SURFING  THE   HIMALAYAS
A SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE
of
FREDERICK LENZ


Copy from a very heavy pdf- file on,
www.media.fredericklenzfoundation.org

also much of this also on Norwegian,
www.galactic.no/rune/mesterfwap.html 
and audiobook mp3 will be made of this – this formattet for A4


Table of Contents 

Chapter 1 		Journey to Nepal
Chapter 2 		How I Met Master Fwap 

Chapter 3 		The Road to Katmandu 
Chapter 4		A Second Unusual Dream 

Chapter 5		 I Visit Master Fwap 
Chapter 6		  Master Fwap Explains Karma 

Chapter 7		I Ask a Question 
Chapter 8		The Secret of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz 

Chapter 9		Master Fwap’s Brief Course in the Earth’s Cycles and Auric Patterning 
Chapter 10		Master Fwaz Shastra-Dup’s Prophetic Dream  

Chapter 11		An Enlightening Cup of Tea  
Chapter 12		You Are the Board 

Chapter 13		Tales of Powder 
Chapter 14		Hierarchical Versus Relational Snowboarding 

Chapter 15		Peak Experiences  
Chapter 16		The Emptiness of Snow 




The following account of my Himalayan adventures
is based on a series of experiences 
that occurred to me some time ago in Nepal. 
I have taken the liberty of transforming these 
accounts, even though they are based upon real 
life occurrences, into a work of fiction. I hope 
that the internal and external experiences 
presented in the following pages both entertain 
and enlighten you. 

The following account of my Himalayan 
adventures is based on a series of experiences 
that occurred to me some time ago in Nepal. 
I have taken the liberty of transforming these 
accounts, even though they are based upon real 
life occurrences, into a work of fiction. I hope 
that the internal and external experiences 
presented in the following pages both entertain 
and enlighten you. 







Chapter One 
Journey to Nepal



I have always been in love with the snow. There is something 
about its perfect crystal whiteness that transports me to happiness. On 
frozen blizzard nights, when sensible people stay safely indoors by cozy 
fireplaces, while their children sleep snug as bugs in a rug in warm beds, 
covered by blankets and fluffy down comforters, I walk alone in the wind-
whipped snow, down lonely pine-trimmed lanes. 

My fascination began when I was a child. On cold winter mornings 
and frozen afternoons I would play in the snow until, red-cheeked and 
frozen-fingered, I was called indoors by my mother. She’d hand me hot 
chocolate and then dry my soaking clothes, boots and gloves by the 
fireplace. 

As soon as my clothes were dry and I had slipped them back on, I’d 
run back outside again to the snowy whiteness of our backyard, where I’d 
play happily until the sun set, and the first stars of evening began to 
appear. 

I probably would have grown up to be a doctor (as my mother 
wished), or gone on to law school and become an attorney (as my father 
advised) if, on my seventh birthday, my grandparents hadn’t given me my 
first sled. 

It was a bleached oak Flexible Flyer with fire-engine red steel 
runners. The words “Flexible Flyer” were proudly stenciled in big black 
letters, for all the world to see, across the top of its blond oak body. I 
spent the better part of that winter—and many winters that followed— 
on top of my Flexible Flyer, rapidly rushing down every steep snow-
covered slope I could find. 

There’s nothing like gliding on snow. The cold wind rushes up to 
greet your face as you careen madly down a sharp slope. You steer with 
your hands and hope to gain extra speed by pressing your body as flatly as 
possible against your sled. Maneuvering quickly, first left and then right, 
I always aimed for the steepest downhill sections of the trail to gain 
maximum velocity. 

I spent many frozen afternoons perfecting my maneuvers for taking 
corners faster. As soon as I reached the bottom of a hill, I would 
immediately rush back up to the top again, laughing and dragging my 
sled behind me. Once there, without pausing to catch my breath, I would 
dive back on top of my sled and tear down the hillside again. Eventually I 
could sled down a slope faster than any of my friends could. 

It was logical, I suppose, that as I grew older I would graduate from 
sledding to snowboarding. Skiing was too social a sport for me; it lacked 
the pure intensity and grace of standing on top of a four-and-a-half-footlong 
fiberglass board while plummeting straight down mountains of 
snow. 

Having successfully snowboarded most of the higher mountains in 
the United States and Canada, I packed my bags and two snowboards, 
said good-bye to my friends and relations, and travelled by plane to 
Nepal, to snowsurf the roof of the world. 
I flew on Lufthansa to Frankfurt, where I changed planes for 
Katmandu. I arrived late on a cold January afternoon and, after clearing 
Nepalese customs, went straight to the Katmandu Youth Hostel. 

The hostel was located on the eastern side of Katmandu. It was a 
two-story brick and stucco building with very small windows. Inside 
there were cots and lots of European college students. Most of them had 
come to Nepal looking for “enlightenment” which they hoped to find 
while seated at the feet of a local Buddhist monk. 


I answered her questions for about an hour, and then, yawning with 
fatigue, I excused myself. After washing with freezing cold water—since 
no hot water was left—I crawled into my sleeping bag, fell asleep, and 
had a most unusual dream. 

In my dream, I was snowboarding down a gigantic mountain. The 
slope below me went straight down as far as I could see. I was riding on 
my snowboard, happily cutting in and out of the deep granular powder, 
when suddenly, from out of nowhere, a small, bald-headed Buddhist 
monk, dressed in a saffron-colored robe, appeared right in front of me! 

I reflexively cut my snowboard left to avoid hitting him, but he 
remained in front of me! Then I tried cutting right to avoid him, but he 
was still there! It didn’t seem to make any difference which way or how I 
maneuvered my snowboard; he always managed to stay several feet ahead 
of me. 

Accepting the fact that I couldn’t get away from him—for some 
reason it is easy to accept the most extraordinary situations as ordinary in 
dreams—I found myself staring at him. 

A soft, golden, phosphorescent light emanated from and 
surrounded his entire body. I found my gaze irresistibly drawn to his face, 
which was creased and wrinkled with many fine lines of age. As I stared 
at him, the bald-headed monk looked back impassively at me. Then, 
quite unexpectedly, he winked, and disappeared as quickly as he had 
appeared. 

Looking ahead, I saw that I was rapidly snowboarding toward the 
edge of a cliff. Before I could stop myself, I shot over the cliff’s edge 
and—in a nightmarish turn of events—found myself plummeting 
straight down into an endless chasm of snow! 

I was about to start yelling when I heard a voice coming from my 
right side. In a firm, male tone, it said: “Don’t give up. Fly! Use your 
mind. You can do it!” 

Glancing quickly to my right, I saw that the monk had suddenly 
reappeared. He was standing in the air right next to me, and was falling 
at precisely the same rate of speed that I was. 

“Fly! Just do it!” he said to me even more firmly. “What other 
choice do you have? Use your willpower. Do it now or you will die and 
never get to meet and help all the people that you are meant to!” 

Listening to him speak, I somehow suddenly knew just what to do: 
by pushing down with my feelings, I gradually began to slow my descent. 
By pushing down harder with my feelings, I was able to stop myself in 
midair. And by pushing down as hard as I could, I slowly began to 
ascend. Using my feelings to propel and direct myself, I flew upward 
through the air on my snowboard, until I reached the safety of the cliff 
above. Then I stopped. 

“Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?” I heard the same voice ask me. I 
looked around for the bald-headed monk, but he was nowhere in sight. 
His ability to rapidly appear and disappear, and to speak without being 
seen, was beginning to annoy me. 

“Don’t worry about where I am,” he said. “You will see me soon 
enough.” 

And with his words still echoing in my mind, I was awakened, by 
the sun shining through the youth hostel windows onto my face, to my 
first morning in Nepal. 

After washing and dressing, I had a quick breakfast of hot tea and 
cold pan bread dipped in honey. Then I headed outside to explore 
Katmandu. The narrow, early-morning streets were already filled with 
people shopping for food and other goods. 

I walked happily through the crowds, listening to the singsong 
sounds of the Nepalese shopkeepers selling their wares. As I strolled along 
the city streets, the pungent smells of saffron, cumin and coriander 
I had entirely forgotten about my dream, until I saw several bald-
headed Buddhist monks, dressed in their brightly colored ochre robes, 
walking toward me on the street. Seeing them reawakened the memory of 
the levitating monk I had dreamt about the night before. 

As I watched the monks walking toward me, I had the crazy notion 
that if I were able to focus my will hard enough—as I had in my dream 
the previous night—I would be able to fly up into the sky and hover 
above their heads! I laughed silently at the absurdity of my thoughts, and 
at that exact moment the approaching monks grinned openly and widely 
at me. I couldn’t help but wonder, as they strolled past me, if they had 
somehow read my thoughts telepathically, and if they were as amused by 
them as I was. 

After walking through the streets of the city for about an hour, I 
began to approach the outskirts of Katmandu. It was there that I had my 
first real glimpse of the Himalayas. The giant, snow-covered mountains 
rose from the distant horizon and disappeared from sight into the white 
and gray clouds that constantly hovered above them. Daylight and the 
shadows cast by moving clouds played back and forth upon their 
glistening slopes. 

I stared at the Himalayas for what seemed like an endless time. 
Their effect upon me was immediate and magnetic: I knew right there 
and then that the time had come for me to surf the Himalayas! 

The Nepalese receptionist at the Katmandu Youth Hostel arranged 
for me to get a ride up to the mountains with a local farmer, in the back 
of his yak-drawn cart. Sitting there on a pile of straw, next to my 
snowboard, I listened to the driver’s nonstop comments without 
understanding a word he said. 

Every time we passed a temple or a large building, he raised his 
right arm and pointed to it. Then he smiled at me, and in an excited 
voice, said something in Nepali that I couldn’t understand. In an attempt 
to be polite, I smiled back at him and nodded my head affirmatively—as 
if I understood what he had just said—as we bumped and bounced along 
the rock and gravel road together. 

After we had ridden in his cart together for several hours, the road 
turned sharply upward, and I began to get a closer look at the Himalayas. 
I was totally transfixed by their rough and jagged beauty. Staring at them 
from the back of the cart, I had a sudden experience of déjà vu. I clearly 
sensed that in some way, and at some other time, I had been in these 
majestic mountains before, even though this was the first time in my life 
I had ever visited the Himalayas. 

We gradually made our way up a high mountain pass. When we 
reached the crest of the pass, I motioned to the driver to stop and let me 
off; a small path wound its way skyward from that point to a section of 
the mountain higher than the road serviced. To get to the top of the 
mountain, I would have to proceed the rest of the way on foot. 

After I had taken my snowboard and the rest of my gear out of his 
cart, I thanked the driver in English and waved. He smiled and waved 
back at me. Then he said something to me in Nepali as he pointed up to 
the top of the mountain. I thought I detected a tone of warning in his 
voice, but for all I knew he was wishing me good luck. 

Turning around and waving good-bye to me, he drove off in his 
cart, leaving me alone, in the late-afternoon snow, halfway up my first 
Himalayan mountain. Strapping my board and day pack onto my back, I 
began the long, slow and arduous climb up the steep and rocky trail that 
led to the mountain’s summit. 







Chapter Two 
How I Met Master Fwap


After climbing steadily up the steep trail for more than three 
hours, I finally reached the mountain’s summit. Unlike the mountains in 
the United States that I was used to snowboarding, the Himalayas had no 
chair-lifts or rapid trams to ride up to the tops. Standing on the crest of 
my first Himalayan mountain, drenched in perspiration from my ascent, I 
looked down over the snow-covered slopes below me. 

As I gazed out over the distant horizon, I suddenly realized that I 
was on top of a mountain that was twice as high as any I had ever 
snowboarded before. I stood there and listened to the sound of the wind, 
hoping that the mountain I was on was not particularly prone to 
avalanches. 

I had brought the longer of my two snowboards with me that day. 
While slightly less maneuverable than my short board, the long board was faster and better suited to deep powder. 
After removing my day pack from my back, I unzipped it and pulled out my snowboarding boots. And after slipping them on, I placed my hiking boots inside my day pack, zipped it back up and reshouldered it. Finally, I placed my goggles over my eyes, mounted my snowboard and prepared to snowsurf down my first 
himalayan peak. The ride down was fantastic. I shot through the deep powder like to slow down.  as right then and there that I surfed my first 
Buddhist monk. 

He seemed to have come from nowhere. At first I thought I was 
dreaming again. But there, not twenty feet in front of my rapidly 
descending snowboard, stood a short, bald man in a saffron-colored robe! 


Fortunately for him, I wasn’t moving very fast when I snowboarded 
him. Unfortunately for me, after we had both stopped rolling in the snow 
and risen to our feet, it was more than evident from the monk’s expression 
that he was really disgruntled. 

I walked over to apologize to the bald-headed monk, and to see if 
he was all right. While he clearly wasn’t very happy with having just 
been snowboarded, he otherwise seemed fine. I glanced at his face, and 
much to my surprise, I recognized him. He was the same monk I had seen 
in my dream the night before. 

I stared at him silently, not knowing what to say or how to say it. I 
suddenly wished that I had taken a crash course in Nepali just prior to 
hitting him. After several more moments had passed, I broke the 
uncomfortable silence that was rapidly settling in between us. Assuming 
he wouldn’t understand a word I said to him, I apologized nonetheless in 
English to the short, bald-headed monk, who was still brushing snow 
from his robe. I felt an apology of some kind, even if it was in the wrong 
language, would be better than no apology at all. 

Judging from the intensity of the expression on his face, he seemed 
to be listening very seriously to what I was saying to him. After I finished 
my apology, his face seemed to relax, and he no longer looked quite as 
upset. 

I wanted to explain to him that I’d seen him in my dream, but in 
addition to my inability to speak Nepali, somehow it didn’t seem like 
quite the right moment to strike up a casual conversation. 

Several more moments of silence passed, as we both stared at each 
other. Then the monk, whose face was still covered with flecks of snow 
from his recent close encounter with a snowboarding American, spoke to 
me—not in the singsong Nepali that I would have expected from him, 
but in perfectly graceful, although slightly accented English. 


“Our meeting was fated, and your karma caused it to happen,” he 
began. “An apology for what was inevitable is totally unnecessary. Also, 
as you can see for yourself, I am unhurt. You look like you took much 
more of a tumble than I did, young man.” 

“I saw you in a dream I had last night!” I blurted out. 

“That was not a dream,” he replied. “It was real.” 

“What are you talking about?” I asked. 

“Oh come, come, my young friend, of course it was! Get the board 
that you flew down from the mountain on and walk with me back to 
Katmandu. We will talk as we walk. Come now—we must hurry along. 
The sun will soon be setting, and then it will be too cold out here even 
for one of Buddha’s monks.” 

As he spoke, I thought of the long walk that lay ahead of me back 
to the hostel in Katmandu, and suddenly realized that I was extremely 
tired. As if he had been reading my mind, the monk said, “I am sure we 
will not have to walk too far along this road before someone who is 
driving to Katmandu comes along and gives us a lift. There are certain 
advantages, my young friend, to being one of Buddha’s monks!” 

He smiled at me and proceeded to introduce himself. “My name is 
Master Fwap Sam-Dup. I am the last master of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz 
School of Tantric Mysticism and Buddhist Enlightenment. You can call 
me Master Fwap if you like.” 

After introducing himself, he quickly and gracefully bowed to me. 
He then asked me what my name was. I introduced myself to the aged 
monk, after which I bowed back to him, awkwardly and self-consciously. 
His eyes twinkled as he watched me, and I could tell he was secretly 
amused by the complete lack of savoir faire that I exhibited in my bow to 
him. 

Exchanging my snowboarding boots for my hiking boots, I 
shouldered my day pack and strapped my long board onto my back. Then 
the two of us walked down the remainder of the snow-covered mountain 
slope, until we reached the gravel road below. 











Chapter Three 
The Road to Katmandu


We walked down the rest of the slope without speaking. The only 
audible sound was the continuous crunching of my hiking boots on the 
frozen snow. When we finally reached the road, I had to sit down and rest 
for a few minutes; I was both physically and mentally exhausted from the 
altitude, the excitement of having just snowboarded my first Himalayan 
mountain, and the incredulity of walking down a mountain next to a 
short, bald-headed Buddhist monk, whom I had met the night before in a 
dream, and surfed today. 

While I was sitting on the snow-covered ground, trying as best I 
could to pull myself together, Master Fwap began to softly sing a 
Buddhist chant. The sound of his voice soothed me. After listening to 
him sing for a few minutes, I felt refreshed and relaxed. I stood up, and 
then Master Fwap and I began walking down the road to Katmandu 
together. 

While I was walking along the road next to Master Fwap, I had the 
opportunity to examine him more closely. He was about five feet tall, 
very thin, and couldn’t have weighed more than one hundred and twenty-
five pounds. From my six-foot-three-inch vantage point, I had an 
excellent view of his neatly shaved round head. 

His face, like that of so many Nepalese people, was gently wrinkled 
from a lifetime of exposure to bright sunlight and extreme high altitude. 
But despite the many small, fine lines of age, he didn’t seem at all old. In 
fact, his skin had a healthy and youthful glow. 

I guessed that Master Fwap was about seventy years old. His eyes 
were hazel-colored, although they seemed to change hue according to his 
mood. When he smiled—which was quite frequently—he revealed a 
perfect set of pearly white teeth. 


It was his eyes that kept catching my attention as we walked. They 

sparkled with an inner power and intelligence I had never witnessed in 
anyone else before. Walking next to Master Fwap, I had the strange and 
haunting feeling that I had always known him. For some unknown 
reason, it didn’t seem to be at all unusual or out of place for the two of us 
to be out walking together in the winter snow, down a Himalayan road, 
on a late January afternoon. 

“I sensed that we would be bumping into each other soon,” he 
laughed, “although I must admit I didn’t know that today would be the 
day. My own master, Fwaz Shastra-Dup, foretold of our meeting many 
long years ago. He said that one day I would run into a tall Western 
youth on this very mountain. I must admit though, at the time, I didn’t 
take his comments quite this literally!” he said with a hearty laugh. 

“If you don’t mind,” he continued, “I will tell you a little bit about 
myself as we walk. Then tomorrow, if you like, you can come to the 
temple where I live and visit me. It is on the western side of Katmandu, 
on the outskirts of town, in the foothills.” 

As we walked along the road to Katmandu, Master Fwap began to 
tell me about his life. He said that he had been born in a small village in 
eastern Tibet. As a child he had shown an early aptitude for Buddhism, 
and so—as was the custom in Tibet at that time—on his tenth birthday 
his parents admitted him to the local monastery to study Buddhist Yoga 
and to become a monk. 

Master Fwap told me he had spent many happy years growing up 
in the monastery. The senior monks taught him the Buddhist scriptures, 
meditation, astrology and Tibetan medicine, while he practiced Buddhist 
debate and martial arts with some of the younger monks. 


Master Fwap said that although the senior monks who taught and 
resided in his monastery were very knowledgeable about meditation and 
Buddhist Yoga, unfortunately none of them were “enlightened.” At the 
age of nineteen, when he had learned all he felt he could from the senior 
monks, he decided to leave the monastery and search for an enlightened 
Buddhist master of his own. Master Fwap explained to me that to become 
enlightened, it was necessary to first find and study with an enlightened 
Buddhist master. 


“I knew that only a fully enlightened Buddhist Yoga master who 
had the full power of enlightenment at his disposal,” Master Fwap 
explained, “would be able to show me how to attain enlightenment and 
reach nirvana in this very lifetime.” 

In his search for a fully enlightened master of his own, the young 
Master Fwap travelled and roamed for many years throughout Tibet, 
Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, China and India. In his travels he had met many 
Buddhist Yoga masters, some of whom could perform miracles! 

I asked Master Fwap if he would tell me about some of the miracles 
he had seen the Buddhist masters perform. He told me he had met 
Buddhist masters who could levitate, heal the sick, become invisible at 
will, fill the night sky with white and colored light, open 
interdimensional doorways, and do many other incredible things. He said 
the unusual powers these masters possessed that enabled them to perform 
these miracles were called “siddhas.” He explained that the masters he had 
met gained their siddha powers from many years of meditation upon their 
“chakras.” 

At that point I interrupted Master Fwap’s narration, and asked him 
if he would explain to me what chakras were. He told me that chakras are 
mystical energy centers that exist within the human aura. He said every 
living being has an aura, a field of psychic energy that surrounds and 
protects its physical body from negative psychic energies. He explained 
that the aura is the body’s “psychic immune system.” 

Master Fwap further explained that tremendous occult power 
resides in a person’s chakras, and that siddha masters draw upon that 
power during their meditation practices, store it within themselves, and 
later use it to perform miracles. 


Master Fwap told me that, while he had been very impressed by the 
siddha masters he had met, by the powers they wielded and by the 
miracles that they could perform, he hadn’t really felt that any of them 
were truly “enlightened.” 

I then asked Master Fwap—after first admitting to him that I had 
absolutely no idea what enlightenment was, or why anyone would want 
to seek it—how he could tell if a Buddhist master was really 
“enlightened” in the first place. 


Master Fwap responded that, in his opinion, there were two 
conditions that would indicate whether or not a Buddhist master was 
truly enlightened. The first condition was that the master’s aura would 
turn a beautiful, bright, golden color when he meditated. 

“Do you mean to say that you can actually see golden light 
surrounding an enlightened master’s body, Master Fwap?” 

“Oh yes, most definitely!” he said, as he nodded his head in 
affirmation. “Almost anyone can see the golden light in an enlightened 
master’s aura when the master meditates, unless, of course, the person is 
very blocked up psychically. 

Master Fwap elaborated, saying that sometimes you can see other 
colors in addition to gold in an enlightened master’s aura, and at very 
special moments, you can simultaneously see many colors in a master’s 
aura. He referred to this multicolored effect as a master’s “rainbow hue.” 

Master Fwap went on to say that the second characteristic that 
would indicate whether or not a master was truly enlightened was his 
sense of humor. He remarked that an enlightened Buddhist master would 
always have a totally outrageous sense of humor, because life, when 
viewed through the eyes of enlightenment, was incredibly funny! 



This surprised me. I guess I had always imagined somehow that 
Buddhist masters would be very stoical. Master Fwap informed me that 
while there are indeed as many sides to enlightenment as there are ways 
to achieve it, the experience of enlightenment always imparts a light and 
playful sense to both a master’s teachings and personality. 

Master Fwap went on to explain that sitting in front of an 
enlightened master while he is meditating is like being in the middle of 
an energy storm. “At times,” he said, “your entire body tingles with 
ecstasy as you feel the waves of psychic energy that emanate from the 
master’s aura touching your own body.” 

After his brief discussion about enlightenment, Master Fwap 
resumed his story about his search for an enlightened Buddhist master of 
his own. He told me that in all of his travels throughout the East, he had 
never encountered a master who fulfilled both of the necessary 
qualifications for enlightenment. He also said that while he had met a few 
very funny masters in his travels, none of them had emanated waves of 
golden light when they meditated. 


I asked Master Fwap if he had studied with any of the siddha 
masters he had met in his travels, and if so, had he learned how to do any 
miracles? To be honest, I was much more interested in hearing about the 
siddha masters and the miracles they performed than I was in learning 
about emptiness and enlightenment. 

Master Fwap responded by saying that spiritual knowledge, which 
he called “enlightened awareness,” is of much greater importance than the 
ability to perform a few miracles. 

“Spiritual knowledge is the experience of enlightenment, and 
requires an understanding of the innermost workings of the 
Enlightenment Cycle,” Master Fwap began. 

“Spiritual knowledge is the awareness of the eternal side of things: 
the eternal side of ourselves, of others, and of the worlds that exist both 
within and outside us. 


“The only reality that exists for most people,” Master Fwap 
continued, “is the world that greets their physical eyes and other senses 
every day. They believe that this world,” he said, moving his arm in a 
large, sweeping gesture that encompassed the entire valley we were 
walking through, “is all there is to life. 

“The world that you see around you appears to be physical. It is 
filled with mountains, snow, plants, animals and people. It is ruled by 
time and the laws that govern matter and energy. 

“It is a world in which we experience pleasure and pain, loss and 
gain, birth and death, happiness and sorrow. 

“Naturally, since most people are only aware of their physical 
natures and of the physical side of their lives, their happiness is extremely 
limited. When their physical lives are pleasant, when the events and 
circumstances in daily living turn out as they had wished or hoped, they 
will usually be happy for a short while. But when the events and 
circumstances in their lives don’t turn out as they had hoped or wished, 
most often they experience a great deal of sorrow, unhappiness and pain. 

“As I’m sure you know by now, based on your own experiences in 
life, most people aren’t really very happy. Beyond their surface 
appearances—the smiles that they wear for the rest of the world to look 
at—most people are soul-sick. The vast majority of people who populate 
our planet live lives of quiet desperation that are all too often quite harsh 
and painful—lives in which events and circumstances usually don’t turn 
out the way they had hoped or planned. 

“Most human beings are completely out of touch with their 
spiritual nature,” Master Fwap stated in a factual tone of voice, “and with 
the inner dimensions that exist within themselves. They don’t realize each 
person has a soul—an inner core of light and intelligence as vast as the 
ten thousand worlds—whose true nature is emptiness, ecstasy and 
happiness.” 




“But Master Fwap!” I quickly interjected, “Lots of people know 
about the soul. They teach people about that in church.” 

“Yes,” he replied. “Some people do know they have a soul. But just 
because, at one time or another, a priest or a monk told them they have a 
soul doesn’t mean they have personally experienced their own soul, or 
know how to get to it and bring its power, beauty, happiness and 
enlightenment into daily life. 

“Human beings are soul-sick because they are cut off from the 
ecstasy of creation. Enlightenment, which is the pure experience of the 
soul’s light, is not simply an intellectual understanding one gains about 
living; it is a direct and powerful entrance into, and experience of, the 
most ancient, knowledgeable and eternal part of ourselves. 

“We are luminous beings!” Master Fwap exclaimed. “Beneath our 
transient physical bodies, we are made of intelligent light. One’s own 
body of light—which I refer to as the soul—is the most real part of 
oneself because it lives forever. It doesn’t die and decay along with the 
physical body after death. At the end of each of our lifetimes, it 
transmigrates—through the process of reincarnation—into a new body 
that is just in the process of being born. Then the soul begins the cycle of 
living all over again in a new incarnation. 

“Beyond this world, the world we experience each day with our 
minds and our senses,” he continued, “are countless other worlds and 
dimensions. In deep meditation, when your thoughts have become silent, 
and your emotions are calm and at peace, you can travel into and 
experience the inner worlds and dimensions of light and perfection, and 
even experience nirvana itself. 

“There is no experience in this or any other world, whether it is in a 
physical or astral dimension, that can compare to the experience of 
enlightenment and nirvana. It is the highest ecstasy. There is nothing 
more.” 

Master Fwap became silent. Talking about enlightenment and 
nirvana seemed to have transported him to another plane. Walking next 
to him, I had the peculiar feeling that he was not entirely in his body. He 
seemed to have gone far away, to a very private place that I couldn’t quite 
see or reach. 


“Even when people manage, through luck, or through effort, to 
attain everything in life that they desire, their happiness is usually 
shallow and short-lived. Most successful people are surprised to find out 
that the attainment of their goals doesn’t necessarily bring them the 
happiness and joy they assumed would accompany their successes. And 
even the lucky ones, who do manage to become happy by attaining their 
goals, live each day with the constant fear of losing whatever it is they 
may have gained. 

“Even the rich aren’t often happy. Their wealth is at best only a 
temporary distraction. It doesn’t make them immune to emotional and 
mental suffering, or to disease and death. They too must deal with 
loneliness, the deaths of loved ones and the frustrations and boredom of 
old age. The rich may have more material goods and benefits than the 
poor, but most often they tend to lead spiritually impoverished lives. 

“Time holds the final claim check for everything we gain or attain 
in this lifetime!” Master Fwap stated emphatically. “All of our 
possessions, along with the people and feelings we love, are at best only 
loaned to us for a very short time by eternity. 

“If you live for a very long while, you will have to watch your 
friends and loved ones die, your body age and lose its beauty and vigor, 
and your mental capacities fade. All of your physical accomplishments, no 
matter how important and significant they might have seemed to you at 
one time, will be relegated to the past. 

“At the end of your life you will probably end up in an old-age 
home, or in a back room in one of your children’s houses, left only with a 
handful of fading memories and a body racked with great pain and 
suffering. 

“Unless you have gained the happiness and ecstasy that comes from 
the practice of meditation, the inevitable destruction of everything that 
you have loved and worked for will cause you to be very sad and lonely 
during the final days of your life here on this earth.” 
 
“But Master Fwap, how can enlightenment change any of that?” I 
asked. “Just because you are enlightened doesn’t mean you aren’t going to 
die, or that you will be protected from bad experiences in life, does it?” 

Master Fwap smiled at me and laughed. “No,” he said, 
“enlightenment won’t enable you to live forever in your current physical 
body, nor will it prevent all physical misfortunes from befalling you— 
although it will certainly help you avoid a great many of them,” he 
replied. 

“Then what good is it?” I asked. 

“Enlightenment makes you happy!” Master Fwap responded with a 
broad smile. “It is the experience of ecstasy beyond anything you can 
possibly imagine. Knowledge of the Enlightenment Cycle—of the ways 
that the inner dimensions and nirvana work—gives you an entirely new 
perspective on everything. It lifts you far above the transient sorrows, 
pains, pleasures and joys that the unenlightened masses experience each 
and every day of their lives.” 







