Then--
Attending a Roman Catholic high mass can make a lasting impression, especially when experienced through the young eyes of a six year old girl. The day my mother led me into St. Boniface, with its tall white spire piercing the gray winter sky, I somehow knew I had stepped out of my ordinary existence into something mystical and otherworldly.
We first sat on the hard wooden pew, waiting for the priest and his assistants to enter the building. When they came through the inner door, they seemed to glide down the aisle in a ghostly manner—the metallic threads in their vestments glistening like stardust in the ambient light. The lead priest set the pace, holding a golden censer, which he swung from side to side, as the spicy aroma of frankincense puffed through its many holes. They chanted in Latin, keeping cadence with the clink-clink of the censer’s chain—the music hypnotic, peaceful.
When the service ended, I knew I had to return. With each subsequent visit, the impact of this spiritual experience was seeded deeper into my consciousness. I sensed the presence of something far greater than myself that needed further investigation.
And so began my lifelong quest . . .
Now--
Located in the Tibetan Himalayas, Mount Kailash is renowned as a sacred space throughout the world. For Hindus, the mountain, nearly 22,000 feet in elevation, is the abode of Lord Shiva, the destroyer of ego and identification with the physical form. For Tibetans, the pilgrimage leads one from ignorance to enlightenment, from self-centeredness and materialistic preoccupations to a deep sense of the relativity and interconnectedness of all life.
This mountain speaks to me in what it represents: the removal of ignorance and illusion and oneness with the Source. And the road--
I hope, will take me there.
Attending a Roman Catholic high mass can make a lasting impression, especially when experienced through the young eyes of a six year old girl. The day my mother led me into St. Boniface, with its tall white spire piercing the gray winter sky, I somehow knew I had stepped out of my ordinary existence into something mystical and otherworldly.
We first sat on the hard wooden pew, waiting for the priest and his assistants to enter the building. When they came through the inner door, they seemed to glide down the aisle in a ghostly manner—the metallic threads in their vestments glistening like stardust in the ambient light. The lead priest set the pace, holding a golden censer, which he swung from side to side, as the spicy aroma of frankincense puffed through its many holes. They chanted in Latin, keeping cadence with the clink-clink of the censer’s chain—the music hypnotic, peaceful.
When the service ended, I knew I had to return. With each subsequent visit, the impact of this spiritual experience was seeded deeper into my consciousness. I sensed the presence of something far greater than myself that needed further investigation.
And so began my lifelong quest . . .
Now--
Located in the Tibetan Himalayas, Mount Kailash is renowned as a sacred space throughout the world. For Hindus, the mountain, nearly 22,000 feet in elevation, is the abode of Lord Shiva, the destroyer of ego and identification with the physical form. For Tibetans, the pilgrimage leads one from ignorance to enlightenment, from self-centeredness and materialistic preoccupations to a deep sense of the relativity and interconnectedness of all life.
This mountain speaks to me in what it represents: the removal of ignorance and illusion and oneness with the Source. And the road--
I hope, will take me there.
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