Audiobook2 hours
A Quest for the Hidden Lands: Synchronicity, Serendipity, Spirituality
Written by Norma Levine
Narrated by Norma Levine
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
My budding career as a literary scholar was suddenly hijacked by a singular seemingly random event. It was 1976 when I tiptoed into a tiny Buddhist shrine room in a farmhouse nestled into the Black Mountains of Wales and there beheld a Tibetan master, the 16th Karmapa, sitting on a throne performing a ceremony known as The Black Hat. My mind came to an immediate stop, suspended. It felt familiar, like the secret garden of childhood.
I can still remember every detail like it was yesterday:
Karmapa occupies the throne completely. He has a spiritual dignity that makes it his rightful seat, just as the lion proclaims his natural dominion. The force of his presence alone brings a hushed silence to the room. It feels like it has expanded into a cathedral.
Two monks blow long Tibetan horns in a haunting wail so loud and long it startles thought patterns, blowing them away like clouds. The Karmapa slowly opens the Black Hat-box, takes the black silk crown in his hand, and puts it on his head holding it down with one hand. With the other hand he fingers a crystal rosary moving it deftly, twirling the beads around three times. The horns continue while he gazes with eyes that seem to dissolve the fiction of time and the boundaries of space. Time is standing still.
That glimpse into enlightened mind became embedded like a seed and grew into a quest over the next decades to find the key places on our planet called the Hidden Lands.
The legend came alive while I was living in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas. I met Tibetans who had been to the supreme Hidden Land of Pemako while escaping from the Chinese invasion of Tibet. They made it sound like the ‘promised land’ with streams flowing with milky water. There were certain plants that could induce enlightenment.
Why did it take decades to get there? What made the right ingredients emerge to penetrate this sacred sanctuary? And the big question: Who hid it and why?
I can still remember every detail like it was yesterday:
Karmapa occupies the throne completely. He has a spiritual dignity that makes it his rightful seat, just as the lion proclaims his natural dominion. The force of his presence alone brings a hushed silence to the room. It feels like it has expanded into a cathedral.
Two monks blow long Tibetan horns in a haunting wail so loud and long it startles thought patterns, blowing them away like clouds. The Karmapa slowly opens the Black Hat-box, takes the black silk crown in his hand, and puts it on his head holding it down with one hand. With the other hand he fingers a crystal rosary moving it deftly, twirling the beads around three times. The horns continue while he gazes with eyes that seem to dissolve the fiction of time and the boundaries of space. Time is standing still.
That glimpse into enlightened mind became embedded like a seed and grew into a quest over the next decades to find the key places on our planet called the Hidden Lands.
The legend came alive while I was living in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas. I met Tibetans who had been to the supreme Hidden Land of Pemako while escaping from the Chinese invasion of Tibet. They made it sound like the ‘promised land’ with streams flowing with milky water. There were certain plants that could induce enlightenment.
Why did it take decades to get there? What made the right ingredients emerge to penetrate this sacred sanctuary? And the big question: Who hid it and why?
Related to A Quest for the Hidden Lands
Related audiobooks
The Little Book of Tibetan Rites and Rituals: Simple Practices for Rejuvenating the Mind, Body, and Spirit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Embodying Tara: Twenty-One Manifestations to Awaken Your Innate Wisdom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ancient Tradition of Angels: The Power and Influence of Sacred Messengers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCave in the Snow: Tenzin Palmo's Quest for Enlightenment Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summer with the Leprechauns: A True Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Discovery of Kingdom Water Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Visionary: The Mysterious Origins of Human Consciousness (The Definitive Edition of Supernatural) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nurturing Our Demons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I AM a Modern Mystic - So Are You: How to Engage your Intuition for Real Change Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGesture of Balance: A Guide to Awareness, Self-healing, and Meditation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHidden Mind of Freedom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Other Side: Becoming Limitless Through Spirit Mind Body Mastery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Teachings Of The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: Beyond Beatles Gateway To Eternity / Science Of The Soul Transcendental Bliss Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTruth Unbound: Pointings for the path through consciousness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaharishi & Me: Seeking Enlightenment with the Beatles' Guru Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dreaming Your Way to Higher Consciousness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Divine Secrets Of The Vedas Devotional Yoga - Sailing Homeward Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Solid Like a Mountain: A commentary on Atiśa's Bodhisattva Jewel Garland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiving In The Material World The Yogic Cosmology Of Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Visionary Guide to Lucid Dreaming: Methods for Working with the Deep Dream State Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Transcendental Journeys: A Visionary Quest for Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Awakening to Your True Self Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpirituality: The Top 25 Best Techniques For Becoming Enlightened And At Peace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInitiation into Dream Mysteries: Drinking from the Pool of Mnemosyne Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEasy Journey to the Astral Planes & Beyond: The Yogis Guide to Spiritual Travel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dont Worry Be Happy: Meher Baba In His Time - The Divine Discourses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dalai Lama's Little Book of Mysticism: The Essential Teachings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoems and Ramblings: of a God-intoxicated Yogi Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Personal Memoirs For You
Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: My Year of Psychedelics: Lessons on Better Living Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wishful Drinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night: New translation by Marion Wiesel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pageboy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing into the Wound: Understanding trauma, truth, and language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Summer of Fall: Gravity is a bitch, but I'm still standing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5See You on the Way Down: Catch You on the Way Back Up! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Lucy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dad on Pills: Fatherhood and Mental Illness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for A Quest for the Hidden Lands
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
2 ratings0 reviews