Ven. Thubten Pemo at Kopan Monastery. Year unknown, photographer unknown. Courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Earlier this month we received the news that Ven. Thubten Pemo, ordained since 1974 and one of the first students of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, passed away. We shared an inspiring letter she wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the late 1990’s discussing her experiences in retreat. 

Please enjoy two pieces written by Ven. Pemo in 2000 for Mandala magazine and in 2006 for Sangha magazine. The first piece is about the beginning of Lama Yeshe’s work in the West; and the second is advice from Ven. Pemo about the benefits of doing retreat. 

We will continue to share details of Ven. Pemo’s extraordinary life as one of the first Western students of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. 

• The Beginnings of Lama Yeshe’s Work in the West
• The Benefits of Doing Retreat

The Beginnings of Lama Yeshe’s Work in the West

By Ven. Thubten Pemo

Lama Yeshe with Ven. Thubten Pemo, 1983. Photo courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Last summer was the 25th anniversary of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche’s first teaching tour to the West, a tradition that has continued annually ever since. Many of us were at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, when around July 4, 1974, Lama and Rinpoche got their passports and, accompanied by Ven. Max Matthews, left on their first trip to America.

Arriving in New York City, they visited Geshe Wangyal’s center in New Jersey and then went to see their teacher, Geshe Sopa Rinpoche in Madison, Wisconsin. After that they went to Indiana to meet their student Louie-Bob Wood, where they established the first FPMT center in the West, the Bodhicitta Foundation for Developing Human Potential (which closed a year or two later).

Lama Zopa went back to Geshe Sopa in Wisconsin while Lama Yeshe visited other lamas, including Trungpa Rinpoche in Boulder, Tarthang Tulku in Berkeley, and Dezhung Rinpoche in Seattle, giving teachings in most places. The visit concluded with a weekend meditation course by both lamas in New Jersey.

The lamas returned briefly to Nepal and then headed out again, this time for their first visits to Australia and New Zealand and the first Kopan-style meditation course ever given in the West. Ven. Yeshe Khadro had gone ahead to help Tom and Kathy Vichta organize the course, which was held in Queensland. After the course, Lama was shown a piece of land nearby at Eudlo. This became Chenrezig Institute. Ven. Ann McNeil, who had accompanied the lamas to Australia, stayed behind to build the gompa and develop the center.

When the lamas returned to Kopan, we met with Rinpoche in the Kopan gompa and he told us about their first visit to the West, where Lama got to see a supermarket for the first time. In his teachings, Lama often used to use supermarkets as examples of excess; now he finally got to see one. The students also took the lamas to Macy’s in Manhattan so that they could see a big department store. Rinpoche told us how they looked for something to buy. “So I bought a belt,” he said. He bought a belt to hold up his shemdap (lower robe).

In the early 1970s, Kathmandu and India were quite primitive and did not have big supermarkets or nice modern things to buy. Kopan had neither electricity nor toilets. The motor roads were unpaved.

I was talking with Lama Yeshe before he left Kopan for America and told him about all the good food in the West, especially the cheese. At that time, you couldn’t get good cheese in Kathmandu, and Lama acted like he really liked cheese, like finally he and Rinpoche would get to eat some good food. Then, after acting interested, Lama looked at me and said, “I don’t care about cheese.”

These words had a big effect in my mind. I suddenly understood that the lamas were not going to the West with any interest in obtaining worldly happiness from good quality objects or sense pleasures. Lama did not care about that at all. All Lama cared about was bringing Dharma to the West and benefiting sentient beings.

At the same time, 26 years ago, Lama Yeshe started the International Mahayana Institute for his monks and nuns. In 1974, there were 15 Western monks and nuns at Kopan. Publishing began around the same time. One of our first publications was The Wish-Fulfilling Golden Sun of the Mahayana Thought Training, Rinpoche’s lam-rim textbook, which we used at the early Kopan courses. It was written down and edited by Nick Ribush and typed by me. I typed seven days a week. Each day, I began typing after breakfast and typed until 2 a.m. Then I would close the typewriter and go to my room to read prayers, recite mantras and so forth. I’d go to sleep at 4. I did this seven days a week. This was how I spent my first year as a nun.

Dr. Nick also published transcripts of Rinpoche’s Kopan course teachings. The teachings from the third, fourth and fifth courses were typed from handwritten notes and those from the sixth course from Sally Barraud’s shorthand and rudimentary cassette tapes. There was no tape recorder at Kopan in the very early days. Then I brought one back from New York and from then on we taped all the lamas’ teachings on it. I used to type most of the books, prayers, sadhanas and commentaries that we published onto wax stencils, and then we’d print them on a Gestetner duplicating machine that Lama had allowed us to buy in Kathmandu. The Kopan monks also used it for their Tibetan texts.

Within a few years this fledgling attempt at publishing the Dharma had a name, Publications for Wisdom Culture. Eventually, it grew into Wisdom Publications as well as, more recently, the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. These days, the Archive is much more technologically advanced than it was at the beginning, with my portable tape recorder, weird cassettes, no electricity, almost dead batteries and prehistoric manual typewriters.

Interestingly enough, Wisdom’s first professionally published book, Wisdom Energy, contained the lamas’ teachings from the American tour of 1974, their first in the West.

So, 1999 was the 25th anniversary of that first trip to the West, and it also marked the beginnings of the FPMT as an international organization. Never in our wildest dreams would any of us back there at Kopan in 1974 have ever imagined that, before the end of the century, Lama and Rinpoche’s activities would grow to comprise more than 120 centers all over the world.

Actually, I have just received the latest issue of Mandala in the mail. Reading the news from all the FPMT centers, I cried, it was so overwhelming. In their world tours these past 26 years, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche have done an unbelievable amount of work to bring the Dharma to people everywhere on earth. Reading about the Dharma activities of all the students connected to our centers is so incredible and amazing that I don’t have words to describe it.

In the summer of 1974, our lamas planted a small seed. That small seed has grown into a huge bodhi tree that gives shelter and nourishment to thousands and thousands of people all over the world. This is another benefit of bodhicitta, the bodhicitta of our gurus, and the virtuous thoughts of the thousands of people who have met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche and given their lives to carrying out their holy wishes. No words can describe how great this is.

Lama Yeshe created many “golden flower students.” Thank you, Lama.

See you in the sky (as Lama would say).

Originally published in Mandala, March-April 2000. 

The Benefits of Doing Retreat

By Ven. Thubten Pemo

Ven. Thubten Pemo, Maitreya Instituut, Maasbommel, The Netherlands, 1986. Photo by Jan-Paul Kool. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

The benefit of doing retreat is that one becomes a better person. A good human being. A good member of human society. One becomes better than one was before, gradually, one gives up any thoughts or wishes to give harm to other living beings. One helps, serves and benefits others with one’s body, speech, and mind.

The benefit of doing retreat is that one becomes more warm-hearted, more loving, gentle, generous, open-hearted, compassionate, patient and genuinely nice. A nice person. One becomes kind.

For more than thirty years I have listened to Buddhist teachings and attempted to understand them. In this retreat house I decided that the most important thing in our lives is kindness. To be kind. To everyone we meet. All the time. Everyone appreciates kindness. Everyone wants to receive kindness from us. Kindness is the meaning of life. Loving kindness. Compassion. Bodhicitta. These are the meaning and purpose of our human life.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said, “My religion is kindness.” Buddhism has thousands of teachings. His Holiness has condensed all these teachings into one word kindness. One word with vast meaning. To be kind is our life’s work, to WANT to be kind, to cultivate kindness, to express our loving-kindness when we interact with others. With eyes of loving-kindness to gaze upon another sentient being. To act with loving-kindness all the time. Cultivating this attitude of loving-kindness is the benefit of doing retreat.

I have known teachers who have this quality. When listening to oral teachings from a teacher whose voice was the sound of great kindness, merely to hear his voice brought tears to my eyes. I have seen holy teachers whose face was compassion. Their facial expressions cause my heart to explode.

The benefit of doing retreat is that one wants to become like one’s teachers and all the Holy Beings. One is inspired to practice Dharma. And one inspires others to practice Dharma. They also want to do retreat some day.

The benefit of doing retreat is that the practices purify one’s negative karma and accumulate vast merits. One is liberated from experiencing countless future sufferings. Every day one becomes closer to Enlightenment.

The benefit of doing retreat is that it gives one time to think about and understand the oral teachings one has heard the books one has read. Away from one’s busy life, one’s job, family and friends, one has more quiet, peaceful time for oneself, time to contemplate and study. Time to put into practice the teachings that one has received from one’s precious teachers, time to learn about oneself. Time to clearly see one’s thoughts and motivations.

The benefit of doing retreat is that one sees who one’s own mind creates problems and suffering. It appears to come from outside of oneself. Suffering happens because of the way one thinks. One makes oneself unhappy.

The benefit of doing retreat is that one has time alone to recognize one’s own mistakes and faults, and to correct them. By correcting one’s own mistakes and faults, one becomes a better person. In each year one is a little bit better than one was before. There is some improvement and other people notice the one has changed and is “better than before.” One has some good qualities that actually inspire other people to practice Dharma and attempt to meditate.

