Vicki Mackenzie - Cave in the snow. A western woman’s quest for enlightenment

The location is irrelevant. Wherever it is, she has only one purpose in mind: to continue pursuing the path to perfection in the body of a woman.

I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to: Robert Drew for his invaluable encouragement; Monica Joyce, intrepid fellow traveller; Ngawang for hauling me up to the cave; David Reynolds for believing in me; Ruth Logan and all the Bloomsbury team for their tremendous effort; Andrew Doust for brushing me down when the going got tough; and, of course, Tenzin Palmo, who so generously allowed me into her life.

If you would like to make a donation towards the funding of Tenzin Palmo’s Dongyu Gatsal Ling nunnery, please send a cheque or Postal Order payable to Tenzin Palmo c/o Vicki Mackenzie at Bloomsbury Publishing Pic, 50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP

Allione, Tsultrim, Women of Wisdom (Arkana, 1986)

Armstrong, Karen, The Gospel According to Woman (Fount Paperbacks, 1986)

Batchelor, Stephen, The Tibet Guide (Wisdom Publications, 1987)

Blofeld, John, The Wheel of Life (Shambala, 1972)

Chagdud Tulku, Lord of the Dance (Padma Publishing, 1992) Crook, John and Low, James, The Yogins of Ladakh (India, Motilal Banarsidass, 1997)

Dalai Lama, His Holiness, Tenzin Gyatso, Beyond Dogma (Souvenir Press 1994)

Dalia Lama, His Holiness, Tenzin Gyatso and Carriere Jean Claude, The Power of Buddhism (Newleaf, 1996)

David-Neel, Alexandra, Magic and Mystery in Tibet (India, Rupa, 1989)

Dowman, Keith, Sky Dancer (Snow Lion, 1996)

Evans-Wentz, W.Y., Milarepa (Oxford University Press, 1969) Hardy, Justine, The Ochre Border (Constable, 1995)

Harvey, Andrew, Hidden Journey (Bloomsbury, 1991)

Hixon, Lex, Mother of the Buddhas (Quest, 1993)

Humphreys, Christmas, Both Sides of the Circle (Allen and Unwin, 1978)

Kornfield, Jack, A Path with Heart (Rider, 1994)

Lama Yeshe, Introduction to Tantra (Wisdom, 1987)

Nydahl, Ole, Entering the Diamond Way (Blue Dolphin, 1985)

Satprem, Mother or The Divine Materialism (Institute for Evolutionary Research, 1980)

Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are (Shambala, 1994)

Rahula, Walpola, What The Buddha Taught (Gordon Fraser, 1967)

Shaw, Miranda, Passionate Enlightenment (Princeton University Press, 1994)

Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (Harper Collins, 1992)

Therese of Lisieux, translated by Ronald Knox, Autobiography of a Saint (Fountain, 1977)

Trungpa, Chogyam, Born in Tibet (Unwin 1987)

Tweedie, Irina, Daughter of Fire (The Golden Sufi Center, 1986)

Whitmont, Edward C, Return of the Goddess (Crossroad, 1984)

Vicki Mackenzie was born in England, and as the daughter of a naval officer spent her childhood gaining an eclectic education in various parts of the world. After graduating from Queensland University she joined the news desk of the Sun in Sydney as a cadet reporter. She soon moved on to Fleet Street, where she became a features writer – first on the Daily Sketch and then on the Daily Mail . She went on to write for the Sunday Times , the Observer , the Daily Telegraph , the Sunday Telegraph , the Daily Express , the Mail on Sunday and many national magazines. For several years she was also a contributor at the Australian Consolidated Press bureau in Fleet Street.

In 1976, on a whim, she attended a month-long meditation course run by two Tibetan Lamas in Nepal. This ignited a deep interest in Buddhism which resulted in her writing the best-selling Reincarnation: The Boy Lama and its sequel, Reborn in the West: The Reincarnation Masters .

She now divides her time between Australia and England.

This electronic edition published 2011

Copyright ©1998 by Vicki Mackenzie

All rights reserved You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages

For information address Bloomsbury Publishing,

175 Fifth Avenue, , N.Y. 10010.

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, Berlin, Sydney and London

Bloomsbury Publishing 50 Bedford Square London WC1B 3DP

Distributed to the trade by St Martin’s Press

PICTURE CREDIT

All photographs supplied by Tenzin Palmo; the author wishes

to thank the copyright holders for permission to reproduce

their photographs in this book.

Map on page ix by Neil Hyslop

A CIP catalogue record for this book

is available from the Library of Congress

eISBN: 978-1-40882-812-0

First published in Great Britain in 1998 by Bloomsbury Publishing Pic

First U.S. edition published in 1998 by Bloomsbury Publishing

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Blessed Pills are specialities of Tibetan medicine. Made from various relics, special ingredients, herbs and ground jewels, they are potentized by months of prayers and mantras being said over them. At death specific Blessed Pills are believed to facilitate the transference of consciousness to a higher realm.