Master Fwap Explains Enlightenment

 It was getting colder, and so far no cars or trucks had passed us. I 
zipped up my down parka all the way. After walking down the road for a 
few more minutes, I broke the silence that had settled in between us; I 
asked Master Fwap if he could give me a “brief” definition of 
enlightenment. He laughed so hard that his whole body shook. Then, to 
the best of my recollection, this is what he said. 

“Enlightenment is the complete awareness of life, without any 
mental modifications. It is the experience of everything—every 
dimensional plane, world and reality. It occurs when your mind merges 
with nirvana, with what we Tibetans call the Dharma-Käya—the clear 
light of reality—which is the highest plane of transcendental wisdom and 
perfect understanding. 

“Beyond this world, and beyond all other worlds,” he continued, 
“there is an all-perfect light. It is pure intelligence, ecstasy, peace and 


“Enlightenment is the experience of that endless and perfect light. 
There isn’t, however, any way that the experience of enlightenment can 
be conveyed in words. The closest you can come to knowing what it is 
like, without being enlightened yourself, of course, is to meditate with an 
enlightened master. 

“However,” Master Fwap continued, “while I may not be able to 
describe to you exactly what enlightenment is like, I can tell you that it is 
wonderful beyond understanding. The experience of enlightenment frees 
your mind from painful and limited states of awareness. It is ecstasy, 
peace and happiness beyond measure.” 

After Master Fwap explained to me why he couldn’t describe what 
enlightenment was like, he resumed his narrative about his search for an 
enlightened master of his own. He told me that after many years of 
fruitless travelling and searching, he had inwardly resolved that if he 
hadn’t met his master by the time he was twenty-nine, he was going to 
call off his search, and instead find a nice Tibetan woman to settle down 
with. 

But, as fate would have it, on the afternoon of his twenty-ninth 
birthday, on his way into town to look for a date, he at long last met his 
master. 

The narration of Master Fwap’s meeting with his master was 
interrupted when some long-haired, blond, Swedish mountain climbers 
picked us up and gave us a ride back to Katmandu in an old army truck. 
Along the way they talked with Master Fwap about how much they 
wanted to visit Tibet, whose borders were closed to tourists by the 
Chinese Communists. Master Fwap rode in silence, listening to what they 
had to say, or meditating (it was hard to tell which), until we pulled up 
in front of the hostel. 

Before we parted that day, Master Fwap gave me directions to the 
temple where he lived. He suggested that I visit him the next day around 
noon. I didn’t know what to say to him. I had come to Nepal to surf the 
Himalayas, not to spend my time talking about enlightenment with a 

Buddhist monk. I thanked him very much for his invitation and also for 
telling me a little bit about his life, and I apologized again for having 
snowboarded him. But in the back of my mind I knew I wouldn’t take 
him up on his offer to visit him the next day. 

I hopped out of the truck and thanked the Swedish driver and his 
friends for giving me a ride back into town. They said they were going to 
drive Master Fwap back to his temple. Laughing, they told me it would 
be very bad karma not to. 















Chapter Four 
A Second Unusual Dream


Undoubtedly I would not be telling you this story about my 
adventures as a young adult in Nepal, if I had not had a second, most 
unusual dream that night after returning to the hostel. After leaving 
Master Fwap and the Swedish mountain climbers, I entered the hostel 
and went in search of something to eat. I was famished from my 
snowboarding adventure and from my encounter and conversation with 
Master Fwap. 

After soup, bread and talk about politics with two French 
university students who had just arrived from India, I crawled into my 
sleeping bag, and immediately fell into what was at first a deep and 
dreamless sleep. 

Dreamless at first, but then I entered a dream that would change 
my life forever. 

In my dream I was wandering lost in a snowstorm. I was alone. I 
felt that I was in the mountains, but I really couldn’t be sure, because the 
snowstorm I found myself in was so severe that I could barely see a few 
feet ahead of myself. 

After walking blindly through the snow for what seemed like 
forever, I came upon a Buddhist temple. The door was slightly ajar. A 
soft, yellow light came from somewhere within the temple and spilled 
out through the partially opened door onto the snow-covered ground that 
lay before me. 

I walked up to the door, opened it the rest of the way and walked 
into the temple. Once inside, I found myself standing in a very large hall 
with stained glass windows and a vaulted ceiling. Looking around, I saw 
that the hall was lit by hundreds of small, flickering candles arranged in 
neat rows on iron racks attached to the walls. 


Directly before me, at the front of the room, stood a large, white, 
marble altar. Six giant, red candles were arranged symmetrically upon its 
surface. A large, colorful tapestry with a picture of the Buddha sitting in 
a meditative posture on it was hanging on the wall above the altar. 

At the far end of the room, facing the altar, I saw a man sitting in a 
cross-legged position on the floor. His eyes were closed, and he appeared 
to be absorbed in deep meditation. I found myself walking over to him. 
As I approached, he turned his head, opened his eyes and looked up at 
me. 

I sensed immediately that I knew him, although I couldn’t quite 
place where or when I had met him. He beckoned me silently, with a 
motion of his left hand, to come over and sit down next to him, and I did 
so. 

We stared at each other for a long time without speaking. I saw 
that he was an American. He appeared to be in his late forties, and was 
dressed in a black business suit with a brightly colored tie. 

“Listen to me,” he said in a deep and commanding tone. 
“Tomorrow you will go to the temple and visit Master Fwap. Forget 
about snowboarding for now—you have something much more important 
to do.” 

I didn’t reply. I just kept staring at him, trying to figure out where 
I had met him before. 

“You can’t possibly remember where you met me before,” he said, 
as if he were reading my thoughts. “So stop trying. This is the first time 
you have ever run into me. Don’t you know who I am?” 

I shook my head. 

“Well, I would think it should be obvious to you,” he said with a 
strong laugh. “I’m you. Not yet, of course, but in the future. I’m speaking 
to you in this dream tonight because you are about to make the biggest 
mistake in your thus-far uneventful life.” 


“What’s that?” I asked. 

“Going snowboarding tomorrow instead of seeing Master Fwap at 
his temple. You owe him your life, you know. You ran him down with 
your snowboard on that mountain today. He could easily have burned you 
into a very small pile of ashes, but because he is compassionate, he let you 


“Your—our—master, and to place us on our destined path.” 

“How are we doing?” I asked. 

“Oh, in the future? Well, it’s certainly going to be very different 
from what you had imagined. This place is my—our—temple. Not bad, 
is it? We designed it ourselves. 

“Don’t worry! Our future will reveal itself to you one day at a time, 
and that’s fast enough. The point I want to make to you tonight is that 
you must not make a mistake by going snowboarding tomorrow. Go and 
see Master Fwap instead. Oh, and by the way, he knows a lot more about 
snowboarding than you ever will.” 

The room turned gold, faded and dissolved, and I awoke to my 
second morning in Nepal. 












Chapter Five 
I Visit Master Fwap



I spent most of the early morning that day meandering through 
some of the shops in Katmandu. The majority of them sold inexpensive 
religious trinkets to tourists. But as distracted as I was by the sights and 
sounds of Katmandu, I couldn’t quite get the dream I had of my future 
self out of my mind. And reluctantly, I decided to heed my future self’s 
advice and seek out Master Fwap after all. 

Master Fwap’s temple was not too hard to find. It was about a half-
hour walk outside central Katmandu. The directions he had given me the 
day before were excellent, and before I knew it, I was knocking on his 
temple door. 

Master Fwap greeted me at the door with a big smile on his face 
and ushered me into the meditation hall. From there we walked to the 
rear of the temple, to an area where his living quarters were located. He 
seemed very happy to see me again. He laughed and made funny sounds 
and remarks as we walked through the temple together. 

His mood was infectious, and by the time we had reached the door 
to his room, I was very happy to be with him again. 

He opened the door to his room and led me inside. Looking 
around, I saw that Master Fwap’s room was lit by candles, although a 
little bit of light also filtered in through several small windows up near 
the ceiling. 

His room was small and clean. It contained a bed, a writing desk 
with a small chair, and a meditation table that had several white candles 
and a small bronze figure of the Buddha on it. On the floor in front of the 
meditation table was a large yak-hair carpet, on which he invited me to 
sit. 



After exchanging pleasantries with me, Master Fwap picked up his 
narration from the previous day, continuing his story as if no time at all 
had passed since we had walked down the snowy road to Katmandu 
together. 

Master Fwap resumed his story, telling me that he had finally 
encountered his long-sought-after master on the outskirts of a small town 
in western Tibet. As he was walking toward the town on that fateful day, 
in search of a date, he observed an older Buddhist monk standing by the 
side of the road several yards ahead. 

Just when he was about to walk past, the unknown elderly monk 
stepped right out in front of Master Fwap and blocked his passage into 
the town. 

Master Fwap came to an immediate stop, and out of Buddhist 
courtesy he waited for the older monk to walk by him. But the unknown 
monk continued to stand his ground and stared fiercely, directly into his 
eyes. 

It was precisely at that moment, while staring into the unknown 
monk’s eyes, that Master Fwap both literally and figuratively saw the 
light. As he stared at the unknown monk, he suddenly saw thousands of 
waves of golden light surrounding the monk’s entire body! Seeing the 
waves of golden, auric light emanating from the aged Buddhist monk, 
Master Fwap intuitively realized that the unknown monk who was 
blocking his passageway into town was none other than his past-life 
master from his previous incarnations. 

Instead of going into town and finding a date as he had planned, 
Master Fwap and his rediscovered past-life master went off together to 
meditate in a nearby cave, and to catch up on old times. 

Master Fwap’s master, whose name was Fwaz Shastra-Dup, revealed 
to him that day the secret mystical teachings and techniques of the Rae 


 


Chorze-Fwaz: information, Master Fwap told me, he in turn was going to 
reveal to me. 

Master Fwap said that because of my karma from previous lifetimes 
he was going to initiate me into the innermost, secret, Tantric teachings 
of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz Buddhist Order, just as he had been initiated and 
been taught those same secrets and techniques by his own master, Fwaz 
Shastra-Dup, in a Himalayan cave on that fateful day of their multilife 
reunion! It was all karma, he said. 









Chapter Six 
Master Fwap Explains Karma


At that point I was somewhat dazed and confused by Master 
Fwap’s sudden revelation that because of my past-life karma, he was going 
to initiate me into the secret Tantric Buddhist teachings of the Rae 
Chorze-Fwaz. I stalled Master Fwap trying to decide whether or not I 
wanted to get involved with his Tantric Buddhist revelations. 

To buy myself a little time, I asked Master Fwap if he would 
explain what karma was. I told him that, while I had heard the word used 
as slang hundreds of times before in California, I really had no idea what 
the word karma meant to a Tantric Buddhist master. 

Until my conversation with Master Fwap that day, it had been my 
understanding that karma meant what you have coming to you, because of 
what you have done in your past. I asked Master Fwap if he would 
elaborate on the meaning of the word, because I was sure that my 
understanding of karma was probably both superficial and incorrect. 

Master Fwap smiled at me for a moment and said nothing. I 
assumed he was collecting his thoughts on the subject before speaking. 
Then, in a deep and dramatic tone, he informed me that I already knew 
the answer to my own question. He said all I had to do was to recollect it! 

Master Fwap went on to explain that I had known all about karma, 
and many other mystical things, in my past lives. He said that all the 
knowledge from my previous incarnations was contained in what he 
referred to as my “other memory.” 

Master Fwap told me that if I would simply stop all my thoughts 
for just a few minutes and clear my mind of distracting influences, my 
other memory would start functioning, and I would be able to answer my 
own question about karma. 



I quickly replied that I didn’t think I could stop my thoughts for 
even a few seconds at a time—let alone for a few minutes—and that I 
would very much appreciate it if he would serve as my “other memory” 
for the time being. He laughed and said he would do it for me this time, 
but eventually I would have to learn to retrieve things from my other 
memory on my own. 



 “Karma is the way that Buddhists explain the universe,” Master 
Fwap began. “Buddhists understand that today, and all other days, have 
turned out the way they have because of karma. 

“The past leads to the present moment, and the present moment 
leads to the future. The interconnection of one moment with another 
moment, and of one action with another action, is karma. 

“Karma is what happens to you today,” Master Fwap continued. “It 
is simply the law of cause and effect in action. What occurs to you today 
is an outgrowth of what happened yesterday. All moments and 
occurrences are caused by other moments and occurrences that preceded 
them, in an endless, causal chain of karmic interactions that lead back 
indefinitely through time.” 

“But Master Fwap,” I interjected, “there had to be a beginning to 
karma at some point. Wasn’t there a first moment somewhere in karmic 
time?” 

“No.” He smiled. “Karma has always existed, as have you, I, and all 
things in this wonderful universe.” 

“Master Fwap, this is deep. Let me see if I correctly understand 
what you are saying: I exist today the way I do, and the world exists today 
the way it does, because of yesterday’s karma; and yesterday existed the 
way it did, because of the day before yesterday’s karma; and the day before 
yesterday existed the way it did, because of the preceding day’s karma; 



“Exactly!” he said, nodding his neatly shaved bald head in 
affirmation. 

“So does that mean that everything is fated, Master Fwap? If what 
occurs in this moment sets up the next moment, and so on forever, then 
there is really no such thing as free will, is there?” I asked. 

“A complicated question from one who is so young,” he replied. “I 
will do my best to answer it for you. You see, karma is fate, it is true! If 
you throw a rock up into the air, it will come down and land someplace. 
You might say that the place that the rock lands is its karma. But then 
again, it was your free choice whether or not to throw the rock up into the 
air in the first place. 

“Everything that exists in this or any other world or dimension,” he 
continued, “does so because of the way that things were in the previous 
moment. I call this the karma of the moment. 

“But with free will, we can modify, to a certain extent, the chain of 
karma that has been set in motion by the karma of the previous moment. 
That is what free will really is. It is the ability to alter the sequence of 
karmic fate that was about to become our future.” 

“So, Master Fwap,” I responded, “if I understand you correctly, you 
believe that we are the way we are because of how we were a moment ago. 
That moment leads to this moment, as this moment will lead to the next 
moment. I can understand that. 

“But Master Fwap, if that’s true, then how can free will exist? Isn’t 
the choice to alter your future karma by exercising your free will now 
predestined by what you were thinking and feeling and by what was 
happening to you in the previous moment?” 

Master Fwap shook his head and laughed. “All of this is perhaps a 
little bit more complicated than it initially appears to be,” he replied. 
“Let me try to describe the interaction of karma and free will to you in 
another way. Let us consider, as a way of trying to understand how karma 
works, who we are and how we got to be who we are. 


 
“You see, my young friend,” Master Fwap continued, “karma not 
only means that what happens to you in the present moment is a direct 
outgrowth of what occurred to you in the previous moment. It also means 
that you are who you are right now because of who you were in the 
previous moment. 

“Buddhists believe that you are who you are today because of who 
you have been in all of your past lives. 

“It is the Tantric Buddhist belief that today you are the product of 
all the moments you have lived in your current life so far, and of all the 
moments, realizations and experiences you have had in all your past lives 
as well. 

“The person you are today, the feelings you have, the thoughts you 
think and the way you see yourself are all part of your past-life and 
present-life karmas.” 

I must have had a puzzled look on my face, because he paused and 
laughed. “Let me use myself as an example,” he continued. “I have always 
been interested in Buddhism, astrology, psychic perception and 
enlightenment. I was born this way. My brothers and sisters, who grew 
up in the same family I did and who were exposed to the same physical 
and spiritual environments I was, have little or no interest in these inner 
matters. They are all primarily concerned with physical things that relate 
to their material success, such as making a living and raising a family. 

“My brothers and sisters and I all had the same biological parents. 
We were all raised in the same way. But each of us is very different. That 
is our karma—who we were born as, and also who we grew up to be. 

“Death is not the end of who we are,” Master Fwap said in a warm 
and intimate tone. “It is only a brief pause in the endless cycle of our 
lives. 

“Each of us is a spirit that cannot die. Our spirit grows and 
develops traits in each incarnation that it passes through, and then 
collects and carries the essence of those traits into future lifetimes. In 
Buddhist Yoga we refer to our multilife karmic traits as samskaras. They 
are the internal karmic patterns that make each of us who and what we 
are. 

 
“We are born into this lifetime as the person that we were at the 
moment of our death in our last lifetime. Our adult personality is a 
mirror image of who we were in the last stage of our life in our previous 
incarnation.” 

I could tell by the smile on Master Fwap’s face that he knew I had 
absolutely no idea what he was talking about. After a brief period of 
silence, Master Fwap tried yet another approach to enlighten me on the 
subject of karma. 

“Try thinking of it this way,” Master Fwap began, “Children go to 
school in the winter. In the summer they stay at home. When they return 
to school the next fall, they resume their education in a higher grade 
because of the schoolwork and the grade they completed the previous 
year. 

“While it is true that a child may have developed some new ideas 
or interests during the course of the previous school year, or over the 
summer, or even may have changed their views on several subjects, the 
essence of the child’s personality will have remained the same. Although 
the child is now in a new and higher grade, and may now know new 
things and have had many new and different experiences, the child is still 
the same child. 

“In much the same way, whatever you have learned in your 
previous incarnations is retained within your ‘causal body’—your multi-
lifetime body of energy that lives from one incarnation to another. 

“It is your causal body that is the real you. At the end of each 
incarnation, it carries the knowledge and karmic patterns of that 

particular lifetime, in addition to the knowledge and karmic patterns of 
all of your other previous lifetimes, into your next incarnation. 

“Death is only a summer vacation for us!” Master Fwap exclaimed. 
“We don’t really change or lose what we have learned or who we have 
been when we die, because we are our karma. 

“The choices we make and the thoughts we allow ourselves to 
think, the emotions that we let run through our bodies and minds and 
the interests we pursue, these are the things that shape and define the 
spirit. That is what karma is really made of.” 

Master Fwap paused for a moment to examine me. He arched his 
eyebrows slightly and then looked directly into my eyes. He must have 
been at least partially satisfied by what he saw there, because he smiled, 
bowed his head, and then said jokingly “Buddha’s name be praised!” 
Then, after several minutes of silence, he resumed his discussion of karma 
with me. 

“So, for example, in my case, in my last several dozen lifetimes I 
was a teacher of Buddhist enlightenment. I was enlightened, and I helped 
others who were interested in self-discovery to advance along the pathway 
to enlightenment in each of my enlightened lifetimes. 

“The reason I was enlightened in my last several dozen incarnations 
was that many, many thousands of incarnations ago, of my own free will, 
I became interested in self-discovery and in the study of enlightenment. I 
studied meditation and learned all about the inner worlds and the higher 
dimensions from great Buddhist masters who knew about these matters. 

“One lifetime led to another. In each lifetime, after first passing 
through the amnesia of infancy and childhood, the inclinations and 
memories from my past lives would resurface. Once this happened, I was 
irresistibly drawn back to the study of meditation and enlightenment. In 
one particular incarnation, I became enlightened, and I have regained and 
refined my enlightenment in every incarnation I have had since that time. 

“However, in my current lifetime, on the fateful day of my twenty-
ninth birthday, when I had just met my past-life master, Fwaz Shastra-
Dup, outside that little town in Tibet, I had absolutely no idea I had ever 
been enlightened in any of my previous incarnations. 


“Master Fwaz Shastra-Dup told me that I had been enlightened in 
my past lives,” Master Fwap continued. “He then taught me how to use 
the secret and powerful meditation techniques of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz. 
After practicing the techniques each day for many years, coupled with my 
master’s spiritual guidance and auric empowerments, I was able to bring 
my past-life enlightenment back. Later, because it was also my karma, 
Master Fwaz made me his successor. 

“This all happened to me in this lifetime because of the things I 
had learned and the choices I had made in my previous incarnations. 
What I have learned and done in my past lives and in this lifetime, is 
what I have become. This is the secret of what karma really is.” 

“But Master Fwap, I still don’t understand the difference between 
karmic fate and free will. Wasn’t it your karma to meet your past-life 
master, and to regain your enlightenment, because of the fact that you 
had been enlightened in your previous lifetimes?” 

“Yes, that is true,” he replied. “But it was through the exercise of 
my free will in the first place that I began the study of meditation. That, 
and other choices I made to follow and stay on the pathway to 
enlightenment, led to my first enlightened incarnation, and also to my 
subsequent enlightened incarnations. 

“You see,” he continued, “free will exists and operates outside 
causality. It is not hooked to karma. Free will is like a well that is on your 
property. You can choose to draw water from the well or not. That is up 
to you. The well will still be there whether or not you choose to use it. 

“Free will exists within each of us,” Master Fwap stated factually. 
“Most people choose not to use their free will, so consequently they rarely 
alter their karmic patterns. 




“For most individuals, each new lifetime is a mirror image of the 
individual’s previous incarnation,” Master Fwap explained. “But if you 
choose to draw from the inner well of free will, then you can make choices 
that are outside your current karmic patterns. 

“You can alter the structure of your samskaras, and of your current 
and future incarnations,” Master Fwap said emphatically. “By choosing to 
use your free will today, you can become someone vastly different from 
the person you have been so far in this life, or the persons you have been 
in any other lifetimes that you have ever lived. 

“Advanced Buddhist Yoga is the art of altering your karmic 
patterns,” Master Fwap continued. “Through the practice of meditation, 
and with the auric empowerments and guidance of an enlightened master, 
you can totally change your karmic destiny. 

“By practicing Buddhist Yoga, you can become happy, ecstatic and 
free in your current incarnation, even if you have never been that way 
before in any of your past lives, or thus far in your current life. Believe 
me, this is true. If there wasn’t a way around the samskaras, no one would 
ever become enlightened. 

“Remember,” Master Fwap said, lifting his hands in front of his 
chest to emphasize what he was saying, “karma exists within causality. It 
is three-dimensional. Free will exists outside causality; it is not bound by 
karma. 

“By exercising your free will, thinking happier thoughts, making 
happier choices, and by learning and following the Buddhist way, you can 
totally change your karma forever. You can reshape your spirit and 
become a new and more ecstatic being. 

I asked Master Fwap why we weren’t all born knowing about our 
past lives. I reasoned out loud that if we all had lived before, we should 
simply remember our past lives from the moment we were born, in the 
same way that we remember something today that we experienced 
yesterday. 

He responded that most human beings who have been spiritually 
evolved in their past lives go through a stage he called “unknowing” 
during which they experience a temporary state of “spiritual amnesia.” He 
told me that “unknowing” normally lasts from birth through adolescence. 


“One day,” Master Fwap said, “a person who has attained advanced 
levels of mind in past lives begins to remember...and spiritual knowledge 
and talents from past lives begin to resurface into the person’s current 
self. 

“As the memories and awareness from past lives flood into a 
person’s current life,” he continued, “that person goes through a profound 
metamorphosis, and gains a totally different personality. During this 
metamorphosis, people usually lose interest in superficial things like 
possessions and relationships, and instead suddenly find themselves drawn 
to the study of the ancient, eternal and metaphysical truths. As they enter 
more deeply into this phase, they become calm, happy and centered, 
focused on the transcendental rather than the transitory. 

“When a person who has had highly evolved past lives is going 
through a strong past-life transit, and is pulling up other-life memory 
from those prior lifetimes, that person comes to know things about life, 
death and other dimensions that most people in our world aren’t aware of. 
Very often while this is happening, the person also rapidly regains and 
begins to employ past-life psychic powers, and to do things with them 
that defy description.” 

After a period of silence, Master Fwap told me that most people 
who have been enlightened in their previous incarnations would normally 
begin to regain their past-life enlightenment—if they lived at sea level— 
at around the age of twenty-nine, when their astrological Saturn return 
took place. He said that living in or near sacred mountains, because of 
their beneficial auric influences, often made past-life returns happen even 
faster. 






Chapter Seven (Very short one).

I Ask a Question


I asked Master Fwap how he could be so sure that all of this was 
true. How did he know that it wasn’t all just fantasy? 

He told me that he could “see” everything he had told me was true 
because his third eye was open. He said someday, after practicing 
meditation for many years, my third eye would also open, and then I 
would be able to “see” anything in the universe I wanted to, just as he 
could. 








Chapter Eight 

The Secret of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz
That afternoon, while I was seated on the yak-hair rug in his small 
but comfortable room, Master Fwap told me the “secret” of the Rae 
Chorze-Fwaz. It wasn’t exactly a “secret,” like something you keep hidden 
from others; instead, it was more like the secret of how something works, 
for instance, the “secret” of how a jet plane flies. 

Master Fwap told me that the “secret” of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz 
concerned their special meditation techniques for attaining 
enlightenment extremely rapidly. He said the Rae Chorze-Fwaz had 
preserved and passed on their secret meditation techniques in oral 
tradition from the time of Atlantis until the present day. 

And that is where the real story of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz, Fwaz 
Shastra-Dup (Master Fwap’s master), Master Fwap, myself and you, the 
reader of my Himalayan adventures that occurred when I was a young 
man, begins to get just a little bit cosmically complicated. 


According to Master Fwap, the Rae Chorze-Fwaz was a mystery 
school, a school where the mysteries of the universe were taught. Master 
Fwap patiently explained to me that a mystery school is an occult order 
comprised of people who study meditation, enlightenment and psychic 
and occult arts. 

Master Fwap told me that the Rae Chorze-Fwaz had been in 
existence for millennia. He explained that the members of the order 
traced their origins back through Tibet, Japan, China, India and ancient 
Egypt to the place where the order was founded—the lost continent of 
Atlantis. 


Master Fwap recounted that long before the advent of what the 
scientists and scholars of our day consider to be the beginning of human 
civilization, there was an age undreamed of: the age of Atlantis. 

Atlantis, according to Master Fwap, was a highly evolved 
civilization where the sciences and arts were far more advanced than one 
might expect. He told me that, in addition to being technically advanced 
in genetic engineering, computer science and interdimensional physics, 
and artistically developed in electronic music and crystal art forms, 
almost all of the people who lived in Atlantis meditated and had powerful 
psychic skills. 

Master Fwap further explained that a group of highly evolved 
Atlantean men and women—the high priests and priestesses of 
Atlantis—had discovered, through their meditation practices, many of 
the deepest secrets of the universe. Through meditation and astral travel 
they had come to understand all about reincarnation, karma and the 
innermost workings of the Enlightenment Cycle. 

In a hushed voice, Master Fwap recounted how, in their 
meditations, the high priests and priestesses of Atlantis had seen that the 
Atlantean civilization was going to end cataclysmically. He said that, 
knowing the imminent destruction of Atlantis was rapidly approaching, 
the high priests and priestesses wanted to preserve and protect the 
mystical knowledge they had gained from their meditation practices and 
pass it on to future civilizations they clairvoyantly saw were going to be 
born after the destruction of Atlantis. 

Because the high priests and priestesses of Atlantis could “see” 
through their third eyes, Master Fwap explained, they knew exactly when 
and how their continent was going to be destroyed. 

The night before Atlantis sank beneath the waves forever, the 
members of the mystery school set sail from their doomed continent in 
twelve boats, headed for twelve different points on the globe. Master 
Fwap told me it was their intention to start twelve new civilizations 
similar to Atlantis in these locations. 

“Unfortunately,” Master Fwap said nostalgically, “half the boats, 
along with their passengers and crews, were lost in a great storm at sea, 


“The only group of Atlanteans that was truly successful in 
transplanting their knowledge to a new location,” Master Fwap added, 
“was the group that landed in what is now Egypt. 

“Having established themselves in Egypt,” he continued, “they 
found and educated people there to whom they eventually transmitted 
their secret techniques and knowledge.” 



At that point, I interrupted Master Fwap’s chronicle of his mystical 
order, and inquired why all of this was necessary to begin with. I reasoned 
that even if all of the members of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz in Atlantis had 
died when their continent had sunk, or had been lost in small boats at sea 
afterwards, they would have soon reincarnated and remembered 
everything anyway. 

Master Fwap said that unfortunately past-life remembrance wasn’t 
quite that simple, and in order for me to properly understand why this 
was so, I needed a brief course in the earth’s energy cycles and auric 
patterning. 














Chapter Nine 
Master Fwap’s Brief Course
in the Earth’s Cycles and
Auric Patterning

Everyone is psychic,” Master Fwap declared with a broad smile. 
“When your mind is clear and focused, and if there aren’t too many 
people in your immediate vicinity, you can feel all kinds of wonderful 
things! You can feel the brightness of eternity and the ecstasy of creation. 
You can see the light of enlightenment inside everything. 

“When your mind is clear and your third eye is open, you can see 
and know things that are taking place thousands of miles away from you. 
You can know what other people are thinking about you, or what is 
coming at you—and decide whether or not you want to experience it. 

“During the time of Atlantis, members of the mystery school 
discovered and developed specific concentration exercises that they found 
would radically increase and sharpen their innate psychic abilities. These 
techniques, when properly employed, allowed them to control and 
suspend their thought processes for prolonged periods of time.” 

Master Fwap then explained to me that by suspending thought for 
prolonged periods—a practice that he and other modern-day Buddhist 
masters refer to as meditation—an individual can perceive and have direct 
experiences in countless nonphysical worlds and dimensions. 

