It gets very quiet here in the mountains.

I sit in my cave watching the puffy white clouds at play. Outside the cave, a stone’s throw away is a deep gorge. The clouds are at my eye level. They form and dissolve and reform again. It is not a particularly cold day. The sun saunters through the branches of the deodar and forms playful patterns on the floor outside my cave. I am dissolved in this moment- nothing else exists beside this moment and all its beauty- not even me.

For a while, the mind ceases to exist. Without my mind in play, there are no back stories or references to previous experiences, no comparisons or criticisms, no desire to improve or change anything, no regrets. Simply acceptance, and connection with my true place in the cycles of life. A teacher called this state , mindfulness. I wonder if the word he was looking for was mindlessness.