Don Wackerly, one of our Dharma friends whom some of us had been writing to for several years was executed in Oklahoma yesterday. How do you rejoice and be sad at the same time, which is actually possible? Being his pen pal for over the past three years, one of the things that I realised when he got more and more into practising the Dharma and working on his mind and heart; he started having this very profound question towards the end of his life, “Was my life meaningful and did it have a purpose?” Much like the rest of us, he made some detours in his life and ended up doing some rather confusing, not-very-helpful things, that did not answer the question very well. But I think that at the end of his life, from what we have seen from the support, the love, and the people that he had touched, specifically by his courage to continue to transform his mind in the middle of a challenging and difficult experience, that indeed, in the end, Don Wackerly had a profoundly purposeful and meaningful life.

We have this dedication prayer that Lama Zopa wrote, and we say it after we do our eight Mahayana precepts and dedicate it any time after a big, auspicious celebration or event of some kind. Don had some time yesterday to say his final parting words. I have a feeling that if he had this dedication in front of him it might have been something that he would have enjoyed being able to say. I believe very much that he was successful as far as having purpose and meaning in his life.

“Whatever actions I do, eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, working, and so forth, and whatever I experience in life, up or down, happy or unhappy, healthy or sick… Whether I have a terminal disease or don’t, whether my life is peaceful and harmonious, or with discord and difficulties, whether I am successful or fail, rich or poor, praised or criticised, whether I am living or dying or even born in a horrible rebirth, whether I live long or not, may my life be beneficial for all beings. The main purpose of my life is not simply to be rich, respected, famous, healthy and peaceful. The meaning of my life is to benefit all sentient beings. Therefore, from now on may whatever actions I do be beneficial for all sentient beings. May whatever I experience in life, happiness or suffering, be dedicated to actualising the path to awakening in my mind, and may my actions and experiences cause all sentient beings to attain full awakening quickly.”

I have a feeling that he was working very seriously so that whatever he had experienced in life, happiness or suffering, would be dedicated to actualising the path, not only in his own mind but in all the sentient beings who came within his parameters.

I think that he had a meaningful life when everything was said and done. So, to Don Wackerly, “I rejoice at the purpose of your life.”

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