If You are Afraid of Snakes, Wear a Mask

Many years ago, due to the kindness of my friend Ian Baker, I had the good fortune to visit Pemakod, the secret land arrayed like a Lotus, approaching from the Arunachal Pradesh side of India. It is fairly well known that to venture into Pemakod was not for the faint of heart nor for the physically compromised. Although I wasn’t in the greatest physical shape, I figured that my intense faith and willingness to accept whatever should befall me there, were sufficient prerequisites for the journey.

Having had several auspicious dreams about the endeavor, I approached H.E. Namkha Drimed Rabjam Rinpoche, a teacher of mine and also a revealer of Guru Padmasambhava’s Treasures. He offered his blessings and bestowed several protector practices which would serve me on the journey.

Ian had brought a few Nye Yigs to my attention, (guiding instructions for Holy places) which describe Pemakod and I particularly remember the one from the treasure revealer, Dorje Thogmed. The only version I had was already translated into English which made it easier for me. While reading it, I came across this phrase: “If you fear snakes, you should wear a mask and this will protect you.” At first I bemoaned that alas, even our lofty Buddhism was subject to completely ridiculous notions and then I considered it further. True science means open mindedness, open discussion and some experimentation. I opened my mind and then it came automatically. Knowing very well, that many translation teams are often hastily comprised of a Tibetan Lama and a single western student, I settled into my day dream about the sentence in question and a vision arose naturally and spontaneously. I imagined the western person asking the Lama: “What does this mean?” and the Lama responding: “Mask. It means Mask” I then contemplated what could possibly keep snakes away? Snakes are nearly blind and only have a keen sense of smell. Then I remembered. Snakes really hate the smell of a substance known in Tibetan as Lhatsi. What is that you may ask. Lhatsi is Tibetan for Musk. That’s right, if you are concerned about snakes , and since there are so many of them in Pemakod, then you should wear musk. There it was. Without even knowing the Tibetan or the translators etc. the mystery was solved and Buddhism was restored back to its original lofty and functional status.

A Translator’s work is not only difficult but bears with it a huge responsibility for errors that can often have long term karmic impact. I have never envied the task nor do I feel particularly capable of translating works alone. But I do consider myself a man of science, at least in so far as we are talking about true science and not the commercially motivated use of laboratories and studies geared to get certain products into profitable use.

Today, there are probably very few people who don’t have the question on their minds, “do I really need to wear a mask?” They say the science is “in” and that there is no real room for discussion, the use of masks reduce the spread of COVID 19. Not only is the science “in”, but if you have another, even professional opinion that is not the mainstream opinion we are seeing, you can lose your reputation if not your license just by expressing your opinion. In fact, even if you reveal actual clinical findings you have experienced when treating the disease, you can be subject to a huge, well funded explosion of marginalization and yes, complete and total censorship. These two actions, marginalization and censorship, combined with more or less unlimited financial and political power of Big Pharma and other tech companies, is the new religion we carelessly call science.

This Blog is by no means meant to be a message that I do not endorse the use of Masks. Personally, I feel they are very much called for regardless of how imperfect a solution they might be. I am not qualified to remark much on it and so I will not. However, I am for freedom of speech and for real science, both of which are major positive foundations of our modern world. Like most other people, none of us wishes to be made into fools. I did not wear a mask to protect from snakes in Pemakod, but now, in times of pandemic, translation is not the order of the day and the only thing that can really help us is science and truth. I hardly see how censorship of dialogue and reported findings is somehow patriotic at this moment. If there was ever a time to get politics and profits out of our health system in general, it is now. Wise people know that the real measure of the success of any society is how well they take care of the vulnerable populations within them.

I did wear Musk by the way, during my trip to Pemakod and guess what? I never even saw a single snake. Anecdotal and useless information you say? Unverified in a laboratory and therefore invalid? Yes, sure, why not throw more than 2,000 years worth of Asian medicine and all the anecdotes that built it, into the garbage because you believe yourself to be scientific? Let us not forget, that being liberal or right doesn’t protect you from ignorance. During the cultural revolution in China, angry throngs murdered people with eyeglasses because glasses were only affordable by the educated elite. If you had glasses you were rich, educated and part of the problem. Have we changed that much really? The question could be asked, when did it become so fashionable to be stupid? If being a bimboesque female is sexy, it seems to follow that it’s really macho and patriotic to be an idiot.

If we see each other as human beings, then we should be acting out of love for each other. Care of others is not a weakness but a sign of ultimate strength and bravery. We should team together and use all our resources of information, and data to free ourselves from this pandemic and we should do it without the pandemic of profit entering the already complex situation. We are all pretty much savvy consumers by this point and we do know about the motivation of money and what it can do to people in a board room. So, when we see someone like Bill Gates getting vilified for pseudo-philanthropy or cunningness in business, we should understand that this sentiment need not be based on conspiracy theory, but on common sense that each system that effects so many, needs adequate oversight, checks and balances. It is not the vaccines people inherently object to. They object to being forced to use them under potentially false pretenses. We reject being told that vaccines are completely risk free when the US government has already paid out billions of dollars to victims of vaccine injury. This proves they are not risk free. Certainly, I would love to get a good effective and low risk vaccine for COVID19. Does it or will that really come to be on time? Perhaps we must explore other life saving treatments even if the data is only anecdotal.

When the two freight trains of human sovereignty, ( the ability to chose ) and so called science collide on the playing field of societies trapped in a pandemic, we had better keep our heads on the prize that serves all.