The Monk at Rongbuk Monastry

April 23, 2006 | 06:14 PM
The Monk at Rongbuk Monastry
Years and years ago I had trekked to the Rongbuk Monastry, which is the last Monastry on the way to the Everest Base Camp...

...where I met a young Monk that kept laughing. He must have been in his late 20's at that time, and we spent a lot of time talking. He had been at the Monastry since he was a little boy.

I don't remember much of the conversation other than him laughing at my attempts to eat Yak meat that is incredibly tough especiazlly when cooked at those altitudes. But I do remember asking him how long he had been practising meditation.

"15 years, he said"

"And how long can you truly be 'in meditation' ", I asked

"About a minute". He replied, as he laughed.

Buddha's Enlightenment did not just happen, I guess.

The path to the union with the Self is a lifelong journey that involves every step I walk, every breath I breathe and every thought I think. And every word I speak. Knowing that not a single moment must be wasted. It is a torturous, tough, devastating and exhilarating journey.

And not one amongst us can say for sure what lies at the end of it,

Oh, well,

Shekhar