Zuglung Phu: Meditation Retreat Cave
As I entered the deep gorge, I saw two old mud houses strangely tucked into the rocky steep mountains. Down below, a stream flowed with full force. Few cows were grazing here and there. I walked uphill towards these ancient structures that have been standing there for ages; with the seasonal or cyclical changes of human birth and death. I was glad that ama and machen (maternal aunt) had accompanied me for they could provide me some depth about this place. I filled some water from the stream so that we could make some tea inside.
Zuglung phu served and still serves as a crucial space for retreat. People who wish to cut off ties with the human world and focus on meditation come here and spend years in isolation. It has been home to two prominent meditators, Lama Chhoyzang and Lama Rigzen. Currently it lies empty with only occasional visits from villagers to light butter lamps.
“Lama Chhoyzang meditated here till his death. He was initially in retreat in the phu near khar village. Being located just near the village settlement, the place was not devoid of distractions. So, he shifted to Zuglung Phu in this deep gorge where the only thing one could see from the window was the steep rocky walls and several Himalayan ranges in distance.” Not a human could be heard or seen here. As I looked out of the window, I could hear the stream flowing. Ama and machen were heating up the lamps on the fireplace stove.
“Even when he got sick, he did not open the door to anyone and died here”, machen shares. As we went to light the butter lamps, I saw the small prayer room with hangings of several Buddhist deities, some of which I could not identify. There was also a small sleeping space with a thin mat on a raised mud structure.
“There are also instances of paranormal activities here. Once when Lama Chhoyzang was meditating, some spirits threw few meat pieces from the roof opening to make fear overpower him and distract him from his practice. However, he picked up the meat pieces and wrote some Buddhist mantra and sent it back.” Such instances of paranormal activities are normal in all the retreat caves located in Spiti.
I am always so baffled by the idea of meditation and how it lays oneself bare to the fluidity between the ones visible to the human eye and beyond; how it teaches one about the limits of the human senses. There is so much we see around us and there is so much that is unseen to the human eye. Are all the things that lack a definite material existence non-existential?
Moreover, in such remote and isolated spaces, how does one live with one’s mind? And mind alone? How does one move away from the worldly ties and inconveniences of winter chills and focus on just one thing? I am always so amused by the power our mind holds over us or we hold over our mind.
As my mind wandered over these things, I came back to where I was and saw my mother prostrating. I closed my eyes and said a few prayers. I am not a very religious person. I wonder a lot about the things and ideas I come across in my conversations about Buddhism with my parents. I wonder a lot about the concept of rebirth, soul and the afterlife. I wonder a lot about why there is no female version of a Rinpoche; why all reincarnations of tulkus fall upon a male. But, whenever I come to spaces like these, I am humbled; by the sheer tenacity of humans to be one with one’s mind and body; to cut off all desires and be free from all kinds of fear (and defeat the claim of psychology that ‘human beings are social animals’)
