Photo: Aeturnum

Goodbyes have always made me want to bolt out of the moment.

I’m horrible at them, feeling as if I should be feeling more than I am. Or that I should be saying something meaningful. Or at least wishing I didn’t want to hop in my car and speed away.

Of course later, I’m left with the grief of the goodbye, the pain of the ending, the overwhelming desire to get back to that moment and roll around in all of its glorious agony.

The rain falls steadily outside, and I tear up as I write, not knowing if a goodbye I just experienced moments ago is a temporary one, or one that may be more permanent. It is partially the unknown that haunts me, the fear of beauty and goodness disappearing from my life.

Goodbyes are rarely easy for any of us. So it came as no surprise that the BNT piece, 5 Golden Rules For Saying Goodbye On The Road, struck a cord with many of you since connecting with people on our trips is inevitable, and so is bidding them farewell. As author Natalie Grant noted:

The dreaded farewell is the one inevitable remainder at the end of your travel equation. Alas, such is the bittersweet lifestyle of those who are constantly in motion.

The trip of life is really no different – if you are open to incredible new people coming into your life, even when you aren’t physically in motion, you sometimes have to grapple with when and how to let them go. Sometimes I think – no, I know – there is a better way to say goodbye than my approach. Mary Jaksch in her article, Why Mindful Goodbyes Lead to a Life without Regrets, reminded me that intention goes a long way:

Antiquated goodbye formulations, such as ‘fare-well’, or the even older, ‘fare thee well’ reveal that at the heart, goodbyes are blessings. We bless the other person’s going and coming, wishing that they may be well while away…In order to make our goodbyes a blessing, all we have to do is to pay attention to the moment and create an intention of goodwill in our heart.

My mind making a bee-line for the metaphorical open road disregards this blessing, which also diminishes the possibility of closure. So my thoughts return later to that moment, thirsty for the promise of peace I didn’t allow to enter. Jaksch recommends, “When you hug stay close to the one you love for at least one complete in- and out-breath,” which pays “tender regard” to the other person.

Of course different cultures express hellos and goodbyes in their own form, but the key is to feel that heart and breath connection as you share an embrace.

The truth is, none of us ever know when we may be saying our last goodbye to a loved one. Some are obvious, such as parting at a train station to take off in different directions, while others come as a shock when an accident occurs, a surprise move transpires, or an untimely death happens.

My goodbye today included the blessing of a few tears shed in the moment. I guess I’m on my way.

How do you make your goodbyes meaningful? Share your thoughts below.

Aung San Suu Kyi

The political, social and economic tragedy that exists in present day Burma is a permanent stain on humanity.

In the words of U Tin U, Deputy Leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), “Burma is a prison within a prison.” The thoughts, movements and actions of 50 million civilians are under constant surveillance by a government obsessed with maintaining control. Yet the thoughts and words of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi provide a beacon of hope that a democratic and unified Burma will someday prevail.

Author Alan Clements travelled to Rangoon in December 1995 to meet secretly with Daw Suu Kyi and recorded a series of dialogues with the leader of the NLD. Clements’ involvement with Burma goes back 30 years. This became the book Aung San Suu Kyi: The Voice of Hope.

He is the first American to be ordained a Buddhist monk, and like every foreign journalist entering Burma, he has also encountered the wrath of the military junta by being deported.

The Voice Of Hope

Between his extensive knowledge of the domestic situation, and Daw Suu Kyi’s wisdom and elegance in answering every question put before her, readers will understand just how Buddhism is closely connected with politics in Burma, and why the concepts of faith and metta (loving kindness) are among the building blocks of any genuine democracy.

The Voice of Hope

Each chapter is named after a sentence that typifies the beliefs, sacrifice and struggle that best summarise key points in Daw Suu Kyi’s existence.

It also demonstrates the enormous love that she shares for every person who has risked their life to hear speeches delivered from her compound. She also speaks repeatedly of compassion towards members of the SPDC and declares that they too can show love for the people of Burma.

This may surprise readers, but perfectly encompasses everything she stands for. One cannot help but show admiration for any individual willing to risk their life to hear a political icon outline the real situation in Burma, and be prepared to listen to how and why civilians are suffering.

