Journey to the Centre of the World

[camerata]

A thoughtful account of a tudong Ajahn Amaro made to Mount Kailash in Tibet:

 

"So what was the reason I was now planning to go there?

The short answer is, ‘Nick Scott invited me.’ The longer version is that Nick, as a tudong companion of many Sangha members over more than thirty years, had reached the age of sixty and, due to visibly waning capacities, had come to the conclusion he had just ‘one more big adventure’ in him. Based on his friendship and past experiences with Luang Por Sumedho and Ajahn Sucitto, the thought of Mount Kailash as a destination immediately came to his mind, with me as a travelling companion. Other friends and Sangha members were polled, and soon there were plans for a group of three monks and three laymen to make the expedition.

I freely admit that at first I had no great inspiration to go; it would be an interesting jaunt in a unique environment and a good opportunity for a tudong-type journey in the wilderness, but until then the place had held little significance for me spiritually. It had no special place in the mythology of the Theravādin world, so it was not like visiting sites such as Bodhgaya or the Deer Park at Vārānasī, holy places where the Buddha himself had walked and talked and dwelt.

As the reality of the journey started to gel, more reflections on the symbolism of the axis mundi arose in my mind. This ancient and universal spiritual principle had been a frequent theme of Luang Por Sumedho’s Dhamma talks over the years. He often reflected on how the mythological centre of the world, whether embodied as Mount Sumeru, Olympus or Yggdrasil the World Tree, is a symbol of the immanent centrality of consciousness, how, ‘The heart of the universe is your heart.’

These reflections reminded me that with many spiritual principles there is a meeting of: a) the physical/historical reality; its mythological representation; and c) its psychological parallels. Thus the symbol of the axis mundi has its resonances in the physical reality of Mount Kailash, in its mythic reality as the centre of the cosmos and, lastly, in the awakened awareness of the here and now. On account of these reflections rippling through consciousness, the prospect of the journey gained appeal."

 

Full story: amaravati.org

[VincentRJ]

That sounds like quite an adventure, Camerata. Many people would probably enjoy such a trip regardless of any attachment to Buddhism. (Oops! non-attachment, I meant, or did I?)

 

Tibet is the one country I've always wished to visit, but have been put off by the restrictive Chinese regulations.

In 1964 I freely trekked in Nepal, visiting Tibetan Refugee camps and sleeping in the local villagers' houses because there were no hotels in those days.

I almost joined a group of Tibetans who were travelling back to Tibet to gather more refugees, but decided against the idea, partly due to a fear of being caught by the Chinese military, and partly because I was running out of film for my camera, and would not be able to fully document my experiences.

 

However, I do have a few photos of those Tibetan refugees in Nepal. Here's one of an anonymous monk or lama taken 52 years ago. Does anyone know his name?