The Magical Journey

Book excerpt: An extraordinary life-story of a Tibetan monk and his spiritual path of Yungdrung Bön: Nagru Gelek Jinpa made a life-changing decision at the age of nineteen to leave behind his life as a shepherd in eastern Tibet and to become a monk. Five years later, after having met a great Bönpo master, Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, Gelek escaped from his homeland to receive teachings on Bön philosophy and its highest system of meditation, dzogchen, from this great master in Kathmandu, Nepal. He tells, with deep insight and humour, of his early years as an uneducated boy herding cows, pigs and yaks; of his studies in various monasteries in Tibet and India and finally in Nepal with his beloved master Yongdzin Rinpoche. He also makes a pilgrimage to Tibet in search of the ancient kingdom of Zhang Zhung and explores age-old holy sites in Nepal. Later on he starts to teach in the West, write books on his adventurous journeys and study filmmaking in Mexico. This thought-provoking and remarkable story of a Tibetan monk and scholar, teacher, author and documentary filmmaker, gives witness to his extraordinary life and spiritual path linked to Tibet's original cultural and spiritual tradition.