Cave Yogi

This is a part of the ancient Himalayan tradition. Long ago some gifted people realized that Time and Space wasn't real. So, they began to go off into caves first as a retreat from all the suffering and insanity of ancient civilizations. Some succeeded in their enlightenments and others went crazy and died. However, those that succeeded began to attract students to them and the Cave Yogi tradition was born.

People from a western culture just might think this tradition is crazy. And yet, what is the difference between Catholic Cloistered monks and Nuns and this tradition really? They are both separated from the vagaries of the busy crazy world. They are both praying constantly 24 hours a day both waking and sleeping for all mankind. The main difference might be that Cave Yogis might be more on their own and physically alone at 6000 feet to 12, 000 feet in altitude (or higher) in the Himalayas in caves while praying. They might not eat for days, weeks or months. They might only be wearing a loincloth in their caves. But, if they succeed they become what I sometimes call (glow in the dark people). In otherwords they literally bring light and enlightenment to all mankind both directly and indirectly.

I met a Tibetan Lama named Lam Rim Geshe while I was in Dharamshala, India  in January 1986 in Himachal Pradesh state in the Himalayas. He had recently come out of a 17 year retreat in the dark in a building and had been fed by other monks by putting food under the door to him.  There was no light in the room at all during these years.  He was one of the Lamas that Yoda was actually based upon by Jim Henson's puppeteers for Star Wars. He looked a little like Yoda except he was almost 6 feet tall which is very tall for a Tibetan. When I met him he smiled and light poured out of his eyes and he seemed to look deeply into my soul and to recognize me as a kindred spirit. I have never forgotten that amazing feeling of meeting someone like that who actually had been sequestered for 17 years in one sitting, who was perfectly healthy and amazing in all ways and who knew the universe to perfection and everyone around him to who met him knew he was a master in every way. Talking about someone like this is one thing but actually meeting a real Cave Yogi Master is quite another.