This HWesakigh Moon in Taurus (from Esoteric Astrology), brings me right into my heart. Last year at this time I was traveling from Denver to Kathmandu, Nepal and then on to Tibet to participate with 33 women (including a few men) for the Full Moon ceremony in the traditional valley in the high Himalayas under the towering Mt. Kailash. Today, with much of Nepal in shambles from the earthquake, we sit in our comfortable homes wondering how we can help. 

The people of Nepal are some of the poorest in the world yet remain full of kindness and goodwill. One of the remarkable things about both the Tibetan and Nepalese is their  dedication to praying for the good will of all beings. Now it’s time for us to pray for their well being. The huge outpouring of help, money and prayers from around the world certainly presents hope that these beautiful women and men are not forgotten. 

Our trip was planned to be in the Sacred Wesak Valley at the Full Moon in May of 2014, so we could meditate with all those who come from various religions and persuasions to celebrate this most precious time of year. Some Buddhists actually celebrate a festival at the Gemini Full Moon, the following month in June, so there were tens of thousands of pilgrims reportedly requesting permission from the Chinese authorities to travel to Mt. Kailash last spring to circumnavigate the sacred mountain.mt-kailash

Because it was the “Year of the Winged Horse” merit was to be 12 times what it normally would be for a ‘kora’ around Mt. Kailash. Many faiths including Hindus,Tibetan Buddhists, Jains, and Bon believed this trek was something that must be accomplished at least once in the life if at all possible. The 32 miles trek around the mountain with elevations as high as 18,000 feet made the journey somewhat difficult and exhausting for most. 

This kora is done in service to pray for an end to human suffering. Perhaps it also helps the trekker to know and engage in that human suffering.

Because there are no services along the way, other than an occasional village somewhere in the vicinity of the mountain, the Chinese government officials worried that there could be uprisings with so many foreigners, mostly from India, in the area. They were also concerned that there would be huge devastation of the land, since there were no facilities and just the sheer number of people without toilets could cause some pretty messy waste problems. Because the Chinese government does not have the greatest history of interest in preserving land and caring about sustainable living, we wondered about the real reason we were kept from taking this sacred pilgrimage..

As we were about to leave Kathmandu for Lhasa, we were told the news that we probably would not get permits to do the three day trek around Mt. Kailash, and therefore would not be allowed in the valley to meditate for the Full Moon. This news brought some dark clouds to our group since most of us were on this trip for just that purpose.


IMG_3244Lama Glenn Mullin (translator and author of over 20 books on Tibetan Buddhism) traveled with us. He had been on dozens of trips to Tibet and understood how the Chinese would change their mind at the last minute about a variety of things. Having lived in Dharmsala for many years where the Dalai Lama resides, Glenn spoke fluent Tibetan and gifted us with powerful meditations and reflections along the way. He recommended that we go instead to a series of valleys to camp and then visit various monasteries at the top of the mountains surrounding them.

We shifted gears quickly and started to get excited about the prospects of this alternative plan. However, many areas where we thought we had permission to go turned out to be closed at the last moment by the Chinese. The trekking company accompanying us wanted us to just go to a mountain for a five day trek since they were all prepared with tents, food and guides to give us an experience of the majestic mountains. What they didn’t understand was this was a group of mostly older, women and men who might have had a very difficult time trekking for many hours a day over mountain passes where there was no turning back and no way out. Helicopters weren’t even an option.


IMG_3473Fortunately, Tulja Robbins, who had invited us on this sacred journey with the Blue Rose Sisterhood along with Lama Glenn, made the decision that we were just not prepared for a five-day trek of that magnitude. We were meditators, not trekkers. So new plans were made to move through the Tibetan plateau from valley to valley via bus.

We camped in tents for most of the next two weeks. One of the first nights we woke up to snow on the ground and realized then and there that we were in for a real adventure.IMG_3500

There were no rest houses anywhere near the places we went. Sometimes there was one Tibetan home and often we were near a river or Lake.

Each day we would trek up a mountain to ancient caves and monasteries, some which had been rebuilt since the massacre of hundreds of thousands of monks by the communists under Mao’s orders in the late 1950’s. Most monasteries were completely destroyed in that bloody attempt to purge Buddhism from the land.

Since it had been over 50 years since the monasteries had been rebuilt, they still looked ancient to us and many were still in the process of being rebuilt. The Chinese used the melted down statues of Buddha, Maitreya, Padmasambhava and dozens of others to finance the building of their society in the late 20th century.

We were able to find a beautiful valley for Wesak. The exact time of the full moon happened to be at 3:15 in the morning, so we put on many layers of clothes, hats, jackets and scarfs and went out in the frigid temperatures to meditate.

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These pictures show us earlier in the evening preparing for the middle of the night ceremony we were to have.

We found high energies in our own little Wesak Valley to be as potent and refined as we could have imagined. There is something about the Tibetan Plateau that makes one feel almost out-of-body most of the time, so during meditations we were flying much higher than usual. It may have been the refined air of the high altitude (which was usually about 13,000 to 17,500 feet) that kept us in an altered state.

So we meditated and connected with our guides, masters, teachers, higher selves that magical night in the High Himalayas for Wesak. All our meditations were profoundly powerful. We dedicated our work to the well being of all beings and for peace in the world.

Since most of the group were from Finland where Tulja lives, there was somewhat of a language barrier. Only five of us were from the states. My new friend and tent-mate was a medical doctor from Brazil. Others were from Australia, Slovakia, Canada, and other Baltic countries. IMG_3537

Many, including me, felt this trip was revisiting lifetimes in Tibet as monks, mothers and householders who just wanted to go home. My heart was filled with joy and wonder as we traversed the mountains and valleys, finding spectacular scenes of survival that have not changed much in many thousands of years. The Tibetan people are as devout, loving and sweet as one might imagine. Through all the beatings, torturing, and attempts by the Chinese to annihilate them and their culture, they somehow survived with their beliefs in tact and their love undaunted. 
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The rewards of the trip were many. It did feel like I was home. The rarified air allowed for an expanded etheric body, helping to make meditations more powerful and loving than usual. I experienced obvious shifts of consciousness, some that really cannot be put into words. There was definitely a fusion of Crown and Base chakras, which surprised me, but which showed up in various way from then on. The ability to run energy up and down my body was enhanced, my inner vision was unmistakably expanded, and when I returned home, after three-quarters of a year writing, designing and working, I published a website with my partner, Ron, that is now available to the world.

InnerVisionJourney.com offers a compilation of a lifetime of writing, studying, teaching and Being. It is literally my journey through the world of Spirit. Hopefully, others will join these explorations of consciousness and participate in the inner journey in their own way.

View this site filled with articles, E-Books and Meditation audios to keep moving on your kora around the world of spirit and expanded consciousness. Enjoy free meditations or an E-Book, Creating Your Life” just for sharing your contact information.

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