The benefit of doing retreat is that one has time to meditate on Bodhicitta, for the benefit of all sentient beings. To become a Buddha for them. Oneself cultivates the attitude of working for others, serving others, cherishing others, for them, to benefit them. For their happiness and freedom from suffering, oneself is practicing the path, one’s mind becomes closer to Bodhicitta, the mind of Enlightenment.

The benefit of doing retreat is that one puts effort into becoming less selfish. One meditates on the disadvantages and shortcoming of cherishing oneself. One meditates on the benefit of cherishing others. With a brave mind, with courage, one begins to decide, to want to cherish others more than oneself. Slowly one changes one’s attitude from cherishing oneself to cherishing others. Caring for others. Taking care of others.

Caring if other sentient beings are happy or sad. One is creating the causes of future suffering or of happiness. Caring if sentient beings are circling within the six realms of samsara or are free. One generates loving-compassionate concern for others and determination to help them in every way – to give them everything they need until they are Enlightened.

The benefit of doing retreat is that one sees clearly one’s mental afflictions and works to overcome them. One works are lessening and abandoning, overcoming one’s attachment, anger, hatred, pride, jealousy, ignorance and so forth.

Before one was following the mental afflictions and allowing them to continue and increase. Even being happy when one’s affliction arises – as if it is something “good” for oneself.

In retreat, one applies antidotes to these harmful mental afflictions. One works hard to overcome them. When the antidotes are effective, one’s mind becomes more peaceful. It is not easy to overcome one’s mental afflictions – they go away and then they return. They are sneaky and tricky. Difficult to recognize and to overcome.

The benefit of doing retreat is that gradually, slowly one’s wisdom increases. One sees one’s fantasies. One sees the hallucinations that one’s mind creates. One begins to recognize the hallucination AS hallucination, instead of as true, as real. This brings some peace to one’s poor exhausted mind.

The benefit of doing retreat is that it gives one time to develop one’s positive qualities. Virtuous thoughts give one more happiness and less suffering in life. One experiences mental happiness that is not dependent upon sense pleasures, not dependent upon something “good” happening to oneself.

The benefit of doing retreat is that sometimes one experiences satisfaction and contentment. Less desire. Less craving. Less attachment. Less agitation. One becomes less “freaked out” and disturbed by things, people, places, and so forth.

The benefit of doing retreat is that one begins to get SOME little bit of control over one’s wild mind. The mind which runs everywhere – searching for happiness. Trying to avoid whatever is unpleasant. A pleasure and pain that is somewhere outside of oneself.

The benefit of doing retreat is to being to find happiness within oneself. Inner Joy – Joy and happiness that are there. Somewhere. One did not experience it before. It was difficult to find happiness amidst all the suffering, amidst all the garbage of one’s own mind.

There is some joy and happiness from within and one KNOWS that it is possible for one’s own mind to experience every happiness from the smallest, up to the greatest bliss of full Enlightenment. It is possible for one to practice the teachings that lead to this.

One’s Holy teachers have practiced this path. And oneself can do it, too. With Bodhicitta. For the benefit of all the kind mother sentient beings.

The ultimate benefit of doing retreat is that oneself becomes a Fully Enlightened Buddha. Equal in realizations with all other Buddhas, guiding numberless sentient beings to Enlightenment. With countless emanations to benefit sentient beings. To attain that noble goal, it takes many lifetimes of study and meditation. It is unbelievable hard work.

In the meantime, one can be Kind.

Written by Ven. Thubten Pemo at Land of Calm Abiding. August, 2006.

Ven. Thubten Pemo, a New Yorker, was among the first students of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Ordained by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in 1974, she spent most of the time since then studying and practicing in India. Holder of a mystical mirror-reading divination lineage and renowned for her wish-fulfilling jola (a type of bag often carried by monks and nuns). Ven. Pemo passed away in March 2023 in California, USA. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche watching the offerings of song and dance at his arrival at Taplejung, Nepal, March 2, 2023. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

We are very pleased to share with you our March 2023 e-News! This issue features news and causes for rejoicing including:

• Recently published teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• An update on offering 1,000 Buddha statues to His Holiness the Dalai Lama
• In-depth FPMT Education program news
• New materials to support your Dharma study and practice
• Opportunities and changes within the FPMT organization

and much more!

Please read this month’s e-news in its entirety.

Have the e-News translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page.

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2022 Lawudo trekking group with Lawudo staff, guides, and porters in front of Lawudo Gompa. In the center top is Ven. Robina and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s sister Ani Ngawang Samten. Photo courtesy of Kristina Mah.

After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the fourth annual Lawudo Trek to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s cave at Lawudo in Solu Khumbu with Ven. Robina Courtin took place in Nepal’s autumn last year. Twenty-seven pilgrims met on October 3, 2022 at Kopan, Monastery, where Ven. Robina offered four days of teachings. An unusually long monsoon meant they had to change plans and travel in small groups by helicopter from Kathmandu rather than take the plane to Lukla as usual. The pilgrims walked for three days, led by Amber Tamang and his Three Jewels Adventures team, and spent four days in retreat at Lawudo.

Lawudo Trek organizer Kristina Mah shares details of this extraordinary pilgrimage:

As always, our days of teachings from Ven. Robina at Kopan, supported by Ven. Katy leading meditations, set the tone, preparing us for the intensity of the next ten days of trekking up the mountains and retreating at Lawudo. Our group were from Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, and the USA. Some had been booked since 2019. For Dom, visiting Lawudo was fulfilling a wish he has had since 2015: “I couldn’t believe it was finally happening!”

Bad weather prevented us from leaving for Lukla as scheduled, so we postponed for a day. We thought about taking helicopters instead, which would add at least US$7,000 to our bill. Fortunately a most kind benefactor offered the funds, otherwise we might not have made it to Lawudo at all.

Many of our group had never flown in a helicopter and delighted in the experience, but Jacque, “can vividly remember that first terrifying, ominous helicopter ride. Everyone else was all smiles when we landed but I was just happy to have made it out alive!” Our guides pointed out their villages as we passed the lower mountain villages.

We traveled in small groups to get to the mountains. Nineteen of us found ourselves at Surke (8,316 ft / 2,535 m), a tiny village that was perched 1,066 ft / 325 m under Lukla. We were dropped there by the helicopters, which could not fly further with the heavy cloud cover at higher altitude. Four of us, Yannai, Bec, Katharina, and Geraldine managed to land at Monjo. There, the local monk was so kind and opened the gompa for them to do their own practice. Seven of us had to wait an extra night in Kathmandu before catching our helicopters.

Ven. Robina, Ven. Katy, and Dinae landing at Surke on the way to Namche. Photo Julian Reinhold.

Amber and Furi, the last of our local guiding team, and four trekkers arrived in time for breakfast at Surke. We were thinking about Ven. Robina finally getting her helicopter from Kathmandu all the way to Namche, when just then a helicopter landed on the helipad in the lawn behind the dining room. There was Ven. Robina, and our last group of trekkers, jumping out under the spinning propellers! “What are you all doing at Namche?” Ven. Robina asked, as we greeted her on the lawn. “This is Surke, Venerable,” I replied. “But we’re supposed to be at Namche!” she exclaimed with as much confusion as the rest of us. The pilot flew off without a word!

We took time to have tea and work out our next steps. A larger group of twenty-one trekkers would depart on foot regardless of the weather and a smaller group would wait for the next helicopter out. Ven. Robina brought everyone together for a recitation of the Heart Sutra before we parted ways. Thankfully, the same pilot came back to pick up Ven. Robina, Ven. Katy, Dinae, and Julian. They would arrive at Namche later that day, where we’d all eventually meet for two days to acclimatize before heading to Lawudo.

Dom navigating one of the longer
suspension bridges before Namche.
Photo Jacque Rabie.

For our group, the first day of walking was long. It started with a steep climb towards Lukla and we encountered light rain on the track. Everyone was in good spirits and simply happy to be walking after being mostly indoors since meeting at Kopan. “It’s amazing, but harder than I thought it would be,” said Dom. At the pace we were going, it seemed more realistic to aim to arrive at Phakding and stay the night there, at Namaste Lodge. Our porters were already waiting for us in Monjo, the original destination of our helicopters. They walked back to Surke to collect our bags and arrived after dark. We were so grateful.

After dinner, Chammi Tenzing Sherpa, the lodge owner, let us use the sound system when Ven. Robina called to check in on us and sing Tara mantras over WhatsApp in the dining room. To make up some lost time, we would walk all the way to Namche the following day.

We set out from Phakding at 8 a.m., refreshed, and walked purposefully. Our pace picked up with the determination to get to Namche where the others already were. We managed to reach Monjo in great time, at 10 a.m. Mahesh, one of our guides, kindly offered our group tea at his own home on the way.

The walk was beautiful. After leaving the city it was good to be immersed in the different rhythm and energy of Solu Khumbu. Walking the trail, it is common to see trains of donkey or dzo (a hybrid between a yak and a cow) carrying building materials, shopkeepers tending to their stores, children coming and going hand-in-hand, porters with immense loads strapped to their heads, and Nepali music playing out of their tinny phone speakers. Toni took time to find the right words: “The people and life are so… authentic!”