In the process of unravelling Daw Suu Kyi’s deepest thoughts, Clements uncovers a defiant individual that will not be intimidated by weaponry in the hands of authority, while uncovering the keys to life; love for humanity, education and an open heart.

Daw Suu Kyi speaks modestly and candidly in describing her upbringing, the role of her parents in shaping her values, her frenetic daily routine while under house arrest, life abroad and eventual homecoming to Burma, and unrelenting commitment to non-violence.

The appeal of the dialogue is that Daw Suu Kyi’s answers to some of Clements’ lengthy questions and points are presented plainly and with fervour as if addressing a crowd of tens of thousands of her supporters. There is no place for political spin within these pages, which enhances the readability.

One theme that resonates through the entire book is the tenacity of the people of Burma and their ability to adopt a sense of humour in spite of the horrific conditions that they face. It takes a special human being to constantly laugh throughout years of suffering.

Clements has clearly done his background research to prompt thought-provoking answers from Daw Suu Kyi and in doing so, delivers possibly the greatest insight into the world’s most famous female political icon.

Use Your Liberty

Author Alan Clements

It is impossible to have conceived the danger facing Clements and Daw Suu Kyi, making the discussions and writing of this publication all the more plausible.

Throughout the course of the book, the reader becomes acutely aware of the volatile situation that Burma has faced in recent decades, a scenario sadly prevalent to this day. The facts itself relating to Burma’s political, social and economic demise are not new, but Clements aims to provide shock therapy and reveal to the world the extent and frequency of abuse.

He succeeds in piercing the heart and soul deeply enough and warn us that if we do not regard Burma as our highest priority, then it is not just the people that face the harshest consequences of tyranny. As a society, we will all carry the burden of watching humans slowly die without directly intervening.

Aung San Suu Kyi: The Voice Of Hope reminds us all that the forgotten people of Burma are not just the dead who have been forced to onto their knees for so much of their lives, but the living voiceless.

Alan Clements has presented us a manual for life that crudely tells the developed and most powerful leaders on the planet to stop waiting idly by for a miracle to occur without hard work. This book is the catapult that will launch individuals into taking immediate action.

The message here is loud and clear; use your rights and privileges to help the long-suffering civilians of Burma gain their freedom.

Photo: Digiart2001 | jason.kuffer

Breaking out of the regular routine, sipping cocktails on a beach, hiking mountains in far-off lands – most of us tend to equate vacation getaways with happiness.

But according to a recent study in the Applied Research in Quality of Life, it’s the vacation planning that makes us happiest, and not the actual vacation itself.

The happiness boost not only occurs when clicking away on different travel sites or thumbing through Lonely Planets, and plotting your adventure. These researchers from the Netherlands (aren’t people generally happier there anyway?) found that the act of mapping out that time off increased happiness for up to eight weeks – two whole months – ahead of the trip. That’s certainly a lot longer than most vacations I know about.

Guess it makes sense in a way. In reality, vacation or travel tends to be more stressful than we anticipate, what with the little annoyances like lost luggage and improperly booked hotel rooms. Or the bigger ones like dropping your camera off a mountain cliff in Tasmania (check) and forking over $1000 for a last-minute flight to London from Zambia when you thought you were going to Niger for about $100 (check check).

Then as soon as the vacation is over, most of us have to get back to work, which immediately negates any possible happiness we did derive on that Carnival cruise…I mean, eco-friendly work-trip in Honduras.

Relaxing Or Barf-Worthy?

After reading this article in the New York Times, pointed out to us by Milos Trylon, I thought back to some of the trips I’ve taken in my life that were supposed to be “relaxing” – i.e. sitting on a beach, sipping daiquiris, checking out oiled-up men.

Ok, I’ve never really been on a trip like that, but I did participate in the requisite Spring Breaks in the Bahamas and Cancun in college, attended a wedding in Hawaii, even – sigh – jumped on one of those cruises.

I must admit, I’ve never had the kind of fun on these trips that it seemed I was supposed to have. For these types of vacations, which are ones I think the general public tends to fantasize about, it becomes a competition to drink and eat the most for your money. “Oh, alcohol’s included? Just go ahead and bring me four pina coladas now!” “All day buffet on deck 4? Sweet, it’s been over 45 minutes since we last ate, let’s go grab a nibble!” Ugh, that’s not relaxation, that’s food/alcohol-coma-nightmare.