“The members of the Atlantean mystery school were the earliest 
human explorers of the frontiers of inner space!” Master Fwap exclaimed 
jubilantly. “Through their internal meditative journeys and explorations, 
they discovered many secret astral passageways that led to an infinite 
variety of other worlds and dimensions.” 


“Why yes, of course they are,” he replied. “As a matter of fact, some 
of those dimensions are much more ‘real’ than this universe is.” 

I interrupted him again: “But how can that be, Master Fwap? 
Nothing can be more real than the physical world. Isn’t that what the 
word ‘real’ means to begin with?” 

“Reality is perhaps a more complicated concept than you might 
imagine,” he quickly replied. “In our Eastern languages we have many 
different words to describe the varying degrees of reality that a thing, a 
state of mind or a plane of being may have.” 

“But I still don’t see, Master Fwap, how one object or world can be 
more real than another,” I protested. 


“You are having trouble understanding this concept because you 
are thinking in English,” Master Fwap said. “The language you think in 
can limit your ability to understand something like this.” 

“What do you mean by that, Master Fwap? Now you are really 
confusing the issue by blaming it on semantics.” I was beginning to get 
frustrated by my lack of understanding, and for some unknown reason I 
felt that Master Fwap was intentionally making his explanation more 
complicated and abstruse than was really necessary. 

“Consider the word ‘love’ as an example,” Master Fwap calmly 
responded. “Now, as you know, love is an emotion. In your English 
language you have just a single word for what is perhaps one of the most 
complex feelings in all of eternity. 

“But there are thousands of types of love, aren’t there?” he 
continued. There is romantic love, family love, friendship, flirtation, 
parental love, the love of God and the spirit, jealous and possessive love, 
selfless love, innocent love, multiple-life love and so on. As a matter of 
fact, no two people ever experience love in exactly the same way. 

“But in English you have just one word for something that is so 
complicated. In other languages, however, there are sometimes dozens or 
even hundreds of different words for the degrees and types of love that 
human beings can experience.” 



“But what does that have to do with different degrees of reality?” I 
asked. 

“Everything and nothing,” Master Fwap responded at once. “Don’t 
allow yourself to get frustrated so easily. Give me a few more moments of 
your time, and I think you will understand what I mean. 

“You see, my young friend, language is the medium of our 
thoughts. Thoughts can increase our understanding of a subject, or they 
can just as easily constrict or block our understanding of a subject. It very 
much depends upon the language that we are thinking in. 

“If the language that we think in doesn’t have the right words for 

what we are trying to understand or express, it’s like trying to put a 
square peg into a round hole. 

“So,” he continued, “if you have only one word for all the colors of 
love, then you may begin to ‘think’ love instead of feeling it. You may 
take it for granted that when you think the word ‘love,’ you already know 
and have experienced all of its possible permutations.” 

“Let me see if I understand you correctly, Master Fwap. In other 
words, when I think the word ‘love’ in my mind, you are suggesting I 
have a concept for love that is based upon my past experiences and 
associations with love, and that this concept will stop me from 
experiencing other types of love, unless I have additional words at my 
disposal that define different gradations of love. Is that what you mean?” 

“Exactly!” he replied with a broad smile. 

“But if that is the case, Master Fwap,” I continued, in a mock 
argumentative fashion, “why would thinking the word ‘love’ in any way 
curtail new and different feelings of love, as they would spontaneously 
arise within me? Wouldn’t the new types of love I feel and experience for 
people, places and things modify and expand the meaning of the word 
‘love’ for me?” 

At this point, I was getting a little bit giddy. Everything that had 
seemed so frustrating to me just moments before, had somehow suddenly 
taken on a comic tone. It seemed to me that Master Fwap and I were both 
taking part in a ludicrous mock debate, of absurd proportions, similar to 


Master Fwap’s Brief Course in the Earth’s Cycles 

Master Fwap’s Brief Course in the Earth’s Cycles 

“Master Fwap, does thinking a word stop me from experiencing 
what the word describes?” I asked. 

“Yes and no,” he replied. 

“Which part is yes and which part is no?” 

“Do you know much about Zen Buddhism?” Master Fwap 
inquired, with what I perceived to be a deceptively wry smile. 

“No, not really. Tell me about it.” 

“It is the method of knowing the mind through its own 
emptiness.” 


“What does that mean, Master Fwap?” 

“Zen Buddhists believe that when we think about something 
conceptually, we cut ourselves off from its true essence. From a Zen point 
of view, it is only by going beyond our limited concept of something, and 
experiencing its ‘suchness,’ or essential nature, that we really come to 
know what a thing, experience or understanding truly is. 

“The Zen Buddhist monks use concentration techniques to rid 
themselves of concepts. They believe enlightenment lies just beyond 
words, in the things and experiences of daily life that are right in front of 
us at every moment. In short, according to Zen doctrine, happiness comes 
when we rid ourselves of the concepts that society, language and 
structured thinking have given us. 

“There is an old Zen saying,” Master Fwap continued. “Before 
enlightenment, chop wood and carry water; after enlightenment, chop 
wood and carry water.” 

Master Fwap paused and waited for me to respond. 

“What does that mean?” I hesitantly inquired. 

“It means that enlightenment doesn’t really change anything, yet it 
changes everything; or you might say that enlightenment changes 
everything without changing anything.” 

“Master Fwap, are you deliberately trying to confuse me?” 


“No,” he replied with a good-natured laugh, “I am not deliberately 
trying to confuse you at all. Actually I don’t think that I have to. You’ve 
been doing a pretty good job of confusing yourself all your life.” 

“What does that phrase mean then? I don’t understand it!” 

“It’s a way of trying to explain what enlightenment is and isn’t,” 
Master Fwap responded. “Most people who read about or study 
enlightenment have a preconceived notion of what enlightenment is. 
Naturally that concept, like all concepts, is limited by the words that 
make it up. So this phrase explains that enlightenment is not a concept. 

“Before enlightenment,” Master Fwap continued, the Zen Buddhist 
monk chopped wood and carried water. After he became enlightened, he 
continued to chop wood and carry water. 

“Most people assume,” Master Fwap continued, “that after they 
become enlightened, their outer lives will magically change. They 
imagine that they will suddenly dress in flowing robes, give up working, 
and spend their time sitting on top of a mountain meditating in bliss all 
day.” 

“Well wouldn’t you, Master Fwap? I mean, what good would 
enlightenment be if it didn’t change your life? Isn’t that why people seek 

enlightenment, to get away from the boredom and frustration of their 
daily experiences?” 

“Exactly!” Master Fwap replied. “That’s what most people think. 
But that is not necessarily the case. You see, enlightenment allows you to 
perceive things differently. Perception is the key to everything. 

“Before the Zen monk became enlightened, chopping wood and 
carrying water seemed like mundane, repetitious and boring tasks to him. 
But after he became enlightened, his perception of chopping wood and 
carrying water, and of everything else in life, radically changed. He 
discovered that enlightenment exists in chopping wood and carrying 
water, as much as it also does in sitting on top of a mountain and 
meditating all day. 

“Before you become enlightened,” Master Fwap continued 
patiently, “the world appears to be three-dimensional, dull and boring. 
But in reality, the world is not three-dimensional, and if you are at all 
aware, it is anything but boring. 


“Before he became enlightened, the monk’s thoughts, concepts and 
mental routines blocked his perception of the infinite brightness that 
exists within all things. 

“After his enlightenment, while the monk’s body might still have 
been chopping wood and carrying water, his mind was constantly 
roaming through the ecstatic dimensions of light. So the point of the Zen 
phrase is that enlightenment is not what you think it is, because 
enlightenment is beyond the power of your thoughts and ability to 
understand. 

“Once you have become enlightened,” Master Fwap said 
dramatically, “you don’t have to live in a monastery, because the whole 
universe has become your monastery. You can lead a normal life doing 
whatever you choose. 

“Physically it might appear that nothing remarkable has changed 
in your day-to-day life. But within your mind, you will live in a 
condition of continuous light and ecstasy, just like the Zen monk.” 

“But Master Fwap, I still don’t understand how some types of 
reality can be more real than others.” 

“Once you get beyond your conception of what reality is,” Master 
Fwap said, “you will transcend the words and concepts you have already 
developed for reality. It’s really that easy. But as long as you continue to 
‘think’ life, instead of directly experiencing it in a nonconceptual way, 
you will not understand any more about reality than you do today. 

“So,” he remarked, “let us forget for a few minutes that we have a 
preconceived understanding of what the word ‘real’ means. Let’s start 
from scratch, and through observation determine what is real and what is 
not. Let’s find out, by directly examining life, if some things have more 
reality than other things.” 

At that point in our discussion Master Fwap paused. “How would 
you define reality? What, in your opinion, makes something real?” 

“Well, I suppose something is real because it exists,” I replied. 

“But things don’t exist, or if they do exist, they only exist for a 
fleeting moment.” 

“What do you mean by that, Master Fwap?” 

“Well, the only thing that exists is this moment, right here and 
now,” Master Fwap said emphatically. “There is no past,” he continued, 
“not past any given moment that is still taking place. The past, whether 
it was thousands of years ago or just a few seconds ago, only exists as an 
idea or impression in our memory.” 

“So then, what is real isn’t real for more than a fleeting moment. Is 
that what you are saying?” I inquired. 

“Exactly so!” he swiftly replied. “And to complicate matters even 
further, the reality of a thing depends entirely upon your perception of it, 
and your perception of an event lasts only for an instant before it fades 
into memory.” 

“Master Fwap, I think this is getting a little too metaphysical for 
me. I’m starting to get a headache!” I said in a sudden outburst. 

“Try thinking of it this way,” he continued, ignoring my overly 
emotional statement. “What makes something real to begin with is the 
fact that it exists. We both agree that when something doesn’t exist, it 
isn’t real. So suppose some things exist longer than other things do. 
Would you say that makes them more real?” 

“I suppose so,” I reluctantly agreed. 

“Enlightened Buddhist masters know that nothing in the physical 
or astral worlds exists for more than a moment at a time. But they also 
know that nirvana exists continuously; it is a constant. So therefore 
nirvana—which is enlightenment—is certainly more real than anything 
physical or astral, because it never ends. 

“The only constant outside nirvana is change,” Master Fwap 
continued. “Nothing remains the same from one moment to the next, in 
this or any other dimension. You may think that things do, but that is a 
trick of your thoughts and conceptions. 

“All things and beings are made up of vibrating energy,” he 
continued. “Nothing in the universe is really as solid as it looks. For 
example, an unenlightened person sees a tree as something solid and 



“The universe is made up of endless dimensional planes,” Master 
Fwap said strongly. “Some planes are more durable than others, and of 
course nirvana is beyond change. So the closer a plane of being is to 
nirvana, in a way of speaking, the more real it is. Conversely, the farther 
away from nirvana something is, the less real it is.” 

“But Master Fwap, I thought you said that nirvana wasn’t spatial. 
It’s not really a physical place, is it? If that is the case, then how can one 
dimension be closer to it, or another be farther from it?” 

“You are absolutely correct.” Master Fwap swiftly responded. 
“Nirvana is not spatial, not in the way that you mean, anyway. I know 
that, as frustrating as it may be for you, there is really no way to explain 
nirvana at all. Words are useless. 

“Nirvana is something you have to experience directly in order to 
know it,” Master Fwap elucidated. “And nirvana is not something you can 
know directly, in the way you can know a person, know how to do 
something, or know and understand a concept. 

“The knowing of nirvana is nonconceptual knowledge,” he 
continued. “That is why, in Buddhist philosophy, we say nirvana is the 
wisdom beyond the mind’s knowing. 

“We meditate and practice mindfulness to go beyond the limited 
concepts that keep us in relatively unreal states of mind,” Master Fwap 
said with a twinkle in his eyes. “Beyond the limited states of mind most 
human beings experience, there are more durable levels of perception that 
exist in the astral and the causal planes. 

“When you experience these more ‘real’ levels of perception you 
will be happy all the time. So the members of the Atlantean mystery 
school practiced meditation, and discovered there are varying degrees of 
reality in the universe. In addition, they also discovered that internal 
harmony directly affects a person’s ability to perceive and experience 
enlightened states of consciousness.” 

 


Master Fwap Continues His Narrative. 

“In and through their internal study and metaphysical research, the 
members of the mystery school discovered that there was a strong 
relationship between one’s state of mind and one’s level of psychic 
attainment. They found that an individual who wasn’t happy, 
emotionally in control, balanced, funny and at peace with himself 
couldn’t fully develop his innate psychic powers. 

“The reason for this is deceptively simple,” Master Fwap said with a 
laugh. “All psychic and spiritual development is dependent upon an 
invisible internal energy called prana. Prana—which is sometimes also 
called kundalini or chi—is the energy of consciousness. The amount of 
prana that people store within themselves determines both their level of 
day-to-day awareness, and also their ability to use their psychic and occult 
powers. 

“Prana is stored in an internal ‘reservoir’ inside a person’s subtle 
body,” Master Fwap continued. “Certain activities like meditating, 
visiting places of power, and being empowered by an enlightened master 
increase the amount of prana a person has. 

“There are also ways of thinking, acting and feeling that quickly 
use up stored prana and unnecessarily waste it. The fastest ways to burn 
up and waste prana are to experience unhappiness, hate, anger, depression, 
self-pity and egotism. 

“When people’s lives are in a continual state of emotional and 
mental upheaval,” Master Fwap explained, “they lose almost all of their 
prana, even if they meditate and engage in other internal practices that 
increase their psychic energy level every day. 

“Without the internal energy that stored prana provides, people 
cannot develop their higher psychic perceptions, let alone gain siddha 
powers and become enlightened. 

“They observed that most individuals, without consciously 
realizing it, absorb a great deal of psychic energy from the people they 
casually associate with, and an even a greater amount of psychic energy 
from the people with whom they have strong emotional connections. 

“The energies and mental states that we psychically pick up from 
the people we are emotionally close to or those with whom we physically 
interact build up on our subtle body, in much the same way that dirt 
builds up on our physical body during the course of a day. 

“If these negative auric vibrations are not kept to a minimum by 
using psychic shielding techniques, and if they aren’t cleansed from our 
subtle body each day through the practice of meditation, they will 
accumulate and eventually become extremely toxic. 

“The buildup of negative auric vibrations initially impairs our 
ability to perceive psychically,” he continued to elucidate. “If these 
energies build up over a long period of time, they can eventually cause us 
to become physically ill. Most serious illnesses, including many types of 
cancer, are the result of auric toxicity.” 

Master Fwap went on to explain that the secret knowledge of 
enlightenment is like a flame. He said the first people to become 
enlightened in Atlantis had, in effect, lit the “flame of enlightenment” on 
earth for the first time. The members of the various mystery schools of 
spiritual and psychic development had kept that flame of enlightenment 
alive by preserving and passing on—from generation to generation—the 
secret techniques for attaining enlightenment, from the time of Atlantis 
to our present day. He said the Rae Chorze-Fwaz was the most recent 
Tibetan incarnation of the mystery schools of the past. 

Master Fwap also informed me that during the Atlantean Cycle, the 
earth’s aura—the invisible astral energy field that surrounds and protects 
our planet and through which all psychic perception flows—was very 
pure. He compared the earth’s aura to its ozone layer. 

“The earth’s ozone layer,” Master Fwap continued, “is an invisible 
shield that protects human beings and other living things from the sun’s 
ultraviolet radiation. If the earth’s ozone layer ever becomes severely 
depleted, most plant and animal life on our planet will perish. 

“In a similar way, all living things have an aura, a rapidly 
vibrating, invisible psychic energy field that protects them from toxic, 
nonphysical energies that would otherwise be detrimental to them. 

“During the age of Atlantis, there were only several hundred 
thousand people living on our planet. They lived in a sublime state of 
harmony with nature. At that time, because of the purity of the earth’s 
aura, it was much easier to meditate, to be in touch with the spiritual side 
of your being, and to become enlightened. 

“Think of it this way,” Master Fwap continued. “If you want to 
hear music on the radio, you simply have to tune in to a station and listen 
to what is playing. But if hundreds and thousands of stations were all 
jamming the airwaves at the same time, you wouldn’t be able to hear any 
of them. Even if they were all playing the most beautiful music, you 
would only hear a dissonant white noise coming out of your radio. 

“Every living being is psychic!” he exclaimed. “Whether or not we 
are consciously aware of it, we all feel vibrations and energies coming to 
us from other people all of the time. We feel these things with our aura, 
the outermost layer of our subtle bodies. 

“Did you know that the vast majority of the thoughts you think 
and the emotions you feel aren’t even your own?” Master Fwap asked with 
a wry smile on his face. 

“As I mentioned to you before,” he reminded me, “you pick up 
most of your thoughts and emotions psychically, from the people you are 
physically near, and also from people for whom you have strong positive 
or negative emotional feelings. In addition, you also pick up psychic 
impressions from where you work or go to school, the roads you drive on, 
the stores you shop in, the city and the country you live in, and, to a 
certain extent, from all the people who live on our very crowded planet.’ 


“Well, let us suppose that you live next to an alcoholic. You might 
suddenly find yourself wanting to drink. If you follow that feeling, which 
was not yours to begin with, you might start to drink on a regular basis. 
Then, in an intoxicated haze, you might neglect your work, get mad at 
the people you care about, or even get into a car accident. In short, if you 
followed the feelings of the alcoholic next door, without realizing they 
weren’t your own feelings, you could ruin your entire life! 

“Or let us say,” Master Fwap continued, “that you love someone 
who is very depressed. Even though that person may live in a different 
part of the country from you, you may find yourself thinking and feeling 
that person’s unhappy thoughts and depressed emotions, even though you 
might be a very happy person. 

“Psychic impressions can also remain in a physical location for some 
time. If a newly married couple who were very happy with each other 
moved into a home just vacated by a couple whose marriage had ended in 
divorce, the newlyweds might find themselves fighting with each other 
all the time, even though they really loved one another. 

“Without either of them consciously realizing it, the newlyweds 
could easily pick up the thought forms of the previous tenants of the 
house, assume these were their own thoughts and feelings, and act upon 
them. 

In addition to the vibratory effect that individuals who are 
physically near can have upon us,” Master Fwap explained, “and the even 
stronger effect that people to whom we are emotionally close have, we are 
also affected by the collective consciousness of all of humanity’s 
vibrations. 

“You see, every person’s mind acts like a radio transmitter: it 
constantly transmits the essence of their thoughts and emotions into the 
earth’s aura. Now that the earth’s population has grown well into the 
billions, there are so many people’s thought forms psychically flooding 
the earth’s aura that it has become highly toxic. Because of this psychic 
pollution of the earth’s aura, it has become very difficult even for 


individuals with a highly developed psychic facility to perceive things 
clearly. 

“It might be easier for you to understand what I am talking about 
if you were to try an experiment,” Master Fwap said. 

“Observe how many thoughts you think when you are around other 
people. Then go for a walk in the woods, on an empty beach, in the desert 
or on a mountain. 

“When you perform this experiment, try not to walk on a trail or 
beach that people tend to walk on or visit frequently. As I mentioned 
before, a certain amount of a person’s thought forms are left in the 
physical locations that the person frequents. Instead, try walking on a 
trail or a beach that is not as well worn, or depart from the trail to a pure 
spot where no one has recently been, and spend a few minutes there by 
yourself. 

“After you have spent ten or twenty minutes in a relatively pure 
spot,” Master Fwap continued, “observe your mind. You will probably 
notice that you are neither thinking as much as you were before, nor are 

you thinking the same types of thoughts that you were earlier, when 
other people were around you. This change in the quantity and quality of 
your thoughts has occurred because you have physically distanced yourself 
from others, and also because the natural elements in the forests, 
mountains, deserts, and near oceans and other large bodies of water, help 
shield you from the thought forms and auras of other human beings.” 

“Master Fwap, I still don’t understand how all this relates to my 
question,” I said impatiently. “Why couldn’t the members of the mystery 
school who died during the destruction of Atlantis, or afterwards in their 
boats, simply reincarnate, go into their other memories, and recall 
everything they had known in Atlantis?” 

“You should be able to answer that question for yourself, now that I 
have explained how the aura works,” Master Fwap replied. 

“I don’t know! It’s too confusing! Would you please explain it to 
me in a simpler way?” 

Master Fwap smiled sympathetically. “It’s easy to understand. Just 
put all the facts that I have given you together.” 

“During the age of Atlantis,” he said, “the low population 
density—and the resulting purity of the earth’s aura—made conditions 
ideal for discovering the secret meditation techniques for the first time. 
But the destruction of Atlantis happened to coincide with an overall rise 
in the population of other less technically and spiritually evolved 
civilizations on the earth. 

“So by the time the Egyptian civilization had begun to flourish,” 
Master Fwap continued to explain, “the earth’s aura had already become 
so dense that it was impossible to discover the secret meditation 
techniques—as had been done so easily in the auric purity of the first age 
of Atlantis. 

“This was the primary reason the mystery school was formed. The 
first members of the order, during the time of Atlantis, had psychically 
seen the subsequent ages of auric darkness that the earth was going to 
lapse into. They knew that the vibratory toxicity of these subsequent ages 
would make it impossible for reincarnating members of the order to go 
deeply enough into their other memories, and recall what they had 
known in Atlantis, without knowing the secret techniques first.” 

“So,” I inquired, “they needed the secret techniques to jump-start 
their other memories, and someone had to be around who knew the secret 
techniques to teach the reincarnating members of the order how to use 
them after they were reborn into a new incarnation. Is that the idea, 
Master Fwap?” 

“Exactly. That is why there must always be at least one member of 
the order on earth to orally pass the techniques on to others who have 
recently reincarnated. Then, by employing the secret techniques, newly 
incarnated members, or whoever the techniques may be taught to, can go 
ahead and access their other memories, and recall everything from their 
past lives for themselves.” 

“Master Fwap, how did all this work in Atlantis? Were children 
born just knowing all of this because the aura of the earth was so pure?” 


“In Atlantis,” Master Fwap responded, “children who were 
spiritually evolved from meditative practices in their previous lives were 
brought to the mystery schools for training by the older members of the 
order who psychically recognized them. At the Temple of Atlantis, the 
high priests and priestesses taught the children the secret meditation 
techniques, along with methods and ways of living that would increase 
their pranic levels and help them develop their psychic skills. 

“The mystery schools continued to perform this service throughout 
the greater Egyptian civilization—which, as I mentioned before, was the 
second age of humankind and later, on into the third age of humankind, 
when the Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan high cultures flourished. 

“But the tremendous increase in the world’s population during the 
third age has made meditation and psychic perception—things that 
should be easy and come naturally to spiritually evolved people—difficult 
to practice and participate in. 

“All the billions of people who now inhabit our planet are putting 
a terrific strain not only on the earth’s natural resources, but also on its 
aura, making it difficult, if not impossible, even for evolved people to 
become aware of their past-life knowledge and talents. 

“You must understand that enlightenment,” Master Fwap 
continued, “is a perfect state of mind. When you are enlightened, you 
hear and feel ecstasy—the music of the universe—all the time. Ecstasy is 
always present, but we are usually so psychically blocked up by our 
thoughts, our negative emotions, our ego’s machinations and the auras of 
others that we are completely unaware of it. Instead of feeling the 
innately enlightened and ecstatic nature of all things, we tend to get 
caught up in our thoughts, emotions and in the idiotic and idiosyncratic 
dramas that make up our day-to-day lives. 

“To become enlightened, it is necessary to still your thoughts and 
emotions, and become empty,” Master Fwap said calmly. “This is the 
beginning of true meditation: to empty your mind of distracting ideas, 
feelings and ways of looking at things—which we in the Buddhist Order 
refer to as illusions—and instead allow your awareness to roam through 
the dimensions and planes of higher light that exist deep within your 
mind. This is one of the goals of higher Buddhist Yoga.” 



Master Fwap told me that in 1950 the Communist Chinese had 
unexpectedly invaded Tibet, massacred hundreds of thousands of Tibetan 
Buddhist monks, and destroyed or desecrated the Tibetan monasteries. 
All the living members of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz, with the exception of 
Master Fwap—who had managed to escape to safety in Nepal—were 
either executed or worked to death in Chinese forced-labor camps. 

So, for the first time in the history of the order, there was only one 
member left alive, Master Fwap. He alone had the full knowledge of the 
secret tantric techniques for rapidly attaining enlightenment. 






Chapter Ten
Master Fwaz Shastra-Dup’s
Prophetic Dream


Master Fwap told me that his own master, Fwaz Shastra-Dup, 
had made a significant prophecy to him about the future of the order 
before the Chinese invasion of Tibet had taken place. One day, when he 
and Master Fwap were out hiking in the Himalayas, Fwaz Shastra-Dup 
told Master Fwap about a prophetic dream he had dreamt the night 
before. 

He told Master Fwap that in his dream he had seen a time in the 
future when Master Fwap was going to be the only living member of the 
Rae Chorze-Fwaz left on the earth. 

In his dream he had seen Master Fwap—the last living member of 
the order—travelling in the Himalayas looking for a student to transmit 

the secret techniques to. He told Master Fwap that toward the end of his 
dream he had seen a tall, skinny, young man with pale skin flying down a 
mountain and bumping into Master Fwap. He said that this particular 
young man would come from a country in the West, and that he would 
become Master Fwap’s apprentice. 

He also told Master Fwap that he had “seen” in his dream that this 
new apprentice would learn the secret meditation techniques from Master 
Fwap, and then transmit them in a new way in a new land. As a result of 
this, he said, the order was going to move its main teaching facilities 
from the East to the West. In addition, he told Master Fwap that from 
the time of the 1990s forward, the meditation techniques of the Rae 
Chorze-Fwaz, which up until that time had been the closely guarded 
secret of the members of the order, would be transmitted to millions of 
young students all over the world. 


 Master Fwap then told me enthusiastically that he would teach me, 
starting the next day at noon, the secret techniques and doctrines of the 
Rae Chorze-Fwaz. He said that once I had learned the secret techniques, 
methods and philosophy of Tantric Buddhism from him, it would then 
be my karma to return to the West, practice the techniques for many 
years until I had perfected them myself, and then transmit them to the 
students of the world. 



While Master Fwap and I had been busy conversing about 
enlightenment and the history of the mystery schools, the afternoon had 
come and gone, and it had grown cold and dark outside. Master Fwap 
told me that I had heard enough for one day. He advised me to return to 
the hostel, to eat well and get some rest, and then come back the next day 
at noon to his temple for further conversation about meditation and 
enlightenment. 

As I was walking back to the hostel, a very cold wind blew against 
my body and it began to snow. My skin tingled as the particles of 
blowing snow hit my face. As I walked, I drew my parka as tightly 
around my body as I could. 

In what seemed like no time at all, I reached the hostel and entered 
into its warmth and shelter. After taking off my coat, I washed, had 
dinner, and slept through the night without having any dreams at all. 







Chapter Eleven 
An Enlightening Cup of Tea

I returned to Master Fwap’s temple the next day at noon, as he had 
suggested. Once again Master Fwap met me at the temple door and 
guided me back to his quarters. We sat on the yak-hair rug in his room, 
as we had the day before. But this time the table between us had a teapot 
and two empty tea cups on it. 

“I have invited you for tea today,” Master Fwap began. “I enjoy 
drinking tea several times a day. In fact, tea is my favorite drink. Do you 
like tea?” 

I told him I did. He then proceeded to pour us each a steaming cup 
of hot tea from his teapot. I thought that it might be too hot to drink, 
but upon tasting it I was pleased to discover that it wasn’t. 

“Today I am going to teach you about enlightenment,” Master 
Fwap announced loudly, as if there were other people in the room whom 
he wanted to make aware of what he was saying. “But before I do, I would 
like to answer the question that I know you are just burning to ask me.” 

He paused for a moment and sipped his tea. I reflected for a 
moment. If I had a particular question on my mind that I wanted to ask 
Master Fwap, I was certainly not conscious of it. However after a few 
more moments of silence, a question occurred to me. 

“Master Fwap,” I began, “I don’t understand any of this. I came to 
Nepal to snowboard the Himalayas, not to learn about enlightenment and 
the secret teachings of your Buddhist Order. 

“I don’t mean to complain, but are you sure you have the right guy 
here?” 

Master Fwap smiled at me and didn’t say a word. Then he closed 
his eyes. Several minutes passed and he still didn’t respond to my 
As I sat on the yak-hair rug in Master Fwap’s small, clean and 
comfortable room, a very strange thing began to occur. The air in the 
room began to thicken and turn a beautiful, bright, golden color—not all 
at once, but very gradually. 

At first I thought it was “snowing” golden light around Master 
Fwap. I noticed the phenomenon first around his head; then the golden 
light seemed to spread all around his body, and finally it filled up the 
entire room. 

Seeing the golden light surrounding Master Fwap’s body, my first 
thought was that something must have happened to my vision. I rubbed 
my eyes with both of my hands in an attempt to clear my sight. But it 
didn’t make the slightest bit of difference. The color of the air around 
Master Fwap and in the room remained a soft and beautiful gold. 

As I watched in amazement, the golden light that was filling the 
room became even thicker. After a few more minutes, I could barely see 
Master Fwap at all, even though he was sitting directly across the table 
from me. Then I felt my entire body beginning to tingle with a prickly 
heat. It wasn’t an entirely unpleasant sensation, just unusual. 

