The Journey
Day 1 - Flight/Arrival Day
During the ~28 hour journey to the Mountain Kingdom (as Emory so fondly coined it), I had a lot of time to think about my intention for that trip. I spent all 3 plane rides listening to spiritual lectures and music (tons of Trevor Hall, who happens to be Emory’s husband), reading the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads, and journaling. Inspired by something Emory did before her first trip to Nepal almost 10 years ago, I wrote my future self a letter. I told her all my hopes, goals, and reminders for the journey. I asked her to keep certain things in mind, to be open, to honor all that was about to happen. And looking back, as excited as I was, I was completely unprepared for what lay ahead. This wasn’t for lack of effort - there simply was no way to prepare for what I was about to experience. I didn’t realize how moved I would be by spending a week in this land, because I didn’t have anything to compare it to, but Nepal has branded itself on my heart in a way that I can’t put into words.
Upon arrival at Chhahari (the retreat center we stayed at in Kathmandu), I was greeted with warm hugs from Emory, Krista and the Chharari staff before being treated to my first homemade Nepali dinner of dahl bat. Emory showed us how to properly eat with our (right) hands and connect with the food in a way we don’t do in the West. Everything was done with so much love and care, and it was the perfect way to begin the trip.
P.S. - If you ever plan to travel to Kathmandu, stay at Chhahari. It is the most stunning retreat center with the kindest, warmest staff I've ever met. They are truly family to me now, and I can't wait to go back some day
During the ~28 hour journey to the Mountain Kingdom (as Emory so fondly coined it), I had a lot of time to think about my intention for that trip. I spent all 3 plane rides listening to spiritual lectures and music (tons of Trevor Hall, who happens to be Emory’s husband), reading the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads, and journaling. Inspired by something Emory did before her first trip to Nepal almost 10 years ago, I wrote my future self a letter. I told her all my hopes, goals, and reminders for the journey. I asked her to keep certain things in mind, to be open, to honor all that was about to happen. And looking back, as excited as I was, I was completely unprepared for what lay ahead. This wasn’t for lack of effort - there simply was no way to prepare for what I was about to experience. I didn’t realize how moved I would be by spending a week in this land, because I didn’t have anything to compare it to, but Nepal has branded itself on my heart in a way that I can’t put into words.
Upon arrival at Chhahari (the retreat center we stayed at in Kathmandu), I was greeted with warm hugs from Emory, Krista and the Chharari staff before being treated to my first homemade Nepali dinner of dahl bat. Emory showed us how to properly eat with our (right) hands and connect with the food in a way we don’t do in the West. Everything was done with so much love and care, and it was the perfect way to begin the trip.
P.S. - If you ever plan to travel to Kathmandu, stay at Chhahari. It is the most stunning retreat center with the kindest, warmest staff I've ever met. They are truly family to me now, and I can't wait to go back some day
Day 2 - Boudha/Boudhanath Temple, Kathmandu
We awoke and were immediately treated to breakfast and the most delicious dud chiya (chai tea) I’ve ever had. After orientation and stating our intentions for being on the trip, we drove to Boudha. This is a Buddhist area of Kathmandu (Nepal is a mixture of Buddhist and Hindu people/cultures, and Kathmandu is separated into different parts that cater to each). We departed the bus and looked up to see the massive Boudhanath stupa, with the all-seeing Buddha eyes staring down at us, infinite prayer flags blowing in the wind, and whispers of “Om mani padme Hum” filling the air. We were escorted to Seto Gompa, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, where we were blessed to meet with a Khenpo La (Tibetan Buddhist master) who had just completed a 40 day silent meditation. Monks draped in garnet and gold robes gracefully walked the grounds, with the sounds of their chants pouring out of the open doors. We were then led into a room where the Khenpo gave us a dharma teaching, beautifully explaining the critical significance of how our thoughts and actions plant the seeds for the course of our life. He stressed the importance of taking matters into our own hands, rather than simply praying to God for the answers (this is a very Tibetan Buddhist train of thought). You could feel the wisdom radiating from his being, the years of reflection and meditation affecting every word choice. He was gracious, kind, and an honor to speak to.