Even if the vacation is less inclined toward booze and more inclined toward say, nature, hiking, and sightseeing, we often pack as much as possible into 7-days roundtrip. This leaves us so exhausted that first Monday back at work, we end up complaining about needing a vacation after our vacation.

The Power of Suggestion

Photo: Scott Ableman

Beyond whether or not vacations end up actually being as fun as we think they will be, it’s interesting to think about the mindset of travel and time-off.

We crave time away so much when feeling over-stressed at work, and researching different packages and options gives our bottomed-out adrenaline a little jolt.

Yet, since it turns out the actual vacation isn’t giving us the happiness we think it will, maybe giving our brains some time off could have the same affect?

Reality is what we see, think, and believe. Our thoughts are what bring us happiness, and the anticipation of something good gets those endorphins going. Can we use this knowledge in order to build in more daily escapes to look forward to, even if that’s just walking through a different neighborhood in our town, or taking ten minutes for the ultimate mind-trip meditation?

This is not to say that I think travel, taking time off, and even island-hopping college vacations aren’t valid. The point of travel is not only to achieve a high return on happiness – it’s also to learn about ourselves, other cultures, and even to be challenged to grow via those pesky annoyances.

And I think there is a distinction between the mindset of those who travel for longer periods of time vs. those who are taking a short vacation, due to the fact that long-term travelers usually know they’re in for some rough patches. That’s almost a part of the purpose.

Still, when we can’t get away, whether that comes from a lack of funds, time, or dealing with life issues, it’s good to be reminded that mindset is the name of the game. We have the power to get away in the here and now.

Which just prompted me to head out the door to a personally-uncharted little town nearby to get the rest of my work done today.

Do you derive more happiness from vacation-planning or the trip itself? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: Eddi 07

File this one under ‘not quite sure of the implications.’

A recent study set out to determine the “religiousity” in patients with brain cancer before and after the removal of tumors. Turns out damage to one part of the brain, both from the tumor itself and the removal of it, is likely to make you more, you guessed it, God-lovin’.

Actually it goes beyond God and includes the Universe, or connectedness to others, so this finding isn’t just for Christians. But the “holy hole” is in a very-specific area of the brain – the posterior parietal cortex. That means if a person has a tumor in the frontal cortex, or front-part, of the brain, they’re more than likely feeling a bit less universally-connected.

Normally, the posterior parietal cortex is linked to maintaining one’s “sense of self,” and so it is interesting to find it might also have to do with understanding there is something greater than the self.

The outcome of the 88 brain-cancer patients who took part in the study found that those who had tumors removed from the posterior had even more feelings of self-transcendence than before surgery, while the patients with tumors at the front had no change in spiritual belief after surgery.

What does this mean for those without brain tumors? Well, as blogger Ryan Sager puts it:

What this would appear to show is that feelings of self-transcendence, and thus possibly religiosity, can be changed by alterations to neuroanatomy — in this case, first from a tumor, and then from the inevitable damage incurred by removal of a tumor.

Possible Outcomes

As an old professor of mine who posted this article noted, this could point to particular religious practices such as kundalini yoga – where an energy force “snakes” its way up the body and out the top of the head – might have the ability to shift neurons in the brain. Many other spiritual systems focus on energy coming in and out of this same area of the skull, and therefore practicing them may tangibly make people more religious.

What are the negative implications possible? Well, let’s see. Possibly backing up those people who believe that a higher power is simply a survival mechanism that our brains created? Or the more a brain is healthy and fully-developed (and not missing a part), the less likely a person is to believe in God/the Universe? Even better, as Sager points out, the possibility of a quick surgery to “cure” believers, or non-believers, depending on what those in charge desire at the time?

Of course, some could say that from an evolutionary standpoint, developing a tumor and then having it removed in fact develops the brain further – new cells and information are allowed to flood into that open space of the brain that computes self-awareness. Naturally, the same outcome might be true by developing your spiritual muscles.

What do you think of the implications of this study? Share your thoughts below.

All photos courtesy Christina Rivera.

