MIND
A note for people who are reading this and who know me.
It may be hard to square all of this with the person you know. I rarely speak about these things. But be ready 🙂
I am going to speak about this a lot, because I have something to share.
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Going Back to the Source
When teachings accumulate layers of interpretation, sometimes the clearest direction is upstream: back towards the source. A reflection on Tilopa’s Ganges Mahāmudrā Instructions.
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Wolf Tracks at Dusk
A plateau at 4,500 metres, fresh snow crossed by wolf tracks, the sun behind the ridge. The most common cause of trouble in the mountains is losing composure.
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When You Stop Waiting
Kham, 2004 Once again I watched an axiom of life at work: help, rescue or a way out comes exactly when you no longer hope for it and stop peering ahead, waiting for it. Maybe, for things to resolve faster, you simply need to accept them sooner and stop waiting. As the samurai say: do…
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Maybe We Died Yesterday
Kham, 2004 Four hours up beside a half-frozen waterfall, through thorn bushes that caught my wide rucksack and threw me back. I was dizzy from hunger. Losing consciousness for even a second meant falling thirty or fifty metres into the roaring water, and I was not ready: at home I had a family, a snowboard,…
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The Tulku
Garthar Chöde, 2004 In the morning we were told the local tulku was waiting for us. He was sixty-four; he had been found at six, tested until thirteen, and had lived in the monastery ever since. He answered my questions and said that I myself do not know who I am, where I come from,…
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Evening Chanting
Garthar Chöde monastery, 3,871 m, 2004 A gong under my ear woke me: the service was starting. We went down into the temple and sat on the floor among the monks. The sutras went on for hours: shifting rhythms, swaying bodies, dim light, incense. We were in no hurry and expected nothing. Thoughts drifted somewhere…