Camera Model Name: Canon EOS 5D Lens: EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Tv (Shutter Speed): 1/500 Av (Aperture Value): 11.0 Metering: Evaluative Metering ISO Speed: 200 Focal Length: 400.0 mm Flash: Off ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DAY 16 Distance & Time: By car - 86 km / 3 hrs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “…The nature of a man who has realized Mahamudra is cool, tranquil, and serene. Whatever he does walking, sitting, standing or lying, he always acts in accordance with the Dharma – leading a life of humility, cultivating total awareness and ever aspiring to – final release. He stays in wilderness of rock and snow, in the seclusion of forests or cemeteries eradicating his ego – clinging once and for all. Wishlessness has arisen in his heart; no vestige of attachment can be traced. Entanglements are cut off, illusions gone by themselves, worldly dharmas becoming meaningless. He is more concerned with the welfare of others than his own and is thus able to exchange his own happiness for the suffering of others. As the unity of Samsara (the eternal cycle of birth, death, rebirth and suffering) and Nirvana (attainment of indescribable ultimate wisdom and compassion) itself to him, he fully realizes that all phenomena are nothing but the manifestations of his own mind. Mind itself, luminous and void, is the realm of the absolute. Compassion as means and wisdom are intrinsically one. The yogi continually abiding at this level of reality has accomplished the essence of meditation. Unperturbed and preserving, he experiences without interruption the Clear Light in the oneness of Emptiness and Compassion. He has made his Samadhi (higher level of concentrated meditation) become Omnipresent.” - Drubchen Ngawang Tsering It gives me goose bumps to think about the yogins of this land, the mystics who were known to meditate alone in the caves with very little or no food, who were not afraid of dying alone and no one knowing about it or even their name. Who were able to regulate the body temperatures at will (with the help of yoga) and thus survive in extreme climates without any aides and some were said to posses powers of flying (which might be an allegory)! As monasticism grew within Buddhism in the early formation days, many still remained wanderers. They were free from the tighter rules of the community, open to forest, sky, gorge, and valleys and to interact with people. It was from within this lineage of wanderers, practitioners of Buddhist yoga, strongly influenced by grass root tendencies towards devotion of personalized deities, emotional expression and catharsis through chant and dance that the tantric yogin emerged upon the scene. Yogic practices were already developed in Dravidian India before the Aryan invasion and were probably used by shamans to produce their tasks as seers and healers. With the emergence of the caste system, yoga became the means of both self-transcendence and social emancipation. In 11th century an ascetic from south India, Phadampahad Sangye (also known as Dampa Sangye or Pha Dhampa Sangye) traveled to Dingri in Tibet, where along with his disciple and consort Yogini Machig Labdron jointly created a practice, wherein the yogin dances in cemetery or wild place and donates his body to the spirits and other denizens of place to learn the nature of mental emptiness. This practice is known as ‘Chod’, which means ‘to cut’, the central focus of practicing detachment of mind and body. It is carried out at night in the cemeteries in order to maximize the potential for working with fear and self-protection centered on the body. It also creates an extreme situation survival of which will ensure competence in other environments. Yogins such as these were distinct in appearance from the monastic faction by sporting long hair in pigtails and beard, danced around the fire in the dark of the night with their sexual consorts, surrounded by demons of mind, which they had power to transform into their personal protectors were the ancestors of the yogins of Ladakh. They are also known as mahasiddha, ‘maha’ meaning great and ‘siddha’ is the one who posses psychic and spiritual powers. Snap out of my thought on hearing the voice of Ankur and a little monk coming up, when he was busy looking around in the dukhang (assembly hall), had made my way on to the terrace. The concept of ‘sunyata’ or emptiness of Buddhism is well reflected in the landscape around us, a vast barrenness. However, the effect is calming even encouraging a brief sense of mind and body detachment. We witness the magic mysticism of nature in the far off mountains and the tiny village at its foo

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