15/01/2025
15/01/25- Wednesday
०२,२०८१--माघ
Zenpan, Mexi-American,a writer and the spiritual practitioner stayed a week to Khechuperi Lake Stone Homestay and drop a beautiful lines to khechuperi landscape...!
👉I first visited Kechuperi on a Sunday morning during a two days tour in caves, monasteries, and holy places in West Sikkim, with Igor, a Polish friend. We meditated in Guru Rinpoche's cave in Kechuperi. He left the cave, and I followed him later. I saw him smiling, enjoying Ruby's terrace at her home stay. Even before greeting him, I went directly to Ruby to ask her if I could stay a week in her place. I knew immediately that I wanted to spend some days there, in that Tara and Guru Rinpoche place...!!! Ruby showed us the rooms and I was impressed by the big paintings of Tara on the wall... everything looked like a beautiful, small retreat center...
Strangely enough, when I got back to my monastery in Rumtek, I started to feel an intense desire when I thought in that home stay. The desire had not a specific object... it was something related to that place. It was really surprising as I'm not involved at all in romantic adventures, and I'm traveling mostly for meditation, attending Dharma courses and praying gatherings, in monastic, male environments.
Why I was experiencing that clear, distinct, intense desire? I tried not to pay attention and avoid it. But that feeling was there...!
I arrived Friday in the afternoon. Ruby was busy cooking momos for relatives and friends. She shared it with me and then installed me in the White Tara room.
The silence was impressive. Also, I profoundly experience the vivid, physical sensation of being embraced by a warm, loving, caring female presence. It was Tara, no doubt. All very subtle fears, anxieties, even desires dissolved in a deep joy and rest. That day, the first, I slept more than 12 hours in a go...!
On the second day, Saturday, I meditated in Guru Rinpoche's cave after a vegetarian thukpa breakfast. In the meditation, I experienced the impression that something was being cleansed through my central channel, up to down... to the ground of the cave, like a cascade. But what was being cleansed was a treasure: jewels, gold, and precious materials. It was a continuous falling/cleansing... like a waterfall. It lasted a long time and was also vivid. Even now, more than a week later, I can evoque and experience that impression again. I was amazed that the materials cleansed were so precious...! Once back to Ruby's home, she showed me her roof, which is a good place to meditate, with the view of the Kanchenjunga picks, the lake, the hill where the Tara cave is, and the sunrise... I meditated there while Ruby prepared the breakfast. By noon, Ruby prepared tea at her place. A nice boy, a teenager from Rumtek, came and asked for cakes (Ruby doesn't bake cakes). The T-shirt of the boy had a phrase in the chest... something like 'How can you be free if you're attached to your past?' Some friends of Ruby came in the afternoon to her place, and I went back to the cave for a short meditation. I didn't experience the same feeling... but gratitude. I offered incense. I slept early with the same experience of a warm, safe, fearless, joyous state. Sleeping and meditating were, somehow, mixed.
On the third day, Sunday, I went at 5:00 am to the second floor of the viewpoint, that little tower. I meditate there and offered incense: I saw the sunrise and the early morning sun, with an all pervading impression of joy and beauty: the songs of the birds and the wind on the bamboos... the clouds rising from the sacred lake, the play of colors and sunrays in the sky, the warmth of the sun... I offered all these spectacular mandala to my Lama. Later on, I accompanied Ruby to the nunnerie: she wanted to offer a huge basket of vegetables to the anis... we walked a fascinating track through orchards in little terraces, boulders, and small patches of forest. The nunnerie is big and impressive. We went directly to the kitchen. The anis love 'Ruby Didi'... I waited in the dining hall. A young ani was cutting vegetables, seated on the floor of the corridor, and the wind was playing with the flags. Everything was bright, clean, cared, and happy. Ruby introduced me to two senior anis. One of them, from Lhadak. They told me in a few sentences, the story of the nunnerie (one of them had yellow painture othe ongles of her hands: she was repairing the roof. They offered us sweets and tea. Ruby introduced me also to two men: one of them, a peasant who comes from his farm two hours away from the nunnerie to help the anis with their orchad, as a volonteer (an offering). The second man was a worker from Lhadak, who was reparing the roof of the monastery. and invited us to have lunch. Rice, dal, salad, rotis... Fresh sikkimese food! They allowed us to visit the Lakhang... I didn't expect such a huge, colorful, wonderful Lakhang...! In the main shrine, an impressive, enormous Guru Rinpoche statue... on the right side, one thousand statues of Tara... on the left side, one thousand of Guru Rinpoche statues. We did a short meditation to honor the Lakhang and receive the blessings. A young ani waited for us and closed the Lakhang. We did Kora and left. We went back through the lake side. Many visitors were there as it was Sunday. I meditated in the room.
