“To understand just one life, you must first swallow the world.” --Salman Rushdie

Having physical, embodied experiences in a wild place—walking trails, learning plant communities, sleeping on the earth, cleaning up trash, doing ceremony—feeds our sense of connection. It also seeds our ability to visualize, to create a field of consciousness in which we can “see” and make vivid our connections to the place.

In other words, the physical feeds the spiritual and energetic connections. Our sense of home deepens: we carry places we love in our hearts, and those places reciprocate, energizing us.

The World As Container

At the beginning of the year, feeling stretched and unfocused, I asked spirit about the boundaries of my work. I was told “The world is your container.” I was to avoid boxing myself in with small ideas. “Let your heart float free in the filaments of all beings…the unbounded love that surrounds us and the planet.” I understood then that the trip I was planning to Bhutan and Nepal would become part of my spiritual work-in-the-world.

Over time, asking a lot of questions, I was guided to bring stones from our Bay Mountains to leave as small spiral offerings in the Himalayas. Because stones carry energy of place as well as of our work with them, they can become connectors between places.

I was shown, as well, places to make ceremonies with despachos, the traditional Andean offering. I was told their purpose was to connect the mountains with the stars, “to bring star energy down to earth to assist us in the difficult times that are coming.” So I have been learning, in journey and meditation, how to make “ch’aska” or “star” despachos, which I have not seen made in ordinary reality. Q'ero Elder Don Manuel Q'espi describes the ch’aska despacho this way:

"The Ch’aska despacho is an offering to our star, the sun. This despacho is not prepared as often as the offerings to the Pachamama and to the apu. Most of our business has to do with living in this world. Only when very big events (such as an earthquake) are occurring, or whenever an offering is made for the benefit of a great number of people, are Ch’aska despachos prepared. In this case, the stars as well as Mother Earth and the apu must offer their contribution. For example, in the case of earthquakes or large-scale environmental events which affect larger numbers of peoples, one wishes to bring together the power and the blessings of the earth, the mountain, and the star to bring them into right relationship. This is to help assure that the people go on the right path.”

Because the power of ceremony is enhanced by the intent of many people (and I didn’t feel confident doing such big world work on my own), I invited people—you readers among them—to help anchor the work. Many responded, and I thank all of you!!

Ch’aska at Chomolungma

The final ch’aska despacho was to be created in view of Mt. Everest. Called Sagarmatha by the Nepalese, and Chomolungma, “mother goddess of the world” by the Tibetans, it is the world’s highest mountain at 29,029 feet.

The morning of the despacho, we hiked a steep trail from Namche Bazaar into an alpine forest: sacred juniper, mountain pine, two kinds of rhododendrons, tiny bluebell-like alpine flowers close to the ground. Our trail lead to Syangboche, at nearly 13,000 feet, with 360 degree views of Chomolungma, Lhotse and Nuptse, Ama Dablam, and all the surrounding Himalayas.

We had a day and a night here. After settling into the Everest View Hotel, I hiked back into the forest to find a place for the despacho. From the rocks I chose, I watched as the light filled hollows and created shadows, the brilliant day reflected off snow, glaciers, and steep rock face, and late morning clouds began to drift and rise. The cumulus built, covering lower peaks; the clouds surrounded in late afternoon, leaving a window to Everest and Lhotse until the despacho was complete (for more, see link). I buried the despacho, then lay on the earth. Clouds folded over the peaks and down into the valleys, creating a silent gray-white world around us. Earth said, as I lay on her: “I am the same everywhere, just earth.” A profound teaching: I do not need to run to every mountain and sacred place. I can be where I am.

The clouds themselves were a literal reminder of impermanence: the winds above the peaks seemed to move ten times as fast as at lower altitudes, so clouds formed and reformed instantly; I thought of Lama Govinda’s book, “Way of the White Clouds,” and understood how deeply the behavior of the elements feeds Buddhist teachings in these mountains.

About nine PM the clouds parted, revealing a Milky Way so dense my heart broke open. The stars were like those photos one finds on the web, brilliant beyond compare, and there we were! Tom said “Everest seems tiny among all these stars.” I spent hours wrapped in blankets to breathe in the beauty, the brilliance, the vastness, and whatever messages were meant to come my way.

In the night, I felt I was sleeping in the arms of mother earth and father sky, what Tibetans call yab-yum, the father-mother, reaching for each other and in perfect balance.

Climate-Change Vision

This vision to shift the climate change keeps coming to me in ceremony and in meditation, and seems important to share.

Create a place in the void, a place where your heart is fully open. In this space, unfold a vision of all the people working on climate change and all the climate treaty decision makers about to meet in Copenhagen. See them coming together in compassion for the earth; see them letting go their narrow regional outlooks; see them finding common ground to help us and the earth live! Keep feeding this vision to help bring forth a different pathway and consciousness for the earth whenever you can.