. Sandra was not only a dancer, producer, film maker, philanthropist, sister, mother, wife, friend and confidant, she was also a gracious, loving, caring, brilliant, kind and humble human being. She was a loving force in the universe. Those of us who have known her have been honored to be a part of her life. She is loved and will be missed by many.
At Tara Mandala Center in Pagosa Springs, Colorado (taramandala.org) they will do Shitro meditation daily for the 49 days of the bardo for her, this is the practice from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. In this practice essentially the deceased is visualized in front of the practitioners and through the blessing power of the Buddha of Purification, Vajrasattva, the deceased is guided. He has the Peaceful, Semi-wrathful and Wrathful Mandalas in his heart, throat and head respectively, representing the transformation of ignorance, desire and anger. Then rainbow light is sent to Sandra and it washes her clean of any karmic traces and she becomes gradually more and more luminous. Each day the practitioners find the deceased in the bardo and then offer this purification.
After someone dies often everyone is concerned with their possessions, legacy and grief, but doesn’t take care of the mindstream of the deceased. The Tibetan Buddhist tradition is very concerned about supporting the deceased and actively focuses on guiding the deceased toward liberation. Tara Mandala residents will be offering this ceremony daily for Sandra, and using the photo of her and her location at the time of death to assist connecting with her. May she be liberated into the clear light of the ground of being.
For those without this training who would like to connect with her through meditation they could do this simple practice:
- BEGIN BY GENERATING the intention to practice for all beings.
- Sound HUM long and slowly
- Visualize yourself as the luminous white Vajrasattva (images can easily be located on himalayanart.org. In Tibetan his name is Dorje Sempa)
- From your heart chakra as Vajrasattva send out rainbow light to the deceased, seeing Sandra in front of you
- Imagine that rainbow light washes over her and gradually her karma clears while reciting OM VAJRASATTVA HUM (repeat as many times as possible at least 1008X)
- In the end sound HUM and Sandra dissolves into light and that light dissolves in you as Vajrasattva and then he dissolves into light, rest there a few minutes then dedicate the merit of your practice to all beings.
If you would like to donate to Tara Mandala to support this practice in Sandra’s name you may do so by clicking here.