I lost consciousness of the passage of time. Master Fwap and I could 
have been sitting in his room for five minutes or five hours; I couldn’t tell 
the difference. I did notice, however, that my mind had become clear, 
composed and relaxed. In fact I felt very good, probably better than I had 
ever felt before in my life. 

As timeless time passed, another awareness began to overtake me: 
without any apparent effort on my part, I suddenly understood 
everything. Not that there was anything in particular to understand; I 
suddenly just “knew” all about life. I realized that I was one with life, and 

at the same time a separate and unique part of it. 

It was then that I first knew Master Fwap was enlightened. 
Somehow I could feel inside of his mind—and I knew it was made up of 
the pure golden light. I also knew, without knowing how I knew, that 
the golden light in Master Fwap’s mind, and the golden light that was 
currently filling up his room, was the light of enlightenment. 

 
I could sense that Master Fwap’s mind stretched out endlessly in 
every direction, throughout all time, space and dimensionality. I had 
never felt or experienced anything that was so incredibly beautiful before. 

Then Master Fwap spoke to me in a soothing tone of voice. He 
didn’t open his eyes as he spoke. 

He talked about enlightenment. As he spoke to me, the waves of 
golden light continued to emanate from his body in a seemingly endless 
variety of kaleidoscopic patterns. I noticed at times there was a steady 
flow of soft golden light coming directly from his body, and at other 
times it seemed to pulse rhythmically throughout the room, in time with 
his speech patterns. 

“Enlightenment,” he began, “is the complete awareness of life, 
without any mental modifications. It is happiness, ecstasy and all that is 
beautiful, perfect and fulfilling in life. Enlightenment,” he continued, “is 
a perfect state of mind. It is the direct ‘seeing’ of reality. 

“The world most people see, which they call life, is really just a 
dream. Just as the events in a dream have an apparent solidity while you 
are dreaming them, so also day-to-day life seems solid and real while you 
are experiencing it. But when a day, an experience or a feeling has passed, 
it loses its apparent solidity, just as the events in a dream lose their sense 
of reality after you have awakened from them. 

“The world you experience every day and night of your life is 
transient; you—the person who experiences all of this, the people you 
know, have known or will one day know, the feelings and experiences you 
have had, are having now, or will have one day in the future, all of these 
things, times, places, people, experiences, understandings, feelings and 
events, are transient. 

“They last only for the blink of an eye, and then they dissolve back 
into that unknowable and formless eternity from which all things come, 
and to which all things eventually must return. 

“But behind this transient reality that comes and goes so swiftly, 
there is something else. It is a deeper, more permanent and unchanging 
reality that we Buddhists call nirvana. 


“Nirvana is the intelligent light that makes us and everything that 
we experience, from birth to death and from death to rebirth. It is also the 
same light that makes up everything that is beyond the cycle of birth, 
death and rebirth. 

“It is wonderful beyond knowing. It creates all of the transient 
worlds, and the beings that inhabit them, out of itself. It sustains them, 
transforms them, and eventually draws them back into itself again. 

“And yet, while the beings it creates will experience the pleasures 
and pains and the successes and failures of existence, it remains aloof from 
them. It is untouched by their happiness or unhappiness. Nirvana is a 
state of perpetual bliss and ecstasy, unaffected by the transient ups and 
downs of its own creations. 

“Tantric Buddhist Yoga is a pathway a person can follow to 
enlightenment. Through the tantric practices you can unite your 
consciousness with the eternal bliss and ecstasy of nirvana and rise above 
the limited conditions of pleasure and pain, success and failure, happiness 
and sorrow, that all of the countless unenlightened beings in creation are 
slaves to. 

“If you want to constantly experience the unalloyed ecstasy of life, 
you must first break contact with the things that cause you pain. You can 
accomplish this through the twin Buddhist practices of meditation and 
mindfulness. 

“In meditation, by fully focusing your mind on your chakras, 
stilling your thoughts, and increasing your kundalini flow, you can rise 
above your body consciousness and unite your mind with the clear light 
of nirvana. This establishes a flow of bliss and happiness between your 
mind and enlightenment. 

“With the happiness, ecstasy and power you gain from meditation, 
you can then gradually remove your mind from the things it has become 
hooked to that cause it pain. Once you have accomplished this, regardless 
of what happens to you in your physical life, you will always be happy. 

“When you draw your happiness each day from the endless 
awareness of nirvana,” Master Fwap continued, “you are no longer a slave 
to fortune. When pleasant experiences come your way, you can enjoy 
them. But if pain and misfortune befall you, you can rise above them and 
remain unaffected. The bliss and ecstasy of nirvana will lift you far above 
the transient sorrows of both life and death. 

“Try thinking of it this way,” Master Fwap said. “Above the clouds, 
the sun is always shining. Today, if it is a cloudy day, we cannot enjoy the 
sunshine and feel as much of its warmth as we could on a sunny day. But 
if you and I were to get into a jet plane and fly high above the clouds, 
there would only be sunshine. It is always sunny above the clouds. 

“In much the same way, if you derive your happiness from the 
events, sensations and other experiences that you have in this physical 

world, and from the emotions and feelings they generate within your 
mind and body, you are a slave to the ‘weather’ of events. When things 
are ‘sunny’ in your life you will be happy. But on ‘cloudy’ days, which we 
all have in life, you will be sad, depressed and in pain. 

“As you know, we cannot control the weather. As a matter of fact, 
we can hardly predict it. It is the same with day-to-day life. It is very 
hard to control life even some of the time, let alone most or all of the 
time, and it is almost impossible to predict life. 

“But after you have united your mind with nirvana in deepest 
meditation, you will always be in an enlightened state of consciousness. 
Then let the clouds of life come. Let the rain of unhappy and tragic 
experiences fall, as sometimes it inevitably must, even in the lives of 
enlightened masters. If your mind has become one with nirvana, through 
the practice of meditation and mindfulness, you will remain happy at all 
times.” 

“But Master Fwap,” I found myself asking, “how do people who 
meditate feel during the period of time before they become enlightened? 
Are they as unhappy and do they still suffer as much as other 
unenlightened people, or are they better able to deal with what you refer 
Master Fwap opened his eyes and looked directly at me. “These are 
good questions!” he laughed. “Naturally it takes quite a bit of time to 
become enlightened. But it is really not so different from learning any 
other art: all you need is time, a good teacher and practice. 

“When you first begin to meditate you should not expect too much 
too soon. The first day you start studying a foreign language you don’t 
expect to speak it, do you? 

“But even after only several weeks of practicing meditation you will 
begin to have more energy, and be a little bit happier. Gradually, as your 
meditation practice improves, you will experience even greater happiness 
and have more internal energy at your disposal. Eventually, as you further 
improve your meditation practice, you will experience ecstasy and 
knowledge that is beyond the power of words to describe. 

“Each time you meditate, you create a stronger connection with the 
world of inner light and happiness that exists within you,” Master Fwap 
explained. “Over the course of many years of practice, that connection 
will become brighter and more ecstatic. But even from the very 
beginning of your meditation practice, you will notice that some of the 
brightness and ecstasy you experience during meditation will enter into 
your day-to-day life. 

“Remember,” Master Fwap said in a mock tone of warning, “as 
your meditation practice improves from month to month, more and more 
light and ecstasy will spill over into the moments of your daily life. 

“Eventually a time will come when you will always exist, as I do, in 
a state of continual light.” 

“Master Fwap, if all you learn from a master are the secret 
meditation techniques, why would you need to continue to study with a 
master once you have learned the techniques from him?” I inquired. 

“You will need correction, direction, and most of all you will need 
your master’s auric empowerment,” Master Fwap quickly explained. 

“If you have electricity in the wires of your house,” he continued, 
“you only have to plug a lamp in to make it work. The current is already 
there for you to use. 

“But if you only have a small hand-powered generator to light a 
lamp, then you will only have light when you turn the crank of the hand 
generator. When you stop, the light will fade and go out. 

“An enlightened master is a perpetual source of the cosmic light 
because his mind is always merged with nirvana. If you are a student of an 
enlightened master, then you can literally tap into his aura—the field of 
light that comes through him—anywhere and at anytime. All you have to 
do is meditate on your Buddhist master and the light will come into your 
mind. 

“An enlightened Buddhist master provides his students with auric 
empowerment. He literally transfers light, power and knowledge into 
their auras. This empowerment gives his students an extraordinary 
amount of prana. This increased amount of prana enables them to 
meditate more deeply, and to accomplish other things in their lives more 
rapidly and with greater happiness and ease. 

“Naturally, this is not the case for most people who meditate,” he 
continued, “In this whole world, there are actually very few people who 
study meditation with an enlightened master. That is because there are 
not very many enlightened masters on the entire earth. 

“Most people don’t have enlightened masters,” he said with a slight 
sigh, as if the fact troubled him, “so they only experience a limited 
amount of light when they practice meditation. But a person who wants 
to progress more rapidly and wishes to overcome unhappiness sooner 
should try to find an enlightened master. If a person is serious about not 
just being a little bit happier, and if that person wants to become 
enlightened and experience infinite happiness, then he or she must study 
with an enlightened master. No one on this earth attains enlightenment 
anymore without an enlightened master as a guide...unless, of course, that 
person was enlightened in many previous incarnations.” 

Master Fwap paused and looked directly into my eyes. The golden 
light was still filling the air between us. I felt my awareness change, and I 
simultaneously felt a strange tingling sensation at the top of my head. 
After staring into my eyes for several minutes, he resumed speaking. 

“This is the hardest thing in the universe to understand,” he said 
with a happy laugh. “You must look beyond my words in order to know 
what I am talking about. You need to experience the reality of light 
yourself in your own meditation; only then will you really understand 
how perfect life is. Then, of course, you will be happy forever.” 

“But Master Fwap, how can a person be happy in a world in which 
there is so much injustice and unhappiness? Everyone and everything 
dies. And there is so much pain and useless suffering in everyone’s lives. 
How can meditation and enlightenment change all of that?” 

“I agree with you,” Master Fwap said warmly. “The world of 
human experience is very uncertain. Today you will be happy and then 
tomorrow you will be unhappy. Today you may get what you want and 
tomorrow you may not. Today you are young and filled with energy, and 
in the future you will grow old, and may become very tired. 

“Only the enlightened are consistently happy, because their 
happiness is not predicated upon the events and experiences that take 
place in this world. Instead it is based upon the boundless inner energy 
they gain from their connection with the world of enlightenment.” 

 




Master Fwap Defines Astral Travel 

“Beyond this world are countless dimensions. They stretch on 
forever! You can travel to them and have experiences in them. 

“Some astral dimensions are bright and filled with ecstasy. 
Advanced cosmic beings live in them. But there are also very dark astral 
dimensions that are filled with pain and confusion. They are often 
inhabited by beings that are filled with hate and despair. 


“The experiences that you have in astral dimensions are not 
essentially all that different from the experiences you have here in the 
physical dimension, in the sense that they are also transient. Some people 
make the mistake of assuming that it is always better somewhere else. 
But life is more or less the same wherever you go—because wherever you 
go, there you are. 

“I mention this to you only because so many people seem to confuse 
the experience of meditation and enlightenment with astral travel. Some 
people travel to other dimensions in their astral bodies when they 
meditate. But astral travelling doesn’t bring a person lasting happiness. 
As a matter of fact, if astral travelling is not done properly, it can be quite 
dangerous. 

“It is an adversarial world outside the safety of nirvana and 
enlightenment. In life, all beings need to feed on other beings just in 
order to exist. Some beings also like to cause others to needlessly suffer, 
just out of pure maliciousness. 

“Just because you go to another dimension doesn’t mean that 
things will be happier or better there for you. Actually things may be 
much more difficult. 

“There are many different forms of life in the universe,” Master 
Fwap continued, with a tone of warning in his voice, “and human beings 
are unaware of most of them. As you know, one small virus can take away 
your physical life. And as you have also learned, there are dangerous 
people and situations in life that you need to avoid simply to go on 
living, let alone to achieve happiness and perfect enlightenment. 

“It has taken many years of your life just for you to learn how to 
successfully negotiate many of the physical dangers of the day-to-day 
world. Learning to cross a street in traffic or turning down unacceptable 
or suspicious invitations from strangers are things you do that you now 
take for granted. But when you were first born, you didn’t know about 
these dangers and how to deal with them. You learned about them from 
your parents, your teachers at school, and through other experiences you 
have had. 

“The point I am making is that enlightenment is not 
interdimensional travel,” Master Fwap said in a strong tone. 
“Enlightenment is the experience of pure light. I have nothing against 
interdimensional travel; as a matter of fact, I do it freely. But I learned to 
do it safely and correctly from my master, Fwaz Shastra-Dup.” 

“What is interdimensional travel like?” I asked. Master Fwap had 
finally brought up a topic that sounded intriguing to me. 

“Interdimensional travel is similar to travelling from one country to 
another,” he replied. “Sometimes it is refreshing and elevating, and 
sometimes it is tiring and dangerous. But it certainly should not be 
confused with the experience of nirvana and enlightenment. Unlike the 
experience of nirvana, travelling to other dimensions will not take you 
beyond suffering, nor will it help you to experience the limitless ecstasy 
of creation. As a matter of fact, interdimensional travel has nothing to do 
with enlightenment at all. 

“If you are enlightened you can experience ecstasy in any dimension 
and at any time,” Master Fwap exclaimed. “Enlightenment is not related 
to where your physical or astral body may be, or to any experiences that 
you may be having with them. Enlightenment is beyond dimensionality. 
If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t provide permanent liberation from sorrow. It 
would only be another transient experience that eventually would 
culminate in sorrow, as all other human experiences eventually do. 

“That is why enlightenment is really worth seeking,” Master Fwap 
stated emphatically. “It is the only thing that gives you permanent 
happiness. When you experience the ecstasy, peace and perfection of the 
endless and formless light of enlightenment, everything is all right. You 
are happy and free; you know life. 


 “Once you are enlightened, you can do whatever you want without 
fear or sorrow. You can choose to have a career or live in a monastery; you 
can go snowboarding, get married, stay single, be rich and famous, or live 
unknown in a high Himalayan cave. It is up to you. 

“When your mind is flooded with the pure light of nirvana, which 
is happiness itself, you will be delighted with whatever occurs to you. 

“But without enlightenment, everything in life is harsh. Sooner or 
later you see everyone you love die, unless you die first, of course. This 
causes you to suffer. 

“But when you are enlightened, you see and understand that 
nothing and no one really dies,” Master Fwap continued. “At the moment 
of death, a being simply changes forms. When you are enlightened, you 
know that everything and everyone, including yourself, is eternal. 

“Armed with this knowledge, you no longer fear death or feel as 
much sorrow when those you love die. Once you have personally 
experienced enlightenment, you will see beyond the ocean of death to the 
everlasting shores of immortality. 

“When you are enlightened and have united your mind with the 
deepest and most ancient part of the mind of the universe, you are not 
affected by suffering the way other people are. Naturally, your physical 
body will still feel pain if you get hurt, but you will not be overwhelmed 
even by extreme physical pain, because your mind will be filled with 
light, love and understanding.” 

Master Fwap paused and closed his eyes. As he did, the golden 
light that filled the air between us suddenly became more solid. I 
couldn’t see Master Fwap, or anything else in the room for that matter. It 
was as if I had joined Master Fwap in a dimension of solid gold light: 
nothing seemed to matter to me any more. My mind had an unbroken 
continuity with all of creation. I was at peace. 

Then Master Fwap spoke to me. It seemed as if his voice came from 
afar. At first I was only vaguely aware that he was speaking. Then I 
became fully aware of what he was saying to me. 

“Because of your karma from your past lives, you will become 
enlightened in this lifetime. You have been enlightened in a number of 


“But first you must prepare yourself. You must learn to meditate 
and stop your thoughts. You must overcome all egotism and selfishness 
by serving others. You must cleanse your mind so that enlightenment 
will find a happy place to reside there.” 

I listened to what Master Fwap said that day about enlightenment. 
His words touched something very deep within me. I knew, after he had 
spoken, that what mattered most in life was to be as aware as he was—to 
be enlightened. 

I don’t think I consciously understood most of what he said to me 
that day. But as he talked, I could sense the light and the wisdom that 

was behind his words. Somehow I could feel that he was in touch with the 
most perfect part of existence, and that was enough for me. 

His reference to my future didn’t really have much of an effect on 
me. He was talking about how I had been in past lives that I couldn’t 
remember, and about what was going to happen to me in a future that 
hadn’t yet occurred. I heard his words, but I don’t think I particularly 
believed them, nor did I disbelieve them. Saying I was enlightened in the 
past and that I would be enlightened again in the future was something 
for which I simply didn’t have any reference point. It was simply out of 
my league. 

Master Fwap’s reflections upon enlightenment, the visible golden 
light I had seen around him, and the way it had transported my mind 
into a world of perfect feelings, emotions and understandings did affect 
me quite profoundly that day. Without my knowing how or why, I 
simply “knew” what he had told me was true. 

Master Fwap answered a few more questions I had about 
enlightenment, and then suddenly it was sunset. Somehow, without my 
noticing it, the golden light had vanished from the room, and the two of 
us were sitting together in silence. The tea had grown cold. 

 Master Fwap left me at the entrance to his temple and I walked 
back to the hostel along the narrow streets of Katmandu. As I walked, 
everything I saw seemed to glow and give off wavelike vibrations of light, 
not as bright as the light I had witnessed around Master Fwap, but more 
subtle and subdued. 

Looking at the buildings as I passed by them, I could see they were 
really made up of dancing particles of energy. I now knew that the world 
wasn’t really as solid as it looked. 

Walking along the cold dark streets of Katmandu, I didn’t feel very 
physical. Instead, I felt as if I was pure motion, a feeling I have 
experienced both before and since, when, on rare occasions, I have been 
snowboarding without any self-consciousness. 

I slept well that night, and dreamt of snow falling in the 
Himalayas. 




Chapter Twelve
You Are the Board


I didn’t see Master Fwap for the rest of the week. During that time 
I reflected on our conversations about enlightenment, while I hiked up 
and snowboarded down ice- and snow-covered Himalayan peaks. Each 
morning I would hitch a ride to the mountains and climb up a snow-
covered pass. Then I would snowboard down the mountain, climb back 
up, and do it again. 

When I had said good-bye to Master Fwap at his temple door, he 
hadn’t indicated where or when we would meet again, but I knew 
somehow that we would. I decided to stick to my snowboarding and leave 
the when and where of our next encounter up to him. 

Six days after our parting, I unexpectedly met him again on the top 
of a mountain. That day I had spent three hours climbing up a 
particularly gnarly pass in search of perfect snow. After reaching the top 
of the pass, I had collapsed in a heap of exhaustion. 

As I lay on my back in the cold snow, heavily breathing the thin 
mountain air in and out of my lungs, I closed my eyes and listened to the 
pounding of my heart. Then, quite unexpectedly, I felt a presence, as if 
someone was staring at me. I opened my eyes, and much to my 
amazement, Master Fwap was standing right above me. He was looking 
down at me with a big “I know something you don’t know” smile on his 
face. 

Noiselessly, he sat down next to me. I lay on top of the snow-
covered mountain peak, panting from exhaustion, breathlessly unable to 
convey my amazement at our unexpected meeting. A few minutes later, 
after I had finally caught my breath, I voiced my surprise. 

“Master Fwap! What are you doing up here? Of all the possible 
mountains in the Himalayas, how could you have known that I would be 
on top of this one? When did you get here? Did you follow me up, or
were you already here?”

“I have been waiting for you for a little over an hour,” Master Fwap
quickly replied. “Since this is a just-right mountain for this day, and since
I have just-right karma, I knew that you would show up here.”
Before I could interrupt and ask more questions, he continued.

“Today I am going to teach you the art of living correctly. To live
correctly, naturally you have to act correctly. Living is acting and acting
is living. When the two become one, your life will be perfect.
“The Rae Chorze-Fwaz method of learning to live correctly is
through the perfection of all your actions. If you can perfect any one thing
that you do, then you will experience and know what perfect living is, in
that particular action. Once you have accomplished the perfection of one
particular action, it will then be relatively easy for you to transfer that
knowledge to some other actions you perform, and eventually you will be
able to perfect everything you do.

“It really doesn’t matter which action I teach you to perfect first,”
he continued. “Any action will do, since the basic principles involved for
perfecting any one action are the same for all actions.
“I have decided to teach you to perfect the action that you enjoy
most,” he said with a mischievous smile on his face. “I have come up to
the top of this peak today to teach you how to go down this mountain on
your snowboard perfectly.”

Master Fwap had trapped me and I knew it. While reincarnation
and the secret doctrines of a Tantric Buddhist mystery school didn’t really
matter very much to me, snowboarding did. Snowboarding was
everything to me. As unlikely as it seemed that Master Fwap could teach
me how to snowboard perfectly, I decided right then and there that if he
could, I would definitely become his disciple.
I immediately sat up and paid attention. I didn’t want to miss a
word he said.

“To do something perfectly, you must not think about what you
are doing at all,” he stated in a strong and formal tone. “Your thoughts
are what create imperfections in your actions. They alienate you from the
true reality of any action you perform.
“Thoughts should have a place in your life, of course, but it should
be a very small place. To really know something, in order to see its
perfection and to become part of that perfection, you must become the
action that you seek to perfect.

“This will not be hard for you to understand if you look at any one
of your actions. For example, you go down the mountain riding through
the snow on your board. Your progression through the snow depends
upon both your skill in using your board and your knowledge of the
mountain and its snow. If you know what your board will do on different
types of snow, and on different types of terrain, and if you and your board
are ‘one,’ you will perform this action of going down the mountain on
your snowboard perfectly.”

“But I already know how to do that, Master Fwap. I’m sure there is
much more to learn, but so far I have been able to successfully snowboard
down every mountain that I have ever tried.”
“Yes, you are accomplished,” Master Fwap responded. “I have been
watching you without your knowledge for the past several days. Yes, it is
true. You are quite accomplished, but you are still far from perfecting
your snowboarding.”

I respected Master Fwap’s thoughts, and I really didn’t mind the
idea that he had been spying on me for the past several days—although I
wasn’t sure if I believed that he really had been watching me—but I still
didn’t see how he could be in a position to teach me how to snowboard
perfectly. Since he wasn’t an experienced snowboarder himself, I silently
reasoned, how could he possibly know more about snowboarding than I
did?

Master Fwap must have been reading my thoughts because he
immediately addressed my concerns. “You are wondering how I can show
you how to do something perfectly, when you are the expert and I am the
novice. There are two reasons: the first is that I am enlightened, and the
second is that I know the principles of perfect action.
“Because I am enlightened, I can directly see the essence of
anything I choose,” he said with a happy laugh. “I can know its perfection


with just a little bit of study. Additionally, since I know the principles of
perfect action in other activities, I can transfer those principles to
snowboarding or any other activity I choose.
“Let me show you,” he continued. “May I borrow your board?”
I handed Master Fwap my snowboard. I didn’t understand how he
was going to use it, since he didn’t have the proper boots. Master Fwap
didn’t seem to care. He stepped onto my snowboard and, giving himself a
little push in the snow with his right foot to get started, he began his
descent down the mountain.

I was sure that once Master Fwap started down the mountain and
saw the severity of the slope that lay ahead of him, he would hop off my
snowboard. We were on top of a Himalayan mountain. The slope was
almost completely vertical. I wasn’t even sure if I could safely make it
down this particular mountain. With all the experience I had at my
command, if I was unsure about snowboarding down this particular
mountain, how could Master Fwap possibly do it and survive? I turned
and watched nervously as Master Fwap rode my snowboard over the edge
of the peak and began his perilous journey straight down the mountain’s
slope.

I kept expecting Master Fwap to hop off the board. But there,
already several hundred feet below me, was Master Fwap, riding my
snowboard perfectly and gracefully down the mountain, without even the
right boots to help him.
I had never seen anything like it in my life. He rode my snowboard
as if he had been doing it for years. His form was perfect. I found myself
laughing out loud as I watched him masterfully cut in and out of the
deep powder.

About halfway down the mountain, Master Fwap took a very high
jump and he and my board shot straight off the mountain. At first I
thought there was no way he could survive the jump. He had gone
straight out over a precipice, and there was nothing but several thousand
feet of very thin air between himself and the icy ridge that lay below him.
For a moment he just hung in the air, suspended by the
momentum from his jump. I knew that in only a few seconds gravity
would change his trajectory, and he would fall to his certain death on the
rocky ridge below.

And then the most incredible thing happened. Master Fwap and
my board started to rise up in the air and come back up the mountain.
I watched dumbfounded as he flew through the air straight back up
to the top of the mountain where I was standing. He was levitating. It
was incredible. I didn’t fully believe my eyes until he returned to the
summit and was standing right next to me, calmly handing me back my
snowboard.

“Master Fwap!” I exclaimed. “How did you do that?”
“It was easy,” he replied with a slight smile. “I simply became one
with the board. I became the board. That is how I was able to go down
the mountain without falling.”
“Yes, that was amazing,” I admitted, “and your form was perfect.

But that’s not what I meant. How did you fly through the air and get
back up here? You levitated. How did you do that?”
“Oh, that,” he replied, without any sense of pride or
accomplishment in his voice. “A little more complicated to explain, I’m
afraid. My master, Fwaz Shastra-Dup, taught me how to do it, but it
requires many years of effort to perfect the technique. It was a useful way
for Buddhist masters to travel great distances before the invention of the
automobile and aircraft. But these days it is much easier to drive a car or
to buy a ticket and fly on a plane than it is to learn how to travel that
way,” he said with a hearty laugh.

“I am afraid that in the modern world it is no longer worth the
effort to learn the technique. But it is impressive when you see it for the
first time, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” I replied, still dumbfounded by what I had just witnessed.
“Master Fwap, would you teach me how to do that?”
“I could,” he replied, “but as I said before, it takes many years to
perfect the technique. It is much easier to travel the modern way. Now I
travel mostly by car or plane.”
“But Master Fwap,” I protested, “it would be very useful for
snowboarding the Himalayas and other inaccessible mountains. I spend


half the day just hiking up the mountain in order to get a fifteen- to
twenty-minute ride down!”
“The exercise is good for you,” he responded with a broad smile and
another laugh. “And as I said, it is no longer worth the effort involved to
learn the technique. But while I won’t teach you how to levitate today, I
will show you how to accomplish an action perfectly. I just did all of this
to show you that I am qualified to teach you snowboarding. Did I
convince you?”

He paused and looked at me seriously for a moment. I didn’t know
what to say at first. Then I replied: “But of course you did; I’m convinced.
But do I have to shave my head and put on an ochre-colored robe in order
to learn from you?”
“No, definitely not!” he exclaimed. “I’m afraid my Buddhist
method of dress is not appropriate for a Western student of Tantric
Buddhist Yoga.

“It is best for you to dress naturally, the way you currently do, and
keep your hair any way you like. I am afraid that the significance of the
traditional Buddhist way of appearing would not have a positive effect for
you in your Western culture. It would be misunderstood, and you would
be laughed at and made fun of.”

“What is the cultural significance of your appearance to someone
who grew up here in the East, Master Fwap?”
“It is difficult to explain to someone who has not grown up in a
Buddhist or Hindu society,” he replied. “Let me just say that the
Buddhist manner of dress and appearance creates respect for anyone who
is a monk. It is well understood by members of my society that monks or
masters are not ordinary persons. They have chosen to do a very difficult
thing—to follow the pathway to enlightenment.

“In my culture the brightest and the most adventuresome youths
have traditionally taken this path. Here in the East, studying yoga is
comparable to a mixture of attending one of your best Western
universities, like Harvard or Oxford, and of being an intrepid explorer,
like one of your astronauts who travels into the faraway, unexplored
regions of outer space.

 “In the East, it is taken for granted that the training of a monk is
physically rigorous and academically challenging,” Master Fwap
continued to explain. “As a monk, you learn to totally develop your mind,
overcome all fears, be spontaneous and creative and most importantly, you
learn to be able to go into unknown dimensions of the mind, and
successfully return both ennobled and humbled by your journeys into the
center of the universe.

“Dressing in the traditional Buddhist way would not transmit
respect to you in the West. In the West, Buddhist monks are thought of
as oddities. Most Westerners believe we are the remnants of an
impoverished Third World society, upholding beliefs that have been
outmoded by contemporary science. That is, I am afraid, the stereotypical
view of the Eastern monk: he has a shaved head, wears an ochre robe, and
is no longer relevant to the contemporary world. That is the view as seen
through round Western eyes.

“For you, it is better to dress the way you do now and practice your
yoga. In your society people are impressed by Ph.D. degrees, money and
fame. I recommend that you attain all three and diligently practice your
yoga. Then someday, when you teach our ancient practices of yoga to
Western youths, you will be respected and admired. Then, because you
will be wealthy, famous and have a Ph.D., the young students in the
West will listen to what you have to say about Tantric Buddhist Yoga
with great interest.”

I didn’t know what to say in response to Master Fwap’s remarks. I
hadn’t even decided whether or not I wanted to go to college, let alone
get a Ph.D. I also thought that my chances of becoming rich and famous
were pretty small, unless snowboarding suddenly became an Olympic
sport, and I could endorse athletic products or something. I waited in
silence for him to resume our conversation about snowboarding.
“The secret to doing anything perfectly is to practice and to
become,” Master Fwap continued. “That is all that there is to it, really.
You must practice to learn about something. You must practice to get a
feeling, a sense of the range of possibilities and the possible experiences
that something can afford you.

