Twelve Years in a Cave

I have just read a fascinating account of a woman who, among other things, lived for 12 years on a cave. On purpose! Or, to fulfill a purpose, you might say.

Diane Perry was born in London in 1943. Her father ran a fish and seafood shop. Her mother stayed home and raised Diane and her brother. Everything looked pretty typical from the outside. But from the inside, Diane’s inside, to be more specific, it was not. Diane never felt as though she belonged there. She liked being alone and was drawn to the food, customs, and culture of the East, even though she did not know anyone from that part of the world. She also knew that when she grew up she wanted to be a nun, although she did not know exactly what that entailed. 

Her mother was a spiritualist, holding seances in her home and seemingly communicating with beings who, well, were not in the room. Combined with her natural curiosity, this led Diane to all sorts of unanswerable questions like “Is there a God?” “Why do we suffer?”  “How do we become perfect?”

Then, as an eighteen year old she borrowed a library book titled Mind Unshaken by John Walters. Halfway through reading it she announced “I’m a Buddhist.”

This guided her on a path of learning and discovery that would last to this day. (And, as she believes, will continue into her subsequent incarnations.) She moved to India, partnered with a guru, and became ordained as a Buddhist nun (the first Western woman to do so), receiving the name Drubgyu Tenzin Palmo. She lived in a monastery for six years, the only woman in a group of 100. Then her teacher suggested she go up into the mountains of northern India, where she could focus on her spiritual development. With others, she identified a cave at 13,200 feet elevation which, with a little improvement, became her abode. She spent the next 12 years there, growing her food, hauling her water, and sleeping in a two and a half foot by two and a half foot meditation box. She spent most of her time in meditation, with the last three years in full retreat. This meant total isolation.

We don’t know much about the nature of her spiritual experience during those years, because that is not something she chose to talk about. She did say there were times when she felt like her body was flying, when she experienced “incredible awareness and clarity when everything becomes very vivid,” and she felt “bliss.” The goal of all of this was to understand the nature of the mind. 

After all that time, what pulled her out of her retreat? Boredom? Hunger? Cold?

No, it was the police knocking at her door (rock?), informing her that she had to leave India because her visa had expired. The domain of bureaucracy had intruded on the realm of introspection. But it was just as well, because she was ready to get back to the West, to learn more about where she had come from.

She settled in Assisi, Italy and soon began enjoying pasta and tiramisu (good choices!). She studied history, philosophy, and music. When others got whiff of where she was they began inviting her to teach and present at conferences. She has always been interested in – and disappointed by – the role of women in Buddhism. She had seen that they neither received the same respect as men, nor did they have equal opportunities to learn or practice. She wanted to rectify that. So, dedicated to the path as ever, she went on a world-wide tour in support of a new nunnery. The logistics of establishing such an edifice were astounding. There was financing to be found, land to be bought, building permits to be obtained, and architectural plans to be developed. But Tenzin Palmo was not deterred. She had the resolve to make it happen.

The Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery recently celebrated its 25^th anniversary. There are 115 nuns from Tibet and the Himalayan border regions, living, studying, and practicing there. Tenzin Palmo (now Jetsunma, a term applied to revered teachers and practitioners), a modest woman with no money and virtually no belongings, has changed the course of history for adherents of her practice. It is remarkable to think about what one person can accomplish when she possesses discipline, dignity, and determination.