In August 2019, the Mind Mirror took the stage at a world class conference on "Buddhism, Brain Science & the Future," held in a spectacular mountaintop hotel above Shenzhen, an ultramodern port city across the border from Hong Kong. It was a memorable experience for many reasons, not the least of which was the warmth of the Chinese people and the state-of-the-art technology pervading their beautiful country.

My talk on the Mind Mirror 6 was well-received, as it was the only presentation that connected a technology—in our case, EEG-guided meditation—with inner awakening toward the Buddhist OneMind (our Evolved Mind pattern, which Yifa noted with appreciation). During an afternoon panel discussion, an audience member asked, "What is spirituality?" I answered that question, in part, with a story about spontaneous illumination and what it feels like. Several people later said privately that my answer touched them deeply, as spirituality is a closely held topic in China. "People just don't talk about it," said one woman with tears in her eyes. Other women circling Judith in the foyer nodded in agreement.

Audience members were ushered into meditation each day by musical performers framed by meditative visuals projected onscreen. Breathtakingly beautiful singing held us captive. The performers themselves, uncommonly lovely and serene, induced peace and serenity in everyone.

I had expected simple accommodations and was surprised and delighted to find the Woodenfish conference taking place at a palatial hotel on a mountaintop about an hour's taxi ride above Shenzhen (taxi cost, a mere $40). The sumptuous Interlaken OCT hotel was beautifully designed and filled with exquisite artwork. Marble floors with inlaid mosaics, massive glass chandeliers, gigantic birdcages with live parrots and songbirds…it was almost more than the senses could take in. The hotel had four excellent restaurants, a swan lake with architecturally exquisite mineral springs lodges, and an extensive park with two performance stages, shops, and restaurants. Above all this luxury, somewhat ironically, a giant Buddha perched on a mountain peak on the site of a former Buddhist monastery. For this photographer, China was a prolonged peak experience. More than one person commented that I was like a kid in a candy shop. With my new Nikon in tow, I was indeed. The children shown in these photos gravitated to me, for some reason—tallish, smiling blonde lady from America?—to exercise their English and enthuse about Spider-Man. People dining on the Western restaurant's lakeside patio wanted to include me in their souvenir photos. Everyone was warm and gracious. I arrived at the hotel a day early to cure my jet lag after the 30-hour journey there. Astonishingly, the price of a one-night stay in our majestic hotel was $148. In the U.S., my spacious, mountain-facing room would have costs thousands of dollars—if you could actually find a hotel of such rare elegance. These photographs show why it was hard to leave this "mountaintop" experience.

At the end of the conference, I traveled to Hong Kong with Alvaro Guirao, a friendly young Spanish entrepreneur working with Hong Kong University to create an empathy-inducing VR experience. I'd hoped to take the 20-minute bullet train, but the longer journey via several crowded trains was a good segue from meditative mountaintop to commercial capital. With a population of 7.4 million people living and/or working on 427 square miles of real estate off mainland China, Hong Kong is incredibly busy, expensive, and super-high-tech.

My compact hotel room was perfectly located on the famous Canton Road in the Kowloon District, an international shopping mecca with glitzy designer stores by Coach, Salvatore Ferragamo, Rolex, and the like. Happily, Thomas Amiard met me at the hotel on the first of my two days in Hong Kong and ushered me to the harbor ferry for a whirlwind tour of Hong Kong Island. It was a feast of architecturally stunning buildings, crowded open air markets, double-decker trolleys, winding streets teeming with all manner of shops and restaurants—and thereby, a feast for my camera.

The next day, Mind Mirror Practitioner Trainee and software developer Andrew Tang, a native of Hong Kong now living in New Jersey, ushered me through a flamingo-filled botanical garden to a train station then cable car ride to the mountainous Po Lin Monastery, home to one of the largest Buddha statues in the world. Whether the Mind Mirror made any impression on China or not remains to be seen. China certainly made a wonderful impression on me. Since my return, China has conceded the central issue protested by the Hong Kong demonstrators. I did not see the protests or any violence but was keenly aware of what was taking place there.

We can only hope for peace and understanding between China and Hong Kong—and, as Buddhism would say, mutual happiness through the alleviation of suffering, not only there but also in our own lives and throughout the world.

I hope you enjoy these photos of the gorgeous Po Lin monastery and especially the five-minute video of the stunning musical laser light show above the Hong Kong Harbor. You are most welcome to leave comments about this article and its photographs. And by all means, plan a trip to beautiful China!

All of the conference presenters were excellent. The following researchers and neuro-tech innovators are highlighted because their projects might be of special interest to the Mind Mirror community.