“To a certain degree, you have already accomplished this with your
board. But what you have not learned so far is how to become and to be.
That is the next step in your inner education.
“You still see yourself as being separate from your actions,” Master
Fwap explained. “This, however, is untrue. If you could see inwardly
through your third eye, the way I can, then you would know that
inwardly you are ‘one’ with all things, all actions, all inactions and all
spheres of possible being.

“Nirvana—enlightenment—is all there really is. Its power is
everywhere and in everything. Your eyes cannot see it, your ears cannot
hear it, your nose cannot smell it, your tongue cannot taste it, your body
cannot grasp and feel it, but it is there, nevertheless. Nirvana and
enlightenment exist just on the other side of your sensory perceptions and
your thoughts.

“To do something perfectly, you must hook yourself to the power
of the second attention and nirvana.” Master Fwap said. “Once you can do
that, almost nothing is impossible, whether it is levitating, snowboarding
perfectly or being enlightened.

“You come to know all of this through meditating,” he continued.
“In meditation, when your thoughts are stopped, you become empty.
When you are empty, your mind folds back on itself and you see through
the illusions of the material world.

“Things are not always as they appear. The world you see around
you appears to be solid. But in reality, as any physicist will tell you, the
physical world is made of moving energy. All matter is energy.”
“But Master Fwap,” I protested, “I still don’t understand any of
this. How can you break a physical law like you just did when you flew
up the mountain?”

Master Fwap laughed in response, and grinned at me. “It is because
I have the knowledge of the non-physical dimensions at my disposal. I
step in and out of those dimensions, and use them to do things here in
this world that would otherwise be impossible.

“The astral dimensions—when you have been properly instructed
by a master in how to enter them, leave them, and deal with them—
afford you opportunities to have experiences and gain insights into the
structural nature of how dimensions are made up and phased together.

The astral is the supporting ground for the physical dimension.
“Your understanding of the astral dimensions,” Master Fwap
continued in a formal tone, as if he were presenting a paper before a
scientific committee, “can help you alter structures in the physical
dimensions. It is in and through the medium of the astral dimensions
that all of the siddha powers function and work.
“You can move in and through the astral worlds once you have
gained control of your subtle body,” he said with tremendous energy.
“Remember, the astral worlds are the back corridors of eternity.

“Beyond the astral dimensions are the causal dimensions,” Master
Fwap continued. “The causal dimensions are not spatial or time-oriented.
They are the planes of light, and they make up the outer limits of nirvana.
Your experiences in the causal dimensions will give you the knowledge of
time, space, dimensionality and what lies beyond all of these things.
“Remember,” Master Fwap said in summation, “that what I am
doing today is simply providing you with a verbal blueprint of how the
universe works. At best it is a mere sketch of reality. Since what we are
discussing is almost impossible to explain in words, at first my
explanations may sound overly theoretical to you. It is like listening to a
university professor discuss quantum mechanics. At first it can be
confusing, and you may not see what all the theory you are learning has to
do with actual physical applications.

“But be aware that a blueprint of a building is only a sketch on
paper; it is not the building itself. Yet a blueprint provides a necessary
template for construction. And, of course, when the actual building is
finished, we throw the blueprint away.
“So in practical terms,” Master Fwap continued, “if you wish to
perform snowboarding perfectly, then you must turn it into perfect yoga.
This is what I call mindfulness. It is the direct application of Tantric
Buddhist teachings to a physical event, a way of doing or accomplishing
something, or a way of thinking and viewing something.

“Tantric Yoga is not simply sitting and being absorbed in
meditation,” Master Fwap said with sudden emphasis. “While formal
meditation is certainly a critical part of Tantric Buddhism, Tantric Yoga
is also a process of turning all of the activities and experiences of your
daily life into meditation.”

“Master Fwap, please correct me if I am wrong. But what you are
saying is that you are going to teach me about enlightenment by showing
me how to snowboard perfectly. Is that right?”
“Yes,” he quickly replied, “it is. But to snowboard perfectly, you
also must know how to meditate well.”
“So is there an interrelationship between meditation and physical
events? Or is meditation just sitting there and spacing out on enlightened
bliss?” I inquired.

“Yes and no,” Master Fwap replied, laughing. “Meditation is the
ability to be in a state of perfect mind. At the same time, it is the ability
to do physical things in a harmonious way; it is a way to remain centered
in a physical world that is out of balance.
“In Tantric Buddhism we learn to meditate in two ways. First we
learn how to sit and focus on our chakras and stop our thoughts. Then,
when the mind is empty, we can travel into the astral dimensions, the
causal dimensions, or if we are very advanced in the practice of
meditation, we can merge our minds with nirvana itself.

“The second way we learn to meditate in Tantric Buddhism is by
practicing mindfulness,” he explained. “Mindfulness is the practice of
doing physical things perfectly—in a state of emptiness—in which we
become consciously ‘one’ with whatever physical or mental activity we are
currently engaged in.

“You will find that, as you gain more control in your meditation,”
Master Fwap said, “it will be much easier for you to practice mindfulness.
You will also find, conversely, that the practice of mindfulness—of doing
physical and mental things perfectly—will help you improve your daily
meditation practice.

 “In practical terms, what all this means,” Master Fwap concluded,
“is that when you come to know that you are the board, your
snowboarding will be perfect.
But as long as you conceive of yourself as being separate from your
snowboard, of riding on top of your board, or of directing your board,
then this will not be true.

“When you seek to direct your board,” he said, “you are creating an
unnecessary conceptual separation between yourself and your snowboard.
The result will be that your actions are awkward and imperfect. But if
you are the board, then you—the board—will direct yourself perfectly.
You—the board—will know best what it is that you can and cannot do.”
Master Fwap shifted his position slightly on the snow. “Most
people make a mistake in life: they think their lives instead of living their
lives. They believe that what they do, who they are, and how they do
what they do, is something they must think about and choose. This way
of approaching life, however, doesn’t create perfect actions. As a matter of
fact, this approach to life makes a person very egotistical. People who
think their lives instead of living them directly, automatically assume
they always know the best way of doing everything.

“But when we come to see that we are the thing that we do,”
Master Fwap continued, “then we will be directed by the doing of that
thing rather than egotistically attempting to imperfectly direct our own
emotions.”
I must have looked somewhat confused, because Master Fwap
laughed good-naturedly and paused for a moment before resuming his
explanation.
“When, for example, you are on your snowboard going down a
mountain, you must decide how to direct your board. But whether you
are aware of it or not, your board has an inherent knowledge of its own
capabilities because it is made up of intelligent energy, just as you are.
“In Tantric Buddhism,” he continued, “we call the inherent
knowledge that all animate and inanimate objects possess of themselves,
their ‘emptiness.’ 

It is the Buddhist belief that all things, experiences and
people are inherently empty. That is simply a way of saying that all
physical and nonphysical things have another side, a side that is not
visible to the senses or accessible to the reasoning mind, a side that can
only be known and experienced intuitively by emptying one’s own mind
of thoughts, judgments and predispositions about life and how it works.
“Normally,” Master Fwap explained, “we only acquaint ourselves
with the physical side of something. We come to know it as we choose.

But to be honest with you, the physical side of a person, an animal, a
plant, a thing or a place is minute in comparison to its nonphysical side.
“Take me, for example,” Master Fwap’s voice resonated. “You can
see my physical body with your eyes. But my physical body is nothing in
comparison to my nonphysical body.
“My nonphysical body is the part of myself that lives forever. It is
ancient and complicated. It has lived through countless lives both in this
and in other worlds.
“It knows things and can do things that you cannot possibly
imagine. But if you look at me with your eyes, you will only see my
physical side, and you may underestimate me.

“When I travelled back up the mountain on your snowboard a few
minutes ago, you were very impressed. I did that with my nonphysical
body—with my subtle body—with my essential emptiness.
“Try always to remember that when you think about something,
you separate yourself from it. But when you are empty—when your mind
is tranquil and at peace with the universe, when it has become void of all
thought—you become meditation. Then you consciously join with and
become part of the power that is in everything around you.

“Everything knows what is best for itself,” Master Fwap exclaimed.
“That is what the Sanskrit word dharma means. Dharma means the best of
all possible actions.”
I must have looked a little bit bewildered again, because he paused
and asked me if I understood what he had just explained. I acknowledged
my confusion, and then he was silent for several minutes. Then he spoke
to me again, at a slower pace.

“Let me sum all of this up for you,” he began. “If we think and try
to direct our lives with only our limited, rationalistic thoughts and our
sense perceptions, then our actions and our activities will not be perfect.
From a Buddhist perspective, it is incorrect to always assume that we
know what is best.

“When we take the time to meditate and empty ourselves of
thoughts, we immediately connect with the inherent emptiness of our
actions and experiences. When we do this, our nonphysical side merges
with the nonphysical side of that which we are experiencing.
“Once this has occurred, our actions and experiences will direct us.
In other words, we will be guided by the inherent emptiness of the things
we choose to interact with.

“One day, when you have learned to meditate well enough, you will
come to see that in the state of emptiness, you are the action, not the
performer of the action. Remember, always allow the action of an activity
or an event to take precedence over your own point of view. This is the
Tantric Buddhist way. Allow the emptiness inherent within actions and
experiences to guide and shape your choices. Let your actions direct you,
the actor, not the other way around.

“Before beginning an activity,” Master Fwap instructed me,
“always first empty yourself of thoughts regarding what you are about to
do. Then allow the inherent emptiness within what you are about to do to
direct you. Instead of your ego directing you and making countless
mistakes, allow yourself to be guided by the invisible principles of the
universe within your actions. At that time there will be a perfect flow of
energy in whatever you choose to do, and there will be a grace and power
present in all of your movements. From a Tantric Buddhist perspective,
this is perfect action.”

Master Fwap paused again for several minutes, giving me time to
reflect on his explanation. Then he spoke again.
“Now you will go on your board down the mountain. But first you
must make your mind still. Then allow the emptiness within your board
to guide you. Then your ride down the mountain will be perfect action.
Try it.”

I thanked Master Fwap for his discourse on emptiness and perfect
action, and got onto my board. “Perfect action,” I thought to myself.
Then I closed my eyes and tried to empty my mind of all thought. For

some reason it was easy to do on the top of that Himalayan peak.
Suddenly I was flooded with energy and I could feel the power—what
Master Fwap had been calling the emptiness of the mountain—flowing
through me. I had no thoughts, and yet I was completely aware.

I opened my eyes and let go to my snowboard. It was me and I was
it. I glided down the mountain, cutting back and forth through the
granular powder without any conscious effort on my part. It was exactly
as Master Fwap had described: my board and the mountain knew better
than I did how to interact. I just let them take over and I enjoyed the ride
down. It was the most perfect run I had ever made down a mountain.
When I got to the bottom of the mountain, Master Fwap was
waiting there for me with an “I told you so” smile on his face. Without
talking, the two of us walked down the road together.













Chapter Thirteen 
Tales of Powder

I spent the next several days by myself, snowboarding the 
Himalayas, practicing Master Fwap’s “emptiness method” for perfecting 
my technique. It took some experimentation, but after a number of runs 
down the mountain I gradually began to get the sense that I was part of 
my snowboard, and that my snowboard was an extension of myself. My 
snowboarding rapidly improved. 

While I experienced some of the most wonderful moments of my 
life during those few days, I also noticed that at times I was incredibly 
lonely. 

Loneliness has never been a very precise feeling for me. Whenever I 
have felt lonely, I haven’t felt that I missed anyone in particular. It has 
always been more of a vague feeling of uncertainty, a poignant and 
unfulfilled longing for an undefinable condition, other than that which I 
was experiencing at the time. 

I usually started to feel lonely each day about an hour or two before 
sunset. The feeling would always come upon me quite unexpectedly, and 
it didn’t seem to be predicated upon or triggered by any particular 
phenomena. 

I may have been snowboarding happily for hours, when quite 
suddenly this feeling would sneak up on me. Often it was followed by or 
accompanied with additional feelings of frustration or despair. 

It always began in the same way: I would notice that I wasn’t 
smiling anymore. Then, as it grew stronger, I would begin to feel 
somewhat disconnected from what was happening around me, or from 
what I was physically doing at the time. I usually attributed these 
feelings to physical exhaustion and high altitude. But I noticed that these 
emotions would always enter my mind at around the same time each day 


when I was in the mountains, regardless of how much sleep I had gotten 
the night before. 

I had grown accustomed to feeling this way while snowboarding in 
the late afternoons in North America, but I noticed the feelings of 
loneliness that I experienced in the hour or two prior to sunset were even 
more pronounced when I was snowboarding the Himalayas. 

During the early part of the day I would very much enjoy being 
alone while I snowboarded. But in the late afternoon, usually around the 
time I was making my last run down a mountain, I would find myself 
feeling what I had come to refer to as “cosmic loneliness.” 

I had nicknamed the feeling cosmic loneliness because the emotions 
that I felt at these times had an almost spatial dimension to them. On the 
particular occasions when these feelings were most intense, I felt as if my 
mental perceptions extended beyond my body and this world to 
something infinitely more powerful, and that my personal concerns were 
overshadowed by what I could best describe as these “otherworldly” 
feelings. 

In the late afternoon in the Himalayas, the cloud cover would 
usually thicken and the sky would turn fantastic shades of pink, magenta, 
soft rose and lavender. At these moments of incredible physical beauty, I 
would often be standing on the top of a lone peak looking out over the 
snow-rimmed mountain horizon. Instead of being filled with exaltation 
by all of the beauty that lay before me, I was often filled with an 
unbearable feeling of emptiness and despair. 

The emptiness that I felt at these times was not the happy and 
ecstatic emptiness that Master Fwap had described to me. Often the sheer 
weight of those feelings would cause me to feel insignificant and lost. My 
gut reaction at times like these was to “beat feet” back to the hostel in 
Katmandu, and find a pretty girl to laugh and spend some time with. 

I had the chance to ask Master Fwap about the incongruity of these 
feelings several days later. On that particular day, I had spent a happy 
morning snowboarding down yet another nameless Himalayan mountain. 


“Master Fwap!” I blurted out. “What are you doing here?” 

“I have come out here to visit you,” he replied with a broad smile. 
“Since you were not content to be with a beautiful girl in one of the many 
scenic restaurants in Katmandu today—as most young men your age 
would be—I found it necessary to come out here to the top of this 
particular mountain to engage you in conversation.” 

“Master Fwap,” I inquired wistfully, “why is it that I often feel so 
lonely at this time of day? I don’t really have any reason to. Where does 
this feeling of loneliness come from? I know this might sound a little 
crazy, but somehow it doesn’t quite feel like it is even my own feeling.” 

With a quick movement of his right hand, Master Fwap brushed 
the snow off an adjacent rock and sat down on it. I sat down next to him 
on my snowboard and made myself comfortable. He didn’t say anything 
for several minutes, and I assumed he was considering my question. 
Suddenly he began to speak. 

“There are many things to understand in life,” he began. “And as 
you are beginning to find out, things are not always as they appear to be. 
Take different times of day, for example. It would seem that there 
shouldn’t be any significant difference between different times of the day, 
don’t you think? It would appear to be logical that all times of the day 
would be approximately the same. 

“The numbers that human beings have assigned to the hours of the 
day,” Master Fwap continued to explain, “and the names they have given 
to the different times of day, such as morning, afternoon, sunset, evening, 
late night and sunrise are, after all, only words. Since time itself appears 
to be relatively uniform, other than the names and numbers that have 
been applied to these different periods, there really shouldn’t be any 
difference in the quality of time itself throughout the day.” 

“But Master Fwap,” I interrupted, “people do different things at 
different times of the day. Most people get up in the morning, work or go 
to school during the afternoon, and sleep or party at night.” 

“Yes, that’s true,” he replied with a knowing smile. “But there are 
also other people who work at night and sleep during the day. So other 
than the activities people participate in at different times of the day or 
night, during the absence or presence of daylight, you would assume that 
the actual substance of time throughout the day would be uniform, 
wouldn’t you?” 

“Yes,” I replied, “I would.” 

“Most people would agree with you,” he said with a broad smile. 
“But the truth of the matter is that the quality of time actually changes 
throughout the day and night. Behind the visible world that you see in 
front of you each day, there are many invisible dimensions. A great 
number of these dimensions interconnect with our physical world. 

“Some of these dimensions are place-specific,” Master Fwap 
explained. “In other words, they only touch certain geographical areas. 
Other dimensions are more time-specific, in that they only interact with 
the physical dimension they touch during specific times of the day or 
night. 

“During the late afternoon and early evening—starting from about 
two hours before sunset and ending at approximately two hours after 
sunset—there is a specific dimension that interconnects with our physical 
world. This particular dimension can best be visualized as a series of 
horizontally shaped geometric planes that extend from wherever you may 
happen to be at that time of day on out into infinity.” 

“But Master Fwap, how can that be? Since the time of the sunset is 
constantly changing locations on the earth during a twenty-four hour 
period, does that mean that this dimension is constantly circling the 
globe? And why would it be connected to a specific time of day? Times of 
day are caused by the turning of the earth in relation to the sun. Why 
would that have anything to do with the shifting of a different 
dimension?” 

Master Fwap smiled at me and laughed lightheartedly. I could tell 
that he was getting a kick out of my scientifically based Western logic. 
He paused for a few moments and closed his eyes. Then, without opening 
them, as if he was deeply concentrating on something, he began to speak 
again. 


“But whether it’s Buddhism or science trying to explain the 
universe to us,” he continued, “life—in its essence—ultimately remains 
magical and inexplicable.” 

“What do you mean when you say that life is magic, Master Fwap?” 

“I mean that it cannot be completely explained or logically 
understood. I know that it is popular in this era to believe there is a 
logical explanation for just about anything and everything that exists or 
happens. Since we Buddhists are reasonable people, we would also like to 
believe that everything that occurs in other dimensions, as well as in this 
dimension, can be explained through reason and logic. 

“But the truth of the matter is, many aspects of life cannot be 
explained through logic or reason. The reasoning part of the mind simply 
doesn’t have the capacity to understand many of the whys and hows of 
being and nonbeing. 

“While the thinking and reasoning aspect of our minds may not be 
able to fully understand certain sides of life,” Master Fwap continued, “we 
do have another hidden part of our minds that can. In Buddhism we refer 
to this hidden part of our understanding as the intuitive or higher mind. 

“The intuitive mind is nonphysical,” Master Fwap said precisely, as 
if he wanted me to pay particular attention to this concept. “It is not part 
of the brain or any other cellular structure in the physical body. It is part 
of the causal body. 

“As I mentioned to you before,” he continued, “the causal body is 
the part of a person that lives forever. It is what you would call the soul. 
It doesn’t dissolve along with the physical and astral bodies at the time of 
physical death, at the end of an incarnation. 

“The causal body is the most ancient and timeless part of a person. 
It has the capacity to know and do things that the physical mind and 
body cannot. 


“Perhaps it will be easier for you to understand what I am talking 
about if I give you a concrete example,” Master Fwap said a subtle smile. 
“The most concrete thing in the universe is matter. As I am sure you are 
aware, learned scientists can explain quite a bit about matter. They know 
that it is formed of different elements, and that those elements are 
composed of specific atomic and subatomic structures. But while matter 
can be analyzed and its structures understood, scientists will never be able 
to understand why matter exists in the first place. 

“It is the same in Buddhism. Buddhists who practice occultism, 
which is the scientific branch of Buddhism, seek to understand and 
explore the chemistries of time, space, dimensionality and awareness. 

“While the study of occultism enables those who study it to attain 
an understanding about how dimensions work the way they do, what 
consciousness is made up of, how the different states of mind interconnect 
with each other, how to move between them, and many other things, it 
still cannot reveal to us why consciousness and dimensions exist in the 
first place.” 

“So then, what good is occultism, Master Fwap?” I was beginning 
to feel both cold and frustrated. I was sitting on the frozen snow, and the 
late afternoon temperature was dropping rapidly. I felt a definite chill. 
Master Fwap’s explanation wasn’t clarifying anything about my feelings 
of cosmic loneliness. From my point of view, he was only further 
confusing the issue by discussing things that didn’t even seem to be in 
the least bit relevant to my original question. 

Master Fwap must have understood my frustration. “Be patient 
with me,” he said. “I first have to give you a little background 
information, to help create a perspective from which you should be able 
to understand my answer to your question. 

“You, like most people your age, want to know everything all at 
once. I admire your enthusiasm. But to be honest with you, as I must be 
since I am a Buddhist monk, most of the important things that we learn 
about and experience in life can’t be understood immediately. Some 
things take a lifetime, if not several lifetimes, to fully grasp. 

“For example, let us consider how the movement of a nonphysical 
dimension creates the feeling that you describe as ‘cosmic loneliness,’ 

“What you call loneliness, I call power,” Master Fwap said sharply. 
“Since I have studied Buddhist occultism to an extent, I can tell you that 
in the late afternoon, the dimensions of power become more manifest and 
accessible to us. 

“Because you are psychic, you can feel those dimensions,” he said, 
suddenly looking directly into my eyes, “even though you may not be 
aware of the true nature of what you are feeling, and of the opportunities 
that those particular dimensions of power can afford you. 

“I know about these things,” he continued, “because my own 
master, Fwaz Shastra-Dup, explained them to me, and also because I have 
validated the things that he taught me with my own research and life 
experiences. 

“You are innately psychic because you have meditated and 
practiced yoga in many of your past lives,” Master Fwap stated matter-offactly. 
“You were born this way into this life because of your past-life 
development. But since you grew up in a non-Buddhist culture, there was 
no one to explain these things to you when you were a child, or to show 
you how to develop and understand your innate psychic talents, as you 
matured from childhood into adolescence and young adulthood. 

“Since you are more psychic than most other people, you can feel 
things that they cannot. You can feel when the dimensions shift at 
different times of the day. But because you do not understand what you 
are feeling, and how to work with and gain power and higher awareness 
from those feelings, you are somewhat confused and alienated by them. 

“The feeling you describe as cosmic loneliness,” Master Fwap 
continued patiently, “is your emotional reaction to the intensity of the 
dimensions of power that are present in the late afternoon. These 
particular dimensions of power are often perceived as being spatially 
immense. It feels as if they go on forever and ever, and in a way they do. 

“Your instinctive reaction to the perception of that immensity is to 
feel dwarfed by it. Since you have not made friends with that immensity, 
as I have, and since you have not understood its beneficial side, you tend 


to react to these dimensions of power by feeling small, insignificant, 
overwhelmed and alienated. 

“It is as if you are confronting the totality and immensity of the 
universe,” he continued. “You feel as if that immensity out there is about 
to crush you and destroy your identity. Your reaction is to run for cover 
and seek something familiar—like a familiar location and the company of 
others you like or trust—to shut out those overwhelming feelings. Once 
you have managed to do that, you feel safe. You can forget about that 
immensity out there and feel secure in your identity, and with familiar 
circumstances again. 

“But what you fail to see and understand,” Master Fwap said very 
softly, “is the incredible beauty and the majestic power that these 
particular dimensional planes can make available to you in the late 
afternoons and early evenings. Some day, when you come to see and 
understand these things, you will be able to access the power and beauty 
of those dimensions and bring them into your own life.” 

“How can I come to see this, Master Fwap?” 

“Sometimes we react to things that we don’t understand with fear, 
misunderstanding and confusion. The alternative to this type of reaction 
is to cultivate a healthy curiosity toward things, situations and feelings 
that we don’t understand, and to react to them with curiosity instead of 
with fear. 

“There are invisible powers and forces behind everything in life,” 
Master Fwap suddenly said in a loud voice. “Usually we react to these 
powers and forces with disbelief, prejudice and violence, or we can choose 
to have a more enlightened view toward things that we don’t 
immediately understand. 

“It is good to have a healthy curiosity about the unknown that is 
not based on fear,” Master Fwap said with a broad smile, “just as it is 
equally important not to have an irrational need to believe in things that 
may not be true, simply because we feel the need to rationalize the things 
in life that we don’t understand. 

“It is the Tantric Buddhist belief that the visible universe is a kind 
of revolving doorway that can take us back and forth between the 
invisible dimensions,” he continued. 

“Human beings usually train their young to run away from things 
that they don’t understand. It is an old bad habit. They teach their 
children to hide from, rationalize and be unduly afraid of death, the 
immensity of life and the experiences of the spirit. 

“When human beings live this way, they shut out both the high 
and low frequencies in their lives. This leaves them with the boring 
midrange experiences in daily living that they perceive to be safe. In this 
way, the world of human experiences is reduced to a world of feeding, 
toiling for a living, reproducing and continuously fending off the 
unknown. 

“But some of us are born with a different karma,” he happily 
exclaimed. “We cannot be content to experience only the mundane 
aspects of life. We need to feel both the high and low range frequencies of 
existence, because all of the frequencies of existence that we see in the 
external world correspond to different frequencies within ourselves. 

“Everything that you see around you exists somewhere inside your 
mind. Your mind contains all of the frequencies of life in seed form. We 
experience feelings of wellness and happiness when we allow ourselves to 
freely and intelligently experience all of the higher frequencies of life. We 
become unhappy, depressed, self-destructive and needlessly violent 
toward ourselves and others when we experience too many of the low 
range vibrations of life. 

“Life is a delicate balance between the magical forces of creation 
and the magical forces of destruction,” Master Fwap continued. “The 
primary reason that most human beings are so unhappy is that they cut 
themselves off from the more complex and beautiful tonal ranges of 
existence. To be truly happy we need to experience, balance and create a 
synthesis between the high, midrange, and lower frequencies that life 
affords us. 

 “Most people blame their unhappiness on the elements of their 
lives,” Master Fwap said sympathetically. “If they are unfulfilled, they 
assume it is because they don’t have the right job, enough money or the 
right sexual partner. They believe that if the universe would only conform 
to their desires, and would give them everything they want, then they 
would be happy. 

“But human beings cannot be happy, whether rich, poor or at any 
point in between, if they have cut themselves off from the magic of 
creation. Contemporary human beings have explained away the meaning 
of life with science and logic—without explaining anything at all. And 
what they have not been able to explain away, they have chosen either to 
ignore or to file away as being unimportant or irrelevant. 

“Whenever a society chooses to ignore what it perceives as the 
incongruities or uncomfortable aspects of life, you will notice that 
problems with sexual obsession and violence often occur. Our failure to 
deal in a more positive and insightful way with any part of the life process 
is, more often than not, a sign of psychological and spiritual neurosis. 

“All of life is holy,” Master Fwap shouted happily. “There is no 
such thing as sin. There is only ignorance, and that can easily be cured 
with inner knowledge. 

“The Buddhist view is to not be afraid of the immensity and the 
magic of life,” he continued in a celebratory voice. “This is where Tantric 
Buddhism differs from the traditions of most human societies. In our 
practices we accept everything. We enjoy and learn from the physical 
sciences, the arts, and also from the vast panorama of human experiences. 
In addition to enjoying and learning from all of these physical things,” he 
continued, “we also consciously explore the spiritual dimensions within 
ourselves and the universe. 

“Don’t seek to hide from the immensity of what you feel at sunset,” 
he counseled me. “Explore it and learn from it. Instead of simply labeling 
the feelings you experience at that time of day as ‘bad’ and 
‘uncomfortable,’ merge your mind with them and become one with them. 

“The great Buddhist teachers of the past have developed safe, 
effective and refined methods of meditation for moving our minds into 
the astral and causal dimensions. Once you have learned the order’s secret 




“Through the twin practices of meditation and mindfulness,” 
Master Fwap continued to elaborate, “you can safely learn to experience 
all of the different vibratory ranges in the universe. Eventually you will 
learn to combine and recombine these frequencies within your own mind. 
The endless combinations and recombinations that these frequencies can 
create are part of the infinite number of ecstasies that enlightened 
Buddhist masters experience every day.” 






Interdimensional Snowstorms 

I asked Master Fwap if he would explain, in more physical terms, 
the high- and low-range “frequencies” he had mentioned to me. I thought 
I understood some of what he had said to me, but parts of his explanation 
still seemed difficult, if not impossible, for me to grasp. 

“Master Fwap, would you please tell me a little more about these 
high- and low-range frequencies?” 

“Yes, of course. But first let me recite a mantra that sums up all of 
this. It is our Tibetan theory of relativity. Einstein expressed his theory of 
relativity as an equation. He said: ‘E=mc2.’ 

“In Tibet we say it slightly differently. We say: ‘Om Mani Padme 
Hum.’” 

“What does that mean, Master Fwap?” 

“It means that enlightenment exists within all things. That is the 
Tibetan theory of relativity. 

“Everything that exists outside us also exists within us,” Master 
Fwap declared. “This is one of the great mysteries of life. Enlightenment, 
which is the essence and the nexus of infinity and eternity, exists right 
here and now, within your own mind and heart. 

 

“As I have told you before, enlightenment is inexpressible; it 
cannot be shared in words. Terms may be used to try to express what 
enlightenment is like, but none of them are absolute. 

“Naturally, enlightenment can be alluded to. I can say that it is the 
highest ecstasy, the most perfect happiness, the deepest experience of 
peace, and all that is good and perfect in life. But that is only a way of 
talking, a way of beating around the bush, because none of the 
descriptions of enlightenment—no matter how simple, complex or 
elegant they may be—can cause us to experience it. 