At age 22, I was doing a lot of “grown-up” things; putting in 60-hour work weeks, making timely payments on my student loans, securing health insurance benefits, upholding loyal and loving relationships with friends, family and a partner, managing a stock portfolio where I was investing substantial savings, filing my taxes, early, without the help of parents or accountants, and managing the overall and on-time upkeep of a healthy household, body and life.

But there were more question marks than periods in my life; not multiple-choice questions, but opened-ended statements reduced to the common denominator of:

I am…

It was a relentless self-inquiry; the blank drawing longer and the question only spinning more furiously with each book I pulled off the metaphysics shelf.

Finally I put the books down. Put everything down. Realizing that I would find none of my answers in their conclusions and that these were chapters only I could write.

My parents cringed as I put their interpretation of “growing up” on hold: deferring my student loans, quitting my job, losing my insurances, saying open-ended goodbyes to all those with whom I’d formed attachments, and liquefying all my assets and savings into one chunk of an easy-access cash account.

What was left fit easily into my backpack.

The Journey Begins

Photo by Seeking Sol.

As the reader might, I too thought I knew where this was going: six months, a year at the most, following my every whim and fancy, at the end of which I would have found the answer to my question.

Yes.

Yes, there were many wooden docks off of lakes and leading into oceans, on which I sat beneath midnight skies and pondered a philosophy that paralleled the blanket of night to my surface experiences, through which only my most minuscule of life understandings had yet penetrated the depths of my unknowns as stars.

No.

No, a year of pondering the darkness was not enough. It’s taken me many years to come to peace with, and self respect, the fact that I am a slow learner. And I may have left my grown-up tasks behind, but I did not leave my sense of responsibility for being thorough.

Had I been quicker, perhaps my quest could have been confined to a year or less, but as that was not my nature, my earthbound pilgrimage found itself extending, re-tracing, doubling over, making multiple evolutions around the earth, past a cumulative total of seven years.

Destinations

Community Connection to India

Tentative Conclusions

I did, however, find and scribble into pages upon pages of my journal, possible conclusions to that open-ended sentence with which I had set forth.

In Latin America – in Guatemala, Spain, Colombia, Honduras, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Brazil and Peru – countries and cultures I admire for their heart and heat for passions of the human spirit and connection to pacha mama, or Mother Earth, I felt confidence and pride in my completion of that sentence with:

Seeker. Woman. Dancer. American. Student. Scuba diver. Volunteer. Lover. Writer. Human. Spiritualist. Photographer. Pilgrim. Dreamer. Foreigner. Alchemist. Explorer. Magician.

Yet then I carried that same journal to South Asia – to India, Nepal, Tibet and India (again and again) – countries and cultures whose affinity for cyclical existence and non-attachment, to a merely earthly existence brought enormous peace in their rational arguments for something I had always intuitively suspected, but could not lineate into logical sense.

And thus I returned to my question, reviewed all that I had contrived to fit under my umbrella of ego, and erased it. And with a huge sigh of relief, I drafted a new conclusion to that sentence:

Nothing. Emptiness. Silence. Service to others. One life of many. One cell of a much greater organism.

Growing Up

Photo by Seeking Sol.

One tiny drop of evolution’s sweat.

One miniscule being with the same opportunities, as any other, of taking delight in the chances of witnessing moments of beauty and light, afforded us each, in a mysterious blessing of life.

While these conclusions matured me, I still didn’t feel “grown-up.” Quite the contrary; I felt smaller than ever! But I was content enough with my vague answers to begin the search for my life vocation.

“Vocation,” not so much as it is defined as an occupation or profession, but as the term was refined by Frederick Buechner as:

The place where your great gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

Of course, my intentions at the time were hardly so eloquently realized, and I believe it was only by divinely-orchestrated chance that I stumbled right upon exactly such a thing: Experiential Education

For those new, as I was, to the term, it means structuring education so as to engage the learner into taking the initiative in the investigation, experimentation, digestion and reflection of direct experiences with the aim of learning natural consequences, mistakes and successes with ownership and authenticity.

Logistically, this meant that my new job was taking small groups of teenagers for three-month learning adventures in the developing world: Fiji, Guatemala, Nepal and India.

It was one day, on exactly one of these assignments that something shifted.

