So far we have explored the nature of flowers, the essence of delight and the wonderful tricks to creating an attitude to life that brings, quite simply, peace of mind. It's not for the faint hearted and there has been more than one moment I've found myself a little lost over things. For example, the essential empitness of reality? The idea that we don't really exist - and nor does anything else.
Hmmmm. A long way to go for this little pilgrim on the path to Happiness.
Some of my friends have pointed out to me that perhaps if i chose not to make my own path quite as high as 5000metres - or quite as tough as 12 days in freezing snow and blizzards and all, that well, it would be a lot easier without having to also scratch at the mystical doors of the Great Secrets of All Existence. But I do note, lovingly, that whether mountain climbing or not, even at sea level and with running water and a nice plate of seafood, and a delicious pizza and a movie, and a lovely home and a new hair do ... these same friends have often confessed that their own lives seem like a bit of an expedition. I point out that it is not the mountain that's the tough part. In fact, in some ways, being on a mountain just makes it so much simpler.
When the Dalai Lama enters the room, he brings with him a radiance.
When he laughs, that humble glow explodes into a delight that washes every one of us with peace and relief.
It's a childish laugh.
A belly laugh.
A rumbly giggle that tickles all of us into smiles and chases away every skeric of stress, strain, doubt and worry we have brought along with us for company.
It's a laugh that confirms everything he's teaching. That the purpose of life is peace of mind. That peace of mind is the foundation to happiness. That a delighted mind is our natural state - and that any other attitude is bad for our health (not to mention our good looks), bad for our mojo and tends to leave a stain on the great picnic blanket of life that is a right bugger to get out.
He reminds me of what Marakya wrote about her journey with Girls on Top last year. After three insomniac nights of altitude and worry, after three days and headache and fear, after losing her airline ticket home ... she founds herself coming to a place where she realised that all her fears, doubts, mistakes and worries were only serving to cloud the realities of what she was experiencing. In her struggling she found loving support, creative ideas, solutions and determination - but the pain of achieving these things while living as if her worrier were real was just an extra burden she didn't need to carry. I think her pivotal moment was when she decided to bribe the Peruvian police with a coke and photo of herself with a dolphin in order to get a report to replace her lost ticket. She realised that all her ideas about being in trouble, about having got it wrong, not knowing what to do, feeling stuck and panicking - were just that - simply ideas!
She found a way to look at the situation with a sense of humour. She found a way to look at what was actually happening, instead of what she was afraid might happen and Bingo! She began to laugh along with life. She began to see that she had a choice about how to respond - even in the trickiest situations. She began to say things like," Hey, don't sweat it!" And "Yeah, take it easy!" And, "Wow! I am having the most amazing experience of my life here!"
It's the same for me, and the same for every woman who joins us on the mountain. There's a very clear moment when we are each faced with realising that it's not the climb that's tough. It's not the mountain that makes it hard. There is a moment of clarity when we discover that it's what we're saying to ourselves, what we believe we can and can't achieve, what we have invented about the journey, our secret doubts and needs, what we've brought with us as invisible baggage that is getting in the way of being able to take one step after another with a calm mind and healthy body.
Bingo! That's the moment that what we hope might happen for all of our team, begins to happen. The Buddhists call it enlightenment. We call it taking a load off!
it's been working without taking a single step in the presence of the Dalia Lama, and it works at about 3,900m on the first day of the Huayhuash trek - so i reckon it works just about everywhere we get the chance to notice it. Taking it easy. Relaxing the attitude. Dropping the baggage. Making a molehill out of the mountain in our own mind.