“However, while words may not be able to transmit the experience 
of enlightenment, they are useful for explaining some of the meditation 
techniques and methods that are used for gaining the experience of 
enlightenment.” 

“Master Fwap, I still don’t see what all of this has to do with the 
different feelings that I experience in my life. I also don’t understand how 
enlightenment and all the countless dimensions that you say exist can be 
both inside and outside me at the same time.” 

“Yes, yes,” he replied. “I was just getting to that.” He shifted his 
position on the rock he was sitting on, and suddenly sat up very straight. 
“The high and low frequencies that I was alluding to are the countless 
dimensional planes of light and darkness that exists both within and 
outside us. There is a perfect interrelationship between the inner and the 
outer worlds. They correspond to each other. 

“As I told you before, life is a mystery,” he continued. “I cannot 
explain why this is so, any more than I can explain to you why the sun is 
in the sky, or why we, or any of this, exist in the first place. I am simply 
pointing out some things to you that I have experienced and come to 
know through Tantric Buddhist practice; things that you may be unaware 
of. 

“But in order for you to fully understand the frequencies of life,” 
Master Fwap remarked, “you must first understand that all existence is 
made up of vibrating, intelligent light. 

“There are many types of inner and outer light, and they vibrate at 
different frequencies,” he explained. “The faster the vibration of light, the 
more ecstatic it is to experience. 

 
“Each of us is born as a particular pattern of energy,” Master Fwap 
said firmly. “The pattern that each of us is, has been modified and added 
to by the experiences we had in our past lives. 

“Why each of us is the particular energy pattern that we are is a 
mystery. It cannot be known here. All I know is that we have always 
existed as this pattern, and we always will. Our pattern can be modified, 
but it can never be completely changed.” 

“Why is that, Master Fwap?” 

“The whys of life are not the concern of the practitioners of 
Buddhist Yoga. They are the concerns of philosophers. Practitioners of 
Buddhist Yoga are interested in how the universe works; they study the 
intricacies of its structures, and with the knowledge that they gain from 
their studies they are able to have direct experiences of ecstasy and 
enlightenment that are far above the intellectual abstractions of 
philosophers. 

“A chemist doesn’t know why an atom exists. It isn’t the chemist’s 
job to know. What he or she does know about is how atomic and 
subatomic structures come together to create molecules and elements, and 
how varying combinations of elements can create new substances or alter 
old substances. 

“In a similar way, a Buddhist Yoga master doesn’t know why the 
universe works the way it does; he knows how it works the way it does. 
With this knowledge he can turn any experience or situation, no matter 
how obscure, difficult or painful, into something positive and 
enlightening.” 

“Master Fwap, perhaps you cannot explain ‘why’ the energy pattern 
that is ourselves exists, but can you at least tell me a little bit more about 
it?” 

Master Fwap smiled at me quizzically and replied, “In Buddhist 
Yoga we classify the different patterns of energy that sentient beings have 
as soul types. An almost endless array of vibratory soul types make up the 


beings that populate the universes and dimensions. The particular 
vibratory rate of a specific soul type is what causes it to incarnate within a 
specific universe and also within a specific body type.” 

“So in other words, Master Fwap, the types of souls that dogs have 
would be similar to each other, and the types of souls that human beings 
have would also be similar to each other, at least in terms of their 
vibratory frequencies. But the soul types of dogs and of people are very 
different. Is that right?” 

“Yes,” he replied. “You have it exactly right. Dogs are one specific 
soul type, human beings are another soul type. There are also much more 
subtle differences between the types of souls that different breeds of dogs 
have, and for that matter there are differences between the soul types of 
dogs within a particular breed.” 

Suddenly I began to get excited. I thought I was catching on. “So 
then, Master Fwap, that means that the differences in the soul types 
within terriers, for example, wouldn’t be as great as the difference 
between a German shepherd and a Chihuahua, is that right?” 

“Precisely!” he replied. He was smiling at me as if I had finally said 
something correctly. “And all the soul types that incarnate in a particular 
dimension are somewhat similar. 

“But to reincarnate in another dimension,” he explained, taking the 
conversation to a deeper level, “it is necessary for a being to radically 
repattern itself by significantly altering its vibratory rate, whereas to 
make lateral shifts within a dimension that a soul is reincarnating in 
doesn’t require as radical a repatterning of the soul’s basic vibratory rate.” 

“Master Fwap, I used to have a girlfriend who was very interested 
in reincarnation. She told me that every soul, when it is first created out 
of the cosmic flux, starts out in a basic form, like a rock, and that 
eventually, through the process of reincarnating in millions of lives, it 
moves forward and experiences being a plant, then an animal, and finally 
it incarnates as a person. 

“She said that in each kingdom into which a soul incarnates— 
mineral, plant, animal and human—it starts at the bottom of the 
evolutionary ladder, and gradually, through the process of reincarnation, 
works its way up to the top. Once it reaches the highest level of evolution 


“She compared it to getting your first job at a company, working 
on the production line, and then, throughout the course of your life, 
working your way up the corporate ladder, until you eventually became 
the president of the corporation. She said that every soul does that, and 
that eventually every soul reaches enlightenment. Does reincarnation 
really work that way?” 

“Not entirely,” he replied. “I know this is a very common 
explanation of the process of reincarnation, but to be honest with you, it 
is much too simplistic. I believe that your girlfriend was referring to the 
commonly held theory that each soul begins its cosmic journey by 
reincarnating in the simplest forms of life. Then, according to this theory, 
each soul takes subsequently more advanced incarnations in different 
bodies, always moving toward higher stages of evolution. Eventually, 
every soul reaches the highest levels of incarnation, becomes enlightened, 
and dissolves back into nirvana. That is probably the theory she was 
alluding to.” 

“But if that’s not how it really is, then how does it work, Master 
Fwap?” 


“Normally we start out as a specific soul type, and we remain in 
that soul type forever,” he replied. “We evolve as that soul type, but we 
don’t ever change soul types; we just develop the soul type that we have.” 

Now I was confused. He had lost me again. “Master Fwap, I don’t 
understand. Why would we stay in the same soul type forever? Why 
shouldn’t we evolve through the process of reincarnation, and all 
eventually become enlightened?” 

“Because we get used to being who we are, and we are drawn back 
repeatedly to reincarnate in the dimension we have become accustomed 
to,” he replied with a hearty laugh. “Our soul type is our basic structure,” 
Master Fwap continued, “and it becomes very familiar to us. It is very 
hard for us to change it because in order to do so we literally have to erase 
the multilife being we have gotten used to being. That is why so few 


souls in the cosmos ever become enlightened. They become attached to 
the soul type that they are and also to the dimension in which they 
reincarnate.” 

“Master Fwap, now I’m totally confused,” I said in exasperation. “I 
thought everyone became enlightened once they had gone through 
enough incarnations. That is what my girlfriend told me.” 

“No,” he responded with a cherubic smile and a soft chuckle, “it is 
not usually so. And now, if you will permit me, I will confuse you a little 
more.” 

Master Fwap didn’t say anything for several minutes. He seemed to 
be collecting his thoughts, or perhaps he was creating a sense of drama by 
pausing before his next revelation. 

“My young friend,” he finally began, “there has never been a time 
in which you and I have not existed, nor will there ever be a time when 
we will not be. 


“This is not only the case for ourselves, but for all of the sentient 
beings that exist in all of the far-flung universes that comprise eternity. 

“Think of life as a snowstorm. As far as the eye can see, there is 
nothing but beautiful, white, falling snow. In my analogy, each soul is 
like a snowflake in the endless white snowstorm of infinity. 

“The winds of karma,” he continued, “blow each soul back and 
forth, from one life to another, within the same, endlessly white, 
interdimensional snowstorm. 

“For a brief moment we are alive in this world, and then the winds 
of our karma change direction, and we are blown into yet another life, in 
another part of the same storm. 

“Almost all souls stay within the same soul typing,” he continued. 
“Naturally they will evolve and devolve from lifetime to lifetime, 
speeding up and slowing down their basic vibratory rates, according to 
the actions that they perform and the thought forms they hold, in each of 
the incarnations they pass through. 

“But on rare occasions there are souls that consciously redirect and 
repattern themselves, and change their soul types, while their deepest 
essence remains the same. If they have the knowledge, power and 



“In order to become enlightened,” Master Fwap explained, “it is 
necessary for a soul to repattern itself thousands of times. This is what 
advanced Buddhist Yoga is really all about. It is the science of 
repatterning the soul within an incarnate body, and also in the bardo 
planes, which the soul passes through in between incarnations. 

“If you learn and practice the science of repatterning, then you can 
literally change your soul type within your current body structure. If you 
did this during your current incarnation, then naturally, at the time of 
your death, your soul would change inclination and you would 
reincarnate in a different dimension. You would then be with soul types 
that were similar to the new soul type you had just repatterned yourself to 
be. 

“Let me sum this up for you,” Master Fwap said with a serious look 
on his face. “Very few beings become enlightened. By that I mean that 
very few souls have the inclination, knowledge and power to overcome 
their attachment to their multilife form and to the dimension they have 
incarnated in for so long. To become enlightened, a soul must transcend 
its attachment to its familiar form and dimension, and go through a series 
of repatternings, over the course of tens of thousands of incarnations, until 
that soul finally incarnates in an enlightened soul type. Then, once it has 
incarnated in the form of an enlightened soul type, it must go through 
the training and discipline of evolving even further beyond that soul type 
to becoming nirvana, which, of course, is beyond soul types and 
repatterning. 

“Try to understand,” he said, looking concerned, “that it is not 
better to be an enlightened soul type, or to attain enlightenment for that 
matter, than it is to do or be anything else. It is a personal choice that the 
essence of our being makes for reasons that cannot be known here. 

“What does matter,” he continued, “is getting to the high end of 
the spectrum of the soul type and dimension that you are currently 
 incarnating in. Then you will be happy. Becoming enlightened isn’t 
everything, because enlightenment is everything. 

“All souls are, in their essence, enlightened,” he continued to 
explain. “Just as one of your body’s cells contains the DNA of your entire 
species within it, so too within each soul, regardless of its soul type, there 
is a spiritual type of DNA. Within this spiritual DNA is enlightenment. 
The goal of life and of reincarnation is not to become enlightened—but 
simply to be and to live life fully, and to have endless experiences in 
eternity. 

“You may be drawn to the experience of enlightenment. If that is 
the case, then you will learn to repattern yourself in an upward ascension 
of vibratory soul types. If that is your fate it is both challenging and 
happy, because unlike most beings, you will eventually experience nirvana 
directly, and as a result you will gain the knowledge, and experience the 
ecstasy that is beyond expression. 

“In an interdimensional snowstorm, one snowflake does not have a 
better journey than another snowflake does. They are simply different. 
Souls group together according to their vibratory rate. That is why those 
souls that seek enlightenment associate with and are drawn to similar 
souls, and are even more drawn to enlightened souls who can teach them 
the art of repatterning.” 

I had become so involved in listening to Master Fwap’s explanation 
of reincarnation that I hadn’t even noticed that the sun was beginning to 
set. I suddenly realized that I was freezing cold. 

At that moment it occurred to me that I still had to snowboard 
down the mountain before it became any colder and darker. I knew it 
would be fully dark before long, and I wasn’t sure that even if I left 
immediately, I would be able to make it all the way down. In my 
thoughts I imagined that I would be trapped on the mountain in the 
freezing Himalayan night. 

“Don’t worry,” Master Fwap said, as if he were reading my 
thoughts. “I will ride down with you on your board and help guide you.” 

And so the two of us held on to each other as we sped down the 

mountain, cutting rapidly in and out of the deep powder, on my small 
four-and-a-half-foot-long snowboard—two snowflakes, blowing through
eternity in an endless interdimensional snowstorm.





Chapter Fourteen
Hierarchical Versus Relational
Snowboarding

Master Fwap and I had spent most of the late morning and 
afternoon climbing up a steep, rock-strewn mountain pass. The terrain 
was difficult but spectacular. We stopped to rest at the top of the pass. I 
estimated that we were at around eighteen thousand feet. I could barely 
breathe. 

I lay back on the ground, listening to my lungs sucking in the cold 
mountain air and to the loud pounding of my heart. Looking up, I 
noticed that Master Fwap had assumed a cross-legged position, was 
sitting up very straight, and had closed his eyes. His breathing was calm 
and regular. His face was serene. An aura of sparkling golden light 
surrounded his head and shoulders. 


After a few minutes, my breathing began to normalize. A sharp 
wind had kicked up, bringing a cold chill with it. I sat up and zipped my 
parka, which I had unzipped only minutes before while climbing because 
I had felt so hot. 

There was hardly any noise to be heard anywhere. The only audible 
sound was the soft whine of the wind rushing up and down the canyons of 
snow. Smoky gray storm clouds that had drifted in from the northwest 
had started to filter out some of the sun’s light and warmth. I was about 
to ask Master Fwap if he thought a storm was coming when, 
unexpectedly, he opened his eyes and directed his gaze toward me. 

“At this time of year,” Master Fwap began, speaking in a very 
measured way, “snow showers can come up quite unexpectedly. I 
shouldn’t worry, though. I know where there is a cave just on the other 
side of this pass.” 


As I looked out beyond the valley, the Himalayas seemed to stretch 
on forever. Mountains of endless snow melted into each other as far as I 
could see. The pure whiteness of the scene was occasionally broken by 
dark mountain crags so windswept that all the snow had been blown off 
their peaks, revealing the stark black rock beneath. 

We descended for about an hour and a half, walking carefully on 
the slippery, snow-covered ground. About halfway down to the 
rhododendron forest, we made an abrupt left turn off the trail we had 
been walking on, and started walking down a smaller path. 

The path wound around the mountain toward the south. After 
about ten minutes Master Fwap stopped walking and paused, apparently 
to take his bearings. Then we started walking again. 

In a matter of minutes, we came to the mouth of a large cave. The 
opening was about fifteen feet high. Beyond the mouth of the cave there 
was only blackness. Master Fwap gestured for me to follow him in, and 
walking carefully in his footsteps I entered the cave. 


After we had walked about thirty steps into the cave, Master Fwap 
stopped. He told me to turn around and sit down next to him on his 
right. As soon as I turned around, I could see again. Some of the outside 
light was reflected back into the cave by snow that had formed in a ledge 
around the cave’s mouth. 

Sitting down, I noticed that we were resting on solid rock. The 
snow didn’t seem to have drifted very far into the cave. I was surprised by 
how warm it was inside the cave. I realized that most of the cold I had 
been feeling prior to entering the cave was not the real air temperature, 
but was caused by the Himalayan windchill factor. 

We sat in silence for several minutes before Master Fwap spoke to 
me. Sitting in the cave, I felt a familiar feeling. Usually after a long day of 
snowboarding, after I have packed up my gear and the sun has begun to 
set, I look up at the mountains that I have been snowboarding all day 
long, and I experience an exquisite sense of peace and well-being. I feel 
relaxed and happy, and nothing else really matters much. That was 
exactly how I felt while sitting next to Master Fwap in the Himalayan 
cave that afternoon. 

“There are many caves like this one in the Himalayas,” Master 
Fwap began. “These are the hermitages of the great Buddhist masters of 
our order. Members of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz have been meditating in 
caves like these for thousands of years. 

“These caves are places of power. They are located along 
interdimensional power lines and energy vortexes. Because of the 
dimensions they intersect with, it is very easy to meditate here and to 
understand concepts that might otherwise be difficult, if not impossible, 
to grasp in other locations. 

“Many of the universities in your country are similarly placed,” he 
said in a matter-of-fact way. “They are built on locations that intersect 
with dimensions of great clarity. Teaching and learning in locations of 
that type are naturally much easier. If the same university were placed 
just a few miles away on a different site, without the proper 
interdimensional openings for clarity and learning, it would be much 
harder for the students to learn there. 

“In life, location is everything. We know a little bit more about 
this in the East than you do in the West. 

“Most of the time, when the officers of an Eastern corporation find 
a prospective location for their corporate headquarters,” Master Fwap 
continued, “they hire a Taoist priest who specializes in interdimensional 
openings to check out the proposed site. If he feels the location for the 
corporation is not appropriate—from an energy flow perspective—then 
he will recommend that the cooperation not build there, and the 
company will choose a new location. 

“A great deal of what you would call ‘success’ in a person’s life,” 
Master Fwap continued, “comes from the ability to choose the right 


“There are physical locations on the earth where it is easier to 
meditate, to study, to learn, to make corporate decisions, to fight battles, 
and to see into other worlds. What gives a physical location a particular 
type of power are the dimensional lines that run through it. 

“Throughout the earth there are lines of power,” Master Fwap 
continued to explain. “There are many different types of these astral lines 
and they carry different types of energy along them. 

“Think of the earth as being superimposed on a grid of horizontal 
lines. Dimensional space and locations are superimposed over horizontal 
grids of light and energy. These grids are points of egress—points that 
open into other dimensional realities in which there is much more prana 
available. 

“For instance,” Master Fwap asked, “did you know that there are 
specific energy lines running through the earth that open up to artistic 
and musical dimensions? If a composer or an artist lives and works in a 
place that has those types of lines running through it, then it will be 
much easier for him to create great works of art or music. If the same 
composer or artist lived and worked in a place without those lines, his 
work would be much harder, and he probably wouldn’t create much great 
art at all. 

“While most people may not consciously know about energy lines, 
grid planes, interdimensional vortexes and how all this works, they 
unconsciously use their intuition, which I call the second attention, to 
find and use ‘just-right’ locations when they need them to achieve success. 

“For example, when the site for a great university was originally 
chosen, the founding fathers often intuitively picked a ‘just-right’ spot for 
learning. Standing in that spot, even if it was only a forest or a meadow at 
the time, their bodies could ‘feel’ that this would be a good place for 
students to learn. To be honest with you, people who are successful in life 
have at least unconsciously learned to use their second attention to choose 
the ‘just right’ spots they need to do their work in. 


 “Thousands of years ago, the members of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz 
roamed the East looking for the ‘just-right’ places to practice meditation 
and other psychic arts,” Master Fwap continued. “They discovered many 
places of enlightenment, places of power, places of healing, places of 
seeing and places for teaching. Since these were their primary interests, 
these were the types of places they sought out and discovered. 

“This particular cave is a place of seeing,” Master Fwap explained. 
“It is easy to see other worlds and dimensions from here, and it is also easy 
to understand complicated occult concepts here. Naturally, once you have 
understood a difficult metaphysical concept here, that knowledge will 
accompany you when you leave this cave, in much the same way that you 
will retain a concept you have learned at school after you have left your 
school and gone home for the evening.” 

At this point, I interrupted Master Fwap. He had aroused my 
curiosity, as I somehow suspected was his intention. 

“Master Fwap,” I asked, “is there a particular mountain that is 
better to snowboard on than any other mountain in the world?” I tried to 
make the tone of my question seem light and conversational, so he 
wouldn’t suspect how much I really wanted to know the answer. Having 
travelled with Master Fwap now for some weeks, I had learned that his 
sense of humor was bigger than the Himalayas, and that if he even half 
suspected that I wanted to know something badly enough, he would 
deliberately not tell me, just to drive me crazy. 

Master Fwap remained silent for several minutes, considering my 
question before responding. I assumed that, as usual, he was going to 
prolong my agony for as long as possible, milking the situation for all it 
was worth. He surprised me, however, with the directness of his answer. 

“Yes,” he began, “there is only one absolutely ‘just-right’ mountain 
for snowboarding in the world, although there are certainly many other 
mountains that are very good for snowboarding.” 

“Where might that mountain be, Master Fwap?” I inquired as 
nonchalantly as possible, trying as best as I could to mask my rapidly 
increasing excitement. 


“When can we go there?” I asked a little too loudly. I could no 
longer conceal the excitement in my voice. 

“On our last day together I will take you there,” he replied, again 
in a hushed tone of voice, as if he was imparting a most important secret 
to me and was concerned that someone else might overhear what he was 
saying. 

“But that is still some time from now, and today we have other 
things to concern ourselves with,” he quietly said. 

“What’s on the agenda for today?” I asked with a sigh, trying my 
best to conceal my disappointment with the fact that he hadn’t told me 
the location of the perfect snowboarding mountain. I immediately knew 
that there was no way I could leave the Himalayas and Master Fwap until 
I had snowboarded this “perfect” mountain. Master Fwap had masterfully 
hooked me, and what I found to be most frustrating was that I had baited 
the hook myself. 

“What is the most important aspect of snowboarding?” Master 
Fwap asked me. 

“Balance,” I replied quickly. 

“Exactly so!” he exclaimed. While I couldn’t see his face in the 
semidarkness of the cave, I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was 
smiling. 

“Balance is also the most important aspect of living. I say that it is 
the most important aspect of living as a way of focusing your attention on 
balance as a topic. 

“Naturally every part of living is important,” he said in a much 
louder voice, having evidently decided to give up his pretense of secrecy. 
“But without balance in your life nothing else will work,” he continued. 
“Just as, in snowboarding, without balance you will fall over, in life, 
without balance you will never be happy or successful. 

“Life is complicated,” Master Fwap explained. “It is only simple on 
television or in the movies. But for purposes of this discussion, let us say 
that the goal of life is to be happy. It is the primary motivating force for 
 the vast majority of human beings’ actions and decisions; all other 
decisions and actions that people make are subordinate to this. 

“You choose, from among the experiences that life has to offer you,” 
he continued, “those which you feel will make you the happiest. It’s 
important to remember this. In snowboarding, the purpose is to glide 
down the mountain on your snowboard without falling off. If you lack 
balance then you won’t be able to do this. 

“In life, happiness is achieved through balance. Naturally, the kind 
of balance I’m discussing is inside your mind. Certainly it’s a good idea to 
try and create a happy balance in your physical life too,” he remarked. 
“But because of the constant uncertainties and the ever-changing 
circumstances in day-to-day living, it is not always possible to achieve 
perfect physical balance in all of the activities in your life. 

“It is important to try, though. Your efforts to create a balance in 
the activities in your physical life will maximize your possibilities for 
achieving happiness.” 

“What is inner balance, Master Fwap?” I inquired. “To be honest 
with you, I really have no idea what you are referring to.” 


“I appreciate your honesty. That is why I will give you an honest 
answer: inner balance is happiness.” 

“But wait a minute!” I interjected hastily, “I thought you just said 
that inner balance creates happiness. Now you are saying that inner 
balance is happiness. How can it be both? I don’t understand!” 

“Have patience, my young friend. Hardly anyone on this entire 
planet understands this point. That is why we have hiked all the way up 
to this cave, because here you may gain an understanding of what inner 
balance and happiness are, and how they can be attained. If we had this 
conversation elsewhere, I sincerely doubt you would understand very 
much of what I will explain to you today.” 

“But Master Fwap,” I protested. “How is it that only a few people 
on the entire earth, out of billions and billions of people who inhabit our 
planet, could understand this? I mean, aren’t there lots of really happy 
people out there?” 



“But you are right, in a sense,” he continued. “There are certainly 
many people who do experience happiness from time to time. But their 
happiness is usually short-lived, because it is dependent upon the outer 
circumstances of their lives being in accord with the fulfillment of their 
desires. 

“To understand this, you must first know the difference between a 
hierarchical and a relational mindset,” Master Fwap explained. 

“Master Fwap, not only do I not know the difference between them, 
but I don’t even know what they are. Would you please explain this to 
me in snowboarding terms?” 

“Yes, of course, I would be most pleased to,” he replied. 


“There are five basic ways to approach snowboarding, or anything 
else in your life for that matter,” Master Fwap began. “There are also 
numerous combination approaches, which blend different elements of 
these five basic approaches.” 

“What are they, Master Fwap?” I inquired. 

“The first approach to snowboarding,” he began, “is the instinctive 
method. This is the least effective of the five. Using this method, you 
allow your body’s basic cellular instincts to guide you.” 

“Which instincts do you mean?” I asked. 

“Fear, pleasure and physical balance,” he quickly responded. “You 
are willing to learn to snowboard, and go through what is necessary to do 
so, because your body anticipates a pleasurable experience from 
snowboarding. You use your body’s fear to keep yourself from getting 
hurt, and you also use your body’s innate sense of balance to stay on your 
board and negotiate going down the mountains of snow. 


“The second method is the passionate approach. In this method, 
you use your desires to prompt you. In the passionate approach, your ego 
guides you and your passions empower you. This is the machismo 
method.” 

“So you mean that you do it to show off?” I asked. 

“Yes and no,” he replied. “That is certainly an element in this 
approach, but there is more to it than that. In the passionate method, you 
are validating your self-image through your conquests and achievements 
in snowboarding. You will most certainly combine this with the 
instinctual approach. In your travels, you must have met other 
snowboarders who employ this method.” 

“Sure I have,” I said with a grin. “I call it the jock syndrome. Those 
guys snowboard just to prove to themselves, or to other people who are 
watching them, that they can be radical. It’s very much an image thing. 
And a lot of them are very good snowboarders, too.” 

“Exactly,” Master Fwap replied. “They physically enjoy the feeling 
of snowboarding, and they use their fear, their sense of balance, and their 
ego’s self-assertive need to achieve, in order to impress themselves and 
others. Their passions drive them to accomplish more than the purely 
instinctual snowboarder does.” 

“Right,” I said. “Guys and women like that like to swagger when 
they walk. They think they are better than other snowboarders are if they 
can pass them on the downhill. It’s not really a spiritual thing for them, if 
you know what I mean.” 

“Indeed I do,” he responded. “Now, the third approach is the 
irrational way. It is not really a method at all. It is dominated by anger 
and uncontrolled aggression. People who use this approach will skip over 
the preliminary lessons and instruction about how to snowboard, and just 
do it. They will also probably end up in a hospital, or put someone they 
run down in the hospital along with them.” 

“Right on, Master Fwap!” I agreed heartily. “I hate those dudes! 
They are completely unfocused. They just grab a board and try going 
downhill. Every time they fall off they just get angrier. They usually end 
up quitting or getting themselves or somebody else hurt. They are bad 
news from start to finish. I don’t even know why they bother.” 

“I know what you mean, Master Fwap,” I said. “I once saw one of 
those guys smash a snowboard to pieces when he couldn’t ride it. He kept 
yelling that the board was no good. But the board was fine; he was his 
only real problem.” 

“Now the two more evolved methods of snowboarding are the 
hierarchical and the relational methods,” Master Fwap explained. “These 
two methods of snowboarding represent the Western and Eastern 
approaches to life and to problem solving. They are mental approaches, as 
opposed to the physical or emotional approaches of the previous three 
methods I outlined. 

“Both the hierarchical and relational methods,” he continued, “rely 
on the intelligent uses of structures. The primary difference between the 
two methods, however, is the way in which people who use them arrange, 
interrelate and put those structures to use. To understand these two 
methods, you have to know the difference between Buddhism and 
Christianity.’’ 

“Why is that, Master Fwap?” 

He laughed and said, “It has to do with circles and straight lines. 
These are respectively the symbols of the East and of the West.” 

“What do circles and straight lines have to do with snowboarding?” 
I asked impatiently. I was getting the feeling that Master Fwap was about 
to launch into another one of his mystical dialogues, and that somehow 
the answer to my question was going to get buried in one of his 
metaphorical avalanches. 

He chuckled at my impatient tone of voice and then, without 
losing any of his elegant Buddhist composure, continued with his 
explanation. 

“Hierarchical and relational thinking are both extensions of 
religious viewpoints,” he said. “While Buddhism is not as strictly 
practiced as it once was in the East, and Judaism and Christianity are also 
not practiced as strictly or widely as they once were in the West, the 
types of thinking that they respectively engendered in the Eastern and 
Western cultures remain relatively unchanged. 

“Hierarchical thinking stems from the Christian belief in the great 
chain of being. In the Christian religious view, God is at the top of the 
universe and the devil is at the bottom. Everyone else exists at different 
levels, according to how divine or undivine they are, in between God and 
the devil. Dante, along with many other Christian writers, helped make 
the hierarchical view part of the mainstream of Western thought and 
philosophy. 

“According to this Judeo-Christian hierarchical way of thinking,” 
Master Fwap continued, “creation began at a specific point in time in the 
past, and the end of the world will occur at some specific point in time in 
the future. 

“Everything is linear in this mind-set, and time and space occur in 
straight lines,” he continued. “These two very basic concepts, along with 
the idea that man is born in a state of corruption and sin and is in need of 
redemption, created a physical and metaphysical cosmology that 
influenced the very structure of the Western peoples’ languages, 
philosophies, methods of thought and analysis, problem solving and, of 
course, their social value systems. 

“In others words, people in the West—unless they are irrational or 
intuitive—tend to think in straight lines. Let me give you a 
snowboarding example. 

“A hierarchical snowboarder snowboards in a straight line,” Master 
Fwap explained. “He begins at the top of the mountain and snowboards 
straight down it. When he reaches the bottom, he stops, and then he 
ascends the mountain again and repeats the process.” 

“But Master Fwap,” I interrupted, “how else can you snowboard 
down a mountain? You have to go with gravity, unless someone can 
levitate like you can.” 

“Yes,” he replied. “What you say is true. Unless you can levitate, 
this is most definitely the case. But you interrupted me before I had a 
chance to finish my explanation. 


