level 2: yoni

There are two ways to reach the second level of the waterfall. The easier way is to follow an old goat herders' path, no more than an animal track, that cuts up the far side of the valley, arriving without difficulty at the second level. But the more interesting way is to clamber up the rocks next to the cascading water, and that's the way I follow today.

And already my sandals have come off. In places the rocks are steep, and they're almost everywhere worn rather smooth by thousands of monsoon floods. Today, the rock is rather cold underfoot, but on a sunny day it becomes warm and is beautiful to feel. And this contact with the rock is really an important part of this pilgrimage, of this journey, into the waterfall.

We live such an isolated life, usually – so detached from nature. Just putting on a pair of shoes, already we lose contact with the earth. It's a tragedy. And really, we should all walk barefoot from time to time, just to remind ourselves of what it's like to feel the earth.

Now I'm sitting on a rock, right at the entrance area of the second level. And I find it a rather welcoming area. There are some nice rocks for sunbathing or sitting in meditation; one or two pools; and in one place a very concentrated cascade that makes for a powerful shower.

But beyond this point, the second level is rather more mysterious. It's quite a narrow section of the valley, with steep rock walls on either side, a jumble of boulders, pools, and cascades. But rather difficult to navigate. And for me, for some reason, this second level reminds me of a yoni, a vagina. This entrance area is like the inviting lips of the vulva. And the rest of the second level is like the mystery of the vaginal canal. It tempts one to enter it, and at the same time, it represents the unknown: enticing and mysterious at the same time.

And indeed, I did once make love, somewhere deep in the second level, with a beautiful lover, on one of the boulders, with the water cascading around us either side, the Indian sun beating down on us. Making love in such places is itself a divine act. One is not just connecting with one's lover, but through her or him, one is connecting once more with the whole of the environment, with nature, with Mother Earth.

Sex can be such a beautiful meditation, it's rather a shame that in our modern era, it has somehow been degraded. I hope as a species, we find a way back to the sacredness of sex and to the meditation that it can be.

However, even this beautiful second level of the waterfall still feels like it's got a little bit too much contact with the normal secular world. Although it has depth and mystery to it, it does not yet reach the truly magical aspects, the divine. For that we need to go further.