I realized the other day that when I leave Bolivia, I will have been here exactly 40 days! No coincidence I am certain, as I sit here on the plane flying to Miami to begin the first weekend of the Kundalini yoga Level II Mind and Meditation course.
Let me share some parts of this last week in this amazing country. My dear blessed sister and spiritual
guide, Rosse Mary and I departed La Paz via private transport towards Lago Titicaca and the town of Copacabana. The city in Brazil is actually named after this city because of the Black Madonna statue that sits in the main church and is renowned for her healing and miracles. If I am not mistaken the leader of Brazil years ago wanted to take her to Brazil because he prayed to her and she heal ed his sick daughter. The people of Copacabana put up a huge fight and she never left their dear little town, so in her honor, the same name was used in Brazil.
We arrived in this sweet little village after winding our way around hills and even crossing part of the Lake with our van on a ferry! Copacabana sits on the sublime shores of Lago Titicaca, a very vast and deep blue lake that at some points feels as large and powerful as the ocean. Islands of tall rocks rise up ferociously in her middle and her shores are lined in most places with either boulder sized rocks, that look like when God finished playing with them he let them just tumble to the shore, or tall green reeds that are used in boat building and many other ways.
I am here on Day 35. You know what happens around this time when you are doing a 40 day meditation? All your stuff comes up. Mine arrived and it was amazing.
Essentially, besides the easy sights, the numerous indigenous ladies selling their weavings, the food vendors and the hills, the never ending hills!!! I began to feel some edges coming. The first day in town we saw all of the typical sights including the gigantic catholic church, ornately decorated in gold and with the story of the making of the Black Madonna carved onto the enormous wooden front 
doors of the church. We lit candles in the long dark Chapel of lights.
We continued to walk around the entire town and as evening began to break the chill suddenly sweeps off the Lake and we found a cozy cafe with a fireplace and ate dinner.
The night was very cold and I huddled under many blankets listening to the wind and feeling very tiny in this world! Morning came and I arose with the sun, the birds and the chill! I did my sadhana and made some tea in the little kitchen of our hostel. We met for breakfast and hiked to the top of the Luna Montagne or the Moon Mountain. She represents the Feminine and here I absolutely felt like I was sitting in the hands of the Mother. We sat there together and began to chant Wahe Guru, long and slow. It was so sweet, I could have sat there all day. I looked out over the Lake and as far as I could see I saw blue; sky meeting water, heaven meeting earth.
That evening Rosse Mary returned to La Paz and I ventured into the next day. Sunday I was met with some very deep feelings of understanding my place in this world, how we are all here to serve the Mother and how important it is for us to realize this now. There has never been a time like we are experiencing now. The time for us to understand our relationship to each other and to heal not only ourselves but each other and most of all our Mother, Earth.
I am struck by the intensity of how we so easily get sucked into our way of life at home, the comforts, the rush, the drama and how we can forget that outside of our world a very different one exists for the majority of people on our planet.
I chose Bolivia because I wanted a country that still had deep roots in its culture; something like 75% of this country is indigenous. What that means is very different than what I thought when I came here. It means you see more people dressed in the traditional ways, with the long braids, the bowler hats, the woven clothing and the cloths tied on their backs holding their belongings. It means that even those women stand there talking on a cell phone! It means their babies are tied on their bodies and there is not too much crying from the little ones, and it also means they don’t have the health care, education, or diet options we have. It means that every day is one for survival, hard work and fun. They definitely like to have fun! There is tons of music and dancing in this country and hugs and kisses everywhere you go! There is a respect for the efforts that go into living and there is gratitude for the simple moments of friendship and
love.
Of course in La Paz there are the hurried business people too, but even they stop for that amazing 2 hour lunch time! I like that, time to relax, and then we go back to work!
But, back to the Lake and what happened. After that Sunday and the time I spent writing, meditating, wandering, watching, eating, absorbing…I felt something in me move. Like I know that we all have a bigger role than we might know or want to know of. It might be a little scary, but it is all about what we think. I wondered about how often we may experience our own light and power and be afraid of the responsibility we believe it carries with it. I wondered about how often we diminish our own light or allow others to do that to us, and is that even possible? I watched my mind and every thought it generated and how that felt inside my body. I stayed with it and then allowed it to pass on by and then observed how I felt. I began to ride the waves of the thoughts and to experience the resulting energies of those thoughts. I then began to consciously bring in thoughts and watch those feelings and I could see the play of it all and the way we get caught into thinking that not only are we really our thoughts but that we are really our feelings. We are not.
What we think makes what we say makes what we do. Heard it before but have you ever honestly practiced this? What brings this to me is the silence that comes when we are alone. It used to be that there was so much inner noise, I could not hear the silence. Now, I could hear the silence. I could hear what comes with that, and I know it is in all of us. More on this later.
Monday we take a boat first to the Isla de la Luna and to the Temple of the Moon, a tribute to the Feminine Divine. We bring our offerings ashore as we walk up the steep hill to the ancient temple. Less than a handful of people live here and the women are dressed in their colorful clothing and have their handmade weavings for sale. The Temple is sitting majestically facing the east and is laid out in a way to allow ceremonies to be held in the center. The design of the Andean Cross is seen in all of the doorways. There is great silence here, and a feeling of peace and tranquility. We make our offerings and sit to meditate on this site.
