January 31, 2001 Evening. We have arrived! Up and down. From the Dudh Khosi tributary valley floor at 600 M we ascended a hard direct uphill to 1400 Meters. Rounding the bend at the top we saw first the heliport then we saw the prayer flags everywhere. Then we saw the hug field filled with rainbow-colored tents and the sonorous hum of monks in prayer. Full of Tibetans and Sherpas. We are sleeping up on a hill in Christophe’s tent and another renter for a whopping $2 US a night from the restaurant catering to the pilgrims. I just washed my feet and pooped up on the hill – I feel much better.

February 1, 2001 Evening. Here in the large, billowing, rainbow tent with a praying puja (ceremonial offering) audience of 690 monks with Tru Sheik Rinpoche (like a Bhuddist Bishop) leading the ceremony. He is the head of a large monastery in the mountains above Junbesi and is said to be the 15th reincarnation of a very high Lama. I went up to him along with many other pilgrims from the hills and gave him the standard offering of a kata (a rolled piece of fabric) which he took after giving me a look in the eyes with a loving a knowing smile filled with charisma.

This place is filled with the thrum and hum of prayer and makes me feel spiritually high (but also a bit touchy for some reason). As we sit and pray young monks wind their way though the rows of monks bringing everyone buttered tea made with yak’s butter. The tea is salted in the morning and sugared in the afternoon. The buttered tea in my canteen from this morning coagulated into a ball which I extracted, rubbing the thick yak butter all over my forearms, face, neck and feet. Tibetab oil of olay. Couldn’t waste it. Now I smell like a Tibetan monk. There are a few rather serious-looking Americans and other westerners here (about four in all besides our party of four). One with a really fatal American accent speaks French fluently but gushes out words at all hearers ‘comme an cascade’ whether the listener is wearing a bathing suit or not. I have not seen the cave yet, ate too much at lunch (a buffet for $1.10 US) and want to stay here another day. February 2, 2001 Morning. I am staying another day. The two Frenchmen Christophe and Vincent left this morning at 5:30 AM bound for Kottari town via the long hard path south to the road (and this is the first day Vincent is carrying his own bag without a porter). I had an extra long bathroom stop this morning in a narrow ditch up the hill that many other people had obviously used for the same purpose. As I was using the “facilities” I had some unexplainable thoughts about Hong Kong, working there, etc. A strange sort of excitement within me. As I lay in my sleeping bag this morning before leaving the tent I thought – was I really any good at the consulting thing? Excellence? The French nun Sylvie says the flowers that are at the altar next to the rinpoche (big rainbow colored things made of some white fatty substance formed and dyed into flowers) are called Torma, are made of Tsampa (barley flower mixed with yak butter tea) and each represent a Bhuddist diety. Mantra of Tara, female manifestation of Avalokitesvara (Bhodisvatta of Loving Kindness or Compassion) is: ‘OM Tare Tuttare Tuve Svaha’ Mantra of superbliss Bhudda Chakrasamvara (female Vajrayogini: Vajra means ‘lightening’ referring to the speed of this method’s movement towards enlightenment) is: *** Removed by request of practicioners of the Vajrayana school. I was contacted by email 1/20/08 by one fellow who kindly wrote :"I would like to bring to your attention that this mantra is a very secret teaching, and no one is to disclose it especially on a publicly accessible website, otherwise will result in very bad karma. I would strongly suggest and appreciate if you can remove this mantra and other vajrayogini secret teaching from the website, thank you very much." And so, I have removed this mantra. Please contact me directly if you have any other contacts or questions.*** After lunch I finally visited the central cave of Haleshi – bidden on by a kind Sherpa lady to try crawling through the three tight-fitting passages in the cave floor and walls. This 60-year-old woman kicked off her shoes and dressed in all her finery got down in the hole on the floor and showed me how it is done. I finally got through the first one then through the three others. Two monks led me through the more difficult ones – “good luck for your future” they said with a smile. These two young monks then guided me around the rest of the sacred hill that houses this cave and several others. When we parted I said I would meet them at 8 PM with my flashlight to crawl through the last of the caves up on the mountain top which looked as tight as that serving-hole we used to have to the backyard in my old kitchen – that was the way for me to enter a house I sometimes locked myself out of until I got too big to fit through. Some of my childhood is coming back to me slowly here: should I stay another day? ‘Gewa diyi nyurdu dag… jetsun jamyang drub gyur nay.. drowa kun kyang malupa… deyi sa la goeu par sho” Sing song samsaric jouney

February 3, 2001 Morning. An info-filled last night in all my dirtiness and exhaustion from cave-hole crawling all day. It started with me asking the bald-shaved Swiss man Kai what he is about. I learned that his guru is Tru Sheik Rinpoche. He then steered me into contact with the talkative American woman (who speaks French with a strong accent) who has mucho facts and pours them out on a listener bucket-style. I absorbed, very informative. She had a lot to say about the validity of reincarnation and had personal proofs. Later on I went to the Gomba (Bhuddist temple/monastery) to ask about having a personal audience with the Rinpoche. The young head lama of the monastery named Karma Lama invited me into his office. In the long wooden room with a roof like the hull of a boat (remember the Sala de la Baraka in Granada?) he gave me my basic lesson on what the different schools of Bhuddist thought are. Theraveda (Bhudda’s first teaching) Mahayana (literally ‘large vehicle’) Vajrayana (literally ‘lightening vehicle’) Respectively known as the walking, bus, and helicopter paths to enlightenment. He went over the basic do’s and don’t of practicing Bhuddism (like not doing or watching the slaughter of animals – oops!) to continue to accrue good karma and (overlapping positive plans). He also went over the goals of dedicating all prayer, deeds, achievements and offerings to the greater food of all sentient beings to maximize the value of everything I do. Karma’s talking style was cool: rocking back and forth in a corss-legged sitting position by candlelight his speech was punctuated by sudden coughs and gasps then moonshine-faced scrunched-eyed laughter. He told me to try to see the Rinpoche at 12 noon the next day. I have obviously decided to stay another day. Here is the Mantra repeated every day at the long life Puja being performed by all the monks under the big tent: “Om namo bagawati, a parimita ahoy djana subini sichata tedzo radza ya tathagataya, arhate samyaksam bhuddhaya tatyatha, Om puneya puneya maha puneya, a parmita puneya a parmita puneya dzanja sama bha ropa chiti. Om sarwa samskara pari shuddha dharma tega gana samungate subhawa bishudhe maha naya pariware swaha.”

 
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