The Dalai Lama and 30 Miles of a Fiery Inferno Hell on Earth

by Robert Wilkinson

It's been quite a period, from the sublime to the horrendous! I finally got home to the high desert after a perfect Mercury retrograde of driving out of burning Southern California only to break down in the desert east of Indio and have to be towed back into the thick haze of an Armageddon-like fiery inferno where the Sun and sky were literally blotted out in a dense fog of gray-brown particulates too thick to see the mountains burning out of control just a few thousand feet away.

This trip started out as something sublime, with a beautiful warm Autumn in the Hamptons along with three days of instruction at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We studied the Diamond Cutter sutra and ways of creating "emptiness" involving extensive discourses on Nagarjuna's "70 Verses on Emptiness." His Holiness cuts a very wide wake, and is a presence which can best be described as "swimming in an ocean of 10,000 compassionate eyes." I gave a talk in Santa Monica where I summarized the teachings which I'll try to edit into a sound file for this site.

While hanging in the Hamptons I also got to see the movie on the life of Milarepa which I recommend to all. Very classy piece of work, and I'm waiting for part 2 where he moves from being a Tibetan wizard with great powers into an enlightened life. I also saw another incredible video of the life of the Dalai Lama's mom, where he and members of his family are interviewed about this amazing woman. Definitely worth the time spent viewing it, since it confirms that His Holiness is a BIG fan of Divine Mother!

Then the back end of the trip. LA was its usual Malthusian experiment in too many people in too small a space, and the fires burning throughout all of Southern California seemed to put an uneasy tension in what is already an overloaded ecosystem and highly agitated population. I set off last Tuesday into a headwind that gusted between 60 and 100 miles an hour, blowing everything in the desert into Los Angeles all the way to the ocean. Once I got east of downtown Los Angeles the air became hazy, until I got to west San Bernardino when I could see the tops of the mountains on fire for about 20 miles.

20 miles of thick smoke billowing out of the top of the mountain range, emanating from fiery volcano-like mountain tops on fire, blotting out the sun and sky with rivers of fire flowing down the mountainsides. It was awesome, eerie, and very foreboding in a cosmic sort of way, since I knew they were burning out of control from Malibu to the Mexican border, whipped by intense winds that rendered all our firefighting efforts useless. When airstrips used to dump water are catching fire and pinetree fires are leaping hundreds of feet at a time, "you know something's happening here but you don't know what it is, do you Mister Jones," to quote the Bard of another era.

Eventually the sky became visible about a hundred miles out from LA. I did fine until getting a ways out of Indio on I 10, where a wheel bearing gave out. Not knowing this was the problem, it seemed safer to be towed back to West Los Angeles to my mechanic who would give me an accurate diagnosis. Thus the perfect Mercury retrograde situation of leaving West Los Angeles, then having to be towed back into the fiery inferno surrounded by a thick haze in a hellish zone where it was impossible to see very far and you knew you were entering the heart of a darkness and breathing things that are not good for you.

It was sunset when I was being towed back in, but I couldn't see the sun or sky anywhere. The only reason I knew it was sunset was from the occasional dips in the mountain range which would reveal slivers of darkened sky with strange hues of orange and gold just above the ridge line. Otherwise the sky was obliterated by smoke so thick I wondered how many were gasping for air and how many creatures were panicked though knowing that humans were powerless to control countless acres blazing across thousands of square miles.

I got back to town, deposited the car at my mechanics after hours, got a rental car and moved my stuff from my car to the rental, and went back to the apartment. The next morning there was a layer of ash deposited on the cars in the neighborhood even though the smoke wasn't evident enough to smell. I then drove off into the haze again about 11am, where instead of 20 miles of burning mountains it had become 30 to 50 miles of flaming, belching smoke pervading the entire southland. The fires were burning, but I couldn't even see the mountains not that far away.

There was no Sun anywhere to be seen in that second time driving east. After about a hundred miles into the trip it lightened up, but left me with tremendously deep feelings about the unfortunate humans and creatures left in a haze of smoke, fire, and uncertainty. Though the headwinds had subsided a little, and we were told ocean breezes were coming in on Friday, that wasn't much comfort, since it meant that all the particulates over LA and the West side would be pushed back into the Inland Empire, as it is called.

So this Mercury retrograde, while a huge blessing on the front end where I reconnected with His Holiness and even got to do a street fair on 6th Avenue along with about a quarter-million people, became a bizarre hellish experience on the back end where I saw a version of Armageddon. It was one of the most eerie experiences I've ever had, and gave me a vision of a version of hell. May God have mercy on Southern California. I've been sent pictures that are beyond belief.

