20 years ago I quit my job, gave up all my financial security, sold most of my belongings and bought a one way ticket to Bangkok. I was determent to find the truth and was totally convinced I can only find it in Asia. May be in some old monastery where they practice bhuddist meditation, or in some little village where they do pujas to several gods and goddesses.

Of course everyone thought I was nuts but I felt such a huge emptiness in myself that I decided not to care what others think. I stayed four months in Thailand and traveled from the South to the North always looking for the ‘truth’.

In the small village Mae Hong Song, up in the North of Thailand I met a girl who just came from a temple where she learned a kind of bhuddist meditation.  She raved about it and I though ‘may be I should go too.’

Few weeks later I met the very same girl on a busy street downtown Bangkok where she told me again about this temple.  What are the odds? I saw it as a sign, took a bus to Chiang Mai where the  Buddhist monastery was and stayed 6 weeks to learn the bhuddist meditation called Vipassana.

I felt calm and happy, yes even proud of myself when I completed my ‘determination’, which was a continues non-stop-meditation for 3 days and nights without talking or sleeping. After I left the temple I saw the world differently but knew that I wasn’t ‘finished’ yet and it was too early to return home.

I practice my bhuddist meditation every day and asked Bhudda for guidance. While walking down a street in Chiang Mai I suddenly caught a glimpse of an advertisement from a travel agency. I turned and looked again, than I knew where to go next. Kathmandu, Nepal!

My plane left the next day. I took a taxi to Thamel, the tourist area and settled in a guest house. After having done a trip through the Himalyas I returned to Kathmandu and passed a little Austrian restaurant in the heart of Thamel. I couldn’t resist, after eating boiled eggs and boiled potatoes in the mountains for days, I would have done anything for mashed potatoes with sauerkraut and smoked pork chops.

What I found on the table in this restaurant changed my life forever. It was a brochure about Sahaja Yoga. Lisa the owner of that restaurant, started talking to me about it and I came to the class the following day. That was the end of all my worries, dissatisfaction, and restlessness. It was the beginning of a life which became so rich and valuable.

Gita Pattison