Great Construction

An Account of Experiencing Death

     During the period that my work was referred to as “medical treatment,” there was one time when I was summoned to the side of the seriously ill wife (age 30) of an executive of a large company. The doctors had given up, and I was entreated by her family and relatives to help her. Because her home was located about ten miles from my house, it would have been difficult to commute to where she was, so we put her in an automobile and brought her to my place. Since her very life was in danger, the husband rode along in the car. In the car, while holding her with one hand, I treated her with the other, and we safely arrived at my house.
     At daybreak the following morning, I was awoken by one of the wife’s attendants, so I immediately went to the room she was in. She held my hand and would not let go. She said, “Now I feel as if something is trying to leave my body. It is so frightening, so I would like you to hold my hand. I can’t help thinking that today I am going to die, so please call my family members immediately.” They were quickly contacted and in a little over an hour, the husband, children, and the company doctor had arrived by car. By that time, she was in a coma with a very weak pulse. The doctor diagnosed that it was only a matter of time. Surrounded by her family, she continued in a coma but never stopped breathing. Finally night fell. Her condition was the same. It was exactly around seven o’clock when suddenly she opened her eyes and looked around the room in a strange manner. She said, “Just a moment ago I was in an indescribably beautiful place. It was a garden where all sorts of flowers were blooming in profusion. There were many beautiful angels, and in a deep recess, was one person, very noble, who looked just like the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World in a painting. He looked in my direction and smiled. Before I realized it, I had prostrated myself, and at that very moment, awoke. Right now I feel very refreshed. Since getting sick, I have never felt like this.” Thus it came to be that the next day, she was not suffering at all, but, rather, had been completely healed. Only a little weakness remained. And even so, within a month she had recovered her usual health.
     Of course what had happened is that momentarily her spirit had slipped out, gone to heaven, and she had had the sins and impurities of her spiritual body eradicated. Where she had gone was the second heaven of the Buddhist world.

The Pathway to Light, Jikan Library, Volume 9, page 67, December 30, 1949
    translated by cynndd