Into The Thunderbolt Land

I heard it said that a philosophical and intellectual grasp of Sunyata can not be any substitute for Sunyata but can prepare the mind somewhat and clear away certain obstacles and obscurations -  Theory must not be mistaken for living experience -  The philosophical view must be suffused with the experience of Right-Meditation as it is in meditation that the true nature of mind and phenomena is seen - tasted - and realized -  A sense of kindness helps quicken the melting of the ego - 

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Ha!  What is it~

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The above notes were found scribbled in pencil in a notebook found in the jacket-pocket of Major Arthur Cromarty-Barnes - MC - DSO - when his frozen body was discovered huddled in an ice-cave 19000 feet up a Tibetan mountain where it had seemingly lain since the dark days of 1904 and the ill-fated expedition to conquer Lhasa for the British Crown -  

  The gangly and introspective curate-s son from a Somerset village had managed to convince the commanders of the invasion that it would be useful to the government to have an understanding of the local culture and religion and that he himself was just the man for such a mission -   Consequently he spent several months studying the language and particularly the unique religious and yogic practices of this Asian Antarctica -  Being already versed in the sacred language of Sanskrit he was happy to discover that most of the Lamas and Monks were fluent in it and so it was a common language between the austere followers of Dharma in the ice-mountains and the quiet-natured soldier from far over the mountains and the seas - the land of the red-faced-men -

Γιατί με ξύπνησες πρωί

Ρούκουνας - Κάτω στα λεμονάδικα 

(Οι λαχανάδες)

When the herdsman came across the frozen corpse of the foreigner back in the late 1940-s he had been looking for shelter during a sudden storm - vicious even by Tibetan meteorological standards -  He had been searching for a strayed Drhi - the female of the Yak species -  These beasts didn-t often stray but they were far too valuable to loose so when they did they must be found - even if it meant going way higher into the forbidding mountains of unutterable coldness - hardness - and towering ramparts of glistening ice to seek them -
Lobsang Tawa had never seen a foreigner before so naturally enough took Cromarty-Barnes for a demon and so was very trepidacious about sharing a cave with him - dead or alive -  After an hour or so of huddling near the mouth of the cave and watching the swirling whitesquall outside he slowly gained courage inspired mainly by curiosity and approached the strange looking creature that lay sprawled rigid in death - dressed in extraordinary clothes (like an Indian prince he mused) and carrying strange baggage -  
When Lobsang found the notebook he considered saving it for tinder - he could make nothing of the strange foreign script (English) anymore than he could have read his own language -  It was only when he came across a pencil-sketch of a Buddha-image that he suddenly stopped - touched the book to his head in reverence and tucked it into the folds of his chuba - his heavy Yak-skin coat - where it would be safe for future inspection - 

"27th August 1904 - North-Central Tibetan Plateau -  Arrived at the gompa or monastery at 1300 hours and was treated to a splendid welcome complete with several hundred chanting monks and an orchestra of shawms - cymbals and damaru - a species of hand-drum made from the skull-cups of two deceased monks placed back to back and stretched over with their skin -  After this tremendous racket I was feasted and then straight to work -  studying with the Lama and attempting to transcribe his teachings on the local form of Buddhism -  Though he was speaking the classical Indian Sanskrit tongue we ostensibly had in common - I soon found his rural Tibetan accent seemed to chew and distort many of the words into bizarre forms - no doubt my own linguistic attempts were equally strange to him but he did not seem put out about it -  A very jovial and considerate host who was demonstrating an incredibly subtle grasp of philosophy"
"To begin - simply leave the mind alone and do not try to correct its wanderings -  Try to keep returning to objectless awareness again and again -  Do not be upset if this seems hard at first - persevere - Even Shakyamuni Buddha had to work extremely hard to transform his "everyday mind" and unveil the essence - "
When the storm abated Lobsang Tawa had half a mind to leave the papers with the corpse - but he tightened his resolve and took them with him - along with several items he found on the dead man - 
He balanced his unease about taking from the dead by murmuring a string of mantras and blessing the consciousness of the departed foreigner -  Whoever he was - mused Lobsang - he had drawn that beautiful picture of Lord Buddha so he must obviously be a good man - even if he was such a strange colour - 
"A luminous awareness was born within you at your birth -  It naturally seeks to unite with the Greater Light - the Mother-Light - which is what we sometimes call the mind that has reached the fruition-stage - the naked awareness of Enlightenment that naturally dawns when the fog of confusion is cleared by the right methods - based on the right understanding and motivation -"

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The news had filtered through to the highlands - The Chinese were coming!  Not like before - in 49 - this time it seemed like the whole Red Army was pouring into the country like a flood-time of evil venom and the killings had started - villages burned -  people shot - butchered - crucified - Particularly the priesthood and the monasteries - they seemed to be the particular target of the invader-s wrath as if they were determined to wipe out all trace of the Buddha-Dharma from the land of Tibet!