The Arrival

We had just arrived, after 27-hours in transit, at the airport in New Delhi, and the disheveled looks of my student group accurately reflected the distance traveled around the world:

A girl, who had inadvertently fasted from food for two days in anxiousness, was still white from fainting in the aisle of the plane on the way to the toilet. A boy, slurring run-on sentences in residue of the miscalculation of the timing of sleeping medications prescribed to him for the plane.

Photo by Seeking Sol.

Still another student with a stack of vomit bags tucked under her arm, of which she’d already used two. The quivering, perspiring, group of overstuffed backpacks, like a line of awkward ducklings, followed my step, too closely and without any awareness outside of the feet in front of them, through the airport.

As we filed through the air-conditioned and last reservoir of the First-World familiarity of the international airport, past the heavily armed guards, and out the double doors of the airport’s first line of security, the group was smacked simultaneously with the full force of India’s chocking humidity, shouting taxi driver mob, and dizzyingly dark swarms of mosquitoes.

With a soft and straight pace, I led the group through the crowd and to a clearing in the parking lot. There I directed them each to drop their heavy bags and cinch the circle in until it was safely airtight of the foreign chaos around us.

Intentionally modeling a moment of unhurried presence, I slowly made my eye-contact way around the circle, riding the highs and lows of their roller coaster of emotions:

Shock. Elation. Curiosity. Fear. Excitement. Regret. Trepidation. Courage. Confidence. Illness. Disbelief. Awe.

No Longer About The Answers

And it was at this moment that I, for the first time, realized that I was elated by their excitement, aghast in their shock, knew their fear intimately, and admired their courage – more than my own. I also saw their questions; many variations of the same open-ended one that had morphed into so many continental directions for me.

But it was no longer about the answers; theirs or mine. I only saw in each student a unique path that was just as in need of mentorship, as it was well-timed moments of silence.

And something shifted.

It was no longer about my search for meaning and identity. My joy in life and the world’s need met.

I felt I had suddenly stumbled upon a very important clue as to why human beings procreate: for exactly this reality-shifting realization – (and enormous relief!) – that it is simply no longer about me.

Somewhere along that rollercoaster of faces and emotions, I had traversed to the other side and got off my own life’s ride – as much of an adult as I think I’ll ever grow up to be.

And the, “I am…” trailed from a heavy sigh off into silence:

Content. Simply. In empathetic open-endedness.

In December 2009, I had the pleasure of visiting the Big Island of Hawaii. I had come to learn about Taoism, and how to apply the concept of “flow,” the concept of releasing overt control for a more subtle variety.

As editor of BNT, I was also curious how the philosophy of Taoism can be applied to the journey itself. And so one afternoon near the end of my week trip, I sat down with Casey under the shade of the palm trees, and shot this interview. Enjoy!

Visit Casey’s website Personal Tao.

What do you think of Taoism and travel? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo: Eddi 07

When we’re traveling, our dreams go into overdrive, trying to keep up with all the new experiences. Maybe it’s the fact that we don’t know the language, or that sleeping under a rock shelter in the desert isn’t all we thought it would be. In many cases, culture shock is behind this powerful dream generator.

These dreams come to us thanks to the heightened social anxiety and poor sleeping conditions that are part of the adventure of seeing the world. I have also found in my travels that culture shock activates lucid dreaming.

What is lucid dreaming? It’s those fleeting moments in a dream when you know you’re in the middle of an imaginary world. It’s the realization that the cosmos as you know it is an illusion, and that anything is possible.

Although lucid dreaming has been popularized as dream control, it’s actually a state of mind cultivated for thousands of years by Eastern mystics such as Tibetan Buddhists, Indian Yogis, and Islamic Sufis. In a lucid dream, you can make choices, investigate what you wish, and be more open than in waking life to new experiences.

Lucid Dreaming Triggers

Photo: mark sebastian

Lucid dreaming happens spontaneously when the conditions are right. Conditions are often “right” in loud hostels and on sandy beaches.

Disturbed sleep, jet lag, language barriers, and social nervousness activate the parts of the brain that are involved in becoming self-aware in our dreams.

If you reinforce these with a strong intention to become aware in your dream – such as by journaling before bed – you may find yourself awake and aware in your sleep that night.

