And Explore Some More

In late February 2020 I did a great six day trek up Mardi Himal, a mountain in the Annapurna Range of Nepal.  Three days in to our trek and we are five trekkers, our Nepali guide and four other Nepalis sat huddled round a metal stove with a fire burning inside. Two large metal kettles sit on top & boots are scattered around, drying off. This fire, these four plaster board walls and corrugated iron roof is a wonderful shelter from the cold and snow which falls constantly outside. It's been almost 4 hours now - we arrived at 9:30am. For the past 3 days we've been climbing up and up through varying forests in the Annapurna Conservation Area (& doing some litter-picking as we go too!) and have now reached 3300 metres. We left villages behind on day one, passing them as they tended to their crops and ploughed the fields using cows or the old British tractors. A few minutes ago there was a huge rumbling sound like thunder...that was an avalanche, ou...

In early February 2020, I joined 80 people from all corners of the world at Kopan Buddhist Monastery, Kathmandu, for a 10 day 'Introduction to Buddhism' course.  My previous blog gives an overview of the course whilst this one delves into what we learnt and what I took away from it. There are many different types of Buddhism. My course, and hence this post, refers to Tibetan Buddhism also known as Mahayana.  Also, this is based on only 10 days of learning so for clearer and deeper understanding, I refer you to any books by His Holiness the Dalai Lama! During the course I did a painting based on my key learnings. I will use the painting as a way to explain some elements of what we learnt.  It's called...  " Who am 'I'? "  Buddhists believe in reincarnation whereby we have already had many previous lives to this current one and will have many future lives. We may have been a soldier, a dancer, a dog or a fish in our previous lives bu...

In early February, I joined 80 people from all corners of the world at Kopan Buddhist Monastery for a 10 day 'Introduction to Buddhism' course. What an experience! Kopan Buddhist Monastery which overlooks Kathmandu's hazy city sprawl from a high green hill. The monastery is home to a few hundred monks from 11 years to adulthood. The young ones go to school and receive a 'normal', secular education alongside their studies of Buddhism. It is quite unusual in that it invites non-Buddhist people (Lay people) to stay for residential courses lasting from a few days to 3 months. The particular one I attended has been running for 50 years! We were 80 wonderful people of all ages and all corners of the world: there was the Chilean mother and daughter doing this together; the British husband, father and Manager in an IT firm who'd got the time off just for this; the 36-year old American who had quit her 'good' but unfulfilling job in advertis...

In this moment on the dry rice fields , a space I share with some cows, I look out at the lake, a warm wind on my face. A young boy with a dog on a string runs around and along the bank of the stream.  With his friend, this is his playground. Several birds of pray fly over the water. One dives, picks up a fish and it glistens silver in the sunlight. The bird drops it, back to its freedom.  The water trickles on its way. I'm taken back to walking next to the streams in Cornwall, seeing the water in its final moments before it ends its journey in the sea. This water here is the same but it's so early on in its journey. It's barely began and has yet to pass by many villages and terrains. An unknown lies ahead. In this moment I feel 'in the moment'; like I haven't for quite a few days. In this moment, my hours of planning and research attached to my phone seem insignificant, unimportant. The importance I attached, gone on the wind.  In this moment, nature brought...