We awoke and were immediately treated to breakfast and the most delicious dud chiya (chai tea) I’ve ever had. After orientation and stating our intentions for being on the trip, we drove to Boudha. This is a Buddhist area of Kathmandu (Nepal is a mixture of Buddhist and Hindu people/cultures, and Kathmandu is separated into different parts that cater to each). We departed the bus and looked up to see the massive Boudhanath stupa, with the all-seeing Buddha eyes staring down at us, infinite prayer flags blowing in the wind, and whispers of “Om mani padme Hum” filling the air. We were escorted to Seto Gompa, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, where we were blessed to meet with a Khenpo La (Tibetan Buddhist master) who had just completed a 40 day silent meditation. Monks draped in garnet and gold robes gracefully walked the grounds, with the sounds of their chants pouring out of the open doors. We were then led into a room where the Khenpo gave us a dharma teaching, beautifully explaining the critical significance of how our thoughts and actions plant the seeds for the course of our life. He stressed the importance of taking matters into our own hands, rather than simply praying to God for the answers (this is a very Tibetan Buddhist train of thought). You could feel the wisdom radiating from his being, the years of reflection and meditation affecting every word choice. He was gracious, kind, and an honor to speak to.
We then walked back to the Boudha temple and made our first kora, spinning the prayer wheels and sending off our prayers into the wind. The scene was both hectic and calming, overwhelming yet peaceful, intense but soothing. Everything was happening at once - Westerners shopping and haggling in the stores, extremely poor and often physically deformed people begging for money or milk for their children, devoted women and men making kora after kora repeating their mantras, the eyes watching all of the world pass by… it was breathtaking. You just had to let yourself flow with it all, because trying to control any of it would be wasteful.
Day 3 - NGO and Pashupatinath
This day was the most moving, important day of my life thus far, and may be for the rest of it. We first drove a couple hours to Prisoner’s Assistance Nepal, led by the warrior that is Indira Ranamagar. She has won global awards for her work, and she founded this beautiful program that gives a sustainable home and education to children whose parents have been incarcerated. Emory was very deliberate about deciding if we should visit the organization or not, because she is passionate about the problem of volunteerism and the “white savior dropping in and trying to solve the problem.” It was Indira who strongly advocated for us coming, so that we could gain awareness of the issues at hand. We learned that there is a huge problem in Nepal where young women are often raped and become pregnant, and they will either abandon their kids or try to get an abortion (because having a child out of wedlock in Nepal is truly the end of a woman’s life). The kids who are left on the streets are then found by Indira and her organization and given a safe place to live. She also works to moralize and encourage prisoners so that they are able to have a sense of a normal life afterwards. She advocates for mothers who are incarcerated to have separate cells so they can stay with their children. She’ll take in the pregnant women and give them a place to live, raise their children, and give them an education. She not only provides a home for these kids, but she teaches them how to be sustainable on their own, how to grow and cook their own food, and other useful skills so she’s sure they can survive afterwards. She travels around the world advocating for her organization and raising all the money to keep it going. She is a badass, through and through, and I hope to be like her some day. Her website is here.
This day was the most moving, important day of my life thus far, and may be for the rest of it. We first drove a couple hours to Prisoner’s Assistance Nepal, led by the warrior that is Indira Ranamagar. She has won global awards for her work, and she founded this beautiful program that gives a sustainable home and education to children whose parents have been incarcerated. Emory was very deliberate about deciding if we should visit the organization or not, because she is passionate about the problem of volunteerism and the “white savior dropping in and trying to solve the problem.” It was Indira who strongly advocated for us coming, so that we could gain awareness of the issues at hand. We learned that there is a huge problem in Nepal where young women are often raped and become pregnant, and they will either abandon their kids or try to get an abortion (because having a child out of wedlock in Nepal is truly the end of a woman’s life). The kids who are left on the streets are then found by Indira and her organization and given a safe place to live. She also works to moralize and encourage prisoners so that they are able to have a sense of a normal life afterwards. She advocates for mothers who are incarcerated to have separate cells so they can stay with their children. She’ll take in the pregnant women and give them a place to live, raise their children, and give them an education. She not only provides a home for these kids, but she teaches them how to be sustainable on their own, how to grow and cook their own food, and other useful skills so she’s sure they can survive afterwards. She travels around the world advocating for her organization and raising all the money to keep it going. She is a badass, through and through, and I hope to be like her some day. Her website is here.