Just in case you were wondering where I've been and what I've been doing lately. Aum Namah Shivaya!

© Copyright 2007 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[kathy]

Well well well, SO glad you have crossed safely between/among worlds! You are a cosmic bi-coastal reporter, much appreciated. Welcome home!

xxo,
k

[robyn]

wow that's crazy. its the real thing for how i'm methaphorically feeling... thank you!

[Lori]

Hi Robert,

I know first hand of what fires do. (multiple times).

After 11 years of living in the pristine forest 8300' up in elevation ... (near Denver) I have seen many forest fires. Caused by nature and humans both. Too many to count.

Fires are Fires no matter where they are & so I know all too well what people have been going through in CA. My heart and prayers go out to them. The fire fighters are the heroes in these things.

I know how it is to go to the fire station and help cook dinner that is going to be taken to them out on the front lines. Alot of them are volunteer. The real tragedy are the fires started by people and not nature.

And yet one wonders - why does it take a tragedy to open people's hearts to each other? Why can't it just unconditionally be that way every day?

I know how it feels to smell smoke in the air and how unsettling it is. I know how it is to look a mile away and see the pine forest burning on the next ridge over. I know how it is to be within 2 miles of the evacuation zone (multiple times) and not have to evacuate but watch so many others have to do it. It touches everyone.

Whether one's house gets touched by fire or not ... whether one gets evacuated or not - it still traumatizes everyone in the area. I have seen the looks on the faces of evacuees who had to go the high school a mile a way for shelter. Talked to people who did and didn't have a home to go back to later who might have been only a couple miles from where I was living.

I've seen so many forest fires in my 11 years of living in the woods (and yet when you move up there it goes with the territory ... just like if you move to Key West you might get hit with a hurricane)I have lost count.

I know how it feels for the winds to keep blowing and fanning the flames. I feel for everyone out there.

Yet I miss living up there in the forest and would move back to the woods in a heart beat regardless. I understand why people re build on the very site that was burned.

It's sad - It takes YEARS for a pine tree to grow 100' tall ... and minutes for a fire to ravage it. One of Colorado's BIGGEST fires was started by a Forestry employee who knew better. She ended up doing time in prison. It's sad to go back later after a forest fire and look at the aftermath. Think about the wild life as well.

Houses with metal roofs are a good idea etc.

So I know how the folks in CA feel with the fires from experience. Those reverse 911 calls leave them minutes to get out ... live stock have to go to the fair grounds etc. And to see the aftermath of fire in the forest - is sad. not to mention what it does to the wild life trying to escape it.

So what you say of the fires ... I know from experience what it's like and have seen multiple sides of it. It's also unsettling to know that the evacuation zone came only a mile from where I was living. Yep - I know unfortunately about these things.

On the other side ... March 2003 living up there, we had SEVEN feet of snow ... (collapsing the rooves of houses etc) - and that's a different journey all together. : ) We had just had our rooves replaced a month prior - talk about guidance from spirit.

My heart and prayers go to those out there and to you as well.

Lori

[Kathleen]

Thank you for the great writing Robert!

In 1993, I had just moved to Malibu, on PCH, and was evacuated during those awful fires. For three days, I did not know if my home existed anymore...the fires had jumped PCH and were burning all the way to the water's edge. I felt certain that it had burned down.

There is a numbness which accompanies this stressful time during loss. A numbess in the midst of understanding that 'YOU are not your material things'. A numbness of feeling that everything you 'worked for' was gone in a matter of 24 hours. POOF!! It was then that I realized how quickly your life can change--without you even trying. You stand naked before the world, stripped of your wordly goods and truly comprehend that 'who you are' counts more than 'what you own'.

My younger brother lives in Rancho Bernardo. The reverse 911 woke him at 5am and for several days, he wondered if his homes were gone too. It was a silent understanding between us as he 'knew' I understood that strange feeling of dismay and numbness. Perhaps he too will have had an epiphany and realize that material items are not our goal in this lifetime.

Society seemingly wants us to be defined by our material acquisitions....but deep inside, we all (hopefully) come to a better understanding, that the Universe has much more to teach us if we want to listen and learn.

Even if these gigantic tragedies do not happen to you personally, it is a gentle reminder for us all to REACH HIGHER AND BE YOUR BEST!