It was the first time we have run the trek in Autumn. Although we caught the end of an unusually long rainy season, it also meant that waterfalls hundreds of meters high were overflowing and rainbows glistened through with sunshine. There were clear views of towering snow-capped peaks. Every few hundred meters, stones and enormous boulders carved and painted with ancient prayers lined the path. Prayer wheels and flags were in abundance, not to mention breathtaking views of valleys and mountains at the top of the world. We witnessed a different way of life, experienced a sensory feast, and at the same time were offered countless opportunities to observe our attachment to comfort and practice non-attachment when things turned out unexpectedly. All of us were reunited at Namche, where we met our full Three Jewels Adventures team. Some of our porters walk for days from their villages to meet us. Amber told us that hundreds of travelers were not able to find flights and were stuck in Kathmandu while our group of twenty-nine people managed to fly and arrive safely at Namche, and we were only one day behind our original schedule. This was amazing.

Kristina and Amber Tamang, our lead guide, and his team of guides, porters, and a cook. From top left: Lok, Furi, Chopendre, Amber, Pasang, Nirajan, Abinas, Jeythar. Bottom left to right: Mahesh, Mingmar, Kiran, Furi, Niran, Kristina. Photo Julian Reinhold.

As in previous years, we stayed at Namche for two nights. After staying in small villages, people were dazzled by the bakeries, massage clinics, cafes with great coffee and shops to buy anything you needed in the mountains and more. “It’s the Times Square of the Himalayas!” said Jacque.

Namche Bazaar is a bustling trade and trekking nexus inside Everest (Sagarmāthā) National Park. Trekking parties often stop there before continuing to popular destinations in the region such as Everest Base Camp, Gokyo Lakes, and Island Peak (Imja Tse). Ven. Robina gave us teachings in the beautiful gompa built into Zamling Guesthouse, where we stay every year. She read to us from Lama Yeshe’s Mahamudra: How to Discover Our True Nature, inspiring us and getting us excited about our retreat at Lawudo. The morning sun streamed through the windows as she began reading, “It is extremely difficult to knock out the ego. You cannot seek the ego’s projections philosophically, with your intellect. When you practice mahamudra, intellect is the enemy. You have to go beyond the intellect—you have to meditate. Then real transformation can come.” She looked up from her iPad, “It sounds very tasty, doesn’t it?” We were hooked.

While we were at Namche, Dawn became unwell. The treatment for Dengue was pain relief, hydration, and rest, so it was decided that she stay put. We made sure she was as comfortable as possible, and Mingmar, one of Amber’s team, and our friends at Zamling Guesthouse took care of her for the next five days. She was in kind and capable hands. Ven. Robina would pick her up in her helicopter on the way back down the mountain.

Ven. Katy Cole on the walk from Namche to Lawudo.
Photo by Kristina Mah.

At Namche, we hoped for a break in the weather, but we soon realized that the rain was not going anywhere. It was decided that the twenty-six of us would walk to Lawudo on the morning of October 11 as we didn’t want to lose any more time. Fog had sunk deep into the valley. We set out at 8am, hoping to arrive before the predicted afternoon storm. Our group spread out along the trail and many of us arrived at Lawudo in time for lunch at noon.

Our last group, of eight people, led by Ven. Robina, was yet to arrive at 2:30 p.m. Ani Samten-la sent a lunch of boiled potatoes, chapati, yak cheese, and honey with Lok and I, who ran down the hill to greet them. She had sent some masala tea an hour earlier. The group happily stopped for a bite and recharged their energy on the stones along the path on the hill overlooking the Mende helipad.

After lunch, they continued steadily, Ven. Robina mentioning when she paused to catch her breath that, “when we experience pain for something virtuous, we are purifying a few eons of attachment. Aren’t we lucky!”

Amber had helped Ven. Robina all the way from Namche and up the final leg to Lawudo. “He held my hand for the entire five hours,” she said, “as if he was taking care of his grandmother. I wouldn’t have made it otherwise.”

Ven. Robina set up her usual “office” overlooking the valley at the edge of the lawn in front of the Lawudo gompa where the internet connection is best.
Photo by Jacque Rabie.

Amber said that he felt “lucky to walk hand-in-hand with Ven. Robina. And we had blue sky when we hoped for it.” Reflecting on the journey later he said, “For me, it was yet another experience of a lifetime to travel with such an admirable person. With all that happened, and particularly because of walking with Ven. Robina, it makes me think this was the best trek yet. I can’t imagine any other trip better than this!”

Finally at Lawudo’s gate, Ven. Robina was greeted by Ani Samten-la. It was moving to see them reunited again after three years.

Ven Tsültrim, a Swiss nun who is staying at Lawudo for six months, accompanied Ven. Robina and Amber through the open gate that Ven. Katy was holding while the rest of us cheered. Finally we were all together.

Ven. Robina gave us teachings in the gompa every morning, afternoon and evening. To receive teachings in such a blessed place is pretty special. But it wouldn’t be until our third day that the clouds finally lifted to reveal the splendor of the surrounding mountains. It was easy to imagine why Rinpoche’s previous incarnation, the yogi Kunsang Yeshe, would have chosen such a place to meditate. For Viva, it was “a thrill to see the mountains for the first time when the mist finally lifted.”

View from the walk from Mende to Lawudo. Photo by Jacque Rabie.

In between teachings, people involved themselves in different tasks around the hermitage and went on short hikes to explore the area. Georges inspired others to join him during morning yoga sessions on the gompa lawn. One afternoon, Ven. Tsültrim showed Yannai, Manuela, Geraldine, and Katharina how to do water bowl offerings Sherpa-style. Mark and Toni cleaned the Lawudo house windows. Many of us visited Lama Kunsang Yeshe’s stupa behind the property and walked to the ridge of the mountain. Dom and Jacque walked to Charok, another hermitage and the birthplace of Charok Lama, a contemporary of the Lawudo Lama, on the same side of the mountain. They were lucky to meet Charok Ani-la who lives there and is often on long-term retreat. She served them warm orange juice, a local drink that we were also served upon arrival at Lawudo. Not many words were exchanged because of the language barrier. But she pointed to a photo and said in English, “It is Charok Lama… My father,” and smiled. After sitting with her in silence for a while after finishing their drinks, they made offerings, and said goodbye.

Ani Samten-la is the mother of Lawudo. She has lived there for over fifty years. Wearing worn-out robes, an apron, a saffron-colored fleece beanie and an old pair of pink and black Sketchers, she’s such a presence. She patiently posed for photos with a new pair of shoes that Rinpoche had sent with us to offer her. One morning before our teachings, Ani Samten-la came to sit in the sun shining on the gompa steps. A small group formed around her as she told stories of her childhood with Rinpoche (she is about six years older), and stories of the gompa construction and her experiences over the years. She captivated us with her special way of storytelling and her laughter. At one point while talking about herself she said, “No merit. Nothing. Just eating, sleeping… Nothing. Just eating and sleeping.” “Like Shantideva,” Ven. Tsültrim cut in. We all knew that Ani Samten-la has never stopped working and taking care of everyone who enters the Lawudo gate.

Ven. Robina Courtin, Ani Ngawang Samten, and Lawudo Trek organizer, Kristina Mah.

Lawudo feels like a place trapped in time. There has been running water there since only 2019. There are many daily tasks and always something to do. Yet, on another level, it is a place that feels separate from the mundane. These mountains have been blessed by the presence of great meditators and holy beings for centuries and it’s said that Solu Khumbu is a sacred hidden valley, a beyul, blessed by Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) that offers refuge in times of great strife or trouble.

People feel this special quality. “After a rollercoaster of emotional ups and downs and uncertainty about being able to attend the trek, it was an extraordinary privilege to be allowed access into this beyul,” Julian said. “Observing this very different way of life in the monastery at such an altitude was eye-opening and life-affirming.” Anna was returning to Lawudo after her first visit five years ago. “I realized everything was there. It was possible. Achievable. Enlightenment.”

Ven. Robina offering teachings in front of the cave on the last day of the retreat. Photo by Ven. Katy Cole.

On our last day, we had teachings in front of Rinpoche’s cave. Many of us felt that the end of our retreat had come too soon. Our time there was so precious, especially after the two-year delay and the effort we had to expend to get there. “So thankful to the holy beings who enabled our group to overcome all obstacles to our pilgrimage,” said Viva.

As we got ready to part ways and farewell Ani Samten-la and the Lawudo community along with three of our trekkers, Georges assured us confidently, “We have met before, and we will meet again!”

We split up again into small groups for the journey back to Kathmandu. By the end of the trek, Jacque had cut through his fear of helicopters and happily volunteered to catch one to Kathmandu from Lukla. Thankfully, Dawn was feeling much better by the time Ven. Robina arrived back at Namche in her helicopter to pick her up. Ani Samten-la sent her a blessing scarf and chocolate.

Lawudo trekkers, October 2022. Photo shared by Kristina Mah.

Ven. Robina often speaks of the bond that people form and feel when they go on pilgrimage together. Perhaps the bond forms while greeting obstacles and going through “magical moments” along the journey that forge a mini community created from around the world. “It was amazing to see how the group grew closer day by day and friendships were made so quickly,” said Julian. “The trek is such a rare opportunity,” said Mark. “I was so glad to have met so many kind and genuine people and share our journey together.” “It felt like a true pilgrimage with many highs and challenges that we took in stride,” said Aidan. For Jacque, his time in Nepal after discovering Ven. Robina on TikTok a month earlier, was “truly, a life-changing experience.”

