A few days later, we left the monastery and followed a trail that took us through a series of valleys, between several large, snow-covered mountain ranges.
It seemed strange to be hiking through green fields and forests, when we were always surrounded on both sides by steep, snow-covered mountains.
On the fifth day of our journey, we ascended a high mountain pass.
When we reached the summit, we rested.
As usual, I was soaked with perspiration from the climb, and Master Fwap didn’t seem to have perspired at all.
Soon, Master Fwap closed his eyes, and was absorbed in meditation.
I looked down at the scenery below me. The green valleys and snow-covered mountains of Nepal stretched out forever.
The world was silent and beautiful.
Unlike the stressed-out world that I came from, this world had no sound of cars, no smog, no other signs of man’s progress.
The world that met my eyes here was uncorrupted, and naturally pure.
Master Fwap opened his eyes.
He said, “This is life. It is empty and pure, like the snow on the Himalayas.”
“But Master Fwap, how can you say life is empty and pure like snow?
“The world man has created is filled with noise and pollution.
“People kill each other.
“How can you say the world is empty and pure? I think it is the opposite! It is crowded and impure.”
“To the outward eye, it might seem that way. But first, you must understand the emptiness and purity of our Himalayan snow.
“It comes from the sky, covers the mountains, and then melts in the warmth of the sunlight.
“The snow here can be so thick when it falls, that you cannot see one foot in front of your face.
“It changes the mountains. It turns them from the color of stone to pure white.”
“So what does that have to do with the world being empty and pure?”
“The world is empty and pure. It has always been that way, and it will always be so, for all times.
“That cannot be changed by any of us.”
“Master Fwap, I still don’t think I understand what you mean by ‘emptiness’. ”
“ ‘Emptiness’ is a word that implies absence. I could also use the words ‘fullness beyond comprehension’.
“They would mean the same thing.
“These are the only words that I know in your language that I can use, to try to express what ‘emptiness’ is.”
“But Master Fwap, ‘emptiness’ and ‘fullness’ are opposites. How can they mean the same thing?”
“There are two worlds in front of us, at all times.
“One world, everyone can see, and the other one is invisible to everyone, except the enlightened.”
“The world that everyone can see, appears to be very solid—but in actuality, it is not!
“The world we cannot see appears to have no reality to it at all, but in actuality, it is much more solid and real than the world we see before us every day.
“The visible world we call life. And the invisible world is death.
“Perhaps death is not its only condition, but I cannot think of a better word.
“The apparent solidity of the visible world is ephemeral. Nothing lasts here.
“All the works of man end every second. They have
to them at all.”
“Master Fwap, how can that be? The world exists forever. How can it end every second?”
“I will show you. The moment that we are in right now exists … now it is passed, and we are in a new moment! … Now that moment has passed … and we are in yet another moment.
“When each moment ends, the world ends with it.
“In each new moment, the world is created again.
“These momentary endings and creations are what you call ‘life’.
“Nothing lasts,
“This is what I mean by ‘emptiness’.
“The world you see all around you lacks any kind of solidity.
“From moment to moment, it comes and goes.
“Why allow yourself to be bothered by anything transient that occurs here?
“Wisdom tells us that our concerns — the things in life that upset us — are unreal.
“They only appear to matter, when we don’t see life, as the enlightened do.”
“How do the enlightened see life, Master Fwap?”
“We are all made up of
of
he replied.
“That however, is only one side of our nature.
“We have another side. It is the side that only the enlightened can see.
“The emptiness of snow is death,” Master Fwap said, as he made a sweeping gesture with his hand, that took in everything that we could see in the vast panorama before us.
“It is the other side of all of this, what you call ‘life’. ”
“What is death, Master Fwap?”
“Why, dear boy, death … is life!”
“Then I suppose … that life … is death?”
“Yes, exactly! Now you have it! Very good!”
“Great, Master Fwap, but what does it mean?”
“Why, it means that the world is perfect! Nothing, and no one, can change it at all.
“The invisible world, that only the enlightened can see, is essence — it is eternal life. That is what we return to when we die.
“We go back into perfect eternal light for a while, and then we reincarnate.
“This world that you see before you, is reborn and dies, every moment.
“When it is born, it comes out of the invisible world, the world that you cannot see.
“When it dies, it returns to that world, too.
“That world is perfect consciousness.
“When you can see the other side of life,
all of the pain and frustration of your life will go away.
“You will see that everything, and everyone you love, is still just fine.
“They have simply moved from the world of moment-to-moment back into the world of ‘emptiness’.
“They have returned to
that we call
“The world is empty. All of the people and places, the earth, the seas, mountains, deserts, forests, and cities, and the beings that inhabit them—are unchangeable.”
“Master Fwap, how can this be?”
“It is the perfection of life. Let me give you an example, then perhaps you will understand, why I am not sad, as you are, about what has happened to the Earth.
“Consider children who are born into this world. They pass through many stages. They become adolescent, young adults, they enter into middle-age, and then into old age. Then they die!
“Now it would appear, looking just at the surface of life, that they have gone through many changes, and then disappeared.
“But that is not the entire picture at all!
“On the other side of this life, there are endless dimensions — endless realities — that stretch on into infinity.
“There are worlds of form and dimensionality that are similar to our own!
“There are also ‘form-less’ worlds that are made up of
and
light.
“Beyond both the formless and the form worlds, there is something else—nirvana—the endless and perfect source of all.
“Nirvana is where all of these endless worlds of formlessness and form come from.
“But Master Fwap, how can this be? Are you saying that everything that exists now existed in nirvana before it came here?”
“Exactly! Everything is forever!
“There is no beginning and ending to life. There is no middle, either!
“Things appear in this world for a short time. They have come here from nirvana. They exist here for a short time, and then they return to nirvana.”
“Does that mean that nirvana is heaven, Master Fwap?”
“No, not in the way you mean. Think of nirvana as an endless ocean of ultimately intelligent light.
“It stretches on forever in all directions, and throughout all times.
“It holds within itself — in seed form — all that can ever be.
“Nothing can die, and nothing can be reborn.
“Things only change their outer appearance.
“When you can see within things and people, you discover that their essence is changeless, perfect light.
“We are all nirvana: that which is our
is the
of
ॐ
Master Fwap became silent. We sat for awhile without speaking, listening to the sound of the wind rushing through the snowy mountain passes.
Then Master Fwap told me to go ahead, and snowboard down the mountain.
He said that I shouldn’t think about what he had just said, right now, but that I should reflect upon it in the future.
“Just concentrate on being the board,” he said with a laugh.
I mounted my board, and shot down the mountain, through the deep powder.
I effortlessly cut in and out to avoid several boulders, and finished my run in record time.
Master Fwap was waiting for me at the bottom, his ochre-colored monk’s robe fluttering in the breeze.
Getting off my board, I walked over to Master Fwap. It had gotten quite dark, and the cold Himalayan wind, made me shiver.
“You have done quite well. You can continue to study Buddhist yoga with me, if you like.”
He smiled. We stood looking at each other, in silence, for several minutes.
It was only at that moment that I realized how much I had come to love this aged, and mysterious monk.
Overwhelmed with emotion, I turned my gaze away.
Then together, Master Fwap and I descended the remainder of the snow-covered slope, to the rock and gravel road that lay below us, where the two of us hitched a ride on a yellow-and-black tourist bus, back into Kathmandu.
ॐ