It seems surreal now that we were travelling around ‘Buddha’s Island’, Sri Lanka, while less than 100 miles to the north a bloody battle was raging at Elephant Pass, the causeway to the Jaffna Peninsula. The Tamil Tigers had launched a massive offensive to capture the Elephant Pass military base controlling the land bridge to the island, following the departure of the Indian peace-keeping force the previous year. Hotels and churches had been bombed earlier in the year, which had a certain resonance for me having been a student in Birmingham when the city pubs were bombed. Our introductory tour around Colombo included a drive-by to see the bombed-out hotel shell. In contrast our two weeks travelling around the island gave us a deep appreciation of the rich cultural heritage of the island, it’s multi-faith population and the multitude of historical and pilgrimage sites. Some of the hotels we stayed at in the more populated areas tried to give us western menus for dinner, but fortunately the group was large enough for our guide to insist on Sri Lankan food and we’d have separate tables to the rest of the tourists, who must have wondered who these strange guests were. There was a certain something about the places we visited that had an attraction for me, something that went beyond ‘exotic’ superficiality and being simply photogenic. My partner and I were also married at the end of the tour so there’s a symbolism that wasn’t lost on me, there was also something deeper going on. Although the idea of places of worship, churches etc as refuges to find shelter – even claiming sanctuary in medieval times – and taking refuge in the dharma were familiar to me, I’d not come across the expression of ‘making the mind an inner refuge’ until recently; although it seems to me that’s what I’ve been doing for many years through meditation and channelling/healing practices.