We gathered for a final practice together at the ancient Boudha Stupa, not far from downtown Kathmandu. Before we started our circumambulations, Ven. Robina led us in dedicating all the merits of our amazing journey and refreshed our aspiration to have the courage to always do what is most beneficial and to never give up. It’s a sentiment that resonates with us after this trek and Dom captured it beautifully. “The Lawudo Trek was a trip of a lifetime. Not only because of the people we met but the magical moments along the way,” he said.

Amber said, “This was the best trek ever,” despite all obstacles and changes of plan. When Ven. Robina heard this, she said, “Isn’t that interesting. I trust Amber’s wisdom.”

We recently received the very sad news that Ven. Thubten Pemo, ordained since 1974 and one of the first students of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, has passed away. 

In the late 1990s Ven. Pemo, an American nun, was in retreat and wrote a letter to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Rinpoche sent this letter to Ven. Robina Courtin, who was editing Mandala magazine at the time, and asked her to publish it, which she did anonymously. Ven. Robina recalls, “I was so moved by this. It just shows that we really do not know who anyone is. There was this seemingly ordinary nun, but from her letter it sounds like she was a holy being.”

As we prepare a tribute to her life and incredible qualities, we thought others would find great inspiration and causes for rejoicing reading this letter she wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche many years ago. 

Ven. Thubten Pemo, being offered a birthday party in 2012. Photo courtesy of Land of Medicine Buddha.

My dearest Precious Rinpoche,

Please be well and happy and continuously teach and guide numberless beings to full enlightenment. With your great kindness and compassion, please take care of me, a helpless creature overwhelmed by ignorance.

After numberless years of hardships and suffering, I have arrived at Shiné Land and a retreat house. I constantly work on my mind and every day there are new understandings and I learn more things about Dharma and about myself. I found delusions that I did not know I had. I see my faults, stupidity and mistakes. I see my ignorance all day and night.

I see the appearance of a person, together with every moment of mind. And I wonder how to be free of this appearance of a person – who is the dictator of my life and actions. I understand “self cherishing” or “selfishness” in a different way than before. I see how attachment arises. I see how anger arises. I see how we constantly want happiness. And on many levels I understand the eight worldly dharmas and put more effort into abandoning them.

I have a different understanding of karma, and different understanding of patience. New understanding of what Mahayana is, what bodhicitta is. And how to live the life as a “merely labeled person” instead of as a self-existent, independent person who wants everything for me.

I know and understand what the “guru” is. I know that the guru is all the buddhas. The guru is all the yidams. All the buddhas are the guru. All the yidams are guru. Looking at the merit field, all the holy beings have the same mind, blissful, empty, clear awareness. Just this outer body is different. The appearance or form changes but They all have the same mind. That is what You are. That is what I am.

One day I was looking at a picture of Padmasambhava and I received blessings from him. After that, my winds keep entering the central channel. One night I was sitting on the chair at the kitchen table. When I breathed in, the winds entered my central channel and my breathing stopped. I sat like that for one hour, without breathing. It felt like I could stay like that, without breathing, for as long as I wished. During meditation, if we really manifest the most subtle mind of clear light, with all the winds absorbed in the heart chakra, then, Rinpoche, what is it that stops or prevents us from dying? What causes us to come out of the clear light and to continue to live? What is your answer to this?

After this experience, on another day I was lying on the bed and there was a vision and presence of Chakrasamvara and Vajrayogini. After looking at Chakrasamvara for some time, the thought came to request initiation from Him. For the next few days, three or four or five days, its seems like I received the vase initiation and the secret and wisdom initiations from Chakrasamvara with the body mandala. There was so much bliss that for the first time I understand what an initiation is. When it came to the fourth initiation, the word, then there was no emptiness feeling and it stopped. The next day I woke up and received the fourth initiation.

Since that day, my mind keeps going into clear light, thoughts stop and I stay like that for hours. In this thoughtless space, usually my breathing stops also. This meditation on pure awareness without thoughts, gives great peace to my mind, and satisfaction and contentment. I lose all interest to seek happiness from sense objects. I do not need to do anything nor to go anywhere.

Sometimes I wake up and my mind goes into dharmakaya and stays there for hours. I cannot go to the toilet or eat. Sometimes at around two or three o’clock in the afternoon, I finally can stop and go to eat breakfast.

I find it difficult to manifest as the nirmanakaya form. Some days I can just make it to the sambhogakaya. Mostly I am stuck in dharmakaya. While I am in thoughtless space, I can clearly see the appearance of a person begin to arise. Then thoughts come like, “I did this and I did that.” Even the thought comes, “Let me out of here.” It must be like this at the death time. The mind is the subtlest mind of clear light and a self or person arises and wants to take another body.

My question is: how much time should I stay in dharmakaya before manifesting sambhogakaya? How much time in sambhogakaya before arising in nirmanakaya form? Is it good to remain for hours in dharmakaya so that I can get used to it?

The mind/body of bliss causes the clear light mind to manifest. Ven. Lama Yeshe told me to meditate “with no thoughts.” I thought this would be impossible, but now I see that my mind can remain like that for hours and watch the mind closely and when a thought arises then I bring the mind back the clear light experience. This is the mind that arises as Tara. The problem is that I never get to arise as Tara. Rinpoche, what is your advice?

Now there is the situation that so much energy is coming. At the base of the spine, the energy exploded for days. Now my charkas are full of energy and the energy is going down and up the central channel. The chi energy has appeared. I never had chi energy before. While meditating, the body starts to do chi-gong. There is so much chi energy. It feels like I could do chi-gong for hours. The hands get so much chi energy that I am using it to heal my body. One day it seemed like I went into trance and my hands healed my body and cleaned my aura. This never happened before. There is so much chi energy coming from the navel chakra and base of the spine. Question: what should I do with the chi energy, Rinpoche? How do I direct the chi energy?

It is giving life to my exhausted body. Yesterday there was so much happening that I did not eat breakfast until five o’clock in the afternoon.

Rinpoche, what is your advice for meditating on bliss and emptiness? It is difficult for my mind to experience emptiness when there is bliss. Should I do some analysis first? If there is a clear awareness bliss and no appearance of a self-existent person who is having this experience, then is that a correct way to meditate on bliss and emptiness according to tantra? Should I generate the self-existent person and then negate it? What are the various ways that I should do this?

I noticed that bliss stops desire and anger from arising. There is no desire for getting small pleasures from sense objects or people. I don’t care if I eat pizzas or mo-mos. I don’t want something. I don’t crave for small worldly happiness. I don’t care if someone harms me. I don’t feel jealousy of other people’s happiness. I don’t feel the need to be with people nor to look at beautiful scenery or objects. When the mind is satisfied and craving stops, then the eight worldly dharmas have lost their power. There is an inner peace and calm. The mind of the buddhas must be something incredible – beyond anything we can conceive of.

What all sentient beings want is the everlasting Bliss of the Enlightened mind, but do not know that such a thing exists. So we live in suffering and we create the causes for more suffering in the future. And we think that we are happy and everything is okay. We are so stupid and foolish. Our life is a dream created by our own concepts and appearances of situations and things. Everything appears so real.

One important question. Help! The texts say to see all to see all forms as the body of the deity. What does this mean? I can understand to see people as the body of Tara. What is the meaning of all forms? When I see a tree, then I don’t see the form of a tree? Instead I see the form of Tara? When I see a mountain, I see Tara instead of the form/shape of mountain? I sleep on a bed that is Tara? I eat a bowl of rice and vegetables – that is a bowl of Taras? Rinpoche, please explain the correct way of doing this and how to train my mind.

The text say to hear all sounds as mantra. When the airplanes fly over my house, instead of airplane motor, do I hear OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SVAHA? When the blue birds go “squawk” outside my house, instead of “squawk” do I hear OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SVAHA? How do I do this practice? Please explain clearly because I do not understand it. I can understand the outer objects are of the nature of emptiness and bliss. That is the same nature as the mind of the deity. But “all forms as the body of the deity?” I am Tara and the whole space is filled with bodies of Tara? Is this possible? When a person speaks to me, I only hear Tara mantra? I do not understand. What kind of world is Tara living in? Please help.

I received your kind card and a photos of Rinpoche with His Holiness. Then I received your beautiful blanket and a box of food and tissues (for the running nose of Tara). And really thank you Rinpoche for your kind offering (of blissful empty Taras)….

When one’s mind is blissful, empty, clear awareness, then sound becomes the manifestation or appearance of emptiness and bliss. And the world is seen as a pure land of the lama-yidam, who are inseparable from each other and inseparable from one’s own mind. Blissful, empty awareness – I offer you. Please bless me to complete all the realizations from devotion to the guru up to full enlightenment. Please bless me quickly. Please bless me soon. Please bless me now. Please bless me without ceasing. Forever.

Please pray that Ven. Pemo, “May never ever be reborn in the lower realms, may she immediately be born in a pure land where she can be enlightened or to receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings and meet a perfectly qualified guru and by only pleasing the gurus mind, achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.”