[Lori]

I think the core thread through out every tradgedy (be they fires, floods etc) viewed from the human level is that on the heart level it compels people to help people, to opening hearts, to stepping up - to being there for one another. It opens hearts to the energy of compassion for each other. To have compassion and kindness for the inner spirit of each one. That outer appearance does not matter - only the energy and light of spirit -the true self within.

To be able to hold this compassion and help for one another when life is good as well and tradgedy is not occuring.

We are each beautifully spirit. We come into life spiritually enlighened already ... we are simply remembering how to be human and remembering that spirit is all there is.

Outer appearance in the higher reach means nothing ... only the light and energy of spirit that is the isness of all ... all that is - the infinite eternal body of light, of pure love and pure light that is the truth of each one ... before physical life in spirit, in physical life, after physical life in spirit ... always there is spirit.

The lesson is to hold this compassion for each other every day, tradgedy or not. Hanna Kroeger knew so well when she said (her motto) "Help each other." It's easy to write a check to help ... but so much better to use one's hands and heart to help; to express kindness.

For example with one of the huge forest fires "The High Plains Fire" in the summer of 2000 up near Conifer CO where I lived ... going to the fire station and helping to make a huge vat of beef stew from scratch knowing it would go to the front lines that night to feed the fire fighters. The pebble goes in the pond and the ripples go out.

And Robert I know all too well of what you speak with the smoke and fire, I've seen it many times. My heart and prayers are with all.

I remember parades being held to thank the fire fighters - they are he heroes in all of this ... I think that in CA - something like that should be done as well.

[Lori]

Oops I said High Plains Fire, I meant to say High Meadows fire. One of many I've experienced from 2000 to 2005 ... my heart and prayers go to all in CA.

Colorado's largest fire was the Hayman Fire started by a careless Forestry employee. 137,760 acres were burned.

http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/upload/Wildfire-Hayman-Fire-Facts.pdf

[Robert]

Hi all - Glad to be back. Very glad to be in a place with fresh air.

[Lori]

Fresh air is a blessing. Remain open, in the days and weeks to come ... to volunteering with local fire departments and agencies in the burn areas and see what can be done to help, if in the local area.

Help is always needed. November through April (I am a CA native) is usually rainy season in CA. When the smoke and the air clears ... it's not always over. There is still more to be done and will be more needing to be done to help others. Local Fire Departments and agencies would know what needs to be done.

When there have been fires, and the ground brush, grasses, forest and trees that hold the soil and hillsides in place have been burned ... there can be/usually - often is - due to the erosion of the land and removal of the protective undergrowth and grasses etc, flooding and mud slides, if rains come - be it forest, hills, mountains or near the ocean. Homes that were not burned, can be affected by flooding and mudslides after fires in the following months.

I've seen it in Colorado after the many forest fires I've experienced. The land brings new growth in time along the ground through the charred trees. It really has an emotional affect to go back later and quietly, reflectively look at the burn areas ... and see new grasses and flowers coming up like a resurrection. It will happen in time the regrowth.

Structures can be rebuilt - the most important thing being that loved ones and family are still together.

Fires are hard enough ... hard too on the animals and birds not able to escape. Forest fires and any fires are especially hard on them.

I was happy to see some of the fire fighters honored on the show Dancing with the Stars and a welcome break for them. Many of them are volunteer. I hope there will be a parade of some sort in CA to thank and honor them - those men and women fighting the fires are the true heroes. That's what they've done in Colorado - parades to honor them.

They richly deserve acknowledgement, thanks, gratitude and praise from all. Especially since many of them come in from other states. Many of them are also volunteer EMT's and paramedics. What a blessing they are!

I'm very glad Robert that you are physically okay and your home is okay.

Prayers and the violet transmutative light for all in California. Everyone in such an experience is affected.

[robyn]

the world is a strange place.

i've always thought of man, as a population, dealing with what it would be like to live among the wild of the earth.

its a permanent fixture.
you illustrate that for me-in your diary.

the world is so complex.

[bettyann]

Glad you had a great trip and very happy you are home safe & sound.
Blessings to you,Robert.

[Robert]

Hi Lori - I agree fire fighters are true heroes. We will need them more and more as the droughts continue.

Hi robyn - Our civilization, such as it is, is a fairly thin veneer over some fairly wild, untamed stuff.

Hi bettyann - Thanks. Finally catching up on some stuff that arose while I was on the road. And I must say that it's a true blessing to have a home again to come home to after so many years.