The following photos show a view of the Himalayas from retreat huts near Manikarka in Nepal not far from the Chinese border. It is said that Chatrul Rinpoche meditated for some time around this area. May our minds be as vast as the sky and our Bodhicitta benefit equally like the rays of the sun shine equally without discrimination.
The retreat huts are in the Eastern Nepali hills around 2500 meters above sea level. The retreat was for several weeks, waking up around 04:00 and resting around 22:00. Meditation and a few prostrations before breakfast. Breakfast, in true Nepali style was a very generous helping of rice and bean soup and some local spinach, potato and tumeric (called dahl baht and tarkari) cooked by Ram (the very kind and hospitable caretaker), just the two of us.
The daytime was either spent practicing in the local forest, when visitors popped in to visit the site, or in the retreat hut. Lunch was Tsampa, buffalo ghee (cows in many parts of Nepal are considered to be sacred animals) with some dried fruit and a few biscuits brought from Kathmandu. If the day was spent in the retreat hut, usually an hour walk around 15:00 or 16:00. Fresh mountain spring water and tea was always available, internet was not.
If you can, occasionally turn the switch off and enter into retreat for a day, a weekend, a week, a month or more….