Later that evening, we traveled to Pashupatinath, which is a world heritage sight and a sacred Hindu temple. This is what I had been looking forward to since I applied for this trip. I tend to lean more toward Hinduism (though both Buddhism and Hinduism have greatly affected me and I have taken lessons from both), and the chance to go to this temple was everything to me. We walked onto the grounds and were met with the photo babas (still babas, still extremely holy devoted men, but dressed up for the purposes of us taking pictures of them). Across the river were bodies burning beautifully out in the open, celebrated for their life rather than hidden for our own egos. One of the things that I hold dearest to my heart about Eastern religions is the people’s relationship with death: when we lose our body, we JUST lose our body. It’s simply a shell that we rented for this lifetime. Watching it burn is freeing. Yes it is still sad, but it is not taboo. They all know that spirit will be back on the next round, in another form, so they are not attached to this one. I’d never seen a body burning before, much less on the side of a street, so that took my breath away.
We then walked up the endless stairs to the ashram where the babas and maharaj live. You could smell the dhuni burning (the main fire in their temple is never allowed to go out, and has been consistently burning for hundreds of years), hear the monkeys climbing all over the roofs, watch the cows trot through the temples. Then, 2 babas and maharaj (their guru) met us at their dhuni. We all sat around them, eyes wide open and eager to listen to what they were about to teach us. The 2 babas spoke English, while the maharaj did not and used them to translate. We sat in silence for a bit before they said, “Okay, what do you want to know?” We all looked at each other nervously to see who would ask the first question, if we could come up with things worthy of their time… Then, it all just poured from us. We couldn’t stop.
We asked everything from “What role does your personality play in the process of becoming enlightened?” to “How can we get rid of our desires and attachments” to “What advice do you have for someone on the beginning of their spiritual path?” to “How do you love all beings?” the list goes on… for THREE HOURS. We somehow, and I do not know how, were able to sit with the holiest, wisest men I’ve ever seen for three full hours, asking them question after question. They could have told us to leave at any point, but they didn’t. They were enjoying it. Even Amrit (our incredible, legendary Nepali guide through this trip, who connected us with the most important people in Nepal) and Emory looked at us afterwards and said they were shocked that happened.
I’ve never been more overwhelmed in my entire life than sitting with those men. I cried more during that night than I ever expected to. Every answer they gave was SO simple, so obvious, yet so perfect. It was almost like it made you feel dumb for asking the question in the first place, because the answer was right in front of you, but they didn’t make you feel that way at all. You could just tell they’d meditated so much on these questions before that they could see the simplicity in all of it. When we asked about meditation and our egos, the baba’s answer was “Who is perceiving the perception? Meditate on that.” (I’m now figuring out a tattoo for that message). When we asked about personalities, the baba answered “I was like this before, I’m like this now” with a sweet laugh. When we asked about advice on our spiritual path, the answer was, “Learn to control your tongue.” He explained that he meant both in what you eat (and that it was necessary to be vegetarian) and in what you say. I’m now vegetarian because of this. They said “let your mind be your own best friend.” They talked about the importance of authenticity over finding some overly-complicated method to enlighten ourselves. They continuously dropped lines of wisdom that brought me to tears without even trying.
One of my favorite topics they discussed was about the karma of living in the West vs. the East. It was a perspective I’d never heard of or thought about before. He described the body as a representation of holiness, the head being the most holy and the feet being the least, the rest as a scale. He said being born in the East, like Nepal or India, is like being born at the forehead. Being born in the middle East is somewhere around the chest, and it goes down from there. He said being born in America or Canada is like being born at the ankles. This changed my whole perspective. We in America tend to think we’re so blessed to grow up in a first world, “free” country. We have excess EVERYTHING. Just think about walking into Target or CVS (both of which are nauseating to me now). So much convenience, so many options, such an easy way of life. But he completely flipped my train of thought - it’s actually bad karma that we’ve been born into this world of selfish greed. We have such a long way to go to get to the wise, holy practices of the countries we consider “third world.” We’re so jaded that we tend to think of our ease of life as a blessing. It’s actually not. We don’t recognize the divine in everything and everyone. We’re competitive, cold, and egocentric. We brush off faith and religion as second to hedonism. So while we’re all sitting here acting like our lives are so wonderful, we’re not seeing that we’re missing the point. We actually have such a long way to go before we’re living in a conscious society. It’s actually far better to be born in the East, with as little luxuries and resources as they have, because it’s an infinitely more conscious society.
I could go on forever about that night. About how we were supposed to have a whole other activity after sitting with them, but none of us could leave their feet so we skipped it completely and just sat with them, asking more questions. How when the drums started beating to indicate that Aarti (a Hindu ritual of worship where people offer light to the deities) was starting, I was so overcome with emotion that I had to just stand alone staring at the stars with tears pouring from my eyes. Those men dispelled any and all doubts I had in my head about death, life, the truth of our existence, and about how I should be living my life. I am eternally grateful for sitting with them, and I cannot wait to go back to the East and do that again.
