Usually when devotees visit a guru they ascend. However, for the followers of Donegal's Gúrú na gCnoc, Cathal Ó Searcaigh, it was a case of descending into the lower area of Montys of Kathmandu restaurant in Temple Bar, on Tuesday night.
Ó Searcaigh, acclaimed poet and playwright, was launching his latest work, Seal i Neipeal (Cló Iar-Chonnachta), a diary about his travels in the mountainous land of Nepal.
Catherine Foley of this paper did the honours in launching the work. Her praise of Ó Searcaigh's kind, open and loving nature was warmly greeted by his many friends and colleagues.
Fellow Donegal man Éamon Ó Dónaill, one of the masterminds behind the successful television series for learners, Turas Teanga, was basking in a job well done, while radio producer and poet Cathal Póirtéir and radio producer and singer Seosaimhín Ní Bheaglaoich were happily chatting on the same wavelength.
All were very appreciative of the Nepalese nibbles which Montys supplied. Scriptwriter and actress Anne Learmont, dancer Breandán de Gallaí and Ó Searcaigh's long-standing friend, Gabriel Rosenstock, were all dipping in. "Ana-bhlasta!" was the verdict.
And, of course, no gathering of acolytes would be complete without a few words of wisdom from the guru himself. The people of Tibet are marvellous and have a great generosity of spirit, he said. They have a wonderful sense of humour too, he added, before telling a Nepalese joke about a blind woman and a lorry-load of bananas which lost nothing in the translation.
And the poet hasn't finished with the East yet. "I'm translating the Kama Sutra into Irish," he told the audience. Now, wouldn't that make a great series for TG4 - and no need for subtitles either.