Ten things to learn from Asia

October 24, 2008 at 12:45 am (Uncategorized)
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I went to Asia with the desire to learn from the culture. As simple as that. I had a sneaking suspicion that there was something missing in the sleek “we are the world” western package I had been purchasing all my life. So here it is, a list in no particular order of some of what I consider the most important things I learned over these nine months in India and Southeast Asia.

Spiritually:

1-Yoga – I studied for about two months total both in Rishikesh, India and Chiang Mai, Thailand. I discovered how life-enhancing yoga is and why the west is becoming obsessed with this long practiced simultaneous excercise of body and mind. My favourite asanas (postures) are the head stand and padastasana (touching your toes) and doing surja namaskar twelve times during sunset has also proven rejuvenating.

2-You cannot convince someone who isn’t ready. Each person will realize the truth eventually in their own time: The words of my herbal guru in northern Thailand. I have difficulty realizing this because I want so much for people to realize the pure joy I have found. But I guess teaching by example is the best method.

3-Meditation – I cannot extoll too much the virtues of meditation in every aspect, and when I found out it was used to treat even the most serious diseases like HIV and cancer, well you can’t argue against it.

“Sit, then as if you were a mountain, with all the unshakeable, steadfast majesty of a mountain. A mountain is completely natural and at ease with itself, however strong the winds that batter it, however thick the dark clouds that swirl around its peak. Sitting like a mountain, let your mind rise and fly and soar.” – Sogyal Rinpoche from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Practically:

4-How to cook a decent Thai dish. Taking a cooking course individually with a Thai lady was one of the most practical things I did. I’m able to cook an array of healthful tasty foods like pad thai, tom yum, green curry, etc. Atleast I can work on American’s waistlines if I can’t alter their mindset.

5-Giving a Thai Massage. I took an intensive two week course and also learned from my guru some useful “lazy yoga” techniques and practice my Indian head massage. Massage is really almost a magical art like meditation bringing you into another state of mind.

6-Raising a baby. Ok, I didn’t have a baby, but I raised a puppy from one day old to opening its eyes and walking. I learned to give myself fully to another being, including waking every two hours for feeding, pooping, sharing body heat and otherwise caring and nurturing for a helpless creature as, I suppose a mother does. It’s a lot of responsibility and I can only wander and be grateful of how my mother was able to do it for longer than two weeks. India provides this opporunity plentifully as the idea of owning a dog is non-existant and strays abound.

7-Medicine and the power of tea-I tried every type of tea I could get my hands on. Indian chai, Thai cha yen to Darjeeling and Oolong blends. I learned about certain powerful herbs that grow in the jungle or simply everywhere like Bai Bua Boke (gotu kola) and Tongkat Ali. I watched how a giant papaya leaf could be used as a cast on a foot injury and alternative techniques and mantras could have unintended consequences. Herbal medicine is absolutely fascinating.

Randomly:

8-How unneccessary a chair is. You can sit anywhere, the world is your chair. I’ve never spent more time eating, drinking, talking, listening, playing everything that we do can be done on the bare ground and tables as well are mere luxuries.

9-It’s the process of work, not the results that count. I learned to take breaks and deep breaths and work mindfully so that the entire work process can actually be enjoyable and unrushed. We are only as hurried as we believe we are. 

10-It doesn’t matter where you are or how far you travel, you will always feel and be the same. The real difference lies within. ~V

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an ode to the jungle

October 15, 2008 at 1:58 am (Thoughts)
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This morning I woke up and heard what sounded like Tibetan chanting, a beautiful sound that resonates in the chambers of your soul. It sent me into an instant deep meditation and even when I realized it was actually just the sounds of chain saws vibrating through the hills, I remained there some minutes relishing this connection, however slight, to the East. 

The thing that I miss the most about Thailand and SE Asia at the moment is the interminable jungles. In every landscape, even the vast rice paddies you can see the wide coconut palms, bamboo trees, ferns and tropical fruits creeping in; a ton of nameless medicinal plants ripe for rediscovery and worshipped for eons by local hill tribes and unnamed Shamanic peoples. I regret only admiring this wild mess of plants from afar, studying them only in the vast backyards of temples and when they encroached upon roads that I zoomed past riding on the back of motorbikes – the only way the locals travel.

I did take one beautiful walk to a waterfall and was swept away by the still chaos under the canopy of trees. It was like another world and just felt further away from any type of civilization than any forest I’d ever been in. The various streams underfoot were like universes of eternal contemplation, secrets to indestructibility.

Now I’m back in America and I must say it is still beautiful here, in the lush wine valleys of the pacific northwest where my family has a small farm cradled on the side of a hill. We’re surrounded by pine trees and some oaks and maples turning delicious colors of red and yellow fitting for any Christmas postcard and there’s an exciting chance of snow. But, it’s also freezing cold and since I’m not acclimatized to anything below the eternal hotness of Asia, it’s impossible for me to go anywhere without layers of coats and the discomfort of dry, cracking skin: Going out for a long walk in the woods is pretty much out of the question. In Thailand everyday is perfect temperature, even the rains only bring a brief welcoming change.

Three years ago I was planning a trip with a girl from Alaska to Central America. Well, I backed out at the last minute and she went ahead on the five month adventure through Guatemala, Peru and Ecuador solo. She never returned as far as I know. She was swept away by a handsome Ecuadorian tour guide and they were married and are still living together on the Galapagos Islands. Could I have had the same fate? Well, I guess I’ll never know. But, I did have a similar opportunity in Thailand. In the last five days I was there I decided to go to a little hippy town called Pai. Everyone had been saying from the moment I got to Thailand that I had to go to Pai. It was the place for me. So I made a brief excursion there and found out they were right. I relished every moment; from learning to drive a motorbike through the narrow hilly roads to riding an elephant through the river and then burning my fingers while giving a Thai herbal steam massage. Every moment was unforgettable and the town was visibly likened to a ’70’s Shangri La. I spent the evenings at a small bar outside of town that had live reggae music and barbecues every night. It was attended by the same few locals, one of them a Thai musician I’d hung out with in Bangkok. He was so thrilled to see me he dedicated a Bob Marley song to me onstage and begged me to stay in Pai. He said I could work at the bar along with a few European girls who’d also been swept away by the relaxed beauty of the place. The cosy bamboo bungalows where I would have lived were brand new and straddled a tiny stream which zipped down the nearby mountains. But alas, the realist in me said no. I had to get back and see my folks. I guess this is the reason I’ve always come home even after being in some very tempting paradisaical places. I just have to remember that paradise is every moment, no matter where we are. Maybe if I look hard enough at my computer’s lush Laos backdrop I will be transported here when I close my eyes.

 

 

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