Comfortably sitting in the rear seat of a rented Peugeot, on the way to Paris from
Barcelona, my professor was driving, and my mother next to him … we entered slowly
into the city and it was like a movie rolling before my eyes. I glanced up to see the
rounded windows along the Quais – we were in Bordeaux, and suddenly, I felt a
gripping terror arose in my throat and then it was when I realized that I had been there
before! It also felt like a premonition, and so I asked them if we could just drive past this
place without stopping, even though they were a bit surprised they knew I had had
psychic experiences, so they carried on like it was not a big deal. Later that evening
once feeling safe, having reaching Orleans I remembered the dream that I had 4 nights
prior in Spain. Lying on the fluffy duvet the dream unfolded in my memory, it was about
my life as a child jewel transporter; and now I knew this was in Bordeaux. I was a young
lad with curls of shoulder length hair and once I had been on route taking one of the
walkways under a quai and I was beaten badly and robbed. The thugs took me by
surprise knowing that I would be on my way with the jewels of a maiden. She had kept
those jewels at one of her relatives’ homes. And even though I had done this many
times before, this time I was watched and followed and as a result almost left for dead.
This stirred in me a fascination with the question: “Is there really reincarnation?” How is
it that I remembered this so clearly. When I came to the city so many buildings were
engraved in my mind, and it was certain I had known the place even though I had never
been there in my current life.
For a long time after the Quias of Bordeaux Deja Vu, I had wanted to visit the Buddhist
monasteries in India to visit with the 3 persons from Tibet that have been able to predict
their own reincarnation many times. I would have to travel to the foothills of the
Himalayas. Finally, I got the chance… this opportunity came as a series of strange
synchronicities.

I was flying to meet a friend of mine, Kiran that I had met at a wedding of a friend in
India. Kiran doesn’t travel much to the states, and she was headed to New York and at
that time I was living in Boca Raton in Florida and I took a flight out of Miami. On that
flight, I sat next to a woman who had been a follower of Chogyam Trungpa who had
started the Shambala University in Colorado, I had read the works of this infamous
monk who had left his robes to have a relationship with a woman, but decided to
continue the spiritual path and continue especially sharing the teachings. I had actually
read Chogram’s great work “Meditation in Action” when I was falsely arrested on route
from Amsterdam to Nepal on a stop in Lugano to get some papers signed for an
investment in my company. A false identification put me in a Swiss jail on a Friday with
no chance to see a judge for release until Monday. I was only allowed to keep that book
with me. I missed my flight to Nepal, and spent the next 3 days reading that book. I

asked the Universe to teach me to really learn to meditate and that’s what the Universe
chose for me. In total isolation, I read that book 52 times and learned to meditate.
I told the lady on the plane about my friend Kiran, and about another friend Tara who
wanted to go with me to India, but I had to ask my host Kiran if she could be kind
enough to have another guest.
The lady who sat next to me on that plane told me to ask my friend without delay
because there would be no issues, she guaranteed that and told me that it was what I
was meant to do. When I met with Kiran, I immediately asked her and she was so
amazed at my request, and she told me that not only would she welcome Tara and host
her as well, but she would organize for us both to visit the Tai Situpa Rinpoche who was
presiding over the Sherab Ling Monastery, and that he might be able to get us
permission to visit with the Karmapa! The Karmapa is the person who has predicted his
own reincarnation 17 times that’s for almost 2000 thousand years. By the time we
arrived in India, she was able to get an invitation for us to stay at the Monastery and sit
with the Tai Situpa Rinpoche. Both the Tai Situpa and the Karmapa are 2 of the people
that have predicted their own reincarnation many times, and that I wanted to visit with!
The third is the Dali Lama. It wasn’t until another opportunity later on that I was able to
meet with the Dali Lama, and that in itself is a whole other story. And to understand why
one would want to come back as a pure act of compassion.
This lady on the plane Rachel, told me about an experience she had that tipped her into
understanding signs in the universe at another level of awareness… She had missed
her plane at London Heathrow some years back, and quite upset that she would not
make the flight home, but when that plane flew over Scotland in Lockerbie, while she
was still at the airport waiting to get on another flight, she heard that the plane had
exploded. She told me she had that plane ticket framed on her wall in her apartment in
New York because she needed that constant reminder that we are here for a split
moment in time, and that we had best be living in the moment. Amazing that she would
be the person, a woman I met on a plane, to urge me to go to the Himalayas for the first
time, because life is so short really.
Tara and I left Florida for India by way of Bali in 2003, and with the help of my friend
Kiran, who hosted us at her home in Delhi, made it possible for us to visit the Sherab
Ling Monastery. The monastery is in the Himal Predesh and is far away from any city
nestled in forests and has incredible mountain views. It was very arduous to get there
spending many hours by train in the most uncomfortable conditions and then by 4whldr
Jeep to get to the monastery. Over 250 resident monks live there, and it is a perfect
place to learn about Tibetan Buddhism firsthand. We spent some weeks there learning,
viewing the art of tankas, meditating, asking questions to the monks, and hiking to the
villages close by, and sitting in audience in person with the Tai Situpa Rinpoche. I now

realize what a blessing was bestowed upon us. I recollect about those moments of
transmission like it had happened yesterday, such a profound effect has it had on me
and my spiritual awakening.
The Rinpoche is a strong presence, and when he spoke his words cut like knives with
the unexpected candidacy of his words. He sat some meters above us for these
sessions in a type of throne chair. He who has retained memories of many lifetimes,
donned a mala of exquisite stones and his eyes penetrated mine. As he twirled the
beads one by one in his fingers, he poignantly turned his head and remarked, “so why
are YOU afraid to die?” After a pause he quipped “YOU whose lifetimes are as short as
the twirl of my fingers on each single bead of this mala!” I was so taken back by his
insight into my feeble excuses of fear that I vowed to change and to head into life
straight on, no matter what the outcome if my intuition and insight are leading me. He
told me I had better stop letting people walk over me too – like he had been reading my
mind. That was a harder lesson to learn and it took many years to be free of that need
for acceptance.
A couple weeks later Tai Situpa told us we could see the Karmapa and he would do the
paperwork giving us an official invitation. The location of the Karmapa wasn’t far, but it
was heavily guarded and there was a process for entry. The wait time was for hours,
and the officials seemed to check our passports and the letters over and over again. But
finally a nun from a center in the UK came to visit as well and she befriended us and
briefed us on the right way to enter the presence of the Karmapa with the Khata of silk
which is a long scarf actually, and the proper 3 prostrations and to do it mindfully doing
the first bow for appreciation, second for the teachings or Dharma, and then for the
community – the Sangha. Once we were able to practice this in front of her, the officials
let us in and we climbed a thin staircase to where the Karmapa was sitting on the
ground. We both did the prostrations and then each gave him a silk scarf which he then
returned to each of us with a blessing. Just being in his presence was beyond anything I
had ever experienced. I was lost for words and just wanted to soak it up as I felt I was
no longer touching the ground. He gave us some seeds after meditating with us and
gave us many blessings for all our lifetimes. Then on the way down the stairs, I looked
at Tara and she knew – and I ask did that happen to you as well? I was off the ground,
and she said, “yes!” We both cried full of joy, excitement and amazement! WE hugged
each other right there on the staircase and just let the experience of our first levitation fill
the air with magic that has no words. What insight could the universe give you if you just
had the courage to ask no matter what and how it would come to you?