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Day 11: Final day of our pilgrimage to the holy places of Guru Rinpoche with @nekhorpilgrimage. We end where we began, by recognizing ourselves as the ultimate Guru. No one can save us, we are our own enemy and source of refuge. Pilgrimage is as much a procession to a sacred external destination, as it is an inner vehicle which takes us home to the source of our own true nature. Along the way we purify karma, cultivate aspirations, collect merit, and amplify blessings. And it’s not just the ancient sites that are so potent and vital, it’s the pilgrims themselves, and the bonds that are forged when people share a profound purpose. May we continue to reconnect and pilgrimage together, lifetime after lifetime, until all our aspirations have been fulfilled. Om Ah Hum.
#gradualawakening
#nepalpilgrimage2018
#asuracave #pharping #gururinpoche

Day 10: fifth day on pilgrimage. The group gets its first taste of Dharma teachings from a high lama @rangjung_yeshe_institute . Chokyi Nima Rinpoche’s rain of blessings leave us all floored and was especially sweet for me to exchange our new books. His ‘Sadness, Love, Openness’ recently published by @shambhala_publications mirrors the three principle paths of Renunciation, Bodhichitta and Wisdom contained in Gradual Awakening. I’ll post the link to his profound talk when it’s available. I met and took refuge with CNR in Bodhgaya when I was 20 years old, and reconnecting with him today, 22 years later, was so emotional. He received me warmly in his embrace saying ‘my son’! Such is the great kindness of the vajra master. Om Ah Hum
#gradualawakening
#nepalpilgrimage2018#
#chokyinyimarinpoche
@rangjung_yeshe_institute

Thank you @peterfwoods and @radically_erric for making this moment happen🙏

Day 9: fourth day on pilgrimage. Tonight it was all dakinis at the ancient churnnal ground of Pashupatinath. Intense feminine energy, powerful, protective and seductive. @tiffanymarienyc and @kanchistan broke my heart wide open, and left us weeping, as they sung Sanskrit chants to Shiva at dusk overlooking the sacred river as bellows of smoke arose from the cremation pyre. Everyday brings an exceptional gift, strung together like a mala in a continuous procession of precious memories. Two years of planning has already more than paid off just to see the look of wonder in the eyes of pilgrims and to know this has made an imprint that will last countless lives. Om Ah Hum
#gradualawakening #nepalpilgrinage2018
#pashupatinath
#divinefeminine #dakini (📷 = @doritto @shaw.heather @kanchistan)

Day 8: third day of pilgrimage. Feels like a month in the time warp. We’re beyond the Thunder Dome now. From the dust and mayhem secret doorways crack open, portals into other worlds, sacred temples, time-machines, mandalas, abodes of the divine. The blessing are bountiful, the heart is open, the tears flow easy and often. At the Golden Temple in Patan, the abbot was proud of the humble efforts of our renegade group seeking liberation. He recognized our aspirations and that we’re unafraid to pray, prostrate and perform ceremony. He joined our morning practice and spontaneously offered an oral transmission of the King of Prayers, that had us weeping, and then blessed each one of us. Finally he blessed OUR book Gradual Awakening, so that anyone who comes across its pages might actualize the stages of the path. Every day is magic. A miracle to savor and share with you.
#gradualawakening
#nepalpilgrimage2018
#goldentemplepatan

Day 7: second day with the group. All of a sudden this thing just went tantric and the energy got kicked up. Morning practice at Swayambhunath where we were all mesmerized in hypnotic procession of prayers, mantras, prostrations and offerings...followed by a stop off the beaten track to a hidden gem where the yogi-scholar Marpa lived for some time. There we met a beautiful nun who had completed much retreat and fasting. She was like a long lost mother. I wept like a child while taking her blessing. Then we ended up at a Vajrayogini temple. Amidst the fire, smoke, ash, mud, destruction and clammer there was also intense ecstasy, wrath, vigor, purpose and clarity. The group has accepted a challenge I set before them. There’s no time to waste in this life or beyond. Let’s see how we respond now the gauntlet has been thrown down. Sending you waves of fiery blessings to scorch your delusion, and leave you utterly baseless beyond conception. Om Ah Hum.
#gradualawakening
#nepalpilgrimage2018
#swayambunath
@nekhorpilgrimage

Day 6: We dropped deep into the time warp today...see ya on the other side. We’ll be recording the whole journey, but there’s just no way to describe how dreamlike it is. Main teaching for us today is that ultimately there is no deference between the Freedom Tower and the Boudhanath stupa as both lack inherent existence; and, yet, conventionally there couldn’t be a more important difference between the two. Once you understand emptiness to mean the quality of transformability and you couple this with karma and virtuous activity, you understand why so many people prepared for a year to travel to the other side of the world in order to prostrate, purify, make offerings, collect blessings and generate altruistic aspiration here at this very sacred place. Our minds are the single most powerful thing on this planet. Let’s cultivate and use them well.
#gradualawakening
#nepalpilgrimage2018
#boudhanath