Guest post by Ilu Kim
We left for Mongolia on the 30th of May, 2008 with 27 masters and 35 students. Our flight was delayed due to stormy weather in Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia. We finally arrived at the Ulaanbaatar airport just after midnight. Then two more hours of travel by bus to reach the hotel in Terelj where the first Mongolian Avatar Course would be held.
First Morning, Terelj. When I awoke, awesome nature was showing its beauty. Mountains in the distance, forest and stream in front of hotel; it was amazingly beautiful. The trees had mystic grayish trunks with new, bright green leaves just beginning to sprout. The sunlight is strong because we are at a high elevation and there is no pollution in the air. It warms the body even though the air is still chilly.
Terelj is a National Park that UNESCO appointed as a preserved world heritage. It is a huge place but with few people. The total population of Mongolia is only 2.4 million, and 1.8 million people live in the capital. The rest are spread over a country that is 17 times the size of Korea.
After breakfast, everybody arrived happy and energetic to start the ReSurfacing Workshop. The hotel is a three-story building with a meeting room on the 3rd floor.
Without any distractions, the course moved quickly. Students did the Attention mini course and the Forgiveness mini course together. The exercises opened so much space that past reasons for suffering vanished. Students began to recover their ability to feel. They became one with nature and with the other people on course.
Everyday during lunch the people in the village brought horses—strong ponies actually—for us to ride.
For the first few days the course unfolded like the flowing of a smooth river. Then one evening a new hotel close by opened and their electricity consumption was so large that our village had the power cut and that included our hotel. As it was brighter outside than in the meeting room, we moved the course to the hill behind the hotel. The students were wild with excitement and turned the inconvenience of no electricity and no working plumbing into an adventure. Nature became the classroom.
For the next two days the power stayed off. Washing your hair in a cold mountain stream makes you aware of how much you take for granted. We could have complained, but instead everybody followed Harry’s advice and made the best of what happens next. Difficult times remind us to be grateful for the little things—like friendship and fresh air.
We lit the candle in the room at night and it was romantic. Without electricity the stars multiplied until it seemed the sky was too small to contain them all. And the hotel meeting room could no longer contain our Avatar Course.
Beginning on Section III, we moved from the hill to a little forest along the stream. We fell fully into the nomadic consciousness of the land. Doing the section III rundowns under the trees made us feel like Buddhas. The environment was included and seemed to support us rather than distract us. Visited by cows, ponies, dogs and even a family of pigs, in harmony with nature, we announced the “Newest Avatar” to the forest.
On the second Sunday we said goodbye to Terelj and moved to a five star hotel in the capitol, Ulaanbaatar. For one night, we relaxed in luxury, and then we climbed aboard two buses for a seven-hour rock and roll journey into the great Gobi desert. Mongolia is a huge land and it has no specific paved road. Where you drive is totally dependent on the driver.
The guide says that our group feels so much different than any other group. Not a single person complains when unexpected things happen.
I told him, “This is Avatar group.”
We arrived at the Bayan Gobi Desert at 7:00 p.m. Dinner was waiting for us in a traditional Mongolian yurt. After the meal we started course again so some students could finish. We announced the “Newest Avatar” in the Bayan Gobi Desert Camp.
As per Harry’s Primary, “Everything always works out for us,” and it really did in Mongolia. We signed up three Mongolian students for the next Avatar course. Our guide Ayuka decided to come to Korea to do Avatar in October. One day soon there will be many Avatars in Mongolia.
The ghost of Genghis Khan is pleased.
Ilu Kim is a Star’s Edge Trainer from Korea. She can be contacted by phone at 82-11-9999-7425 or e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The Avatar Journal would like to thank Ilu for sharing her Avatar experience. Read more Avatar experiences at AvatarResults.com
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