Day 4 - Patan
This day we took a bus to Patan, which is a beautiful, historic area in Kathmandu with colorful homes, stunning temples, and tons of character. Many Westerners choose to live in this part of town, but we learned that the city takes great pride in ensuring that the traditions are upheld and that native Nepali people are not being pushed out of the area by wealthy foreigners. We were extremely lucky to receive a full tour and history lesson from Anil Chitrakar, an extremely wise man who works for the World Bank and is an advocate for the Nepali people. He was even chosen to be the man to give Morgan Freeman the tour of Patan during his documentary series “The Story of God.” He explained the details of almost every image, statue, and building in the city. We learned about the significance of each of Buddha’s hand gestures, and the direction the statue faced. We learned about how the city has persevered through earthquakes, and how the art still survives throughout the destruction. One of my favorite lines he said was, “When the city falls, the artists rise.” They made sure to restore every stupa in the town if they were damaged, and artists decorate each of the alleys that weave their way through the streets. The city even subsidized building materials so that it was cheaper to use traditional materials and uphold the customary appearance of the homes, rather than making them look more modern. Everything was so intentional, so filled with history. And in the midst of all the beauty we got to see a funeral parading through the streets, a line of people a mile long following a body adorned in countless flowers.
Later that night we all gathered to prep for our village journey starting the next day. We were blessed enough to be able to travel to Amrit’s home village. Amrit was born and raised here, and his entire family still lives there. They prepped us for what the conditions would be like, how we would get there, what the food would be like, etc. We then packed up our backpacks and got one more sleep at Chhahari before our flight in the morning.
Day 5 - Flying to the Village
We drove to the airport to take our quick flight to Pokhara, which is only a 25 minute flight but would take about 7 hours to drive because of the winding mountain roads. We then hopped on a bus and drove another 2 ½ hours before the start of our hike. The funny thing about Nepal is they call everything a hill unless it’s the Himalayas - that’s what they consider mountains. So we had to hike up a “hill” (what would most definitely be considered a mountain in Colorado) and arrived at Amrit’s families’ homes just in time for the rain to pour down. It was the most majestic scene I could’ve imagined. We all huddled under their patio roof while Amrit’s aama served each one of us a hot cup of dud chiya and let us in her home. She blessed each of us with tika while we played with the adorable grandchildren. We waited for the rain to stop until the rest of the family (all elderly and kind as can be) came down to meet us on the patio.
We drove to the airport to take our quick flight to Pokhara, which is only a 25 minute flight but would take about 7 hours to drive because of the winding mountain roads. We then hopped on a bus and drove another 2 ½ hours before the start of our hike. The funny thing about Nepal is they call everything a hill unless it’s the Himalayas - that’s what they consider mountains. So we had to hike up a “hill” (what would most definitely be considered a mountain in Colorado) and arrived at Amrit’s families’ homes just in time for the rain to pour down. It was the most majestic scene I could’ve imagined. We all huddled under their patio roof while Amrit’s aama served each one of us a hot cup of dud chiya and let us in her home. She blessed each of us with tika while we played with the adorable grandchildren. We waited for the rain to stop until the rest of the family (all elderly and kind as can be) came down to meet us on the patio.
Each of them had a different house (made of mud, stones and clay) on the hill, and they all wanted one of us to stay with them. This was one of the purest, most stunning displays of compassion and humanity I’d ever seen. These women and men, at least 70 years old and with barely any money or resources, were begging us to split up so that each of them could house at least one of us. So that they could give up their beds (barely a wooden plank with sheets) for us. So that they could hand make meals for us. There is a saying in Nepali called “Atithi Devo Bhava,” which translates to “The guest is God.” This concept is woven into the culture of the Nepali people. They live to serve others, because they worship the divinity in others. It’s their honor to house someone, because that means they are bringing God into their home. This is such a stark contrast to the way we treat others in America, and it is by far the thing I miss the most about being there.
That night I got matched with my aama and her 2 grandsons. My roommate and I sat on the floor as she served us homemade dal bhat, the kids watching some cartoons on their little tv. We then went to bed and learned what it means to be uncomfortable physically, yet somehow more comfortable mentally than you’ve ever felt in your life. There were no bathrooms/toilets (just a hole in the ground with a bucket of water), no showers, no thick mattresses. Sleeping on a wooden plank in the middle of a jungle, with a mosquito net as your only defense from the colossal spider crawling up your wall, you somehow feel more cared for and protected than you do in your air conditioned room with a plush mattress in America.
