From: _Blazing Splendor_ (excerpt)
For animal lovers. -Vaj.
One of the many amazing stories from Blazing Splendor: The Memoirs of
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
http://www.rangjung.com/blazing/
Blog at: http://blazing-splendor.blogspot.com/
from the chapter: At Tsurphu with the Karmapa
Many extraordinary things happened in the company of the Karmapa. For
example, he kept hundreds of birds. Karsey Kongtrul had given him a
bird will extremely melodious voice, which was very dear to him. When
this bird got sick he kept it alone in a special room. One day he was
told that the bird was dying and he asked that it be brought to him.
The bird was placed on the table before him.
"This bird needs a special blessing," he said. So he took a small
vessel with mustard seeds and made his usual chant for dispelling
obstacles as he threw some of the grains on the bird. Suddenly he
said, "There's nothing more to do--it is dying. No blessing can
prevent it"
Then he turned to me, saying, "Pick it up and hold it in your hand."
The bird was still alive and it sat there in my palm with one eye
half-open. But soon I saw its head slump, then its wings. But,
strangely enough, the bird then straightened back up and simply sat
there. An attendant whispered, "It's in samadhi!"
I didn't want to disturb it, so I asked him to put it on the table.
The attendant seemed used to handling birds in this state, because he
didn't disturb it as he put the bird down.
Somewhat astonished, I commented to the attendant, "How remarkable! A
bird that sits up straight right after death!?!"
"That's nothing special. They all do it," he replied matter-of-factly.
A second attendant chimed in, "Every single bird from the Karmapa's
aviary that dies sits up for a while after death. But we're so used
to this, it has ceased to amaze us."
"When birds die," I objected, "they keel over and fall off their
branch to the ground--they don't keep sitting!"
"Well, when the Karmapa is around, this is what they do," replied the
attendant. "But you're right--when he's away, they die the normal way."
At this point everyone had arrived for dinner and I had to sit down,
however I couldn't help keeping my eye on the bird while we ate.
Halfway through dinner its right wing slumped and soon after the left
followed.
An attendant whispered, "Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, it seems the samadhi
is about to finish."
The Karmapa paid no attention and kept eating, even when the bird
finally keeled over. I looked at my watch--approximately three hours
had gone by. No matter what the attendants said, I was still pretty
amazed because I saw it die in my hands. Most people probably
wouldn't believe this unless they saw it with their own eyes.
The Karmapa was very fond of dogs as well and he had several
Pekingese that, I was told, also died sitting up with their forelegs
parallel.
In short, the Karmapa was an incredible human being.
