July 2021 marks a spiritual shift. A windhorse road trip of a lifetime.
I finally got to attend long beheld two week silent meditation retreat near Joshua Tree National Park in California. As the world opens up, I’m forced into a high gear work load speed. The machinations of daily life can easily take a toll. My windhorse yearned for a spiritual shower. This marked my second time doing Vipassana meditation, that is 110 hours of sitting. It is very much a physical labor in conjugation with mental endurance. I feel grateful for the time to introspect and welcome stillness. To reset. In coming back home, I find myself highly sensitive to any form of stimulation. It makes me realize how detached one can get in the intoxication of grit.
Take away – there are no excuses when it comes to mental health and practicing presence. One can always make time to practice stillness and awareness on a daily basis even if for few minutes for the longevity of health and mental balance.
On route to California, my sister and I got to road trip across NM and Nevada. In New Mexico we got to see the Heard Museum, I would say it’s one of the better contemporary indigenous museums in the US dedicated to American Indian art, culture and history. Some standout exhibits were “All at Once, The Gift of Navajo Weaving” featuring beautiful hand woven rug tapestries, sculpture garden, “Grand Procession: Contemporary Plains Indian Dolls” featuring exquisitely ornate dolls with traditional costumes and props, and the heartbreaking highly emotive “Away From Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories” which featured a retrospective of the American Indian youth colonization and boarding school massacre. In leaving the museum, I felt a strong resonance and empathy with the American Indian culture.
Since its founding in 1929, the Heard Museum has grown in size and stature to become recognized internationally for the quality of its collections, world-class exhibitions, educational programming and its unmatched festivals. Dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art, the Heard successfully presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitions that showcase the beauty and vitality of traditional and contemporary art. The Heard Museum sets the standard for collaborating with American Indian artists and tribal communities to provide visitors with a distinctive perspective about the art of Native people, especially those from the Southwest.
After the mediation program, we went to Zanabazar Dharma Center in Sacremento. Zanabazar is one of the first Mongolian Buddhist centers created in the US by Mongolian lama Geshe Damchaabazar. The center marks a significant achievement for the Mongolian community in the US and for Mongolian Buddhism in America. The center is lead by head lama Geshe Damchaabazar. My father, artists Tsogo Mijid, partook in the design and creation of the monastery. It is always an incredible honor to visit Zanabazar and pay respect to our lama teacher. He is the most humble, dedicated and joyful humans I know.
On route back home, we took the famous California Zephyr train cutting across Nevada, Utah, and the beautiful Colorado mountains. Every time I travel in coming back home, I grow profound appreciation for the beauty of Colorado state.
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