Ven. Thubten Pemo, from New York, was among the first students of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Ordained by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in 1974, she spent many years studying and practicing in India. She was a holder of a mystical mirror-reading divination lineage and renowned for her wish-fulfilling jola (a type of bag often carried by monks and nuns). Ven. Pemo passed away in March 2023  (we are still confirming the exact date of her passing) at her home in Santa Cruz, California, USA. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Bodhgaya, India, January, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

We are happy to share FPMT International Office’s Annual Review 2022: Rejoicing in a Year of Offering the Methods for Peace and Happiness.

Please take some time to enjoy this year’s online annual report, which includes details about activities such as offering access to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s precious teachings; helping keep the international community connected and informed; providing guidance and structure to FPMT centers, projects, and services; facilitating charitable giving to many worthy initiatives; and disseminating the Dharma around the world.

Please view our 2022 annual report and join us in rejoicing in another year of helping to actualize Lama Yeshe’s and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wishes for the FPMT organization and the world. 

Please note, the FPMT Annual Review 2022 is available only online:
fpmt.org/fpmt/annual-review

FPMT International Office is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s office and works daily to achieve its mission of “preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice, and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha, and based on that experience, spread the Dharma to sentient beings.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, McLeod Ganj, India, November 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

We are very pleased to share with you our February 2023 e-News! This issue features some important news and causes for rejoicing including:

• Recently published teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• Upcoming long life puja for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and opportunities to participate
• New host and date for the 2023 Light of the Path retreat
• 2022 Annual Review is now available!
• Resources for practice during the Fifteen Days of Miracles
• Opportunities and changes within the FPMT organization

and much more!

Please read this month’s e-news in its entirety.

Have the e-News translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page.

Visit our subscribe page to receive the monthly FPMT International Office e-News directly in your email inbox.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche on Losar, 2021, Kopan Monastery, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Losar Tashi Delek!

Happy Tibetan New Year to all our dear friends!

With love from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and everyone at FPMT International Office.

Read more about Losar, the Fifteen Days of Miracles, and what practices to do during this auspicious period, which begins today, February 21!

Cover of Wisdom Issue #2 1984.

The Liberation Tibetan Calendar 2022: Year of the Water Rabbit 2150 is now available. Many thanks to the Liberation Prison Project for continuing to produce this calendar, which also supports the work of the project. A limited view of the calendar is always available on “Dharma Practice Dates” as a courtesy to FPMT students around the world.

For FPMT, Losar is a special time as it commemorates the anniversary of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe’s parinirvana at dawn of Losar in 1984. The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive has made available the 1984 edition of Wisdom Magazine (the precursor of Mandala magazine), which was a tribute to Lama Yeshe published shortly after his passing.

FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from 150 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friends of FPMT member, which supports our work.

Ven. Paloma Alba; Ven .Thubten Wangchen from Tibet House, Barcelona; and Director Fernando Fernandez at the fortieth celebration of Nagarjuna Centre, Madrid, February 4, 2023.

Nagarjuna Centre, Madrid, celebrated its fortieth anniversary on February 4, with a joyful and festive party with center staff and students spanning the years. About the future, they shared in their newsletter, “We would like very much that in the coming years our center grows and is of immense benefit to all and, above all, we would like that all this work is done from the joy, harmony and goodwill of the people who come here.”

Please join us in rejoicing in four decades of Dharma activity at this center, and in offering our grateful thanks for all of the hard work, dedication, devotion, creativity, and tenacity of those—past and present—who have made this milestone possible.

FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 150 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friends of FPMT member, which supports our work.

David Williams passed away at the age of 65 years in his room at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia on January 25, 2023. Ian Green, the director of the Great Stupa, reflects some on David’s life and kindly reached out to friends to share what they admired most about David, who became a student of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the early 1980’s. We invite you to read the inspiring reflections about a longtime Dharma friend below:

David Williams. Photo courtesy of the Great Stupa.

“David came to the stupa in early 2021”, shares Ian Green, “and spent his first year completing the massive water bowl offering commitment that he had made to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. After this was fulfilled, he threw his energy into volunteering at the stupa. This work included plastering and painting the enormous walls inside the stupa, painting prayer wheels and other holy objects, and even floors in the stupa and the new library. Most recently, David completed waterproofing on the stupa and he was making preparations for the filling of the huge Ksitigarbha statue. David was liked and admired by members of the works and arts teams at the stupa. As we rejoice in his wonderful achievements, we know he will be sadly missed by us all at the stupa.”

Angelica Geiger reflects that David was true to himself and devoted to the Dharma, “From our first meeting at Kopan in 1983, he always did his Dharma practices without question. He was committed to fulfilling his promise to Lama Yeshe to do one million prostrations which he completed in the early 1990’s. He loved a well-made cup of tea and a Dharma chat that touched one’s heart and raised the spirit. He also cared for his mother with kindness, warmth and humor.”

Brian Ashen describes David as a hidden gem of a practitioner, “I first met David at the 1984 Kopan course where I observed David would not follow the rules of the retreat by observing silence. He kept chitchatting and we thought he would not progress much. How wrong we were.”

Frank Brock remembers of David, “I first met David in 1983 at Tushita Retreat Centre in Dharamsala where his good humour and concern for others meant he was able to offer support to those who were struggling with the retreat. I think for those who had the pleasure of knowing him he was the very embodiment of the term ‘good heart.’”

Murray Wright and Roy Fraser recall David’s contribution in New Zealand. As Murray explains, “David was part of the group that did the first one-year Vajrasattva retreat at Mahamudra Centre in the 1980’s. He lived at Dorje Chang Institute for over 10 years, was generally quite private, but very friendly and helpful. He worked with William Hursthouse building the stupa at DCI in 1996.”

John Wright recalls meeting David at Atisha Centre in the 1980’s and then at Tara Institute around 2014. “David was not one of the scholars or academics, or people who got involved in leadership, but just kept things simple and operated with Dharma as a priority.”

Helen Cameron remembers David fondly, “He was such an Aussie. You’d never know he had a spiritual side until you got to know him.”

Please join us in rejoicing in the life of David Williams, a hidden gem of a practitioner whose Dharma practice and efforts for the Great Stupa will be remembered as causes for inspiration for us all.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche requests that students who read obituaries pray that the person mentioned finds a perfect human body, meets a Mahayana guru, and becomes enlightened quickly, or be born in a pure land where the tantric teachings exist and they can become enlightened.” While reading obituaries we can also reflect on our own death and impermanence prompting us to live our lives in the most meaningful way. More advice from Lama Zopa Ripoche on death and dying is available, see Death and Dying: Practices and Resources (fpmt.org/death/).

To read more obituaries from the international FPMT mandala, and to find information on submission guidelines, please visit our new Obituaries page (fpmt.org/media/obituaries/).

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja offered to Rinpoche on behalf of the entire FPMT organization at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 21, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

FPMT International Office offers our most sincere wishes for a healthy and happy New Year to all of our friends and supporters around the world. We are very pleased to share with you our January 2023 e-News which is packed with news and teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, causes for rejoicing, resources for your Dharma practices, and opportunities within the organization.  

Please explore this issue in full, including:

• News of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent activities
• Newly published teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• A new free book available from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
• Revised and new materials for your study and practice
• Details about recent grants offered through the Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund

And much more!

Please read this month’s e-News in its entirety. 

Have the e-News translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page.

Visit our subscribe page to receive the monthly FPMT International Office e-News directly in your email inbox.

The trekking group to Lawudo, pictured from front: Lama Yeshe, Chip Weitzner, Dorje Sherpa, Judy Weitzner. Above: Zina, Max, and behind Max, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Below is Judy Weitzner’s extraordinary and historic account of a very early visit to Solu Khumbu, Nepal with Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1969. This was the first time that Rinpoche had returned to Lawudo since he left for Tibet as a young boy and the group included Zina Rachevsky and Max Mathews.

This story was first published in three parts in the Love Lawudo monthly newsletters #11, #12 and #13. We’ve added many photos from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive collection for this posting. We hope you enjoy!

Introduction

In the Fall of 1968, Chip Weitzner and I took off on a round the world adventure. For months prior to leaving I brought home stacks of books from the Richmond Library, compiling a list of all the intriguing spots in various countries around the globe. I listed the sites on index cards for each country we might visit and compiled a manilla file. Some stops were clear. We knew we would stop in Hong Kong to see Chip’s sister, Janet who was a China scholar. We had promised a Peace Corps friend that we would visit him in Nepal. When it came time to purchase a round the world ticket for $1258.00, I discovered that we were allowed as many stopovers as we wanted, as long as we went forward and did not zig or zag excessively. Basically, I put every place on the ticket that we might want to visit, north of the equator. The ticket was well over an inch thick, and shocked every airline and travel agent who handled it. We stayed a week or two at each destination. Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Bali, India,…and, then, NEPAL!! “You must see the Himalayas before you die” was a quote that drove me.

Nepal in 1968 had not been open to tourists for very long. Most who came were mountaineers who stayed in the Yak and Yeti hotel. We stayed at the Panorama Hotel, a hang out for anthropologists in Kathmandu taking a break from their field studies and for various government aid workers.

