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