Also, taking a nap after a sleepless night or an evening of drinking margaritas increases the odds of a lucid dream. The brain is starved for dreaming sleep, and will often slip straight into a dream immediately after you lie down. One minute, you’re closing your eyes, and the next, you’re flying over the Amazon river.

Spirit Visitations and Sleep Paralysis

Culture shock-induced lucid dreaming can get spooky too. Another side effect of jet lag, sleep deprivation, mixed with heightened social anxiety, promotes sleep paralysis, a kind of lucid dream where you the body feels paralyzed as you begin to fall asleep.

Sometimes, this is accompanied by hallucinations that we project onto our sleeping space. The most common vision is of an intruder in the room, and in some cases, a scary cloaked creature or “demon” who sits on our chest. This is the incubus, a malady recognized as early as Aristotle’s time, and interpreted in the Middle Ages as witchcraft.

Photo: Torley

Many cultures have folklore and ghost stories about sleep paralysis hallucinations, especially the indigenous cultures in the Pacific Rim, including Indonesia, Alaska, the Pacific Northwest of the US, as well as Central and South America.

In some of these cultures, the intruder can be an ancestral spirit; in others, it is interpreted as the work of black magic or a rival shaman.

If you are traveling in these regions that have folklore, such as Malay, Cambodia, or Peru, sleep paralysis encounters may take the form of the culture you are visiting. For example, in Hawaii, sleep paralysis is believed to be caused by supernatural “night marchers.”

Despite what Western science tells us, these experiences can make us question the role of dreams in connecting us to reality. The movie Avatar explores this theme as well, in between the 3D explosions and smurf love. Director James Cameron based the “tree of life” ceremony loosely on Indonesian shamanism, an area well known for its powerful dreamers and healers.

Awareness of the possibilities in lucid dreaming while traveling can enhance any trip. You may want to explore ancient ruins in your mind, combat homesickness by reconnecting with your family during a nap, or practice your language skills within the safety of the dream.

There’s also the possibility of tapping into those local visions that represent the underworld of the landscape you are visiting.

Respecting the Culture of Dreams

Just like in waking life, you want to be respectful of the dream entities that approach you, give rather than take, and have sincere gratitude for their hospitality. Lucid dreaming is a gift of culture shock, and it can help with integrating your experiences.

If nothing else, sharing your weird dreams will give you something to talk about at the hostel in the mornings, and help break traveler’s isolation.

Have you experienced lucid dreaming while traveling? Share your experiences below.

Community Connection

Wondering how to craft a dream journal? Then check out Joshua Johnson’s guide to Keeping a Dream Journal. Don’t forget to tune into those “awake” dreams, especially What Was Your Childhood Travel Dream?

Photo: maureen sill

Preparing for my trip to South Africa was a blur of warnings, an avalanche of don’ts and watch-outs.

Once there, however, my dear friend Jess (born and raised in South Africa) explained the real meaning of the oft used phrase “This is Africa” (TIA) over two cool glasses of Savannah Dry. Essentially, that things here rarely work out like you expect them.

As we rambled about the differences in legality in our respective continents, she shook her head with regret and added: “The world’s gone soft.”

As many of us are undoubtedly aware, savvy traveling is a fickle see-saw; on one side, confidence can become arrogance, and on the other, caution can become paranoia. The former will get you into trouble, and the latter will deny you the best experiences.

The trick is to decide for ourselves how adventurous we’re willing to be, and, consequently, how much of the world we’re willing to experience.

Yet the mishmash of advice and horror stories with which the media inundates us makes it almost impossible to decide objectively. These occasionally useful hand-me-down prejudices are why people so confidently, and so foolishly, insist on branding country X as ’safe’ and country Y as ‘unsafe.’

Definition Of Dangerous

The area where Jess grew up is filled with more tragedy in one week than could fit in my local paper back home. It makes me ask: what defines a dangerous country? And how can we avoid letting fear paralyze us?

Worried parents say, “Go with a buddy.” Doctors say, “Get vaccinated.” But your backpack says, “What are we waiting for?”