That night I got matched with my aama and her 2 grandsons. My roommate and I sat on the floor as she served us homemade dal bhat, the kids watching some cartoons on their little tv. We then went to bed and learned what it means to be uncomfortable physically, yet somehow more comfortable mentally than you’ve ever felt in your life. There were no bathrooms/toilets (just a hole in the ground with a bucket of water), no showers, no thick mattresses. Sleeping on a wooden plank in the middle of a jungle, with a mosquito net as your only defense from the colossal spider crawling up your wall, you somehow feel more cared for and protected than you do in your air conditioned room with a plush mattress in America.
Day 6 - The Trek
We woke up naturally around 5:30 or 6am, as the Nepali village people rise and sleep with the sun, and met up with the group at the main house. We then followed Amrit’s lead for the next 5 hours, trekking uphill through the most stunning mountains and quaint villages. We passed kids swinging on larger than life bamboo swings with the himalayas as their background. We passed terraces upon terraces of rice crops, not an ounce of land going unused. We happened to run into a deaf and mute child that Amrit had helped back in Kathmandu, whose mother had abandoned him. Amrit recognized him and the father immediately, and they tried setting up a way for the child to return to Kathmandu to get further help from doctors. The child couldn't communicate with anyone (including his own father), since no one in the village knew sign language. All he could do was smile brightly and do a little “namaste” prayer to each of us, and his unwavering kindness broke all our hearts. One of the hardest things about being in Nepal is seeing people in need of help everywhere you turn, and having to just flow with it all, because you can’t help everyone, even if you want to.
The trek was trying and physically demanding on us in the group, but Amrit and his brother didn’t even break a sweat. They are so used to trekking through these “hills” that what’s considered a difficult hike for us is just another day for them. We finally made it to the top and were greeted with more homemade dal bhat. We actually had lunch at the medical center there, which is the only one for miles. An old man arrived at the pharmacy to be seen by the only doctor while we were eating, and we found out he had walked three hours just to get there. He was frail, clearly in a lot of pain, and barely breathing. It shook us to our core that he had to put in that much effort just to get seen by a doctor. We of course couldn’t let him walk back down, so we then drove him back to his home. We got picked up in an old pick up truck, where we all piled into the bed of the truck standing up and gripping onto a metal bar for about an hour. It was ridiculously bumpy, hilarious, and one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever taken.
That night I got to help my aama cook dinner in her little kitchen. I peeled potatoes as she sat on the ground grinding up spices by hand and cutting up vegetables with a machete. All the food comes from their own farming. Somehow, even though we’d been having the same type of food all week, when you see the love that’s poured into it, it tastes more delicious. We again went to bed by 7:30pm, without showering in 2 days, and slept soundly till the sunrise.
That night I got to help my aama cook dinner in her little kitchen. I peeled potatoes as she sat on the ground grinding up spices by hand and cutting up vegetables with a machete. All the food comes from their own farming. Somehow, even though we’d been having the same type of food all week, when you see the love that’s poured into it, it tastes more delicious. We again went to bed by 7:30pm, without showering in 2 days, and slept soundly till the sunrise.
Day 7 - Pokhara
We woke up early to pack our bags and head down to the main home. Each of us had to say a tearful goodbye to our families, who had shown us so much love and care from the moment they met us. The 48 hours were filled with tons of hand gestures and smiles, none of us speaking the same language from our mouths but surely speaking the same language in our hearts. It’s mind-blowing how close you can feel to someone who you’ve never said a word to, but who has given you a place to sleep and warm plates of food. The aamas all sent us on our way with more homemade snacks and wished us well, and we all promised that we’d come back some day. I fully intend to keep that promise, and to someday repay them for the kindness they showed me.
We all got back on the bus and took the 2 ½ hour drive again back to Pokhara, where we got dropped off at a luxurious resort hotel. Emory and Krista wanted us to have nice accommodations after the village, so we were welcomed with warm showers and delicious food. We spent the day wandering around Pokhara, which has a stunning lake and beautiful shopping. There were no plans for the day, so we spent it getting scarves and gifts for our families and friends back home, and having a nice rooftop dinner at a local restaurant. We then all hung around by the pool bar, hookah and drinks being passed around and drowned out by laughter. We really felt like family that night.