Early on, a Peace Corps friend took us out for lunch at the Peace Restaurant, across from the American Embassy. It was reputedly a safe restaurant to eat in, and by our standards was very inexpensive. Hanging on the wall was a map of the flags of the world. I studied it from afar while eating my lunch. I spied a unique looking flag, a kind of double pennant that featured the sun and the moon on the two parts. I had always been attracted to the symbology of the sun and moon, so I announced to my friends that I saw a flag I liked and wanted to go to that country. I walked up to the map to find out that it was Nepal’s flag. I said, “Well, I guess I am where I want to be, then.”

We stayed in Nepal from November 1968 until June 1969. We secured teaching jobs at the American International School, which was a means of support as well as a long visa. I taught 3rd grade and Chip taught PE. Max Mathews was the beautiful and creative 4th grade teacher as well as the proprietor of Max’s Gallery. We soon became friends, spending much of our weekend time together. She would send her driver and car – a red, mile-long 1932 Hudson – to pick us up after we settled in a small house out in the countryside. Her “penthouse apartment” on the upper two floors and roof of a downtown building was a salon of sorts. She had lived and taught in many exotic places, and friends of hers would drop in on their travels through Kathmandu.

It was at Max’s that we met Zina, a friend of hers from Greece. Zina, who I heard was a Russian princess, a fashion model and a Hollywood starlet, was now a Tibetan Buddhist nun and dressed in maroon robes. Her entourage consisted of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa who were her Buddhist teachers. She had met them in Darjeeling at a monastery. Zina and the Lamas joined our coterie. We planned parties, dinners, picnics and adventures together in Max’s Hudson. Then another old friend dropped in on Max. It was Lorenz Prinz, a German photographer who had returned to Nepal to complete a book of photos of the Himalayas. It was Prinz who made the arrangements and guided our preparations for our famous life-changing trek in the Himalayas which I write about here.

Trek group to Lawudo, Lorenz Prinz, left, with Max Matthews, Judy Weitzner, and rest of the team. Photo courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Preparations for the trip to Solu Khumbu

Lorenz Prinz had returned to Nepal to complete work on a book of photographs of the Himalayas. He had driven overland from Germany with his assistant in a VW van loaded with darkroom equipment. He rented a small house near where we lived out in the country and set up a dark room. He invited me to come and watch him work a few times and I found the alchemy of photography fascinating. Prinz always wore a jaunty beret. He confided that he had had two brain surgeries to remove tumors. Both times it was predicted that he would never walk again and both times he retaught himself how to crawl and then to walk. He was determined to finish the work on his book. Fortunately, he had experience trekking in the Himalayas so we joined forces and he guided us in our preparations for our trip. Max and Chip and I were going on our Spring break from teaching at Lincoln School, so we couldn’t afford the time it would take to hike all the way up to the Everest Region. Prinz made arrangements for chartering the airplanes. Zina and the Lamas wanted to come too. Lama Zopa had not returned to his birthplace since he was taken to Tibet as a young child. He wanted to see his family and return to his village. Zina had invited her French filmmaker friends to meet them in the mountains and film Zopa’s return to his village.

One of my students at Lincoln School was the daughter of a Canadian consultant to the Royal Air Nepal airlines. The family would occasionally invite me to dinner. He was totally appalled at what he found in Nepal. He told me that even the pilots don’t wear seat belts, there were no functioning control towers, and the airplanes weren’t regularly serviced. He said he was amazed that there weren’t frequent crashes given how they operated. I was quite sobered by this conversation. I then mentioned that Prinz had hired the King’s airplane to fly us to Lukla. I was hoping he would say that the King’s plane was serviced regularly and I shouldn’t worry, but what he said was “That plane can’t fly to Lukla. The Lukla landing strip is too short for it – only 900 feet – your plane needs 1200 feet. You need to have a STOL plane (Short Take-off and Landing). A contract group called Arizona Helicopters has them.” I told him that Prinz had tried and that there were no planes available for the flight up, but they could only come and pick us up. I was worried, but I rationalized the situation by thinking that they wouldn’t send a plane to a place where it couldn’t land. They know better. They wouldn’t sacrifice the King’s airplane for some charter money.

In the days before we left, we all scrambled and scrounged for equipment and food. In those days you did it all yourself. There weren’t even accurate trekking maps, much less jackets, sleeping bags and boots to fit big Western feet. We had schlepped big boots and down jackets in anticipation of trekking. Zina was in charge of equipping the Lamas. Even though Max wanted to come along, she seemed to pay little attention to what it entailed. Max needed to find some sort of outdoor clothing. She was an elegant dresser and I had never seen her in pants or “practical” shoes. Fortunately, Prinz had plenty of experience and guided us through the preparations.

Flight to Lukla

The morning of the flight Max made her appearance in a long brocade chuba (Tibetan dress), a silk blouse and beautiful flowers pinned in her hair. I couldn’t believe that she intended to trek in that outfit. Yet Max was oblivious to my reservations about her outfit and lifted her skirt to show me that she had managed to purchase some Nepalese army boots. These were her gesture to mountain gear. Other than that, style always trumped functional clothing. Prinz and his assistant arrived with camera gear slung around their necks. Zina arrived with Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa. They wore their robes: no sturdy shoes, no jackets, no hats, nothing else. I was upset with Zina for not taking better care of them, but they seemed content with what they had. I always seemed to be playing the role of the practical pig with my very interesting, but totally impractical friends.

While we waited for the pilot to arrive, the Nepalese were loading the plane with all kinds of things, nothing belonging to us. They were filling the aisles up with packages. When I saw them loading a child’s tricycle, I knew that it wasn’t ours. Prinz finally stopped them from putting any more cargo in the plane arguing that we were paying for the plane and it should be reserved for our stuff. Thank God he stopped them when he did, because I am sure we would have crashed with any more weight.

Plane flying out of Lukla airport, 1974. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Finally, the pilot turned up. He was not the regular pilot. The regular pilot was sick, he explained. The replacement pilot had never flown this route before, but he was willing to give it a try. The problems with this flight were mounding up. Had I been a little more savvy, I would have proposed we cancel the whole idea, but we had all planned this for so long. I was thinking “Surely, they wouldn’t have someone who didn’t know the route fly us in a plane that couldn’t land where we were going, that was also overloaded with cargo, would they?” Well, the answer to that question was…”They would!”

We boarded, some of us scrambling over the cargo in the aisle. We chose seats, which had no seat belts, just as the Canadian had predicted. We tied ourselves down with rope and bungee cords. (Good old bungee cords…I never travel without them. They have saved my bacon more than once). We took off, circling to gain altitude and marveling at the view of Bodhanath and the hilltop that would become known as Kopan from the air. The Lamas were seated in the rear seats. When I looked back at them, they were smiling, but I noticed both of them clicking away on their malas, and thought they might be nervous on their first airplane ride. The reverie of the aerial views of villages, temples and magnificent landscape was abruptly replaced with sheer terror as we hit TURBULENCE. This was not the rocking and rolling that we had experienced in big airplanes. Our plane was buffeted around so hard, it felt like it would break apart! Sometimes we would be blown sideways. I swear our wing was only feet away from the mountainsides. Sometimes we would drop downwards, lifting my heart to my throat. I was pretty sure this would be my last flight. Prinz’s assistant fainted dead away ending up in the aisle. My worry about her took my attention away from our impending disaster for a short time and I was grateful for the distraction.

The pilot looked back at us occasionally after some near miss and rather than inspiring me with steely-eyed confidence he would shrug his shoulders and give us a “what me worry?” look, like what did you expect from someone who has not flown this route before? I looked back at the Lamas again, and prayed that they could keep us aloft with whatever power they had. Finally we started banking and circling around over a deep valley. I looked out and way, way down I saw there was a cleared field, a landing strip. It must be Lukla.

The problem was that we couldn’t approach the strip directly as the plane was too big. We had to spiral around and down with mountains close to our wing tips. We were all terrified, and then sick and nauseous as we descended in circles and finally set down on the runway, hitting and bouncing. The problem was that if the plane undershot the runway, we would have crashed into a mountain.

But, oh no, we had overshot the already too short runway, and we were racing toward the mountain at the other end. “Why didn’t I listen to the Canadian?” I was thinking. “He was right, we can never stop in time”. I braced myself for the crash into the mountain, when suddenly the pilot hung a U-turn throwing us all to the side of the plane. I was sure we would roll over, but, no, we were headed back down the runway, the way we had come. He brought the plane to a stop and we piled out as quickly as possible. Most of us just laid on the ground, hugging the earth, grateful to be alive.

The treking group stops by a river in Kusum on the way to Phagding. The party included Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Max Mathews, Zina Rachevsky, Jacqueline Fagan (a New Zealander who had been at Villa Altomont), Judy Weitzner and her husband, Chip Weitzner. Photo donated by Judy Weitzner to the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Some Sherpas approached us wanting jobs as porters and Prinz hired some of them to carry our gear for the trek. They loaded our things into large baskets which they carried on their backs supported by a strap around their forehead. We regrouped at a tea house in Lukla and then began a really pleasant, fairly flat walk up a beautiful valley. I was lulled into thinking that trekking wasn’t so tough after all and that I had been over-worried about preparations.