This is why someone who has camped out in Burma might still fear walking alone at night in Brooklyn, or why someone can improvise à la 007 when his car breaks down in Egypt but can’t change a tire in Montana. This is why so many of us crave those hard-knock travel lessons like junkies: because that kind of traveling very easily shreds the definition of ‘dangerous’ into tiny pieces of arbitrary, amusing confetti.

As I silently observe the strength of people here in Africa, something irrationally pops in my head – a law midterm I wrote in college about the elderly woman who sued McDonald’s because she was burned by their coffee. Jess is right. The world – part of it anyway – has grown much, much too soft.

I see the electric fences around everyone’s farms, the orphaned Zulu children looking for work, the wrecks on the highways… but I also see how vibrant and breathtaking the country is, and how everything – the volume, the emotion – is seemingly turned up.

I can’t help but wonder if I myself have grown soft along with the world, and if it’s possible to de-soften – to scrub away the sterilization until the resolve, the spirit, and the dirt under my fingernails to reflect those of the people who embody the hardness I so admire.

The World In Common

Sometimes there does seem to be an overabundance of crime and suffering in the world. The fact is, people act desperately when faced with desperate situations. And it’s difficult to comprehend the mentality of extremism without seeing extreme conditions with our own eyes.

Photo: maureen sill

Perhaps this is why we tend to label countries ‘unsafe’ – out of misunderstanding.

A developed-world upbringing can obscure one’s perception of suffering. For example, war that is so horrific and arbitrary from the front lines can seem, from our safe classrooms, simply necessary in the course of history – both as a mother of invention and as a primal standard for survival.

And yet the same human problems – like hunger or heartbreak – exist regardless of what side of the picket fence you call home. The difference is that we can usually find a way to distract ourselves from those problems, while the overwhelming majority of people in the world have their eyes peeled back Clockwork-Orange style.

Whether it’s poverty or consumerism that we battle, whether it’s governmental corruption or political apathy that undermines us… when the shiitake hits the fanfaronade, the world does have more in common than one might think.

Getting Ready To Live

A country is only ‘dangerous’ if you choose to define it as such. Without labels, all places on this earth have their upsides and downsides, have certain elements of risk that can be foreseen and unforeseen.

This is not to say one should charge merrily into Somalia and start teaching soldiers to line dance. Savvy traveling is all about the tentative and skilled balance between confidence and caution.

If we travelers can embrace our adventurous attitudes boldly and responsibly, we can help to alleviate those media-charged fears just by understanding them. This is not mere danger tourism, but a realization that life is continually chaotic.

There’s an old Chinese proverb: People in the West are always getting ready to live.

How many of us would, if we could, trade our Purell and SPF 70 for some wicked scars and stories? Think of your best travel stories; I bet they involve a mishap, a scare, or some averted danger that is your new party trick.

Every one of those surreal travel moments is another millimeter your comfort zone gets stretched. And though some of our loved ones will still worry when we travel to a ‘dangerous’ destination, we travelers know that the only real danger is pretending we are ever in control.

Perhaps this mentality could be captured in a new phrase: T.I.L. – This Is Life.

What do you think about the definition of dangerous travel? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo: h.koppdelaney

There is a bit of sadness inside me today. This sadness is not so much for myself, but rather comes from reminders of the pain that is felt by so many the world over, again and again in their life.

It began yesterday during a conversation I was having about addiction. The reality that so many people carry the pain of addiction – whether that means “stronger” addictions like drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, or “lesser” addictions like food, work, the computer, the television – with them for most of their years can leave one feeling deflated at best, hopeless at worst.

Continuing into this morning, I was a bit torn apart by an op-ed piece in the New York Times entitled, The World Capital of Killing. Nicholas Kristof drives home the point that the continued genocide in the Congo may have already surpassed the numbers who died in the Holocaust, and yet the world still sits by and allows the murdering to continue.

The part that triggered tears was Kristof’s recounting of the continuous gang rape of a 14-year-old girl by the Hutu militia, which included sticks that tore apart her insides and left her “dribbling wastes constantly.” At 19, she has been “fixed” internally by Dr. Mukwege at the Panzi Hospital through many operations on two separate occassions, only to be raped, and ripped open, once again upon returning to her village.

