The hermitage is situated so that nothing may be seen but snow peaks rising to a shining sky; even Shey is hidden by the slopes above the village. The effect is so hallucinatory that GS, disturbed, is stirred to protest at the hermit’s life, and solitary meditation: “You have to have something coming in!” But the point of meditation is to let everything go: “When your mind is empty like a valley or a canyon, then you will know the power of the Way.”11 On a ledge, two bronze-skinned monks sit quietly, as if in wait. One is patching his wool boots, the other is curing a goat hide in a yellow mix
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