Off the beaten road .. Everest Part 1

“Everyone who’s heart is broken comes to mountains”. Said the hairy German”. “So was it a big heartbreak for you this time that you are summiting the highest mountain”?, I jokingly asked. “You can say so! I just got divorced without even knowing any reasons. My wife for a good 29 years left me in pure German style by just putting a note on the kitchen table.”

It was my desperate attempt to come out of pandemic lockdown which stopped most of us from traveling last year, and to get away from everything in life for so many different reasons of past and future and ongoing sounds and fury of modern living, and so I decided to seek refuge with my mountain friends. And having a lot of these thoughts in mind, I landed in Khatmandu.

Soaked in simplistic spiritual teachings of Buddhism and colorful traditions of Hinduism, and surrounded by great Himalayan mountains, Nepal is a beautiful country to experience cultural fusion of ideologies. I wondered though, what Buddha would have said seeing himself in colorful and big mountain size statues and stupas and being worshiped like a god in every nook and corner of the country. As Goenka said, All Buddha wanted was for everyone to experience his/her own reality and find enlightenment, to have their own journey of nirvana. He never wanted himself to become another god, another idol, another object of worship to pray for.

But still I found the amalgamation of colorful Hindu traditions making Tibetan Buddhism very lively and visually appealing, showing itself in colorful monasteries and Thangka paintings. Like in many places one can find paintings depicting the wheel of life and desires and wisdom and fears and hopes painted in the form of damsels, consorts, deities and demons wrapped around meditating Buddha.

“What’s your name”, the monk asked, and hearing my name jokingly inquired “Salman khan? (a famous Bollywood actor)”. The high priest monk was in his sixties but still full of smiles and laughter and good sense of humor. He was in-charge of a nunnery where nuns as little as eight and as old as eighty were living. I could see the sense of satisfaction in his eyes living a simple life………….. I was wondering if he was just a priest or a Terton (a buddhist mystic who reveals hidden treasures) when he said……“Perhaps you need a Dakini(literally meaning a sky dancer)” , “and not just a simple Dakini but some one that can push you from the cliffs when the time comes and make you fly, only than you will be able to open a Beyul (hidden paradise) inside you”, he advised looking directly in my eyes and continued,” And don’t worry falling from the cliff when the time comes, sometimes it is important to fall in order to arise. Nothing is permanent, nothing lasts forever anyways”….

The road to Everest is full of interesting cultural relics surrounded by big snowcapped mountains . The trek is long, with couple of days of hiking 5-8 hours everyday, which means one can find a lot of time to enjoy the nature as well as think about everything in life. The real trek starts from Tengboche monastery when you suddenly find yourself among big mountains and starts feeling humble and tiny in the grand scheme of things. You are first met by the not so high but beautiful mountain Ama-Dablam (literally meaning mother’s necklace), and followed by number of others until you reach Everest.

Every year from April onwards a tent city is formed on Khumbu glacier at Everest base camp where the aspiring men and women come to climb Everest, Lohtse and Pumuri peaks. Every summiteer is aware of the difficulties, everyone knows they will get sick of cold weather and high altitude sickness and the famous khumbu cough and every other day there is news of someone fatally injured and being rescued. Yet every year the caravan of hope convenes on the toes of Everest in order to conquer not just the mountain but their inner demons as well. It’s a difficult and expensive passion taking toll on both physical and mental resources, but which real passion is not expensive.

“Teacher! All along the way , wherever i go, I see the eyes of the compassionate and wise one on these mountains, they never leave me, always reminding me that I am being watched, and I wonder sometimes if I am really being watched ?” The new student asked his older monk teacher on the way to next village where they had to spend their night. The teacher replied. “Well! Eyes only look in the present, isn’t it! They are a stark reminder from Buddha to live in your present”. “But these eyes always reminds me of someone, how can i forget them. Is it even possible to forget?” The student looked desperate to know. The conversation reminded the monk of his own youth when he was in fight with everyone but himself, and the realization came to him after so many years that the only one who is making his life miserable is his own self. He wondered how many years, this new student will take to reach his own understanding of the reality and be at peace with himself. He smiled compassionately and replied, “You cannot forget them if you keep on averting or craving for them. Just accept them as they manifest to you, be it in the form of pain or cravings and sooner of later they will fade away. Such is the law of Annichey!. Sometimes there is no benefit in intentionally forgetting pain, you just need to accept the reality as it is, and not what you want it to be and the realization will come ” “Now start again! , Start again! , start with a calm and quiet mind, quite and equanimous mind, and keep walking on the trek of life and someday you will understand and laugh at yourself”. The student looked at the monk, thought for awhile and seeing the monk smiling with compassionate and wise eyes, started walking again…………

To be continued……………………….