For the past fifteen years of my life, I have been living and wandering through different parts of the Himalaya. From its western reaches in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the northern Indian states of Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh to its easternmost point in Arunachal Pradesh, it stretches 2400 kilometres and encompasses several different specific ranges within its huge folds. It first made its impending presence known some 50 million years ago as the Indo-Australian plate smashed into the Eurasian plate and forced this magnificent range of mountains ever closer to the heavens. They are still stretching their white fingers towards the sky as they continue to grow an imperceptible 5mm per year.

For centuries this ‘abode of snow’ has exerted a magnetic attraction on explorers, mountaineers, adventurers, pilgrims and spiritual seekers, each of them being pulled towards these unequalled heights to seek and search for something more than their ordinary lives could give them. What they found on the outside was some of the most exquisite natural beauty that our planet has to offer and, if they were fortunate in their varied endeavours, some would have also tasted here another dimension. The Himalaya has been the cradle of a deep mysticism and religiousness on this planet. Many of the different Asian religions have places of pilgrimage hidden high and deep within the patchwork of mountain ranges and valleys. Each year these places pull an immense variety of human beings who come to celebrate and venerate the inner discoveries of other human beings who left their bodies long ago and whose teachings formed the basis of many of the world’s religions.

Over the centuries this lineage of self-inquiry and discovery has spread from India into Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal, creating a unique religiousness that permeates every aspect of daily life. It seems that these mountains serve as a reminder to all those who live within them or come to pay homage to them that God or the Absolute is never too far away. I too came here for those reasons, to move to a higher altitude both without and within, to make friends with my own aloneness and to combine an outer journey of adventure and beauty with an inner discovery of peace and stillness. I was extraordinarily fortunate to have been able to do so and the Himalaya has held me in her arms all the while, as I continue to marvel at her oh-so-extraordinary beauty. I love to walk in her heights and sit in her temples and monasteries, to cross her tumbling rivers and feel her ever-present silence. It is the Easy Emptiness. If you ever have the chance, come and experience her for yourself and see what you might find.