The Magic of Nepal

'Reasoning and critical analysis of our minds give us a deeper understanding'.?

Yet another opportunity to express gratitude for learning a small piece of knowledge from a 2500-year-old tradition.??I had the opportunity to spend time at Kopan in Nepal.?

?Kopan Monastery is undoubtedly a magical place and I felt at total peace during my stay here.?

I couldn’t even tell you how the trip to Nepal came about. I’m very intuitive and knew this August I needed something deep to take on, not only myself to the next level but also the knowledge for my clients.??The experience has been difficult to explain.??From week one of hiking in the Himalayan mountains to sightseeing Holy Temples in Kathmandu then 8 days within the Monastery and 7 days in a yoga and meditation retreat reconnecting with my Asana, Pranayama, and meditation practice was just what was needed.?

?The trek was fantastic. I hired a guide for the 3 days. Day 1 was a climb of 1000 metres and in the monsoon season was rather humid, to say the least. On day two we were in the jungle for most of the day and hiked for 26 km. My guide was great, he gave me the space to just be in the present moment and soak it all in. The energy in the mountains is phenomenal.?Day 3 was around 20kms along the mountain terrain. It also made me realise how blessed we are with our little hidden gem in Wales with the vast amount of scenery we have there too.

?The Holy Temples in Kathmandu were also exceptional, embracing this culture and watching the ceremonies were just breath-taking. Especially the evening ceremony at 7.00 pm where hundreds of people would gather alongside the Holy River to pray and bless loved ones who have passed. The cremation ceremony would also take place there which was another moment of contemplation as I’d not experienced an open cremation like this before. I learned so much during these few weeks.?

?At Kopan monastery, I would join the monks at 5.45 am each morning for their prayers and then to our own lectures, meditation and debates, and of course silence for half the day. Our lectures would finish at 9.00 pm with a guest monk or nun sharing even more knowledge with us from an already full day.??

?What came through clearly for me is the importance of mind training and thought transformation to achieve happiness and inner calmness. For us in the West, this I believe has become extremely difficult for many of us to achieve. I had no mobile phone during this stay, and I can honestly say I didn’t miss it at all.?

?The traditional Buddhist understanding of the mind is incredibly profound. We are only starting to move toward this which has been standard practice within the Buddhist culture for centuries. In Tibetan Buddhism, the study of the mind is classified as an inner science. Psychology and Epistemology are understood to be crucial aspects of the spiritual path.?

?I have been speaking about the process of analysing our thoughts and emotions for nearly 10 years now and experiencing the Buddhist tradition it’s seen as the first step to alleviating all manner of mental illness.?

?I use the terminology within my sessions and training of becoming ‘strategic with our thoughts’ and reflecting over the quality of them. Analyse them, study them, reframe them, and change unwanted thinking patterns. This is the basis of my work.?The Buddhists call it analytical meditation. They place a strong emphasis on this.?

Since spending time in Nepal, I’ve come to understand that my practice has been on occasion more of intellect. What do I mean by this? An exercise of learning. Yes, I have been reflecting and working with some phenomenal teachers over the last 8 years and I have grown enormously, however, I’m still falling back into old habits when I’m not maintaining my practice.?Epistemology is the study of knowledge,?it looks at what we know and how we test its validity and then further refine our knowledge.??It goes beyond the mere analysis of the everyday experience to a truer understanding of wisdom.?

?I have studied Qabalah, read books on the Tao, and Stoicism, and listened to various Gurus and Sages, and each one has deepened my knowledge and understanding. However, without practice, it is just that: knowledge. Being consistent with your practice is key, living and breathing the practice, stopping and taking it in, questioning decisions, and further developing your introspective work.?

?Reading and learning are powerful tools, but transferring that knowledge through your own experiences is when the change happens and wisdom deepens.?Reasoning and critical analysis of our minds give us a deeper understanding.?

?The mind is never still, ever-evolving, ever-moving. The question I'd like to ask: How much do you really know and understand about your mind??

?If you’re looking at booking a holiday. You take it as an object of focus. You research where you want to go, and how to get there. You focus on it.?

The mind is the same. Make it the focus of the object. What is it telling me at the moment? Am I focused on what I want (happiness) or am I focused on what I don’t want (the problem/suffering)?

?One of our main studies at the Monastery has been attachment. How we become attached to various things in our life and how that attachment can often become suffering. It really got me thinking about attachment to emotional reactions and the habits we create over our lifetime. This has been my contemplation, and journaling over the past few weeks, I can see clearly now some patterns of behaviour with myself over emotional attachment.?

?What about our attachment work? What happens when we retire? Move clubs??Change roles? How do we struggle? We have often become attached mentally and emotionally to our roles. My mother is currently reducing her working hours to two days a week before her retirement and she’s often expressing how difficult it is. Many of my clients that I have supported through this transition have really struggled. Who am I without my title? What am I going to do with my days???But also a few struggle as they see it as a step closer to the end of their days.?

?Facing adversity or facing difficult periods in our lives, we can also often find fault, and blame others for our problems. When we can begin to analyse the mind, we can start to look inside ourselves for the reason why we are experiencing these issues. By examining our minds, we can find the source of our problems.?

?I often use visualisation techniques within my sessions to support clients and to train the mind with new approaches. During this time away I have now added another step to this process.?

?For example:?

• My goal is now to be consistently assertive in certain situations that arise in my life.?

• The visualisation technique that I ask my clients to practice, which we repeat over and over within the sessions will now also be done over 40 consecutive days.?

• Spend 10 minutes each morning focusing on the object.?

• The object in this case: Me being consistently compassionately assertive. This is harder to achieve as I don’t come across this issue on a daily basis. However, doing the focused meditation daily will support me in rewiring my behaviour for when I come across a situation in the future where I need to be consistently compassionately assertive.?

My intuition has immensely deepened on this trip, and I believe it’s because I was notably more in the present moment with less noise in my head. I sensed things stronger, and l could really tune into the experiences around me.?

?Small things were so prominent :?

• The mist rose completely from a lake after a few seconds of us standing next to it so we could see it.
• The rain would come along when we would be sat having lunch and would stop in time for us to continue our hike.
• We saw a sunset at Naragot, apparently the only one that week.
• There was a Sage speaking at the hotel we stayed in at the mountains.?
• I walked into a coffee shop and the lady knew a guide who helped me whilst in Kathmandu.?
• I was upgraded at the yoga retreat to a beautiful room with a view of the mountain.?
• The birds of prey would fly around Kopan so elegantly, seeing and noticing these were so calming.?
• Eating food in silence at the Monastery- such a calm experience.?
• Meeting Nepalese people in the mountains and experiencing their kindness.?
• Receiving a kind, patient guide on the hike.?
• Meeting people from all different parts of the globe.?

?Seeing these small things and expressing gratitude for them enables me to notice more and be even more present, we miss so many of these small things in life as we are so busy in our heads. We are called human beings; not human doings and we seem to have lost that along the way.?

I often ask my clients. When are you at your happiest? The reply is normally a very simple one, not much money involved and not many materialistic things.?

These last 3 weeks have highlighted again how little we really need in life.

?

Best wishes

TJ

?