We spent the night in a Sherpa home, a cousin of our guide, Ang Dorje. I had to crouch to get through the very low doorway. I was ushered inside and offered a seat along the wall. Slowly patterns of white dots began dancing before my eyes. At first I couldn’t figure out whether it was a visual hallucination, but as my eyes became used to the dark I could see that they were drawn on the black walls and shelves. Next I began to make out the glint of handmade metal pots arranged in order of size. As they came into view I marveled at their beauty and craftsmanship. In Kathmandu they sold ugly aluminum pots. These Sherpa pots were amazing. There was a hearth in the corner where the woman of the house presided over the fire and the cooking. The few shafts of light revealed a smoke filled room. I looked up above the fire for a chimney. There was none–just a small opening. All the rafters were thick with black soot which had a dark iridescence when it caught the light. It must have taken decades to build this thick layer. I thought to myself, “In Nepal, they haven’t invented the chimney, yet”.

Later, when Prinz arrived, he failed to duck low enough as he entered, and hit his head on the overhead beam. He was reeling at the blow. When I went to help, he explained the problem was that when he had had brain surgery for a tumor on his brain before coming to Nepal, the doctors had not replaced the section of skull that had been removed. His beret disguised the fact that there was only skin and no skull . He had taken a direct blow to the brain. I was worried about him, but he was stoic and determined to go on. Really, there was no other choice.

That evening, we sat around the fire with the family. I was already beginning to fall in love with the kind and generous Sherpas. Usually, there was someone sitting and spinning wool. Someone else might be weaving on a loom in the corner, or outside in the sunshine. In the US I had been a part of the counter culture which valued self-sufficiency and hand-crafted items. Many of my friends were “back to the land hippies”, experimenting with gardening, carpentry and alternative forms of society. We wanted to rely less on manufactured goods. We wanted to live in communities rather than the isolated nuclear family model of the previous generation. Sherpa society seemed to be living our ideal. I was smitten.

For dinner, our cook prepared some of the food we had brought along. Our Sherpa mother, (Ama) cooked a huge pot of small potatoes. I watched in fascination as the family pinched the cooked potatoes, removing the skin with one gesture and popped the whole peeled potato into their mouths. They shared some potatoes with us and I tried, in vain, to master their technique. I got nowhere and had to painstakingly peel my potatoes in little strips. To this day, I think of the Sherpas when I cook potatoes and wish I knew their magic peeling mudra.

I thought that this was the perfect time to offer my gift. I had heard about the problem of goiters in the mountains. I also knew that salt was a valuable commodity and Sherpas had been involved in the salt trade with Tibet. The American commissary stocked packages of miniature Leslie salt shakers–iodized, of course. I had purchased several to offer to our hosts along the way. Thinking the family would enjoy the salt on their potatoes. I showed them how to twist the lid and sprinkle the salt out. Once they saw that it was salt, they opened the top to the pouring spout, held the shaker above their open mouths, poured, and swallowed the contents in one gulp. Apparently, they really liked salt, but not exactly as a condiment.

The next morning I saw a beautiful woman with a huge goiter. “Why couldn’t USAID do something practical that would change peoples lives for a small investment in iodized salt,” I thought. Next I saw an elderly woman lying on the ground at the side of the path. She was too weak to sit up and was obviously quite ill. Nonetheless, she put her hands together in a namaste greeting and flashed a big smile. I summoned our guide to translate. I said that I was concerned about her and I thought she should go to the hospital. She protested that she couldn’t walk and she didn’t want to go. Besides, she needed to look after her grandchildren. Apparently, someone would carry her outside each morning so she could watch the kids. I told her family that I would hire someone to carry her to the hospital, but she said “no” to that, too. I reluctantly left her behind, but reflected on the fact that despite her extreme disability, she had a valued job to do and that it mattered more to her than the possibility of getting medical help. She was supremely calm and content with things as they were.

The next Himalayan moment came when it was time to cross the river on what the Sherpas would call a bridge. What I saw were some ropes suspended across the river with some boards cradled along the center. There were gaps between some of the boards. I walked a few steps out and discovered that my footsteps caused an undulating rhythm which combined with the swaying made calculating where I put my foot down very challenging. One misstep, and it was a long way down to the river. I rejected offers of help because I knew I didn’t want anyone else on the “bridge” with me. When someone else was walking on the boards, they set up their own unpredictable undulation, making it even more difficult to gauge and direct my next step. The Sherpas noticed my trepidation and told me that when Sir Edmund Hillary built bridges, they stayed in place, but when Sherpas built bridges (here they made a swooping gesture) they washed down the river. Their light-hearted humor only made things worse for me. Holding the waist high rope as I went, I made it across. I failed to inquire whether I had crossed a Sherpa bridge or a Hillary bridge,

We meandered along the river on an easy trail for quite awhile. We were strung quite far apart down the trail. That day, I began to realize that one of the secrets to trekking was to walk at my own pace – not trying to keep up or slow down to walk with someone else. Establishing a rhythm of breathing and walking and paying attention made all the difference.

Max and I were together, moving at the same speed. Suddenly the trail seemed to come to a dead end right at the base of a mountain. There was a pathway heading upward quite steeply, but I couldn’t imagine that it was our trail. I assured Max that we did not have to climb, while I looked around for the proper route, but couldn’t find it. We decided to wait until the Sherpas came along to show us the way. When they came, they pointed upward at the very steep trail. Yes, that was the trail and we were going to have to walk up it. I had completely convinced myself and Max that the upward trail couldn’t possibly be the right one. We had no choice but to start climbing. Not only was it “up”, it was 2,000 feet up, taking us to over 11,000 feet. Without trekking guides or maps, we had no idea we were ascending so quickly, without acclimatizing. Later on much more was known about altitude sickness.

Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa helped us along. Whenever we needed a boost, Lama seemed to make an appearance to help. Several times when he offered a hand, I wondered, “How did he get in front of us? I thought for sure he was behind.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche (left) and Lama Yeshe at Thangme, during the first trek to Lawudo in 1969. Photo by Georges Luneau.

I was nearing utter exhaustion when I came upon a Sherpa serving the Lamas hot tea at the side of the trail. He had hiked down from Lama Zopa’s village to greet him. We all sat around and had tea on the side of the mountain. Slowly, I was getting the picture that Lama Zopa was an important person and that the Sherpas were very happy that he was coming to visit. I heard them relay the message up the trail. “Lama’s coming. Lama’s coming” They took the trouble to walk for a day to give the Lamas tea. . I had thought that we were bringing the Lamas along on our trek, but I was beginning to realize that we were beneficiaries of being in their company. Another thing was becoming clear to me, the Sherpas had their own method of tracking people in the mountains. When you met someone on the trail they would ask “where are you going” and “where are you coming from.” Lama Zopa’s arrival had already been telegraphed to his village by this word of mouth method.

When we reached Namche Bazaar, Max and I just sat down on the trail overlooking the famous market town of the Himalayas. I was envying the big birds who were effortlessly gliding on the updrafts. I wanted to trade places with them and soar rather than trudge along. I was tired and crabby. I needed to muster the energy to walk to the guesthouse where we would spend the night. It had turned cold and I was bundled up in my down jacket, but still freezing. Lama Yeshe came along and sat down next to us, admiring the view. Lama held my cold hands in his, trying to warm them up. Suddenly, I was jarred out of my self-pity and noticed what was going on. Here I was, dressed in layers and down and still cold. Lama had his sleeveless shirt and light robes, yet he was warm as toast and trying to take care of me. I asked him, “Lama, how can you do this? How is it that you are warm and I am cold even in my down jacket?” He said, “Oh, it is easy dear. In Tibet we learn this meditation. It keeps us warm. And it is very necessary in cold weather!” Having been plagued by the cold my whole life, I thought, whatever it is, I want to learn it. (Later, when I read Lama Govinda’s “Way of the White Clouds” I would understand that he was talking about Tumo meditation. He did teach it in the last teaching I would receive from him at Vajrapani when he taught “The Six Yogas of Naropa”.)

Lama Yeshe at Thangme, Nepal, during the first trek to Lawudo, Spring of 1969. Photo by Georges Luneau.

The next thing that happened is really hard to believe, but, I swear it happened. Lama was carrying a canteen with cold tea. (Each night, we would fill our canteens with the leftover tea from the evening before to drink during the day.) He asked if I would like something to drink. I said, “yes, I would, but not tea”. “What would you like, dear?”, he asked. I grumpily replied, “a Coca-cola” At the time there was no Coke in Nepal and there was no way he could have even known what I was talking about. The remark was meant as a joke for Max. He poured some liquid out of the canteen and gave it to Max. Max said, ”Look, Judy, it’s Coca Cola. Taste it.” I held it up and looked. It was carbonated. Bubbles were moving up the side of the cup. I tasted it. It was Coke. We all laughed and laughed and I completely forgot about my exhaustion and my bad mood. It was there on that mountainside that I realized that Lama Yeshe was totally amazing and powerful.

On our first night in Namche Bazaar we stayed in two different guest houses. Zina (Rachevsky) and Jacqueline and the Lamas were a few houses away from us. They met the French filmmakers there. When Prinz arrived, he was walking slowly with a stick. He had caught a cold and it was going into his lungs. Actually, he clarified, it was going into his one lung. The other one had been removed. First, no skull, then no lung! Should this man be in the Himalayas? I wondered. Fortunately, we found out that there was a small hospital established by Sir Edmund Hillary not far away. We planned to take him there the next day.