“What does that mean in practical terms?” I asked. 

“Why, it means that the data constructs in his mind move fairly 
slowly, not a good thing for such a fast-moving sport, I would think.” 

“Master Fwap!” I said with renewed exasperation. “I don’t have any 
idea at all what you are talking about! If this cave is supposed to make 
things more clear, it isn’t working very well. Are you sure we are in the 
right location?” 

“Hmm? Oh yes, thank you, I am quite sure. But you must be 
patient and let me finish. I am just getting to the practical part. 

“You see,” he continued with what I hoped was a sympathetic 
chuckle for my frustration, “it is hard to imagine thinking in another 
mode when you have thought in a particular way all of your life. What we 
are really discussing is how we remember things, how we connect things 
within our mind, and how we prepare for and anticipate things. 

“This is how your mind processes information. It connects ideas 
and feelings in a particular fashion, and then it sorts them into patterns 
and matches them. It can do so in and through a hierarchical, a relational 
or an irrational framework. 

“Relational thinking is based on circles,” Master Fwap continued. 
“That is how Buddhists see the world, as a series of endlessly 
interconnected circles. 

“We don’t believe in God or in the devil, at least not as they are 
commonly conceived in the eyes of Westerners. We also don’t believe that 
time is linear. Instead, we believe that God and the devil, good and evil, 
and all the pairs of what you would call opposites exist inside your own 
mind. And we don’t feel that these things are opposites at all—as a 
matter of fact, we view them as complementary. 

“As Buddhists we believe that time occurs in cycles, that the entire 
universe is one big circle, and that many smaller circles and cycles are 
contained within that larger circle. 


“Needless to say, both the hierarchical and the relational 
cosmologies and views of life are slightly off the mark. They are both 
attempts to define existence in a way it really cannot be defined. 

“As an enlightened Buddhist master, I am not concerned with 
cosmologies,” Master Fwap digressed for a moment, “only with the effect 
that they have upon the way we think, and the way that we construe data. 

“So, to answer your question,” he continued, “a hierarchical 
snowboarder takes longer to think things through because he must 
connect all of his thoughts in straight lines. A relational snowboarder can 
think faster because he thinks in circles—that is, he doesn’t have to go 
through as many time-consuming thoughts to make relevant connections 
between the things he thinks about and perceives.” 




Master Fwap Discusses Lines and Circles 

“For example,” Master Fwap said, “let us say that we have placed a 
great deal of information along a straight line. Now, if we are at one end 
of the straight line, and the piece of information we want to get to is all 
the way at the other end of the straight line, it will be necessary for us to 
journey all the way through the information that is in between us and the 
piece of information that we want to access in order to reach it. 

“But suppose we took the same data and arranged it along the 
circumference of a circle—and then let us further suppose that we sat 
down in the middle of that circle of data. Now, all of that information 
would be equidistant from us, because it is arranged along the 
circumference of the circle that we are sitting in the middle of. 

“If we want to get to a particular piece of information, we don’t 
have to go through a lot of useless data to get to it. All we have to do is 
reach right out to the edge of the circle and grab it. Obviously this is a 
much quicker and more efficient way of accessing information. 

“Take snowboarding, for example. Suppose....” 


 “You are correct,” he replied. “But although you may not 
snowboard in circles, you can think and perceive from the center of the 
circle.” 

“What do you mean by that?” I asked. 

“By not thinking at all,” he replied. 

“But what good would not thinking do you, Master Fwap? If you 
weren’t thinking when you were boarding down a mountain, you would 
probably end up killing yourself, wouldn’t you?” 

“Not at all. That is what relational thinking is all about. It is 
perceiving things from the still center inside your mind. Normally your 
thoughts and perceptions are linear. You have to think things out in a 
long, cumbersome fashion in order to arrive at a proper conclusion.” 

“But that’s what deductive and inductive logic are all about,” I 
protested. 

“That’s exactly my point,” he continued, unfazed by my emotional 
outburst. “Logic is a hierarchical way of thinking; whether it is deductive 
or intuitive is irrelevant. It really boils down to the same thing.” 

“What’s that?” I asked hesitantly. I was getting more and more 
frustrated as he continued his explanation. I still didn’t understand how 
any of this related to snowboarding. 

“I see you’re losing your patience with me again,” he replied. 
“Well, this isn’t really that hard to understand. Just assume that logical 
thought and reasoning normally move in a straight line. 

“Say, for example,” he continued, “that you are snowboarding down 
a strange mountain, and suddenly a Buddhist monk appears directly in 
your path. Logically, thinking in a straight line, he shouldn’t be there at 
all. What on earth would a Buddhist monk be doing wandering around 
in the snow on a Himalayan mountain? 

“Instead of relationally thinking—with which you would have 
instantaneously reacted to the situation without logical analysis, and thus 
would have avoided hitting the monk—you hesitate for a split second 
because your logic cannot account quickly enough for his unexpected 
presence on the mountain. 

“Now if you were thinking relationally, which would mean that 
you weren’t thinking at all, your body would react instantly and you 
would avoid hitting the monk,” Master Fwap continued. “Whether the 
monk’s being there was logical or illogical wouldn’t be an issue that you 
would have to think your way through, in order for you to react. You 
wouldn’t lose that split second it takes to get through your logical 
analysis of the situation. You wouldn’t hit him, and thus you would avoid 
all the bad karma that comes from snowboarding over an understanding, 
enlightened, Buddhist monk.” 

Master Fwap paused. Even though I could not see his expression in 
the semidarkness of the cave, I was sure he had a self-satisfied grin on his 
face. 

“Master Fwap, how is what you just described any different from 
instinctual reflexes? In what way is this relational? Also, isn’t not 
thinking when you are snowboarding basically the same thing as being 
unconscious?” 




Master Fwap Defines the Center of the Circle 

Before answering my question, Master Fwap was silent for several 
minutes. I assumed he was pondering how he was best going to answer 
my questions, or perhaps he was considering how he could simplify the 
subtleties of Buddhist wisdom for a rather abstruse American 
snowboarding fanatic. 

“This is not as difficult to understand as it might seem at first to 
you,” he resumed. “The main problem you are having is that you are 
being a little too serious... you need to relax your mind and let the 
luminous energy of this cave help you understand all of this. 

“In short, you are paying much too much attention to my words 
and missing the yogic point that they are directing your mind toward. 


“One of the great secrets of life that Buddhist monks have learned 
from their study of meditation,” Master Fwap explained, “is how to 
eliminate anything extraneous from their minds. If something doesn’t 
contribute to their happiness and well-being, or to the happiness and 
well-being of others, they are able to remove it from their thoughts, and 
keep their minds focused on what does matter. 

“While you are plummeting down the mountain on your 
snowboard, your mind normally would be thinking of many different 
things. You might be remembering something irrelevant, you might be 
anticipating something unnecessary, or you might be focusing your mind 
on exactly how you are doing what you are doing. For most people, at any 
given time, it is usually a mixture of all three of these things. 

“The relational way of doing things is to move your mind to a 
fourth condition, a condition of heightened awareness. In a condition of 
heightened awareness, you elevate your conscious mind above the stream 
of extraneous data—out of dimensional time and space, so to speak—and 
you meld your mind instead with the pure intelligent consciousness of 
the universe. 

“When your mind becomes absorbed in this higher level of 
intelligent consciousness which I refer to as the second attention—your 
mind will automatically access and create new relations with the data that 
you require, at any given moment of your life. This is the center of the 
circle of intelligence. In this condition of inner illumination, you will 
always know exactly the right thing to do or not do, at exactly the right 
time. Unlike using a hierarchical mind-set, you won’t have to think your 
way through a great deal of data to understand things. You will simply 
‘know.’ 

“Ultimately, thinking is a very inefficient method of processing 
data....” 

“But Master Fwap!” I almost shouted in sheer frustration, “You’re 
not making any sense at all. I thought the shortest distance between any 
two points at any given time was a straight line.” 

“Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t,” he calmly replied. 

“Well, when isn’t it?” I nearly yelled out at the top of my voice in 
frustration. 

“Consider a road that goes up to the top of a mountain,” he calmly 
responded. “It winds its way up to the top of the mountain in a series of 
loops. If you made a road that went straight to the top of a mountain, it 
would be too steep for vehicles to climb. So, in theory, while the shortest 
distance between two points may be a straight line, in reality, sometimes 
a circle, or a series of circles, is shorter.” 

I didn’t answer. I could understand now the benefits of the training 
in Buddhist debate that Master Fwap had received growing up in the 
monastery. I remained quiet, silently acknowledging his point, and let 
him continue. 

“The issue we are examining,” Master Fwap continued, is about 
thinking relationally. As I said before, most people think in straight 
lines—when they bother to think at all. And naturally, you do 
understand, my young friend, I am certainly not suggesting that we all 
give up thinking and return to a purely instinctual way of perceiving 
things. My point is that there is a much more advanced way of looking at 
life than you are familiar with; it is a way of perceiving life and data that 
is much more accurate and enjoyable than the method of logical analysis 
which you are used to employing. 

“Logical analysis,” Master Fwap continued, “is fine for gaining a 
limited understanding of many things and situations. But the speed, 
accuracy and range of computations that it offers you—as a way of 
thinking over and evaluating real time experience and situations—is 
definitely inferior to relational analysis. 


“Yes, I always carry it in my pack in case it gets dark on the way 
back from snowboarding.” 

“Good, take it out for a moment, turn it on, and point it at the 
ground in front of us.” 

After I had done as he requested, Master Fwap spoke again. 

“Now suppose we take a set of numbers…let us arrange them in 
two rows. Let us arrange the first row like this,” he said as he drew this 
set of numbers in the snow,from one to twelve.


“And suppose we draw a second set of numbers that looks like 
this,” he said. And drew a second set of numbers, underneath the first set, 
that looked something like this: 


“Now logically speaking,” he went on, “the best way to relate 
these numbers is in a straight line, either from side to side or up and 
down.” Then Master Fwap drew some lines in the snow between some of 

the numbers that he had written that looked something like this. 
One line with one to 12.
Another line below with 13 to 22. 


“But suppose we arranged the first group of these numbers in a 
circle instead,” he said as he made a circle out of some of the same 
numbers that looked something like this: 
the upper row or line with 1 to 12 where lines connects 2 to 16 in the lower line, and 7 to 14, and  line between  9 and 19, and 11 and 18.

“And now let’s make another circle using the second set of 
numbers, inside the first circle,” he went on. And then he drew a second 
series of numbers in a smaller circle, that fit within his first circle, that 
ended up looking something like this number-circle.

It is the outher circle with numbers from 1 to 12 and

 the inner circle with numbers from 13 to 22



“Now, as you can see for yourself,” he continued, “the ways of 
connecting the numbers are much more direct than before, when I was 
interconnecting the numbers that I had placed in the two straight lines.” 
And he proceeded to draw a number of lines connecting the numbers in 
the two circles that looked something like this: 





 “You’re right, Master Fwap,” I said. “The lines connecting the 
numbers in the two circles are much shorter than the length of the lines 
connecting most of the numbers that are in the two straight rows. But 
what does this have to do with snowboarding?” 

“It is our Buddhist belief,” he continued, “that the human mind, as 
I once told you, is made up of countless layers—which I have represented 
with circles. Think of your mind as being similar to an onion. 

“An onion is made of hundreds of layers of thin skin. When you 
take the outermost layer away, another layer is revealed. There is layer 
after layer, as you peel your way down to the onion’s core. 

“Your mind is made of thousands of layers in a similar way,” 
Master Fwap continued. “That is why I compare it to a series of 
interconnected circles.” 

“But Master Fwap,” I broke in. “How does any of this relate to 
snowboarding?” I was completely exasperated at this point with all of 
Master Fwap’s metaphysical jargon. I didn’t see how any of what he was 
saying was at all relevant to answering my question. 

“It’s easy,” he said, suppressing a laugh as he spoke. “I will explain 
it to you. Be patient with me for just a few more moments.” 

“OK,” I acquiesced, “but please relate it this time to 
snowboarding.” 

“When you are thinking, you are caught in a straight line,” he 
began. “In order to get out of the straight line of thought, and reach a 
point of information that is not in the current straight line of your 


thoughts, you need to bridge your information gap with additional 
straight lines of thought. 

“For example, let us suppose that you are snowboarding down a 
mountain. You are engaged in the types of thoughts that you normally 
think while you are snowboarding. Perhaps you are gauging the 
snowbank ahead and preparing to turn... when suddenly, and without 
warning, you see a Buddhist monk standing in the path of your rapidly 
descending snowboard. 

“But if you are not thinking at all,” he continued, “if your mind is 
absorbed in the second attention, and you are able to make extralogical 
connections within your mind with immediacy, then you will react 
smoothly to this unexpected occurrence and avoid hitting the poor, 
unsuspecting, Buddhist monk with your snowboard. If you are thinking 
in straight lines however—as you were when you first met me—then you 
would hit the monk, just as you did. 

“You hit me,” Master Fwap continued, bringing me back mentally 
and emotionally to a moment I would rather have forgotten, “because 
your mind couldn’t draw a rapid enough series of relations between your 
snowboarding down a mountain, and a Buddhist monk you unexpectedly 
found standing in the path of your oncoming snowboard. 

“Now consider this as an example from real life, not from 
theoretical life,” he declared. “Buddhists, you see, are the ultimate 
realists. We like theories, but only if they have realistic applications to 
actual, day-to-day or lifetime-to-lifetime circumstances. 

“In day-to-day life,” he said, “you are constantly dealing with the 
unknown. Yes, there will be a certain amount of repetition in most 
people’s lives. For example, you may go to school each day at 
approximately the same time and follow the same route. 

“But one day, something may occur on your way to school that was 
quite unexpected, something that you could not have anticipated would 
ever possibly occur at precisely that moment. Perhaps a car swerves out of 
control and suddenly bears down on you, or perhaps the most beautiful 
girl you have ever seen suddenly walks past you. 

“If you were thinking logically, in straight lines, at the time, you 
would probably not react quickly and correctly to what was happening to 


“The most successful people in the world are those who think 
relationally,” Master Fwap continued. “Of course they can use hierarchical 
logical analysis too, when it is beneficial for them to do so. But most 
highly effective and successful people don’t rely on hierarchical logical 
analysis for most of their problem-solving; instead they solve problems 
relationally with the assistance of their second attention. 

“Most highly successful people live in a state of creative and happy 
emptiness. Unlike average people who become overly absorbed in what 
they are thinking about, dealing with currently, anticipating or 
remembering, individuals who think relationally—from the center of the 
circle of consciousness—can see opportunities that other people overlook, 
and simultaneously create rapid relations that enable them to quickly and 
successfully seize these opportunities and avoid disasters. 

“To sum it all up in overly simplistic terms,” Master Fwap said 
tersely, “success in life primarily depends on two things: timing, and a 
person’s ability to create rapid and accurate relations within one’s own 
mind.” 

“But wait a second, Master Fwap. How does thinking relationally 
affect my walking past the most beautiful girl I have ever seen?” 

“If you were thinking logically,” he replied with a laugh, “you 
would probably not react properly or quickly enough to meet and impress 
her. Logically, if she was the most beautiful woman you had ever seen, 
you would be so overwhelmed by her beauty that you wouldn’t react 
quickly enough, and you would miss the opportunity to introduce 
yourself to her. 

“Or you would react logically. You might like to meet her, but 
remember you are on your way to school. You might not have enough 
time to meet her without being late to class. 

“Also, how would you react?” he inquired rhetorically. “Using 
logic, you could only rely on your past experiences, those that are in your 
current memory, to draw information from, on how to approach her. You 
would have to think quickly of a way to create a logical relationship 
between yourself and what you were going to say to her. But by the time 
you got all of this constructed in your mind, chances are she would be 
long gone.” 

“But Master Fwap,” I stammered, “I don’t see how thinking 
relationally, or not thinking at all, or whatever it is you are trying to 
explain to me, would help me to meet and impress her.” 

“It is easier than you realize, but you must think relationally to 
understand what I am talking about,” he replied with a soft chuckle. 

“As I said before,” he continued, “the mind is like an onion; it is 
made up of countless layers. The layers closest to the surface of your 
conscious awareness are the storehouse of your memories and experiences 
from your current lifetime. But beneath those layers are deeper layers that 
contain your past-life experiences, and deeper still there are layers that 
access the pure intelligence of the universe itself, which I refer to as the 
second attention. 

“When you think relationally, when you have the full awareness of 
your mind—all of those layers are at your disposal. You can immediately 
draw information from your past lives or, if the information you want 
can’t even be found there, you can draw information directly from your 
second attention. 

“Perhaps you have had many past lives in which you knew equally 
beautiful women,” Master Fwap said seductively. “You could draw 
information about the best way to react and speak to her from your past-
life memories. And if you think relationally, via the second attention, you 
could access that information instantly. 

“From the center of the circle, you can instantly find whatever it is 
you need to know,” Master Fwap explained, “in order to react properly to 
any situation. Trust me, this is true.” 

“Master Fwap, how can this be?” 

“There are two ways of doing things in life,” Master Fwap replied. 
“One way is to do things in and through structures; the other way is to do 
things by going outside structures. 


“But there is another way to build a house—the Tantric Buddhist 
way. You first let the site select you. Then you go there and allow the 
site’s power to show you what type of house should be built there, and 
then you build it.” 

“So what does that have to do with the second attention?” I was 
starting to get confused by Master Fwap’s explanation, and I wanted him 
to clear up my lack of understanding before he went any further. 

“Well,” Master Fwap said in a bright and happy tone, “I suppose it 
has everything to do with the second attention. That’s my point.” 

“But Master Fwap,” I protested, “what is the second attention?” 

“The second attention is the magical side of life,” he calmly replied. 
“There are two sides to existence, the side you see and the side you don’t. 
The side that you see is the first attention, and the side you don’t see is 
the second attention.” 

Master Fwap paused, and looked at me. In the dim light of the cave 
I could vaguely make out enough of his facial expression to tell that he 
was very proud of what he had just said, even though I didn’t know why. 

“The second attention,” he continued, “is beyond structures. By 
structures I mean the dimensions of time, space and mind. The second 
attention is a field of endless light that exists just beyond our grasp. It is 
the home of what human beings call magic and miracles.” 

“I still don’t understand what it is,” I complained. 

“Oh yes you do,” he remarked casually. “You use the second 
attention whenever you go snowboarding; that is why you are able to do 
it so well. 

“Most people don’t believe in the second attention,” he factually 
stated. “They have never experienced it, even though it surrounds them 
and the world they live in, all of the time. 


“The second attention is the power of life,” he declared. “It exists 
within every atom of the universe; it is the power behind perception and 
all things which you perceive. 

“You see, my young friend,” Master Fwap was suddenly more 
gentle, as if he was explaining something very complicated to a small 
child. “There are many unseen miracles of life. The very existence of the 
universe is a miracle. The fact that we live and are aware is a miracle. The 
fact that we die and are reborn is a miracle. 

“These things cannot be understood by the thinking and 
calculating portions of our mind. We can examine aspects of these 
miracles with those parts of our mind, but we can never truly understand 
them. 

“The second attention is an essence,” he continued. “It exists 
whether we are aware of it or not. Through the practice of short-path 
Tantric Buddhist Yoga, we learn to become a bridge between the power 
of the second attention—the world of magic—and the dimensionality of 
the first attention, which is, of course, the day-to-day world we normally 
live in. 

“Through meditation and other Tantric practices we learn to tap 
into the magical side of creation. This is the invisible side of life that 
underlies and supports all of the universes. 

“The second attention is ancient and powerful,” he said abruptly. 
“It doesn’t care for our puny reason. It can do things that are 
unimaginable—as a matter of fact, it does them all the time. And when 
you allow its power to pulse through you, then you and your life become 
the vehicle of some of its magic.” 

“So, Master Fwap, what does all of this have to do with yoga and 
enlightenment?” 

“It is easy,” he replied. “Normally it takes many incarnations of 
yogic practice for people to make major structural changes in their 
vibratory patterns and in the universes they have the ability to incarnate 
in. But when the power of the second attention is released into the 
practice of yoga, or anything for that matter, the miracle power of the 
universe enters into it, allowing things that would normally take place at 
a much slower pace to occur much faster. It even makes some things 
happen that would otherwise be totally impossible.” 

“So then why doesn’t everyone who practices Buddhism use the 
second attention?” I asked. 


“What do you mean by that, Master Fwap?” 

“Most Buddhists, and most people for that matter, are easily 
satisfied, and I assure you there is nothing wrong with that. But some of 
us are drawn to more... it is our karma. We want to go further into 
enlightenment and deeper into ecstasy; we want to merge with and 
become the totality of enlightenment. We want to transcend the self as 
soon as possible. 

“So those people who want to attain enlightenment as quickly as 
possible practice Tantric Buddhism, because Tantric Buddhism is the 
fastest path for attaining enlightenment; it’s really that simple.” 

“But what does that have to do with me ?” I 
inquired suspiciously. 

“Let me just say,” Master Fwap replied with mock chastisement, 
“that you, like a Tantric Buddhist, are a person who seeks peak 
experiences. Most people your age wouldn’t need to leave their native 
country, where there are plenty of high mountains to go snowboarding 
on, and travel all the way to the Himalayas to snowboard. But you needed 
to. It is part of your karma, because you are the way that you are.” 

“Is that wrong, Master Fwap? Am I being greedy?” 

“No, not at all. It is simply how you work. People who seek 
enlightenment rapidly on the Tantric short path, as I did, and someone 
like yourself, who wants to snowboard the highest and most majestic 
mountains in the world, are not being greedy. It is simply what their 
karma draws them to. 

“The important thing, from a yogic point of view,” he continued, 
“is not to become egotistical. If a person who follows the Tantric short 
path to enlightenment feels ‘spiritually superior’ to someone who is 
following a more gradual path to enlightenment, then that person is 
making a great mistake, and is missing the entire point of the practice of 
yoga. 


“Practicing yoga,” Master Fwap continued, “teaches us that we are 
all the same. We may have different external tendencies from other 
people we know, and we may also have different awareness levels, but 
inwardly we are all one. 

“When you feel that you are superior to someone else, you lack 
compassion. Compassion is a word Buddhists use to express the 
realization that even though we may differ greatly in evolution, 
appearance, talents or intelligence from other beings in the universe, we 
are all equally valuable in the eyes of eternity. This is wisdom. 

“When you feel superior to someone else,” he continued, “whether 
it’s on the pathway to enlightenment, in the sport of snowboarding, in 
business or in any other aspect of your life, you cut yourself off from the 
inner light of enlightenment. You no longer feel happy. Instead you are 
alone with your judgments, with your egotism and with your limited self. 

“To reach the unlimited ecstatic self within us, we must overcome 
all feelings of both superiority and inferiority. Feelings of inferiority are 
simply another manifestation of the ego in disguise. 

“I’m not asking you to be falsely humble and to avoid success, or to 
not do the things that you enjoy.” Master Fwap said with a hearty laugh. 
“That is not the Tantric way. 

“Simply realize that we all have different karmas,” he explained. 
“Some people have developed aspects of themselves, specific talents and 
abilities in this or in other lives, in ways that others have not. See and 
enjoy the differences and accomplishments of others. 

“Enjoy your own struggles and successes too. If you want to be 
happy, avoid falling into the trap of egotism about what you do and who 
you perceive yourself to be, and don’t be threatened or feel jealous of 
someone else because they can do something that you can’t, or because 
they have something that you don’t. 

“Remember, we are all made up equally of the intelligent light of 
enlightenment. That light chooses to express itself uniquely through each 
one of us in its own mysterious and special fashion, for reasons that cannot 
be known here.” 

“You are correct. There is certainly a difference between desire and 
karma,” he replied. “Not that there’s anything wrong with experiencing 
desires,” he continued. “Remember desires are just another way that the 
universe expresses its love of itself, in and through us. 

“Karma is the level of your awareness—what you are drawn toward 
in life,” he explained. “It won’t go away until your level of awareness 
changes. It is like the earth circling the sun: as long as the sun’s 
gravitational field is stronger than the earth’s, the earth has to circle the 
sun. 

“Your awareness, which is your karma, is what hooks you to 
things,” Master Fwap explained. “That is not the same as desire. Desire is 
a short-term pull toward an object, experience or some other aspect of life. 
Desire fades with time, sometimes even in minutes or within seconds of 
its fulfillment. Very few desires last for more than a few years, let alone 
for an entire incarnation. 

“So when you are inexplicably pulled toward something, an experience, or someone, and that pull won’t go away, that is how you can know that it is your karma, not simply another transient desire. And if it is an especially strong pull that won’t go away, then it is probably from your past lives. And if you don’t follow your karma, if you try to avoid it and run away from whatever your karma happens to be, you will never be happy or at peace with yourself, no matter what you do or achieve in this or in any other world.” 

“So what does all of this have to do with relational thinking, Master 
Fwap?” 

“Your mind has the ability to perceive both relationally and 
logically,” he answered happily. “Both methods of perception are good, 
and serve different purposes. The problem is that most people are taught 
to perceive things in only one way—logically. They never develop their 
innate ability to perceive things from the center of the circle. Now do you 
understand?” 

“I think so, Master Fwap,” I said, somewhat hesitantly. 

 
“Good, then please give me an example,” he said with a big laugh. 

I paused for a minute to collect my thoughts. Sitting in silence, 
while I was trying to put together everything that Master Fwap had just 
said, I suddenly realized that I wasn’t at all cold. I was just about to 
comment on the cave’s surprising warmth, when I remembered that 
Master Fwap was patiently waiting for my answer to his question. 

“Master Fwap, you are saying that the universe is one big mind. 
Am I right?” 

“Exactly!” he replied. 

“And all of us are part of that big mind, and it is also a part of us.” 

“Yes,” he agreed, “please continue....” 

“Well, relationally speaking, when I suspend my thoughts I go into 
the second attention, and in my second attention I see the universe 
differently, from what you refer to as the center of the circle of perception. 
From there I can draw from my current and past-life knowledge, or 
directly from the second attention, which is the essential knowing of the 
universe. 

“So if I was snowboarding down a mountain and a Buddhist monk 
suddenly appeared in front of me, instead of panicking and losing it like I 
did when I surfed you, I could flow with the experience. To do this I 
would simply accept the fact that you were there, as if it were an everyday 
occurrence—not freak out—and deal with it from a deeper level of 
awareness. Is that right?” 

“You’ve got it!” he said, and clapped his hands together in 
applause. 

We sat in the cave for a little while longer. Master Fwap told me 
that I needed time for my new understanding of relational thinking to 
sink in before we left the cave’s helpful energy. 


Sitting in silence in the cave, next to Master Fwap, a variety of 
different sensations passed through my body and mind. At times I felt as 
if all the universe was part of me, and at other times I felt that I was a 
small part of it. 


We spent the next several days at the monastery with Master 
Fwap’s monk friends, and I have never been so happy before or since. But 
that’s another story for another chapter. 







Chapter Fifteen
Peak Experiences


The ancient monastery was built into the side of a mountain cliff 
on the edge of the rhododendron forest. It housed fifteen Buddhist 
monks, although, Master Fwap confided to me, it had once housed more 
than a hundred. 

It was made of stone, wood and plaster. Dozens of brightly colored 
prayer flags and stones carved with Om Mani Padme Hum decorated its 
front courtyard. The meditation hall was large: I estimated that well over 
one hundred monks could simultaneously meditate there. Behind and 
above the meditation hall were a kitchen and study rooms. 

We had arrived at sunset, just as the monastery lamps were being 
lit. As the two of us stood surveying the monastery, a pair of monks came 
out into the front courtyard and blew through two musical instruments 
that looked like seven-foot-long oboes. I can’t say that the sounds they 
made were pleasing to me, but judging from the bright and happy 
expression on Master Fwap’s face, he seemed to enjoy their music. 

Shortly after our arrival, all the monks came out to the courtyard to 
greet us. They smiled at me, and several of the younger monks came over 
directly to me and bowed. 

I observed, from their attentiveness to him, that the monks who 
lived in the monastery seemed to know, like and have a deep respect for 
Master Fwap. I also noticed that he acted differently around them than he 
did with me. He seemed more at ease. 

We were led to the kitchen, where we were seated at a long table 
with a number of the monks. They all laughed and chatted with Master 
Fwap in Nepali, while two of the younger monks served us both tea. 

After tea, Master Fwap and I were conducted to the north wing, 
and ushered into the room belonging to the head lama of the monastery. 

 


He was very old. He sat on a meditation couch in the large room 
that served as both his bedroom and office. He greeted me with a warm, 
broad smile. 

I liked him immediately. Despite his advanced years, there was 
something very youthful about him; he seemed to me to be very innocent 
and vulnerable. Master Fwap said something to him in a different 
language, and then the two of them started giggling like children. 

Later Master Fwap explained to me that the head lama, like 
himself, was Tibetan. They had been conversing and making jokes about 
me in their native language, so that only the two of them would 
understand. 

After a few minutes, one of the younger monks appeared noiselessly 
at the head lama’s door, and conducted me to a different section of the 
monastery, where I would be staying. 

I was given a small room to stay in at the end of the south wing. It 
was sparsely furnished, and smelled perpetually of incense. 