Afterwards, we head to the Isle del Sol and one of the most sacred vortexes on our planet. There is a place in the Lake between two small uninhabited islands and it was there, with our boat precariously anchored and waves trying to force us onto the portruding remnants of the sunken city, that we make our ceremony. We had decorated a clay pot with beautiful roses and filled it with sacred offerings, coca leaves, sweets and nuts and more rose petals. We carefully set our intentions of deep gratitude and lowered the pot into the water and watched it descend slowly into the crystal clear water and it rested on a tilted slab beneath us. We poured a bottle of wine into the water and sprinkled more coca leaves covered in our kisses to the Mother.
Afterwards, we slowly began to pull away from this site and I looked down into the water and suddenly asked for us to stop. Right there, all around us coming from down deep in the water were strong white rays of light. There were not coming from the sun, they were coming from under the water, from the sunken city and coming UP to us. No matter which side of the boat I looked over, they remained and were clear. They were not a reflection. They were literally emanating from the city beneath us. This city is a portal. I was overcome with emotion, I just cannot explain what happened, but I know we are supported in our work here and I feel so grateful to be allowed to be a part of this path.
We then went over to the Arco Punko and went ashore barefooted to absorb the energy of the Lake and the Sun. We walked through the Arco and again expressed our gratitude for these sacred sites and for our opportunity to do this work and be a part of this time.
We then docked at the far north end of the Island, inhabited by less than a thousand people and there are no cars here but thankfully we had electricity. Lunch was simple but delicious and fresh, lake trout and potatoes! I had to eat the fish, it actually felt like a gift from the Lake! That night we experienced local music and dancing and met old and new friends.
Next morning we rose to greet the Sun on this Isle del Sol and Sadhana has never felt so sweet. A lazy breakfast and walk to a local family’s home to meet their 7 kids and see their home. We then began the long and phenomenal hike to the farthest tip of the Island to the ancient labyrinth. This hike is on a path of stone, and with each twist or turn of the path a new astounding vista presents itself as you keep climbing higher and higher and the rising hills, penetrating blue water and sky and blazing sun keep you going. It is warm but not hot, and the sound is nothing but your feet upon the stones. I feel like we are back 2,000 years ago heading to our Temple to spread our flowers and blessings.
We arrive and are bizarrely overcome with sleepiness! Weird! So we lie down on the stones in the sun and sleep for an hour. It was like a dream when we awoke and two local kids were giggling at us! We were refreshed, the breeze came up and we made our way through these ruins, they really are like a labyrinth clinging to the side of a sharp mountain dropping off into the Lake. We sprinkled our flowers in each room and laughed at my poor spanish as had become the habit!
Our walk back was still sunny and we met up with a friendly burro along the way and saw a small group of bunny brown naked little children playing in the sand on the beach along with the cows, sheep and chickens all scattered everywhere. The cows and sheep wandering down to the beach for a drink of the fresh lake water!
Lunch this day was with our “family” and it was farm style, meaning the 4 varieties of potatoes were boiled and wrapped in a woven cloth and the lake trout and kingfish were grilled and served with a homemade hot “salsa”. We ate off of the blankets with our hands! Fresh and natural.
Our last night on the island gave us the most spectacular astronomical star show I have ever seen! There seemed to be more stars than sky! I guess that is the blessing of having to go to the bathroom outside of your room, you get to see God’s night show!
Well, there is the trip, oh, and one more detail. Driving back into La Paz, we ran into a little “protest” by the locals. They had blocked the main (paved) road into town and we had to take a couple of hours detour through the El Alto, or the largest ghetto I have ever seen in my life. At first I was a little concerned when we turned off of the paved road in our non-SUV van, and began to trundle our way through dirt “paths”. I would not even call them roads, but I was really surprised when we ran into several groups of the locals who had even blocked these roads with rocks and bricks and would not let anyone pass. After a pleading conversation and a few Bolivianos, they let us through, reluctantly. Several extra hours later, and weaving our way around cows and over streams, we made it to the actual paved road and I have never been so relieved to see a city! The good news here is that the traffic in the city was incredibly diminished, so that was good! I still don’t know what they were protesting!
40 Days is only the beginning! My spanish is rudimentary at best, my heart is filled with the light and love, the generosity and kindness and overwhelming gratitude for this time. I made many new friends and most of all, I deepened my friendship and understanding with the Mother.
Miami is next and I will keep you posted as I move through this course and explore more of the recesses of my mind and heart! You know I hold you in my heart!
love
d
These ruins are very important because they hold a great deal of the symbology that we see in cultures that came after these were built. Unfortunately, a lot of the stones over the years have been ransacked and hauled away and used in construction of other buildings until it was realized the value of the ruins! There is much mystery too surrounding the original construction, like, how did these stones, which are not native to this area, get here? They are huge and weigh tons! Reminds me of the mysteries surrounding Machu Picchu! I think it is pretty evident that there is a lot more going on than we might understand!