Our party split up the next morning. Zina, Jacqueline, and the Lamas headed toward Lawudo. Lama Zopa would return to his birthplace for the first time since he was carried over the mountains as a small child to go to Tibet for his education. At the time Lawudo was restricted and you needed a special permit to go there. The rest of us headed to Khunde, which was on the way to our destination, Tengboche Monastery. We walked along a high ridge spotting a beautiful iridescent bird along the way. It was Nepal’s national bird. It was the only time I saw the bird except on postage stamps. What a country! A flag with the sun and moon, a national bird that was beyond belief beautiful, and…the Himalayas!!! I was transferring my allegiance to this remarkable place.

The Hillary hospital was staffed by a young couple, doctors from New Zealand. They examined Prinz and diagnosed pneumonia. He would have to stay there. That night we stayed in the beautiful gompa room of another Sherpa home in the village. We slept in their gompa facing an elaborately carved altar with many statues and texts. I felt privileged to sleep in this holy place. Through the small window we could see the sacred mountain, Ama Dablam. When we awoke the next morning and looked out, the landscape had been transformed with a covering of snow. We were going to have to take a lay over day and wait for the snow to melt.

Fortunately this would allow a visit for some of us to see the famous Yeti skull which is housed in Khumjung monastery. I was told by some Sherpas that there were actually three kinds of Yetis – small ones who are vegetarians, medium-sized who eat small animals and big ones who eat yaks and people.

Max (Matthews) and I stayed in the gompa room most of that day. We spent the time in a deep philosophical discussion about the meaning and purpose of our lives. I was reading Alan Watts’ book, “East meets West” which prompted a discussion about Eastern and Western philosophy and our good fortune in meeting the Lamas. It was a magical time deeply imprinted on my mind…looking up at the benevolent gaze of the Buddhas, wondering about the contents of all those beautiful silk-wrapped books. Max and I truly became “Soul Sisters” that day. I felt it was a turning point for both of us. Max wanted to change the direction of her life. Till now my study of Eastern philosophy had been merely an intellectual pursuit. I felt my heart opening to a deeper level.

Max Mathews in a photo from the first trek to Lawudo Retreat Center in Nepal, spring of 1969. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

We were up early the next morning. We knew it was going to be a hard day. When we reached a view point above the valley, the Sherpas pointed out where we would walk: way, way, down to the river and way, way, up the other side. I thought, “no way am I going to be able to walk that far in a day.” Every muscle in my body was sore from the previous day’s walk, but on we went. That day I really began to understand the workings of the human body – things I had taken for granted before – the need we have for oxygen and food for fuel. When we got down to the river, I was about spent. I had discovered that going down is not really easier than going up and that “Sahib’s knee” (the sore knee that inexperienced trekkers get) really happens on the way down. We had a few bars of pemican with us and I ate one. I could feel the renewed energy from the food. It’s funny, but I had never associated eating much with fueling the body for work.

I started up the other side, quite slowly. We were going to a higher altitude than we had been before. Gradually, I became aware that I was running out of oxygen, another thing I had always taken for granted. I had to take several breaths to get enough oxygen to take a few steps. I was moving so slowly that one of the Sherpas came back to help me. He wanted to pull me along with a belt. I didn’t want to move any faster than I was, because each step up meant less oxygen. We compromised finally, with him giving me a bit of a hand, but progressing more slowly than he would have liked. When I finally made the top, everyone else was there and had found lodging in a stone hut at the far end of the village. Mt. Everest was straight ahead with the plume of snow that always blows from the top. The Sherpas call it Chomolungma – Mother of the World, which to me is a more fitting appellation. We were surrounded by magnificent peaks. Each seemed to have its own presence, its own emanation. Indeed they are sacred and deserve our deepest respect.

Tengboche monastery was to our left. The view was vast. Gradually, I adapted to the altitude and could actually walk around without huffing and puffing. We spent a couple of nights there, hiking toward Base Camp one day and visiting the monastery for a blessing on the next. In the doorway of Tengboche I noticed that the same “Wheel of Life” drawing was at the entrance as I had seen at Samyeling Monastery near Bodhanath. I was curious about what it meant. It took several years to patch together the meaning of all the symbols in that amazing drawing. Now there is a book about it, but then I learned about it in bits and pieces when I had some time with a monk or a lama.

The way back to the Hillary Hospital was much easier. We were losing altitude rather than gaining, and my stamina had built up to the point where I could get up and walk for the day without too much problem. It was a real breakthrough for me and my body: to know that I could walk as far as I needed to go and that it didn’t matter whether it was up or down, it was all the same. I felt stronger and more in charge of myself than I had for my whole life. There was way more to this trek than what we saw along the way. For me, it was an incredible integration of body, mind and spirit. I knew I had the strength to do what needed to be done.

Prinz was on the porch of the hospital waving and smiling and looking way better. Thank God for antibiotics. Thank God for Sir Edmund Hillary’s kindness. And here was another amazing karmic incident. The doctors excitedly told us that they had an old x-ray machine that had been donated to the hospital. It had never worked and it was so old they had no idea what to do with it. It turned out that Prinz had driven an ambulance during the war and served as a medic. He was totally familiar with this type of machine, and without hesitation, he made the repairs. (Can you imagine – repairing the x-ray machine, so they can look at your lung?) Not long after they had tested it out on him, a Sherpa walked into the hospital who had fallen off a mountain. They used the machine to diagnose the extent of the damage and found multiple fractures, arms, legs, ribs, everywhere. The miracle was that the Sherpa was so muscle-bound that his musculature was holding the broken bones in place. He was his own cast. That is how he could walk in with all of those fractures. We left Prinz and his assistant behind as he needed a few more days of recuperation before getting to work on his book.

When we arrived back at Namche, it was like coming home to a familiar place. At that point, Chip decided he had to try to go to Lawudo. He just took off down the trail without a permit and said he would be back the next morning in time to leave for Lukla and to catch our flight out. He was flying along the trail and right past the guard station. The guards chased him for a while but gave up. He was moving too fast.

Max and I were waiting back in Namche for him to return. I was getting very nervous. We had to leave by a certain time to make it to Lukla to catch our plane back to Kathmandu. Chip came back late. He was so excited about his experience in Lawudo – going to the cave belonging to Lama Zopa’s predecessor and seeing Lama Zopa and Lama Yeshe make themselves at home there. He had helped open the door by wriggling underneath the entrance. The whole village had turned out for the opening of the meditation cave.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche (center) blesses a mother and child as Lama Yeshe looks on at at Thangme. Photo from the first trek to Lawudo Retreat Center in Nepal, spring of 1969. Photo by Georges Luneau.

Chip carried a note from the Lamas to Max and me. They said that they were going to stay in Lawudo and do some retreat, so we wouldn’t be seeing each other for a while. They also asked if Max and I could work on establishing a school for the children in the Lawudo area. Pieces of the puzzle were coming together. We finally understood that the people of the village had come to Lama Zopa when he was in his previous body, meditating in the cave, and requested that he start a school for their children. There was no school in the area, and, if they wanted an education, children had to be sent to Tibet or down to Kathmandu. The old lama said that he was too old and was going to die soon, but that he would do it for them in his next incarnation. Now, Lama Zopa was back and it was time for fulfilling the promise. Really, this was the first I had heard of promises being made in previous bodies or lifetimes. It was all very far out, but my skeptical mind was relaxing and allowing for possibilities that I would have questioned before.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche artwork, brochure for MEC school at Lawudo, 1969. Image courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

At Lukla, we bid farewell to our Sherpa guide, Ang Dorje. I felt so grateful to him for taking good care of us. I wrote a letter of recommendation on a scrap of paper and explained that he should show it to future trekkers to obtain jobs. Many years later, a friend who went trekking told me that they hired a Sherpa who carried a barely readable note from me. It had to be Ang Dorje. I was glad that gesture had served him well.

We waited in Lukla for the Arizona Helicopters plane. There, we were told that the King’s plane had returned on another run the same day we arrived. Maybe they were delivering the cargo that we refused on board. This time the pilot undershot the runway. The landing gear hit the mountainside and the plane crashed. Fortunately, no one was hurt. The plane was later towed by yaks up the runway to Lukla and converted to a Tea house, I heard.

I couldn’t believe how the STOL plane landed. It just flew directly in, without all the spiraling downward that we had done on our arrival. It hit the runway and stopped half-way up – no U-turn needed. The steely-eyed rough neck pilot got out, cussing and swearing. He was mad because we had a big Sherpa pot with us and it would put us overweight. We begged to take the pot with us, but to get the weight down, he dumped some fuel. He knew what he was doing, but the terror on the way back to Kathmandu, was watching the fuel gage tip toward zero as he swore at us and told us that if we ran out of fuel it was our fault for insisting on bringing the big copper pot.

Max, Chip and I returned to teaching and I began to ponder how we might start a school in the High Himalayas.

Lama Yeshe and Judy Weitzner on the land of Vajrapani Institute, CA, 1977. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

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