In the center of the room was a cot. Built into one of the room’s 
walls were two small chests of drawers made of a dark wood that 
resembled teak. In the front of the room, opposite the entry way door, 
hung a brightly colored thanka, depicting scenes from the life of the 
Buddha. 




I don’t remember dreaming during the nights I slept in the 
monastery. My days were spent taking walks with the younger monks and 
helping around the kitchen. 

One of the younger monks who was about my age had undertaken 
the task of teaching me Nepali. In return, he asked me to teach him 
English. He and I spent our mornings and afternoons together, when I 
wasn’t working in the kitchen, walking around the monastery grounds 

 His name was Ananda. In the little English that he spoke, he told 
me he was born in southwestern Nepal in a small village. He told me that 
he had lived in several other monasteries before coming here. He referred 
to the monastery we were in as the “cliff monastery.” He said he was 
seventeen years old. 

I liked the routine of the monastery. Every morning we would get 
up with the sun. We bathed in a freezing cold waterfall that came roaring 
down the mountainside, and then after returning to the kitchen for hot 
buttered tea, we all would go to the meditation hall for morning 
meditation. 

The meditation hall was windowless. It was lit with dozens of small 
candles. The walls were covered with brightly colored thankas that 
depicted Buddhas, gods, goddesses and otherworldly scenes in 
fantastically complicated paintings. 

Each morning I would sit next to Master Fwap, facing the front of 
the hall in a cross-legged position, on a meditation cushion. At the front 
of the room, next to a statue of the Buddha, the head lama stood 
motionless until all of the other monks were present and seated. Then he 
would ring a small bell. Immediately everyone would close their eyes and 
enter into meditation. 

Trying to follow Master Fwap’s instructions, I meditated as best I 
could. At the beginning of each session, I mostly thought. But partway 
through the morning meditation my thoughts would begin to slow and 
occasionally—for very short periods of time—they would completely 
stop. 

During these times I felt similar to the way that I had when I had 
been sitting next to Master Fwap in the cave of seeing. I could feel a 
perfect stillness within me. The universe seemed to melt into me and I 
into it; I felt as if I was a part of everything and I had no fear. 

I noticed that each morning, about fifteen minutes after the 
meditation session had ended, everything became very shiny. My physical 
vision seemed to clear, and everything I saw became brighter and more 
precise. One morning after meditation, I asked Master Fwap about this 
phenomenon. He told me that things were always this bright, but that I 
needed my morning meditation to clear my mind enough to see just how 
beautiful life really was. 




Samadhi is the Top of the Mountain 

One day, after we had been staying at the cliff monastery for about 
a week, Master Fwap and I spent an afternoon in the monastery garden. It 
was a sunny day, and I felt lazy and warm sitting in the garden with a cup 
of steaming buttered tea in my hand. 

Master Fwap was all smiles that day. He told me we would have to 
leave in a few days, and that I should enjoy the time we had left at the 
monastery. He remarked that this particular monastery was his favorite in 
all of the Himalayas. He said that he came here whenever he needed to 
clear his mind and rejuvenate his spirit. 

“Normally when I come here,” he began, “I spend most of my time 
meditating in this garden. The luminous energy lines of this particular 
valley all converge right here in this garden. These energy lines are 
particularly conducive to samadhi.” 

“Why is that?” I inquired. 

“Because they emanate from a dimension of perfect light,” he 
replied with a bright and happy laugh. “As I told you in the cave of 
seeing, different physical locations are hooked to different dimensions. 
Buddhist monasteries are built on locations that interphase with 
dimensions that are of the brightest and most perfect light,” he replied. 

“Look around you,” he continued. “We are in a valley that is 
surrounded by the Himalayas on all sides. There is nothing else here 
except snow-covered mountains and the rhododendron forest. The only 
people who live here are Buddhist monks who constantly meditate on the 
dharma—on the happiest thoughts and feelings in the universe. There is 



“But Master Fwap, is all of the higher energy here because of the 
luminous energy lines, or is the high energy here emanating from the 
meditating monks?” 

“Originally there were no monks and there was no monastery here,” 
he responded. “There were only the Himalayas and the rhododendron 
forest. The dimensional planes that correspond to this valley we are in 
were then, and still are, made up of pure intelligent light. 

“The Himalayas are filled with places like this,” he continued. 
“And since there are few, if any, people around these locations, these 
places of power and enlightenment have remained relatively unpolluted 
by the aura of worldly human beings.” 

“Master Fwap, are there other places like this outside the 
Himalayas?” 

“Yes, there are quite a few on each continent, and also on some 
islands,” he replied with a smile. “But most of them have become so 
polluted by the cities that have been built near or on them that they 
cannot be used for achieving samadhi any more.” 

“Why do you need a special place to experience samadhi?” I asked. 
“I thought that if you were enlightened you could go into samadhi in any 
location. If samadhi is a deep meditative state of mind, what does physical 
location have to do with achieving it?” 

Master Fwap laughed delightedly at my question. I could tell he 
was amused by the fact that I had finally decided to ask him something 
about meditation, instead of my perpetual topic, snowboarding. 

“There are really two issues involved here,” Master Fwap began, 
“and I want you to see them as complementary, not as being opposed or 
unrelated to each other. They are both equally important. 

“The first issue is understanding what the samadhis are, and how 
they are attained: this is purely a technical understanding of meditation 
techniques and methods. The second issue is how the higher energies of 
parallel dimensions and power spots can be used to heighten overall 
spiritual awareness, and how they can make it easier for a person to 
experience the samadhis.” 

“Master Fwap, I thought you said that samadhi was the absence of 
thought? I’ve experienced that several times since we’ve been here, during 
my morning meditations. Does that mean I have been entering into 
samadhi already?” 

Master Fwap laughed heartily. His eyes twinkled with delight as he 
said: “No, I’m afraid that what you have experienced so far, in your early 
morning meditations, is a few good minutes of meditation, but not 
samadhi.” 

“Well, how can you tell what samadhi is?” I asked, frustrated. 

“Samadhi,” Master Fwap replied, “is, of course, the absence of 
thought. Let us say that the absence of thought is one of the indications 
that you have entered into a deep state of meditation. But there are 
several other aspects to the experience of samadhi that must also be 
present, if what you are experiencing is really samadhi. 

“Let me begin by saying that the experience in meditation of 
samadhi is not a great achievement. In this world it is, however, a very 
rare achievement. Of all of the hundreds of thousands of Buddhist monks 
who meditate every day, only a handful of them are able to experience 
samadhi every time they meditate. 

“According to our yogic traditions, samadhi means complete 
awareness of God, or to put it in less religious terms, samadhi means that 
your mind and the mind of the universe are, for a time, merged in an 
absolute ecstatic union. 

“There are said to be three stages of samadhi—Salvikalpa samadhi, 
Nirvikalpa samadhi and Sahaja samadhi. Salvikalpa samadhi is like 
accidentally falling into a beautiful and pure lake of absolute bliss. You 
did not fall in intentionally, but you found it refreshing nevertheless, 

“Nirvikalpa samadhi is like intentionally diving into the same lake, 
and swimming and playing in it for a time. Sahaja samadhi is like living 
on a houseboat in the middle of the lake of bliss, and occasionally coming 
ashore for supplies. 



“To an extent, we experience the mind of God in all things. We 
experience it in the world that we see and feel every day, the people we 
know, the thoughts we think and in the emotions that we feel. The 
physical universes, astral dimensions and causal dimensions are simply 
different aspects of the mind of God. 

“But when we experience life through our senses and with our 
thoughts, we don’t experience its essential nature, its most pure and 
radiant form. Instead we only experience the external veneer of life’s 
ecstasy. 

“Most of the water in a lake lies hidden beneath its surface,” Master 
Fwap continued. “In much the same way, only a small portion of life can 
be seen. The vast majority of life is nonphysical; it exists beyond the 
physical surface of life, in other dimensions. 

“If you want to experience life in its totality, it is necessary to enter 
into samadhi. Stopping your thoughts for a few minutes during 
meditation—which you have experienced several times in the meditation 
hall over the past few mornings—will give you a glimpse of the inner 
depths of infinity. But in samadhi, you gain more than a glimpse; you will 
experience the infinite, eternal and perfect depths of existence. 

“The experience of samadhi is never the same twice,” he continued. 
“In some ways it is like climbing one of our Himalayan mountains. The 
weather conditions around a Himalayan mountain, and the amount of 
snow covering it, are constantly changing. Even though you may climb 
the same mountain again and again, you will never have exactly the same 
experience twice, because of the mountain’s ever-changing climatic 
conditions. 

“Because nirvana is endless, ever-new, changeless yet ever-
changing, and since your ability to experience it—to climb higher up the 
mountain of meditation, so to speak—also increases as your life becomes 
more fluid and powerful, your experiences in samadhi—your ecstatic 
journeys into nirvana-—are never exactly the same. 



“Samadhi is ecstasy beyond comprehension,” Master Fwap 
continued. “During deep meditation, as you start to enter into samadhi, at 
first every cell in your body will be filled with a fiery ecstasy. This ecstasy 
starts at the base of your spine, and rises as the kundalini energy ascends 
up your sushumna. 

“Your sushumna is the primary conduit of the kundalini energy in 
your nonphysical body. It is an astral nerve tube that runs between and 
connects all of your major chakras. It begins at the base of your spine, 
where your first chakra is located, and then runs up through your spleen 
chakra, navel chakra, heart chakra, throat chakra and ends in your sixth 
chakra, the third eye, which is located in the center of your forehead. It 
runs in the astral plane next to and along your spinal column. 

“To go into samadhi you must pull the kundalini energy up from 
your root chakra, the first chakra at the base of your spine, all the way up 
to your third eye! Then you must move all the kundalini energy you have 
amassed at your sixth chakra, the third eye, up and into your seventh 
chakra—which we in Buddhist Yoga refer to as the crown chakra. 

“This is the difficult part, because the crown chakra is not directly 
connected to the third eye by the sushumna. It takes a great deal of 
willpower, and total vibratory purity, to move the kundalini energy all of 
the way up to the crown chakra from your third eye. 

“When the kundalini energy enters your crown chakra, you 
experience samadhi. As I mentioned before, samadhi is the direct 
experience of nirvana. 

“The crown chakra is the nexus of one thousand dimensional planes. 
That is why, in Buddhist Yoga, it is often referred to as the thousand-
petaled lotus of light. 

“The amount of kundalini you are able to bring into your crown 
chakra,” Master Fwap said, “will determine how many of those 
dimensions—the petals of the crown chakra—become simultaneously 
active. The different samadhis are simply measurements of how many of 
the thousand petals of the crown chakra you are able to simultaneously 
access. The more dimensions in your crown chakra you can simultaneously 


“Please remember,” Master Fwap said in a strong and formal tone, 
“that what I have just described to you is only a verbal blueprint of how 
the experience of samadhi is achieved. It is, at best, a flowchart of how the 
kundalini moves. 

“There is much, much more to achieving samadhi, enlightenment, 
and experiencing nirvana than I have expressed to you in this simple 
verbal description! You learn the subtleties of the samadhis, and how to 
become enlightened and merge with nirvana, from being personally 
initiated by, and directly studying with an enlightened Buddhist master.” 

“Master Fwap, how does the movement of all of that energy 
through your chakras affect you?” 

“As the kundalini energy moves up your sushumna and passes 
through your chakras—which it does when you are capable of stopping all 
your thoughts for prolonged periods of time—it burns away all the 
impurities that exist within your physical body, your mind and your 
subtle body. When all of those impurities have been completely burned 
away, your mind turns into pure light. 

“Then, as light,” Master Fwap continued, “the essence of your spirit 
body perfectly enters nirvana. At first there is a slight sense of 
differentiation. It is like slipping your feet into a pair of shoes that fit 
perfectly; you can feel your feet slipping into them for a moment, but 
then, after a few minutes, you don’t feel that your shoes are separate from 
your feet anymore. 

“After going into samadhi for many lifetimes,” Master Fwap 
explained, “there is no sense of individuality. You are absorbed into the 
heart of light without motion. You rest there unknowingly. All awareness 
of this, or of any other plane or world, comes to an end. There is only 
light, the pure and perfect awareness of nirvana. 

“Both the depth of your entrance into nirvana, and the amount of 
time you spend in that perfect absorption, will depend upon the strength 
of your mind, body and spirit, the amount of energy you have at your 
disposal, and also, to a certain degree, upon your physical location.” 

“Why is that, Master Fwap?” 

“All places are not the same. They may look similar to the 
unenlightened eye, but they are connected to different dimensions, and 
possess different levels and types of pranic energy. 

“One of the tricks to entering into samadhi,” Master Fwap 
continued, “after you have experienced the proper training and learned 
the secret techniques from an enlightened master, is to be in the right 
place at the right time.” 

“Master Fwap,” I asked, “what do you mean by training, and what 
are the secret techniques?” 

He laughed heartily in response to my question. “You do want to 
know everything all at once,” he smiled. “I suppose that is the American 
way. 

“Well,” he continued, “you can’t expect to experience samadhi 
without the proper training, can you? Entering into samadhi is a little like 
flying an airplane. Without any instruction at all, you probably won’t 
know how to start the plane. With a little instruction, you may be able to 
take off, but you won’t know how to fly. With a fair amount of 
instruction you will be able to fly in normal situations. If you want to fly 
at higher altitudes, where the weather is more problematic but the view is 
also more breathtaking, you will need a great deal of instruction.” 

“But Master Fwap. I thought you said that a person simply had to 
raise the kundalini energy up their spine and get it to light up their crown 
chakra? Why would anyone need instruction beyond the techniques 
necessary to do that?” 

“Once again, please be patient. I know that my explanations are, at 
times, quite long. But you are learning a very complicated subject, 
Buddhist Yoga, and it is essential that you grasp the fundamentals before 
we venture out together into interdimensional space. 

“Having an enlightened master,” he continued, “is an absolute 
necessity for the serious student of Buddhist Yoga.” 

“Why, Master Fwap? I’m sure it makes it easier and faster to learn 
any subject if you have a good teacher, but why can’t you just learn 
Buddhist Yoga from a book, the way you can any other subject?” 


“A certain amount of the basic teachings of Buddhist Yoga can be 
learned from a book,” he said with a concerned smile. “For example, you 
can read about the types of things that you and I discuss together. But in 
order to really practice higher yoga, you need the energy, vibrational 
purity, example, humor, patience and wisdom of a living master. 

“The first and most basic thing you gain from studying with a 
master is pure power,” Master Fwap explained. “When you are with your 
master, he transfers high-grade kundalini energy into your subtle body. 

“The empowerments from your master energize and activate your 
chakras, allowing you to do things that you could not possibly do with the 
amount of energy you normally have at your disposal. 

“Think of it this way,” he continued. “If you are a student at 
college, and you have very little money in your checking account, the 
scope of your activities will be limited. But if you have a scholarship and 
you get money deposited into your checking account on a regular basis, 
then you will be able to do much more. 

“Your master’s auric empowerment awakens your past-life abilities 
and talents, and can even boost your IQ. 

“When you study directly with an enlightened master,” he 
continued to explain, “you also gain vibrational purity. Just being in your 
master’s aura on a regular basis will detoxify your aura, and even help you 
to remove many of the negative karmic patterns that you have acquired 
over the course of your incarnations. 

“Another important thing you gain by studying with a master is 
example. By watching your master in different situations, you will get to 
personally see how a Buddhist master displays grace under pressure, in all 
situations. Life is never easy, not even for the enlightened. As a matter of 
fact, enlightened masters are often persecuted by the society they live in.” 

“Why is that Master Fwap?” 

“An enlightened master is cuttingly honest with people. Human 
beings are so used to lying to each other, and to themselves, that they 
have come to call a great deal of their lying the truth. But enlightened 
masters always tell the real truth. This tends to make them unpopular 
with lots of people, including their own students. 

“But if what you really seek is enlightenment,” Master Fwap 
continued in a strong and emphatic tone of voice, “then you will want 
and need your master’s honesty, even if it bruises your big ego on a 
regular basis.” 

“So what does all of this have to do with going into samadhi, and 
how physical locations like this valley can enhance that?” I inquired. 

“It is because of the pranic currents here,” he replied coyly. 

“Exactly what is a pranic current?” I asked, in a frustrated tone of 
voice. 

“It is the invisible current of energy that flows from one dimension 
to another. If the pranic current is highly charged, which occurs when the 
energy comes from a dimension that vibrates very rapidly, then the 
physical area where that dimension crosses over becomes highly charged 
too. The valley we are in is such a place. 

“If the pranic currents come from a dimension that vibrates more 
slowly than the energy in our own dimension, then the physical area of 
pranic crossover becomes negatively charged.” 

“What does that do?” 

“If you spend time in such a place, it will slow down the vibratory 
rate of your subtle body. You will feel tired and drained. If you stay there 
too long you can become physically sick. In addition, being in a 
negatively charged area will make it difficult, if not impossible, for you to 
perceive things psychically. 

“On the other hand, a valley such as the one we are in right now is 
filled with positive pranic energy: this energy speeds up the vibratory rate 
of your subtle body. When you enter into meditation here, whether it is a 
basic level of meditation or samadhi, the added boost that you receive 
from the positively charged prana that is available in this location will 
make it much easier for you to achieve a higher state of meditation. 

“When the wind moves in the same direction that an airplane does, 
it significantly speeds up the airplane,” Master Fwap stated factually. “If 

“That’s enough talking for now,” he said with a gentle laugh. “Let 
us meditate here for awhile and then go and find the Lama.” 

Master Fwap closed his eyes and entered into meditation. In a few 
moments he was surrounded by golden light. After a few more minutes, 
the golden light emanating from him became so thick that I could hardly 
see him, even though we were sitting outdoors, and it was broad daylight. 

After watching the golden light flow around Master Fwap for 
several minutes, I closed my eyes and let my mind relax. The next thing I 
knew, Master Fwap was tapping me on the shoulder. I opened my eyes 
and, much to my surprise, it was almost dark. I had been sitting in 
meditation for several hours, even though it had only seemed like seconds 
to me. 

Master Fwap was definitely right. The higher pranic currents in the 
valley made it much easier for me to meditate. 

Master Fwap stood up and stretched. Then the two of us started 
walking in silence back to the monastery. The only noise that could be 
heard in the valley was the sound of our feet echoing against the ancient 
courtyard steps. 



Last Chapter
The Emptiness of Snow

Master Fwap and I spent several more days staying at the cliff 
monastery. During that time I had the chance to practice meditation and 
learn more Nepali. Toward the end of our stay, I began to feel restless. 
Master Fwap told me that the pranic currents in the valley were a little 
too strong for me, and that was why I was feeling the way I was. 

We left the monastery and followed a trail that took us through a 
series of valleys between several large snow-covered mountain ranges. It 
seemed strange to be hiking through green fields and forests, when we 
were always surrounded on both sides by steep, snow-covered mountains. 

We passed through several small villages along our route. Master 
Fwap seemed to be friends with everyone who lived in Nepal. Wherever 
we went, we were treated as honored guests. We were given food and 
buttered tea by the villagers without having to ask, and many of the 
villagers politely inquired if the board that I was carrying on my back was 
a religious object. 

On the fifth day of our journey, we ascended a high mountain pass. 
We spent the better part of the morning hiking straight up. When we 
reached the summit of the mountain, we sat down to rest on the snow- 
and ice-covered ground. As usual, I was soaked with perspiration from 
our climb, and Master Fwap didn’t seem to have perspired at all. 

We sat in silence for a few minutes. Gradually the pounding in my 
chest subsided and my breathing evened out. I turned to look at Master 
Fwap, and I saw that he had closed his eyes and was absorbed in 
meditation. 

I looked down at the scenery below me. The green valleys and 
snow-covered mountains of Nepal seemed to stretch out into forever. The 
world was silent and beautiful. Unlike the stressed-out world that I came 
from, this world had no sound of cars, no smog, no other signs of man’s 
“progress.” The world that met my eyes here was uncorrupted and 
naturally pure. 

“You see, this is life,” Master Fwap began. “It is empty and pure, 
like the snow on the Himalayas.” 

I turned and saw that Master Fwap had opened his eyes and was 
looking out at the same scene I had been absorbed in just moments 
before. 

“But Master Fwap, how can you say life is empty and pure like 
snow? The world man has created is a horrible place. It is filled with noise 
and pollution. This is one of the few clean places left on the earth. And 
that’s not the half of it. People are cruel to each other. They kill each 
other in wars, steal from each other, and oppress each other in a thousand 
different ways. How can you say the world is empty and pure? I think it 
is the opposite: it is crowded and impure.” 

“Yes,” he replied, “to the outward eye it might seem that way. But 
first you must understand the emptiness and purity of our Himalayan 
snow; then perhaps you will see why I believe that the world is empty and 
pure too.” 

“Master Fwap, I don’t understand what you mean.” 

“The Himalayan snow is empty and pure. By that I mean that it 
comes from the sky, covers the mountains, and then melts in the warmth 
of sunlight. The snow here can be so thick when it falls that you cannot 
see one foot in front of your face. It changes the mountains. It turns them 
from the color of stone to pure white.” 

“So what does that have to do with the world being empty and 
pure?” I asked. 

“The world is empty and pure,” he gently replied. “It has always 
been that way, and it will be so, for all of time. That cannot be changed 
by any of us.” 

“Master Fwap, I still don’t think I understand what you mean by 
emptiness.” 

“Emptiness,” he replied, “is a word that implies absence. I could 
also use the words fullness beyond comprehension. They would mean the 

 “But Master Fwap, emptiness and fullness are opposites. How can 
they mean the same thing?” 

“There are two worlds in front of us at all times,” Master Fwap 
patiently explained. “One world everyone can see, and the other one is 
invisible to everyone except the enlightened. 

“The world that everyone can see appears to be very solid, but in 
actuality it is not. The world we cannot see appears to have no reality to it 
at all, but in actuality it is much more solid and real than the world we 
see before us every day. 

“The visible world we call life, and the invisible world is death,” 
Master Fwap continued. “Perhaps death is not its only condition, but I 
cannot think of a better word. 

“The apparent solidity of the visible world is ephemeral,” he 
remarked casually. “Nothing lasts here. All the works of man end every 
second. They have absolutely no substance to them at all.” 

“Master Fwap how can that be? The world exists forever; how can it 
end every second?” 

“I will show you. The moment that we are in right now 
exists...now it has passed and we are in a new moment...now that moment 
has passed and we are in yet another moment. 

“When each moment ends,” he continued, “the world ends with it. 
In each new moment, the world is created again. These momentary 
endings and creations are what you call life. Your mind and your body 
experience them continuously without your realizing it. 

“All of the things that happen in a moment, end in a moment. 
Who knows why? It is just that way. Human beings fool themselves into 
thinking there is a past and a future, and that things last and matter. But 
it is an illusion of perception. 

“Nothing lasts and nothing really matters,” he said. “Things just 
seem to last and matter when you experience life through your senses, and 
through the perceptions of your physical mind. 

“This is what I mean by emptiness—the world you see all around 
you lacks any kind of solidity. From moment to moment it comes and 
goes. Why allow yourself to be bothered by anything transient that occurs 
here? 

“I know you mean well,” Master Fwap said with a lighthearted 
laugh, “and that your heart is pure. This is why karma selected you to be 
my disciple. You were born with a pure heart—that is to say with a pure 
aura. You have a pure aura because you meditated in so many of your past 
incarnations, and in that process you eliminated all of the impurities from 
your inner being. 

“But wisdom tells us that our concerns—the things in life that 
upset us—are unreal. They only appear to matter when we don’t see life 
as the enlightened do.” 

“How do the enlightened see life, Master Fwap?” 

“You were enlightened in many of your past lives—you should 
know,” he replied cuttingly. 

“Well if I was, I certainly don’t remember it. Would you please tell 
me how all of this looks to a person who is enlightened?” 

“We are all made up of vibrating particles of intelligent light,” he 
replied. “That, however, is only one side of our nature. We have another 
side; it is the side that only the enlightened can see. 

“The emptiness of snow is death,” Master Fwap said as he made a 
sweeping gesture with his hand that took in everything that we could see 
in the vast panorama before us. “It is the other side of all of this, what you 
call life.” 

“What is death, Master Fwap?” 
“Why, dear boy, death is life.” 
“Then I suppose that life is death?” I asked hesitantly. 

“Yes, exactly. Now you have it! Very good!” And so saying, Master 
Fwap gave me a beaming smile. 

“Great, Master Fwap, but what does it mean?” 

“Why, it means that the world is perfect. Nothing and no one can 
change it at all. The invisible world that only the enlightened can see is 
essence—it is eternal life. That is what we return to when we die. We go 
back into perfect eternal light for a while, and then we reincarnate. 
“To suffer because of anything you see, feel or experience here in 
the world of moment to moment is a mistake. It is like becoming upset 
over a frightening dream. Dreams are insubstantial; they don’t last. When 
you wake up, no matter how vivid your dream was, it is past. It no longer 
exists, so why allow yourself to be upset over something that no longer 
exists? 

“When you can see the other side of life, the world you refer to as 
death—the mysterious undiscovered universe that lies just beyond our 
mind and senses—all of the pain and frustration of your life will go away. 
You will see that everything and everyone you love, who may appear to 
have been destroyed, are still just fine. They have simply moved from the 
world of moment to moment, back into the world of emptiness. They 
have returned to the reservoir of life that we call nirvana. 

“The world is empty,” Master Fwap almost whispered. “All of the 
people and places, the earth, the seas, mountains, deserts, forests and 
cities, and the beings that inhabit them, are unchangeable. 

“They appear to change, oh yes,” he suddenly said loudly. “But one 
part of them returns to nirvana, and another part of them comes forward. 
You cannot see it, so it is like a magician’s trick. We are convinced that 
something has occurred, when in reality nothing has happened at all.” 

“Master Fwap, how can this be?” 
“It is the perfection of life,” he responded with a broad smile. “Let 
me give you an example; then perhaps you will understand why I am not 
sad, as you are, about what has happened to the earth. 

“Consider children who are born into this world. They pass through 
many stages. They become adolescents, young adults, they enter into 
middle age, and then into old age. Then they die. Now it would appear, 
looking just at the surface of life, that they have gone through many 
changes, and then disappeared. But this is not the entire picture at all. 

 “On the other side of this life there are endless dimensions— 
endless realities that stretch on into infinity. There are worlds of form and 
dimensionality that are similar to our own. There are also formless worlds 
that are made up of pure and perfect light. Beyond both the formless and 
the form worlds, there is something else, nirvana, the endless and perfect 
source of all. Nirvana is where all of these endless worlds of formlessness 
and form come from.” 

“But Master Fwap, how can this be? Are you saying that everything 
that exists now existed in nirvana before it came here?” 

“Exactly! Everything is forever. There is no beginning and ending 
to life. There is no middle either. Things appear in this world for a short 
time. They have come here from nirvana. They exist here for a short time, 
and then they return to nirvana. 

“Nirvana is emptiness,” he continued. “It contains everything that 
has ever been, is now, or ever will be.” 

“Does that mean that nirvana is heaven, Master Fwap?” 

“Not in the way that you mean,” he replied. 

“Well, if it is not heaven, what is it?” 

“Think of nirvana as an endless ocean of ultimately intelligent 
light,” he replied. “It stretches on forever, in all directions and 
throughout all times. It holds within itself, in seed form, all that can ever 
be. 

“From time to time, manifest parts of nirvana appear here, in what 
we call the world. Then, after some time, these things dissolve back into 
essence, into their nirvanic formlessness. 

“Nothing can die, and nothing can be reborn. Things only change 
their outer appearance. When you can see within things and people, you 
discover that their essence is changeless, perfect light. We are all nirvana, 
that which is our essential form, is the essential formlessness of perfect 
existence.” 

Master Fwap became silent. We sat for awhile without speaking, 
listening to the sound of the wind rushing through the snowy mountain 

“Just concentrate on being the board,” he said with a laugh. 
I mounted my board and shot down the mountain through the 
deep powder. I effortlessly cut in and out to avoid several boulders, and 
finished my run in record time. Master Fwap was waiting for me at the 
bottom of the mountain, his ochre-colored monk’s robe fluttering in the 
breeze. 

After getting off my board I walked over to Master Fwap. It had 
gotten quite dark, and the cold Himalayan wind made me shiver. 

“You’ve done quite well!” he congratulated me. “You can continue 
to study Buddhist Yoga with me, if you like.” 

He smiled. We stood looking at each other in silence for several 
minutes. It was only at that moment that I realized how much I had come 
to love this aged and mysterious monk. 

Overwhelmed with emotion, I turned my gaze away. Then 
together, Master Fwap and I descended the remainder of the snow-colored 
slope to the rock and gravel road that lay before us, where the two of us 
hitched a ride on a yellow and black tourist bus, back into Katmandu. 


*     *     *

Also by Frederick Lenz 
BOOKS 

Snowboarding to Nirvana 
The Last Incarnation 
Insights: Tantric Buddhist Reflections on Life 


Copy from 
Published by 
The Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism 
www.fredericklenzfoundation.org 

First Edition Published 1994

Copy from 
www.media.fredericklenzfoundation.org
on link where a very heavy pdf file on this can be downloaded on link- to copy and paste if wished:
http://media.fredericklenzfoundation.org/Assets/eBooks/Surfing-the-Himalayas.pdf 




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