introduction

This audio series is called The Waterfall. And it's rather different to the other series of talks on the A Being website. In this series, I'm going to be exploring a particular, specific waterfall, but using it also as an analogy, for the spiritual journey. It's rather like entering a temple, heading for the inner sanctum. That also is a reflection of our inward spiritual journey.

The starting point, for this exploration of the waterfall, is the Horizon guesthouse, which – along with a few other guesthouses – is by a tiny shrine called Galu Temple, which is up the hill from Dharamkot, in turn up the hill from McLeod Ganj. Mcleod Ganj is quite well known: it's where the Dalai Lama is based. And it, in turn, is up the hill from the town of Dharamsala. And that name, Dharamsala, is sometimes used to refer to the whole of this area. It's in the foothills of the Himalaya, in the state of Himachal Pradesh, in the north of India.

So this is the location of the waterfall. And it's known as the waterfall, locally, but really it's a mountain stream, cascading down a deep valley. And so rather than being a single waterfall, it's a whole series of waterfalls and cascades, with beautiful pools. It is a lovely spot.

And in exploring the waterfall, I felt that it naturally separated itself into different levels. Going up the valley, one would reach a steeper point, often with a bigger waterfall, and sometimes with some difficult scrambling to go beyond that point. And then one could enter into another level, where for a little while the gradient is not so steep; before once more steepening up, to another, testing, transition. In this way, I've explored from the first level, as I call it – which is where a path leads – all the way up to the tenth level.

So in each of the remaining episodes of this series, I'm going to be talking about one of these levels, and what it symbolises to me on my own journey through life, especially the spiritual aspect of my journey. I hope you enjoy the series.

Namaste.