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Lobsang Tawa was not the only Tibetan hastily hiding away religious objects and writings at that time -  He decided to return to the obvious hiding-place - the cave where he had first acquired the notebook from the deep-frozen cadaver of the gentle English scholar-soldier who had left off soldiering to study the highest truth - only to be killed by the notorious climate of the "Roof of the World" -  

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"Without oceanic compassion for suffering sentient beings - who have all been our mothers and fathers in previous existences - and who now wander in dark and painful confusion -  we can not expect to advance one inch along the path -  Therefore we should reflect deeply again and again on the terrible misfortune of the myriad beings who wander ever deeper into Samsaric ignorance - pain and darkness -  We should dwell on this over and over again until a spontaneous and profound feeling of compassion arises within us and - grasping the interdependability of their Enlightenment with our own - we vow to never abandon sentient beings until Samsara is empty and all beings dwell content and blissful in their constant experience of essence - nature and compassion"

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"2nd September 1904:  "The Abbot or Rimposhe - as everyone calls the Lama - in between our formal study sessions - has been asking me a great many questions about my country and what it is like there -  I tried to paint him a verbal picture of London but I soon realized I had bitten off more than I could chew as his curiosity knew no bounds and each statement by me triggered a further round of questions!  His lively mind was also fascinated by my wrist-watch - they are unknown here - and I explained to him what it was for and offered to give it to him as a gift -  He expressed a humble gratitude but also laughed at the idea of measuring time in such minute portions -  They tend to take a different view of time here and some of the religious ceremonies literally go on for days -  Rimposhe himself told me that the Sanskrit examination he had sat had taken two weeks to complete!  
Our discussion of time and my references to "past - present and future" provoked an interesting reaction from the Lama - He pointed out that within the meditational discipline that he pursued - the practitioners referred to a "fourth time" -  When I asked him to explain how you could have a period of time that lay neither in the past - present or future he explained that the consciousness of time that we ordinarily experience is due to our karmic entanglement in gross states of being -  As one progresses down the path of meditation - eventually time can melt away altogether along with the net of dualistic concepts and obscurations known as "conditioned-existence" -  In this deep state of natural undistracted meditation on the Tathaghatagharba or pure essence of consciousness our "normal" sense of time simply melts away -  This is known as the fourth time - "

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The sun was streaming through the willow trees along the bank of the river - making dancing dapples of light that quivered as the wind shook the boughs and sighed gently overhead -  A splash announced a jumping trout -  The boys quickened their pace -  Arthur and his elder brother George were enjoying the first day of the summer holidays and there was nothing they liked better than going fishing down at the lazy old river that wound through their part of rustic Somerset - deep in the heart of the English countryside -  This early summer season was particularly beautiful - the air shone and the skies buzzed with flies - perfect for fishing!  Mellow clouds of sunlight drifted overhead constantly changing and flickering over the scene -  Songbird-s melodious chirp filled the bright air and contentment drowzed - flickered and flared up again as enthusiasm  -  What could be better than to be gone all day - down to the river -  with all the gear carefully packed and a picnic of jam-sandwiches and coconut macroons with a couple of stoneware jars of ginger-beer~  
The river - like the mid-summer afternoon itself - seemed to flow on forever -  Sometimes it would gurgle and splash - a fish would jump - sending dancing jewels of water up into the bright summer air - The two brothers propped their fishing-rods up on V-shaped sticks and reclined in the drowsy heat - talking of their future ambitions -  They both decided they would be soldiers when they grew up -  
This boyhood dream was partially fulfilled -  George went on to study divinity and eventually became the vicar of Upper Siddlington parish church - taking over the position from his father on his retirement - 
Arthur did stick to his boyish dream of wearing the uniform of an army-officer and serving King and Country in the foreign heat of some far-flung place - Arthur had been posted to various parts of the world after finishing his training - and was considered a well-experienced man who had proven himself in battle -  However - it was his early interest in linguistics and oriental studies that had got him picked out for the Tibet mission - and now - instead of sweltering in the hot dust of Zululand or the plains of India or Persia - he found himself freezing to death in a cave high in the Tibetan mountains -