Day 8 - Last day, Back to Kathmandu
We woke up around 4am to head to a viewpoint where we could watch the sunrise over the Himalayas. I don’t know what I was expecting, because that sounds magical enough, but I was truly blown away by what we witnessed. Clouds hovered below us over the hills in the valley, while the Himalayan peaks stretched into the sky on our left. When it started to get light, I didn’t realize the sunrise hadn’t actually started until I looked at the fishtail peak and saw the first bright orange light hit the very tip of the mountain. Then, slowly but surely, the orange and yellow creeped down the mountains until the entire Himalayan range was bathed in gold. The sky in front of us was pink and hazy. Again, unsurprisingly, I just stood there and cried, trying to take it all in.
We woke up around 4am to head to a viewpoint where we could watch the sunrise over the Himalayas. I don’t know what I was expecting, because that sounds magical enough, but I was truly blown away by what we witnessed. Clouds hovered below us over the hills in the valley, while the Himalayan peaks stretched into the sky on our left. When it started to get light, I didn’t realize the sunrise hadn’t actually started until I looked at the fishtail peak and saw the first bright orange light hit the very tip of the mountain. Then, slowly but surely, the orange and yellow creeped down the mountains until the entire Himalayan range was bathed in gold. The sky in front of us was pink and hazy. Again, unsurprisingly, I just stood there and cried, trying to take it all in.
The rest of the morning was spent wandering around Pokhara and doing some more last minute shopping. My friend and I decided to go out onto the lake and take a kayak to a temple in the middle of the water. Lush green mountains surrounded the lake on either side, paragliders flew over us, and countless boats made trips back and forth to the temple. We then all gathered our things and headed to the airport to take our short flight back to Kathmandu and head back to Chhahari.
That night we all got dressed up to go to our final dinner. We were treated to an incredible Newari dinner at one of the best restaurants in Kathmandu, with endless plates of food and drinks served to us. We all shared stories about our home lives, our relationships, our time there, the highlights of the trip, things we’d learned. We laughed, we cried, and we tried to process that we had to somehow leave this magical place in the morning.
The End, or Beginning...
As I gathered my belongings and began my 30 hour journey back home, I began to reflect on what it means to call a place “home.” It’s funny how you can be so accustomed to a place/lifestyle/group of people, but once you remove yourself from that situation and experience almost a 180° opposite lifestyle, you can feel so much more at home in the previously-foreign land. It doesn’t take much to feel at home in Nepal. Resources are cut in half, but humanity quadruples. There’s no convenience, but there’s character. There’s passion, there’s heart, there’s love. They have respect for things we don’t think about. The Nepali people see you for who you really are, not who you think you are. There’s nothing quite like passing countless strangers on the dusty streets, looking each of them in the eye and saying, “Namaste.” For those who don’t know, “Namaste” translates as “The divine in me recognizes the divine in you.” It’s not just saying “hi,” or something you say at the end of a yoga class. It’s one of the most meaningful statements you can say to someone, and it’s spoken innumerable times a day there. It’s the exact opposite of the way we treat each other in the West. We don’t touch strangers on the street, we try to take up as much personal space as we can, we hope someone doesn’t sit right next to us on the bus, we shove each other out of the way, we look the other way when people ask for help… it’s heartbreaking, it’s cold, and it’s something I hope to actively change throughout my life.
Emory warned us that one of the most difficult things to return to in America would be walking into a grocery store or a CVS, and she was right. To see the amount of shit we think we need - floor to ceiling walls of it… it’s nauseating. We’re so wasteful, and we take so much advantage of our endless resources. There’s so much hedonism, and such a thankless attitude pulsing through the people here. However, I’ve had to think a lot about the fact that I can’t fight the fact that I do live here, and I am lucky to live the life that I do. Everything is just as it should be, and I have to be able to flow with both parts of it. That experience in Nepal is just as much a part of my life as the home I’ve made in Colorado. I can’t fight one to support the other, because that’s not what any of these teachings are about. The goal is to let both invigorate you, and to use both places to advance you on your spiritual path. If I can do that, I know that I’ve done well. As the babas said - Samarasa. Balance.
I hope everyone gets the chance to visit a country where people are infinitely happier with drastically less stuff. I hope everyone gets to see what it’s like to love every being you meet. I hope anyone who actually got to the end of this post is inspired to take a spiritual trip, to be less wasteful and more grateful, to center themselves, to love one another, to recognize the divinity in it all. And most of all, I hope to return to the mountain kingdom very soon.
A deep, profound "thank you" goes out to Emory, Krista, Amrit, the entire Chhahari staff, and everyone involved in this trip. I am overwhelmed with love, peace, and clarity, and hope to be able to repay you all some day.