Cuchama & Sacred Mountains

Description

W. Y. Evans-Wentz| great Buddhist scholar and translator of such now familiar works as the “Tibetan Book of the Dead” and the “Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation|” spent his final years in California. There| in the shadow of Cuchama| one of the Earth’s holiest mountains| he began to explore the astonishing parallels between the spiritual teaching of America’s native peoples and that of the deeply mystical Hindus and Tibetans. “Cuchama and Sacred Mountains|” a book completed shortly before his death in 1965| is the fruit of those explorations.
To Cuchama| “Exalted High Place|” came the young Cochimi and Yuma boys for initiation into the mystic rites for their people. In solitude they sought and received guidance and wisdom. In this same way| the peoples of ancient Greece| the Hebrews| the early Christians| and the Hindus had found access to inner truth on their own holy mountains: and in this same way must the modern person find the path to inner knowing.
Surveying many of the most Sacred Mountains in North America| South America| Europe| and Asia| Evans-Wentz expresses the belief that the secret power of these high places has not passed away but only awaits the coming of a New Age. This new age| in accord with the oldest prophecies of our continent| will be a time of renaissance| the long-waited era of harmony and peace among all peoples.
This renaissance shall be uniquely American| a renewal based on the values so long honored by the Americans before Columbus| and so ruthlessly trampled by the “civilized” Europeans who overran them. No other race of people has been as spiritual in their way of life than the original Americans| notes Evans-Wentz. Perhaps none other has known such martyrdom. Yet the secret greatness of the Indian religion still lives| ancient as the Earth itself| yet ageless in its power to renew.