In the previous post, I wrote about the Sacred Action of circumambulating Mount Kailash in Western Tibet. Walking the 32 miles at an altitude of 16,500 feet, where the oxygen level is half the oxygen at sea level is difficult for people not accustomed to the altitude. Full body prostrations around the mountain must be an incredibly difficult feat, although countless devotees accomplish that, some every year. There is plenty of flat rocky ground for travelling, but the mountain passes are two thousand feet higher. There is even less oxygen at that height, and it can be very cold and icy on the switchbacks leading up the mountain path. Prostrating upward is one thing, but coming down on a slippery rocky surface is slow and dangerous. It can take 3 weeks and longer to complete the Sacred Circle around the mountain, but devotees are rewarded by the elimination of obstructions on the path to good fortune.

The determination of those people is the determination is takes to overcome suffering on the earth. The Holy Teaching is to begin each day with prostrations, so if you are not doing that, you are not on the Holy Path leading to the highest on the highest mountain. People are given free will on the earth to do whatever makes them happy, so do what makes you happy, just do not harm any creature that grasps for the breath and cries. That is the moral teaching to master, but to attain the heavenly state, you must master the exercises, and one is full body prostrations.

Prostrations are a wonderful exercise because of working all parts of the body, and it does not take long to begin breathing hard and sweating. Great for a devotee, and according to the Holy Teaching, there is a promise of the elimination of obstructions to future happiness. Prostrations are the recommended exercise by the Architect of the human body, and I recommend trusting the one who knows as no one else. I start each day with prostrations. I look forward to it, and never miss a day. I feel better and think clearer after, and that makes me happy. I have missed days in the past for one reason or another but it is certainly not my desire.

The heavenly state is something that those of the earthly state must work on. No one is born divine, everyone is born a mortal on the earth of two mortal parents, but through effort, becomes divine. Here are words to cherish from your Maker to become a virtuous friend.

I like a friend to do the work to become virtuous, but serve nectar promptly to enjoy with the lessons.