Cave in the Snow
I've been engrossed in the book "Cave in the Snow" on a western nun's search for enlightenment. Tenzin Palmo stayed for about12 years in a small cave in the mountains in the Himalayas meditating and living alone. On emerging from a 3-year continuous solitary retreat, when asked what she had realised in the amazing stint, she replied : "I was never bored."
While this may have stunned her visitor, I was immensely relieved by her response. My own experience limited to a 3-day retreat compared to her 3-year retreat, I am so glad to hear that. I too realised, to my own amazement, that I was not bored. I thought this one of the greatest personal discoveries I made during the retreat although I had felt it a little silly a revelation at the time. So if I had persisted for a longer time like Tenzin Palmo had, I too may find that I'll still not be bored. There is so much challenge in mastering our minds, in living with full awareness of life in every action. I felt that I was at last really living -- doing the real work of living in the retreat -- rather than working at some imaginary life that is supposed to bring us all we need to live. Each day we go out our doors to "make a living" in a semi-automatic mode. How many of the tasks we do daily really feel like they are real. That they have a real contribution to our and other's living well and being happy?
One taste of this real living is all you need to wake up. The real reason for going into the cave for Tenzin Palmo is so that we can return into the world with our developed selves to help others. The retreat into our selves is to shape ourselves, to learn to see the real nature of our minds and to realise our full potential. Then comes service. If you are ill at ease with yourself or if you have little understanding of your own mind, how can you help others? How do you even get along with others? I wondered how the retreat will affect me when I "re-entered" the world. After 3 days and 3 nights in a patient, loving environment, will I be culture-shocked once I step back into Bishan Central and the MRT, back into the weekend crowd spilling into town? I was surprised to see that I wasn't shocked. I saw the same scenes before, I simply saw them after the retreat with more patience and understanding. Yes, we are in a sea of suffering, desires and delusions. OK. This is what we have to start off with. OK. Understand that there is not one person on this MRT train that is different from me. OK. Let me start where I am. OK. Let me help others where I can. OK. -- Something loosened within you and real love spills out.
As Tenzin Palmo says while a cave may be necessary for our meditation practice, it is back in the world that the skills we learnt and character we built are put into their proper use and tested.
May you progress in your practice, may you be well and happy.
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Cave in the Snow: A Western Woman’s Quest for Enlightenment
Vicki Mackenzie. London. Bloomsbury Publishing: 1998
;-) Those of you interested in reading this, I'm returning the book to Orchard Library today: reference number: 294.3923092MAC
Tenzin Palmo's official website: http://www.gatsal.org/index.htm
While this may have stunned her visitor, I was immensely relieved by her response. My own experience limited to a 3-day retreat compared to her 3-year retreat, I am so glad to hear that. I too realised, to my own amazement, that I was not bored. I thought this one of the greatest personal discoveries I made during the retreat although I had felt it a little silly a revelation at the time. So if I had persisted for a longer time like Tenzin Palmo had, I too may find that I'll still not be bored. There is so much challenge in mastering our minds, in living with full awareness of life in every action. I felt that I was at last really living -- doing the real work of living in the retreat -- rather than working at some imaginary life that is supposed to bring us all we need to live. Each day we go out our doors to "make a living" in a semi-automatic mode. How many of the tasks we do daily really feel like they are real. That they have a real contribution to our and other's living well and being happy?
One taste of this real living is all you need to wake up. The real reason for going into the cave for Tenzin Palmo is so that we can return into the world with our developed selves to help others. The retreat into our selves is to shape ourselves, to learn to see the real nature of our minds and to realise our full potential. Then comes service. If you are ill at ease with yourself or if you have little understanding of your own mind, how can you help others? How do you even get along with others? I wondered how the retreat will affect me when I "re-entered" the world. After 3 days and 3 nights in a patient, loving environment, will I be culture-shocked once I step back into Bishan Central and the MRT, back into the weekend crowd spilling into town? I was surprised to see that I wasn't shocked. I saw the same scenes before, I simply saw them after the retreat with more patience and understanding. Yes, we are in a sea of suffering, desires and delusions. OK. This is what we have to start off with. OK. Understand that there is not one person on this MRT train that is different from me. OK. Let me start where I am. OK. Let me help others where I can. OK. -- Something loosened within you and real love spills out.
As Tenzin Palmo says while a cave may be necessary for our meditation practice, it is back in the world that the skills we learnt and character we built are put into their proper use and tested.
May you progress in your practice, may you be well and happy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Cave in the Snow: A Western Woman’s Quest for Enlightenment
Vicki Mackenzie. London. Bloomsbury Publishing: 1998
;-) Those of you interested in reading this, I'm returning the book to Orchard Library today: reference number: 294.3923092MAC
Tenzin Palmo's official website: http://www.gatsal.org/index.htm
