TANTRIC-QUEST-Encounter-with-Absolute-Love

protective cords around my neck from all my meetings withlamas and rinpoches. I ran the bath very hot and, quiveringwith pleasure, slipped into the deep, claw-footed tub.Immersed so suddenly in the hot water, the cords began toshrink, and it was only by pulling on them with both handsthat I escaped strangulation by too much protection. It wasa rough landing, very Tibetan in substance, and signifyingperfectly the impermanence of things.Impermanence is one of the basic concepts of Buddhism.Everything is destined to come to an end or to change innature one day or another. As everything is interdependent,lacking in intrinsic reality, and void, it is necessary toground oneself in that which is without characteristics:Awakening. This is not a pessimistic concept of life but, onthe contrary, a powerful antidote to illusions. Perceivingclearly the impermanence of all phenomena blossoms intoa kind of consciousness that keeps the world from becomingstatic. That evening, the impermanence of my own lifehad become more than just a concept.Beginning the next day, I drowned my disappointmentover so much lost effort in the swimming pool and in thearms of two young Americans I encountered in the historicflophouse of Miss Colaco, on Janpath Lane - a guest housethrough which all the stars of the Beat generation filed, itspoets known or unknown, its muses and vamps, as well as agood portion of those European and American dreamerscaught up in the spiritual whirlwind of Berkeley, the greatwave of American university protests, and the aftermath ofMay 1968.At Miss Colaco's one found an incredible ethnic and culturalmix, a motley gathering totally in the thrall of Tantric13