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thankful to feel that I had done.
 Those who would express themselves in music, he affirmed,  should remember that
God made the perfect instrument for His own self-expression.  Be ye perfect as your Father in
Heaven is perfect. The soul receives, and the mind and brain direct the mechanism. If in your
mind you have an idea that the mechanism is defective, that thought tends to express itself, and
the more you try to get pefect expression the more active will be the reverse thought. This is
what induces many failures. Remember it is continuous practice with rest periods for
assimilation, with conscious awareness of the perfect rhythm, that makes a genius. One must
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practise slowly to master the execution of the composition. Do not slur over a diffcult part; take
it slowly at first and increase the tempo, but with accuracy. Know that you were born with
dominion over all things.
 Understand the impersonal unity in all things, disregard personal separation, live in the
conscious relisation of your oneness with the Creator of all mankind. Love your neighbour as
yourself.
 Play and sing with your heart full of love, let it be a harp of exquisite melody and
beauty --- and those in Heaven above will rejoice as they feel your oneness with them.
I was spellbound by his understanding, his wisdom, his knowledge of all the important
things in Life. I sat there deep in thought, and then I heard his voice saying in a different tone,
almost as if it were a command,
 Arise my son, we must go now, for there is a lot for you to do in the time you are with
us and you must be on your way.
 Yes, I said,  but I would like to remain with you a little longer.
 That will be arranged later, he replied.  In the mean time others are waiting to see
you in the flesh. It is already known among the Tibetan Yogi and Masters in the Ok Valley that
you are on your way, but I would like you first to go along the Ha Chu Valley as far as Ha
Dzong. There are eight monasteries quite close together on the way.
 Here is a letter to Dar Tsang, head of the Yangtang Monastery; he will put you in touch
with the others. He is a master of Tumo. I have made all arrangements for you to see and
understand this Science.
 Yes, I said,  I have heard of this Science, the control of the elements, of heat and
cold.
 Yes, it is interesting, but after all it does not reveal Reality, though I would like you to
see it done, and perhaps, you will get a few lessons in it, and he smiled.
 In the monastery of Gonsaka, he continued,  you will learn the art of travelling over
vast spaces in a very short time. This is done by a form of levitation in trance. You will also
see, in the Takohu Monastery, the practice of mental telepathy. This subject is very interesting
and I want you to pay particular attention to it because it will be of great value to you later on.
(This I did indeed find valuable, for, when I was in many different lands, although I could not
speak the language, yet I could read the mind.)
 This will take you a month or more of your time.
I inquired:  What about my friend, doe he come with me?
 No, he replied,  he will be waiting for you in the Ok Valley when you arrive there.
The following day I read all the instructions that were to help me on my way, and I duly
set out after taking leave of Geshi Rimpoche and my friend. With me I took my bearer, my
interpreter, my bodyguard, our ponies, and one mule, leaving the others at Lingmatang, as I
would have to come back that way. I was not going in the opposite direction, away from the
trade route to Lhasa. I was going now behind the Himalayas that separated Bhutan from Tibet.
I was told that the track was merely a footpath, very dangerous in parts because of the many
landsides.
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BEYOND THE HIMALAYAS
Snow leopards also were in this district. These animals look like a cross between a tiger
and a wolf. They prey on the mountain goats, and are very fleet and sure of foot. They have
been known to attack travellers on the path at dangerous points. On the way we saw a couple
of them but they were well out of our reach. The nomads---the people who live in the plains ---
keep a large number of mastiff dogs to protect their stock from marauders.
We crossed the fast-flowing river, the Ama Chu, at a place called Geling Market, a
market place where the inhabitants exchange things. Very little money is used; the people barter
goods and seem to do very well. The exchange seems to even itself out, I was told. We passed
through the market place and made our way down to a place called Sharithang at the lower end
of the Chumbi Valley.
Yatung is situated about the middle of the Chumbi Valley (of which I spoke in a
previous chapter). To get to Lhasa you turn to the left, but we turned to the right. The Chumbi
Valley at this time of the year, May and June, is prolific with wild flowers. The mountainsides
right down to the edge of the valley were covered with rhododendron trees in full bloom. The
different colours, red, pink, white and purple made a wonderful picture. Where the
rhododentron trees reached the valley floor where were large Chinese poppies, each at least five
inches in diameter, and the stems were about five feet tall. The petals were a rich yellow shade
with pink edges, really beautiful to look at.
I said to my interpreter:  In London these would be worth a fortune, and here they are
growing prolifically and nobody wants them.
The floor of the valley was covered with wild aconite, wild gentian and delphinium.
Here was a plant which is used extensively in materia medica, especially for all types of
inflammation, and it is considered the most useful drug in homeopathy ---the famous aconitum.
Gentian, a good tonic and an excellent stomachic, was also here. In this far inaccessible land
these plants could be had by the cart load.
As we passed out of the valley we came upon the most rugged and dangerous path I had
yet seen. It was not more than about two feet wide in some place, and ran along the edge of a
steep precipice with a sheer drop of over a thousand feet into the Ha Chu River below. I made
me dizzy to look down. In one place we passed under a rock jutting right over the path; it
would be several thousand tons in weight. I walked under it, backward and forward, several
times, just to experience the thrill of it.
I thought that a mountainslide might happen, for the rock hung well over the precipice.
But it held on to the mountain, and how it did so was a mystery to me. Perhaps one day it will
hurl itself down a thousand feet into the river bed below; if so, it will make a roaring, crashing
noise like thunder.
We climbed and climbed until we reached the top of the pass and could pick out, in the
distance, the valley of Wong Chu. In the foreground we could see Ha Dzong, and dotted here
and there on the side of the mountain were the monasteries.
It was a new experience for me to see so many large monasteries so near one another,
perched on the mountain side.
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BEYOND THE HIMALAYAS
Going down the pass was even more strenuous than ascending. The bottom of the pass
opened into the valley of Wong Chu, through which the Ha Chu River flowed. There we were
met by a number of Tibetans on shaggy ponies.
I said to my bodyguard:  These fellows look like bandits!
 Yes, he said,  they are.
We were outnumbered by about five to one. They closed slowly around us expecting us
to put up a fight, but I knew this would be suicidal, and within me I felt that there would be
some means to overcome our difficulties.
These brigands think that banditry is a gentleman s occupation, and they disdain any
other kind of  work. They began to go through our possessions, and I could see that they [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]