This morning I was drawn to one of my favorite books that I have never actually finished. This book is about a personal spiritual and geographical adventure, but also about pilgrimage and finding personal truth in something as slippery as space. In The Heart of the World, Ian Baker introduces (at least, it was new to me!) the Tibetan Buddhist concept of beyul, or hidden lands. The idea is that through spiritual practices and physical preparations, places on earth that were not immediately open to us, become places we can travel. These mystical sanctuaries are “hidden” until they are revealed.
The implications are so significant, that I fear absolute failure in any attempt I might make to illuminate them through the written word. But, if you need a mind bending and inspiring book to read this season as the leaves change color and life seems to cycle-down, I recommend this one. Even if you don’t finish, it will change the way you think about space forever.
Posted by Sharon Rudyk, owner and director of YOGA MATRIKA, a community-based yoga studio in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania offering high quality yoga, meditation and creative movement classes for adults and children of all ages.
