On the road you meet lots of people, other travelers–
Some wandering, some drifting, others on destination, rarely on itinerary
Some are out to save the world– only to learn that the world is in no need of saving
Find yourself, lose yourself, eventually you realize those are the same things
Getting away from the ‘real world’ only to discover the real world
And a life free from regrets
The fires of your minds-eye rage forward,
fueled by streams of
the Sights most moving, of
the Sounds calming, of
the Tastes and wafting Scents delicious, and of
the Touches from lovers longing
All die as quickly and beautifully as they become
Look within, look without
Beyond these shores of strained eyes
The doors of perception swing to and fro
as swiftly as the breath that wisps from nose to lips
Ten days of silent meditation at Wat Suan Mokkh in southern Thailand; at the mercy of the mosquitoes and alone in your thoughts.
The monks give daily Damma talks on Anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing). They speak of dukkha (suffering), and the cessation of dukkha.
Most of the time you sit silently and meditate. Actually, everything is silent, there is no talking.
You sleep on a concrete slab with a straw mat and a wooden pillow. The monastery bell rings at 4am, you arise and walk to the meditation hall for sitting meditation.
Yoga, and then more meditation before 8am for a breakfast of rice soup.
And then chores, I swept one of the meditation halls. Afterwards the bell rings and back to sitting meditation, followed by walking meditation. Eventually lunch, the last meal of the day.
In the afternoon one of the monks gives a Damma talk. Afterwards walking meditation, and then sitting meditation. And then you either continue sitting or join in on chanting (in Pali)– chanting is a nice way to exercise your vocal chords and break up the silence.
Late afternoon there is tea and free time to sit in the hot springs. As the sun sets the bell rings and you walk to the meditation hall for (you guessed it) sitting meditation. Then group walking meditation, walking barefoot in the dark, mindfully so as not to step on any centipedes, scorpions or snakes. A candle-lit path around a pond, stars above.
In the silence the pace slows, day by day people are walking slower and slower, you move at the pace of life and the nature to which you are apart.
Your mind may race in the silence, all notions of self and ego fight to maintain their place in your mind, the monks tell you these are illusions– and anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) brings these illusions to your awareness.
Everyone seems to get something different from this experience. Confronting your self in the silence, you may or may not like what you find.
Dig deep enough and you find the illusion of self, that “I” and “my” are delusions.
There are many sides to who you think you are, many even conflict with each other, which one is the real you?
Question your possessions, relationships, memories, personality, body, and even the mind itself — all of these things change (dramatically) during the course of a single human life; which one is the real you? Or are you the very process that witnesses the continuous change of life? If you peel off the layers one-by-one there’s little left.
I thought, perhaps there’s a self in each moment, dying and reborn continuously as we experience life. Question even this, and peel this off as yet another delusional layer of ego– eventually there is no more ego (”I” or “my”) to question.
Ego-less existence feels like a dream when you know you are dreaming. Content, beautiful, blissful freedom.
Free from craving
Free from suffering
Free to crave
Free to suffer.
… and the decaying remnants of a European colonial world-view.
I have a lot of incoherent and often contradictory thoughts on the topic of immigration, visas, and passport control.
I’m hoping that one day I’ll land a clear and concise view on the topic.
In the meantime, I’m finding it harder and harder to understand the reason for the continuation of visas and passport control.
First, a simple perspective. Communication and access to information happens at the speed of light. Goods and services are available to international audiences. You can pick up a phone and talk to your friend on the other side of the earth.
It is right in front of your face, we are one people sharing the same earth.
And yet, if one person wants to physically go to the other side of the earth to continue a conversation started via phone or Internet, they will hit a border of passport control and immigration, a centuries old concept better suited for feudal kingdoms than our modern world.
By sheer luck of where you were born, this one variable will determine where you can travel and where you can do business in-person.
Restricting the physical presence of certain individual based not on merit but right of birth, is plainly stupid.
Most of our current political borders are the direct remnants of centuries old European colonial borders– this is even more stupid.
In a sense, where you can travel or work in this modern age is directly determined by where you were born according to mostly arbitrary lines drawn by crusty old white guys 200-600 years ago. I apologize for being dismissive of important historical events and the many natural cultural borders, but we are enforcing centuries old policies in a world where they clearly no longer apply.
Being forced against your will to stay in the area of your birth, is ostensibly unethical. And yet this happens every day with varying degrees of restrictions — and the type of restrictions, ranging from absolute to silly paperwork, are also based on where you happen to be born.
I understand there are practical realities of why things are the way they are– and yet, I can’t help but to think this is a non-sustainable practice that in our lifetimes will be reduced to lame bureaucracy and then further reduced to nothing.
Corporations are quick to exploit human labor and slowly erode this outdated notion– hiring migrant workers from less wealthy countries is hardly a new concept. But I have to ask, why is this acceptable while freely traveling is not?
I suspect our future world-view will look back on passport control and visas with the same kind of embarrassed disdain that we currently reserve for imperialistic colonialism or manifest destiny.
I imagine a day where all humans are free to travel and free to work where they have the will and the want. Where people can move as freely as ideas– and human rights and dignity apply to all humans, regardless of where you happen to be born.
At first I thought, that’s clever, my hosts keep cereals and other foods in hermetic jars.
A day later I have decided it is genius!
I am used to cereal packaging that is bright, colorful and designed to be exciting– as if to jump out of the shelf and into your hands. Your shelf starts to look like a rainbow exploded in a toy chest and less like human consumable food. The aesthetics of an average pantry are horrendous to say the least.