On the fourth day, I went to the Tara Devi cave, uphill. Ruby asked Siddu, a young boy from a nearby village, to guide me one hour through a shortcut and then drop me at the beginning of a track where there were no chances to lose the track. From there, I walked two hours uphill. Since the beginning, it has been a walk in paradise... in a Pure Land, where everything you hear, see, touch... is a blessing. Not to say the beauty and the joy. Just to breathe is a blessing that brings you clarity and bliss. I vividly remembered my travels to the Lacandona jungle in South Mexico and the deep impression of live devouring life...! Something terrible and beautiful and true, at the same time... I realized that that is what we call Samsara. I have always related to that concept in a negative way, as a place of suffering and Dukkha, a mistaken understanding. A place to be left. But now I spontaneously realized that Samsara is Nirvana... that I had to separate them, to stop saying 'this is good, this is bad', 'this is Dharma, this is not', and make it 'all together', 'make it one', a my teachers say. I deeply enjoyed the walk with an impression of unity and that something had come full circle in my life. I understood why the jungle attracted me that much when I was a teenager. Everything I saw, the huge threes, the bamboo, the flowers, the sky, the hills, the springs, was Tara... Life beautifully, happily, lovingly arising from life... and of course, what 'I' call 'me' was a part of that... Samsara is Nirvana. When I reached the top, I found an abandoned hut that I mistakenly thought was the cave. I spent almost two hours cleaning the place before doing offerings: water and incense. Then, I sat on a flat stone on the border of a cliff, almost flying over the landscape, where smoke offerings, kathaks, and victory banners were offered. On the one hand, I understood the landscape as a living, beautiful, attractive female body, and Guru Rinpoche waking up, following the rivers and springs, towards it very s*x: a place of bliss and birth. On the other hand, I felt that everything was possible in that moment... even fly! On my way back, I discovered the wonderful true cave...! I made offerings and meditated inside. I was so happy...! I felt like making love...! Like being inside this wonderful female s*x...! My time there was short, as I had to walk three hours down... the experience on my way back was the same as on my way up. In the final section, I lost my way and made a long (interesting, though) diversion to the lake. I got back almost at dusk. Ruby had gone to a funeral ceremony at her neighbors home. I was exhausted and thrilled. Ruby and I had dinner together.
On the fifth day, Tuesday, I went again before 6:00 am to meditate on the top of the viewpoint, facing the sunrise, the lake, the clouds, the intense beauty... I heard the voice of my teacher saying, 'fully enjoy'... I was focusing on the joy and trying to see how much I could expand the perceptions, the sounds, the smells, the forms... and the feelings, the deep calm, the bliss... then, an earthquake happened...!!! I went back to Ruby's home to see if something happened and how was she... everything was dark and calm... Ruby's room was closed... I went back to the viewpoint... after breakfast, I did a slow, thoughtful Kora around the lake, following a stone old path. I stopped frequently, reflecting, enjoying. Samsara is Nirvana. That impression of unity. I took many photos to share with my wife and daughters. When I reached the gate, the marketplace, I decided to go back through the same old stone path in the opposite direction to avoid meeting people. Once in the Stupas, I entered the small Tara shrine and meditated there. The connection with my teacher and Tara was strong, intense, and full of blessings... everything I was looking for was there! I went back to Ruby's home. Every day, Ruby told me different chapters of the amazing story of his home and her guests and her life...!
On the sixth day, Ruby planned a visit to a second Guru Rinpoche's cave, known as 'the hidden cave'.The night before, a friend of her, a guide from Pelling, called her and joined us in the morning with two Spanish, his and her, who wanted to do hiking. Siddhu, again, guided us. First, we walked through some farms and little villages. Then, we followed a narrow, slippery stone road on the slope of a high mountain. The day before rained, and there was water running everywhere. The road, partly destroyed by landslides and streams, entered in a forest of geant ferns and bamboos.The view, the jungle, the springs were spectacular...! It was a paradise...! After an hour and a half, we reached the cave, vaste and high, dominating the impressive landscape. At the center of the cave, there is a little shrine with a Guru Rinpoche statue, with offerings. Here and there, some satsas. But, mostly, the cave is empty, with lively, smooth, big, warm rocks. The cave imposed a lot of devotion and reverence to us. We offered kathaks and incense... the Spanish friends, flags. I meditated two and a half hours in the cave. For the first time, for me, Dzogchen and Mahamudra came together in a special, stable, spontaneous way. Ruby, her friend, Siddhu, and the Spanish had lunch outside. At some point, Ruby asked Siddhu to bring a cup of tea into the cave for me. I didn't notice him. I felt that someone had entered the cave and left. He noticed I was meditating and didn't want to disturb me. On the way back, I was so light and happy, spite the constant falls, due to slippery: I had had more than expected or even imagined. A couple of young Sikkimese teachers, married, were waiting for Ruby at home. They were hindu, doing pilgrimage on a motorcycle: they visited the lake (for them, it's a place of Yuma), and the day after, they continued to a place of Lord Shiva. Ruby was happy to receive them. We all had dinner together.
On the seventh day, Thursday, I went back to Rumtek. Ruby booked a car from a cousin of her. She also came with us because she wanted to visit her sister, in Gangtok. We stopped at the charming village of the driver, next to Kechuperi. Flowers, sun, little wooden houses, cleanness, and flashing smiles... all the six hours long, the driver didn't stop talking with Ruby in Sikkimese, that was, for me, the perfect soundtrack of a road through impressive mountains, valleys, rivers, forests... names and memories... and the certainty of a new friendship...!
Stone Home Stay
Khechuperi
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