“The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.”

~ Ralph Blum

Are you feeling like something needs to shift in your life? Is there a calling in your heart that you can hear but choose to ignore, at least for now?

As today is the Dalai Lama’s birthday, I would like to share with you how he has impacted my life since I first made the journey to see him in his home in exile Dharamsala, India.

It all began almost four years ago now, when I had just come out of a hypnosis session at a Tibetan Buddhist center in London. I saw a picture of Mount Kailash on a flyer and very strongly the message came to me that I had to go to see the Dalai Lama in India.

Now, I’ll be honest with say that my first reaction was no way! For I had been to India only once before and I had been to a town a few hours away from Dharamsala, so I knew to do that journey as a woman alone would be very daunting. But the feeling just would not go away.

A few months later, a group of friends said they were going to India so I thought, This is my chance—I won’t have to do the journey alone. I suggested we travel to India and go to see the Dalai Lama.

Initially, they were up for it but once beaches and five star hotels were added to the list they quickly realised heading North was not top of their Indian bucket list.

That experience began to catalyze me into action; it fanned the flames of faith in my heart so there was no turning back despite what challenges lay ahead. I am a creative person, and so I started to search for other means of support for my big trip and that’s when I came across a celebration for the Dalai Lama’s birthday in London.

I went with the intention of finding a Tibetan lama who could guide me on a safe place to stay and sure enough, I found the perfect monk for the job. His name was Lama Lobsang and his monastery had a guest house in Dharamsala, which was where I ended up staying. (One of the monks even came to pick me up at Dharamsala’s airport.)

From the moment of arrival, even though I was traveling alone, I was never alone. In fact, sometimes I would find myself hiding in my room for a bit just so I could get some down time to do some journaling and reflect on all the amazing things that were happening.

Then the day came for the Dalai Lama’s teaching. Finally, I would see him. And the moment I did, I fell to my knees and burst into tears with the resounding thought ‘I have made it back home’. I didn’t understand what was happening to me and it wasn’t until I returned home that one of my Tibetan friends told me that is what happens to Tibetan people when they see him for the first time too.

Now, I am a firm believer in past lives and I regularly consult a lady who can speak to my spiritual guides. She told me that I have been both Indian and Tibetan in a previous life. To be honest, that makes sense. I say that because I speak ‘pidgin’ Tibetan and when I do speak it, Tibetans are always staring at me. I commented on this one day, as I thought I was being mocked, but my Tibetan friend Lama Tenzin said, “They are not laughing at you—they are just shocked at how good your accent is for a Westerner!”

Where am I going with all of this?

I feel, deeply,  like the Dalai Lama called me to him; he called me to him even though I had never seen him before in person (in this lifetime). I instantly felt one with the Tibetan people, felt an ease and an inner peace.

I was accepted by a foreign culture for their priorities were similar to mine despite my being Irish and raised in the West.

My key lesson from all of this was to listen to the calling of my heart. For it knew where I needed to be, long before my ego finally got out of the way and allowed me to deal with my fears so I could make my dream a reality. But I guess everything happens in divine time right?

And that is part of the letting go too for sometimes we try to rush things as well as delay them. Thinking we are protecting ourselves when really we are fooling ourselves…

I share this with to inspire you; to give you that nudge that my friends did when they told me about their plans to travel to India.

If there is something you know deep down that you should be doing then simply take one step towards it.

Work to ease one fear around it.

And then I know, I know…you will get a momentum of the heart that will enable you to bring about your deepest wish.

The dormant dreams of the heart will be see free and no doubt that will benefit you and many others around you.

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Ed: Bryonie Wise