I found it wonderfully serene to pour a bowl of cereal from a transparent jar– I could see the food that I was about to eat. There were no distractions. Eating cereal became a calm experience.
My lesson for the day: Storing food in an air-tight jar is both practically advantageous and it restores the aesthetic to your pantry.
You are unable to submit
to the life other would have you live
It brings neither joy nor completion
Rebel and face the world
on your own terms
It is overwhelming happiness
A joy in every breath
It’s hard to describe the sense of freedom achieved by traveling the world with no plans of return. Your perspective shifts dramatically. Cultural differences dissipate and your senses are overwhelmed with a beautiful, open, and accepting world.
Life is Perfect
I believe the world we perceive is an illusion we construct to aid our survival. We see the world as we want to see it, and the reality that we live is only the perceptual illusion that we create.
The truth, if there is a such a thing, is that everything is and must be perfect. Everything is perfect exactly as it is at every moment that it exists. This means the world around you is perfect, every bit of it necessary for this existence. Life is continuously dying and continuously reborn, all perfect exactly as it is…
If there is a heaven, it is right in front of you; and if there is a hell, it is your blindness to this perfect existence. Your laughs, cries, sorrows, joys, all of it perfect. The perceptions are yours to control, you can see the world in any way you choose. And this life, your life, is perfect in every way.
Life is Fundamentally Simple
I believe that being happy is a choice. Anything you want can be achieved merely by focusing your awareness.
A wonderful trait of being human, we shape our world through our every want, it is as natural as breathing. We are the shapers of our world. I believe our brains are more limited than we imagine and yet more powerful than we often realize.
I also believe that everything negative has a positive opposite. Your perception of what is negative is a wonderful gift to guide your life. Focus on the positive opposite of every negative thought, life is as simple as that…
You are what you want
Who are you? Who am I? Who are we?
Your wants are the answer, your life and your existence are affirmed through the acceptance of you wants. If you want to know yourself, follow your heart, follow your bliss, and understand that doing the things you enjoy are the very definition of who you are… All the answers are already known to you, be quiet and listen!
I’m staying in central Manila. Near Abad Santos LRT. I’ve walked around the neighborhood at various times during the day and night. The tricycle drivers all know me, and they know where to take me when I don’t feel like walking from the LRT station to the guesthouse. They’ve also been great with directions when I want to walk around by myself.
I’ve walked to the local mall which is a couple kilometers away. Next to the train tracks is a sort of shanty-market where you can buy food and furniture. Kids are playing. People are noticeably happy. I’m asked to play a quick game of basketball (I assume because of my height). There are live roosters tethered near shacks.
I smile. People smile back. People are curious, they ask my name, where I am from, and if I’m enjoying my stay (I am, very much). Most of the children near the guesthouse know me and usually wave and ask where I am walking to, occasionally they walk with me for a block or so (before getting bored and running off to something more interesting).
Many people have echoed concerns that the neighborhood I am staying is not safe, and I definitely shouldn’t walk around alone. At least two of my friends have messaged me to get out immediately, as if I am in a war-zone. All of these are people I trust, and most of them live in Manila.
Nothing I have seen would lead me to think this area is unsafe.
Makati and Malate have been the names most recommended of where I should stay.
I went to Malate, and I also went to Makati. The mall in Malate, compared to the surrounding neighborhood, is extravagant. Same could be said of the Makati greenbelt. There is no middle income area; grinding poverty, hawkers, and prostitution outside, and upper-middle class yuppie luxury on the inside.
I smile. Few smile back. Many offer dirty glances and judgmental stares.
In these “tourist friendly” neighborhoods many cabs have refused to take me to where I am staying. Normally, I ride the MRT and LRT, but the trains close early during the week so even a late dinner means you’re taking a taxi home.
“It’s a dangerous neighborhood, I don’t drive there at night.” said one driver.
“that’s not true, it’s quite safe” I replied with a reassuring smile
“I know this area, I only drive in this area” he said. “let’s find you a girl, I know a place nearby”
I had one driver who claimed he didn’t know where my place was, and then claimed not to know where the LRT is when I mentioned that I am near a station. I’d say maybe one-in-five taxis are brave enough to make the journey late at night.
Normally, I am not one to criticize cultures I am foreign to, but I feel this is less a cultural issue and instead a shared-humanity issue.
In the high-class neighborhood, if I talk to a girl, many will assume she must be a prostitute and that I am sex tourist. Hawkers offer me girls, and some hostels (in an offensive way of preventing sex tourism) refuse entry if I am not with my wife (I don’t have a wife).
Manila, the best of who you are is found in the streets you most scorn. Manila is a place to love. And it is because of those “unsafe” neighborhoods that I love it — where I am treated as a human being by other human beings, and our shared curiosity brings out the best in both of us.
Manila, rather than warn travelers to stay away from those neighborhoods, perhaps you should visit them yourself, and be reminded of the hospitality and kindness of the human spirit (and not the kindness enforced through armed guards).
Drowning, drowning, drowning forward. This place was not easy to find, and yet it was here the whole time. We let go. Who we were cannot enter, and we drown. Awake anew. See the other side; familiar and yet unlike anything we have ever seen.
We have only to let go. Completely let go.
Simplify, simplify, simplify…
Less is more, and this is everything I own. I went from a 55L duffel to a sturdy wheeled backpack and a simple laptop backpack that carries my laptop, wacom, camera, kindle, water purifier, sandals, and various other necessities.
I’d be interested in an even simpler approach, if possible to ditch the clothes and toiletries and always acquire new ones as I travel. At a certain pace I think this could be sustainable.
