Chapter Five

I Visit Master Fwap

I SPENT MOST OF THE early morning that day meandering through some of the shops in Kathmandu. The majority of them sold inexpensive religious trinkets to tourists. But even though I was distracted by the sights and sounds of Kathmandu, I couldn’t quite get the dream I had of my future self out of my mind. Rather than go snowboarding that day, I decided to heed my future self’s advice to seek out Master Fwap instead.

Master Fwap’s temple didn’t prove to be too hard to find. It was about a half-hour walk outside of central Kathmandu. The directions he had given me the day before were excellent, and before I knew it, I was knocking on his temple door.

Master Fwap greeted me at the door with a big smile on his face and ushered me into the meditation hall. From there we walked to the rear of the temple to an area where his living quarters were located. He seemed very happy to see me again. He laughed and made funny sounds and remarks as we walked through the temple together.

His mood was infectious, and by the time we had reached the door to his room I was very happy to be with him again.

He opened the door to his room and led me inside. Looking around, I saw that Master Fwap’s room was lit by candles, although a little bit of light also filtered in through several small windows that were up near the top of the ceiling.

His room was small and clean. It contained a bed, a writing desk with a small chair, and a meditation table that had several white candles and a small bronze figure of the Buddha on it. On the floor in front of the meditation table was a large yak-hair carpet, on which Master Fwap invited me to sit.

Master Fwap sat down on the carpet across from me. He crossed his legs in a lotus position and then neatly arranged his robes over them. He laughingly told me that he had known I would come. I decided not to bring up the dream that had brought me there. He never mentioned it, and to this day I am still unaware if he knew that I had only come to visit him because of it.

After exchanging pleasantries with me, Master Fwap picked up his narration from the previous day, continuing his story as if no time had passed since we had walked down the snowy road to Kathmandu together.

Master Fwap resumed his story, telling me that he had finally encountered his long-sought-after master on the outskirts of a small town in western Tibet. Master Fwap said that as he was walking toward the town on that fateful day, in search of a date, he observed an older Buddhist monk standing by the side of the road several meters ahead.

Just when he was about to walk past, the unknown elderly monk stepped right out in front of Master Fwap and blocked his passage into the town!

Master Fwap said that he came to an immediate stop, and out of Buddhist courtesy, he waited for the older monk to walk by him. But the unknown monk continued to stand his ground and stared fiercely, directly into Master Fwap’s eyes!

It was precisely at that moment, while staring into the unknown monk’s eyes, that Master Fwap had both literally and figuratively seen the light. Master Fwap whispered to me that as he stared at the unknown monk he suddenly saw thousands of waves of golden light surrounding the monk’s entire body! Seeing the waves of golden auric light emanating from the aged Buddhist monk, Master Fwap intuitively realized that the unknown monk, who was blocking his passageway into town was none other than his past-life master from his previous incarnations.

Instead of going into town and finding a date as he had planned, Master Fwap and his rediscovered past-life master went off together to meditate in a nearby cave, and to catch up on old times.

Master Fwap’s master, whose name was Fwaz Shastra-Dup, revealed to him that day the secret mystical teachings and techniques of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz. Information, Master Fwap told me, he in turn was going to reveal to me.

Master Fwap said that because of my karma from previous lifetimes he was going to initiate me into the innermost secret Tantric teachings of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz Buddhist Order, just as he had been initiated and been taught those same secrets and techniques by his own master, Fwaz Shastra-Dup, in a Himalayan cave on that fateful day of their multilife reunion! It was all karma, he said.