Seven Sevens

In Buddhist culture, the 49th day (seven sevens) after a person has passed away has special significance. It represents the end to the first period of mourning, and it's expected the family has done its best to follow Buddhist virtues during this time period and read one of the Buddhist Sutra scripts in honor of the deceased. For the 49th day, we went to the Gold Sage Monastery to honor my mother. The Dharma Master arranged for my mother's name to be put in a place of honor next to Ti-Tsang Wang P'usa, also known as Earth Store Bodhisattva.

I went for the morning services at the temple and stayed for the afternoon special ceremony held for the deceased and gave prayers to Ti-Tsang Wang P-usa and to my mother. Both my sisters attended, as did my Uncle Tao and Aunt Cathy, who had arranged to have my mother honored at the temple.

Lauren also asked to go, and she knew exactly what we were doing at the temple. We had told her we were going to pray for her grandma and she asked if she could bring flowers, so she went to the garden and picked flowers and put them in a ziplock bag for her grandmother. At the temple, she imitated a lot of the gestures I did and did her best to follow along. Her grandma would have been proud.