Meditation on Mt. Banahaw

Meditation on Mt Banahaw


Back in the mid 80’s I went to the Philippines with my then partner, Andrea Cagan, to visit and learn from the psychic surgeons. One part of our journey led us to Mt. Banahaw in the Quezon Province. It is a sacred mountain that one of the healers believes is the tip of what once was Lemuria. At one point I wandered off from the chatting friends and was drawn into the jungle. It felt mysterious and strange and thrilling to something deep and non-physical inside me. Outside, there was an amazing concert in progress. The tropical cicadas would start from relative silence and rise to an almost deafening volume where a cuckoo would sing her note and the cicadas would stop abruptly and the cycle would repeat. I began to hear more insects, birds, and other animals contributing their notes and textures to this symphony. All were in sync. I was in bliss.

I became aware that the vibrations on that mountain felt “vertical”. That is just a way of talking about how simple and easy it was to meditate there. Single-pointed focus felt so clear and natural that I felt like I was meditating all the time. Meditation wasn’t even something that I was “doing” but I felt no mental or emotional resistance, or “noise”.

Upon returning to my then home in L.A. however, I was aware of how those “vertical” vibrations now felt “horizontal”. So much of the frenetic energy was about “go there, get this, do that” that there was a membrane-like ceiling over the city. To meditate was to be with that noise and resistance, and focusing felt like an effort (except at 3AM…).

Experiencing the contrast gave me a new choice of vibrational paths. A friend recently returned from a meditation retreat in Thailand. He noted to me that when he got back, every single person that he asked how they were replied how busy they were. So much more about doing and not so much about being. I was grateful for his feedback and grateful for the reminder that I always have a choice of what I focus upon.