Painful Lessons

How can we make any sense of this type of pain? It’s hard to see that there could be any lessons to these types of tragedies. I’m beginning to wonder if “learning a lesson” is the point. Maybe the “answer” lays more in learning what to do with that pain.

Photographer Dave LaBelle gave a presentation at the Pictures with Purpose workshop about his documentation of homeless people in Skid Row, Los Angeles. In it, he discusses how putting a face to the homeless and drug addicts brought some very significant changes to the area:

Chapter 1: Dave LaBelle | Connecting the Eye and the Heart from Francis Gardler on Vimeo.

The point that LaBelle exemplifies is that “now we know them, now we are involved.” This is the outcome with both people and place when we travel, this is what feeds us when we sit down together over a pint at a pub, this is what moves us when we watch a short video or read a piece about the suffering of others.

What can we do with that pain? We can try to hide it, which many of us do (for a while at least, and often unsuccessfully). Or, we can seek to shine a light upon it, to bring it to the surface. As scary as this sounds, it gives us a chance to free it, connect with others who have similar painful experiences, and hopefully transform sorrow into creative energy that can help others.

Continued thanks to all of you who go out into the world and share your story, or bring back with you the stories of others.

Have you used a painful experience to help another person? Share your thoughts below.

Community Connection

As Dave LaBelle shows us, a great way to share people’s stories is through photography. Get your free download of 15 Publications That Pay For Travel Photography, and be on the look-out for Matador’s travel photography course, coming this year.

Photo: alicepopkorn

Fewer than twelve places left in America where silence pervades. Nowhere in Europe.

Those are some pretty intense statistics. Before you say, “I can go out to my backyard and get some silence,” in a recent Newsweek article, audio ecologist Gordon Hempton defines silence as “the complete absence of all audible mechanical vibrations, leaving only the sounds of nature at her most natural.” And we’re talking about having this absence over many square miles here, people.

Hempton believes we are facing the very real possibility of “silence extinction.” And when you start to bring up all those open spaces in the US – like the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada – remember planes. Or:

…The snowmobiles roaring through Yellowstone, helicopters flying over Hawaii volcanoes, and air tours over the Grand Canyon.

Yeah, not too many places you can get away from our transportation machines. But does it really matter if we are left with no silence?

The Noiseless Experience

Photo: Pardesi*

What’s the point of silence anyway? Often, we don’t even realize what silence means until we have a chance to feel it for a good while. There are some – I’d venture to say more than a few of the younger generation, in particular – who have never truly experienced more than a moment here or there of silence in their entire life.

To be in silence gives the chance simply to re-ground into the self. For me, wired to be a bit high-strung, silence provides “de-stringing” action that brings down those stress hormones, so damaging to our overall health. Very few people can truly unwind while surrounded with noise, even if it’s the everyday noises we’ve gotten used to – the cars zooming on the freeway near our house, the construction we pass everyday on the way to and from work, even the low buzz of street lamps outside our bedroom windows.

The power of silence is even found in areas we believe cannot be healed; as Hempton points out, “recent studies have shown that nature experience can be as effective as medication in the treatment of autism.”

This is the scary thing about losing silent places: our experience of travel will change. One thing I look forward to most about adventuring to a new place is finding a golden space of noiseless action; sure, there is always the rustling of animals, and nature sprouting, but nothing man-made. It just feels different to the body, instantly, to be in this type of space.

Or, as Hempton notes:

To be in a naturally silent place is as essential today as it was to our distant ancestors…we are given the opportunity not only to heal but discover something incredible—the presence of life, interwoven! When I listen to a naturally silent place and hear nature at its most natural, it is no longer merely sound; it is music. And like all music, good or bad, it affects us deeply.

How can we help? Rerouting aircrafts is the major answer that Hempton offers. Individually, we can refuse to participate in tours that fly over sacred, silent areas, such as national parks. Drive to designated areas in these parks, and then hike your way away from the noise. Surrender some of these spaces to the animals and creatures that inhabit the area.

And leave that iPod at home.

Do you think trying to maintain silent places is important? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: Jayel Aheram

Last week, one of the greats passed on.

No, I’m not referring to J.D. Salinger, although he was also one. I’m talking about Howard Zinn – historian, writer, and social justice activist. He is the author of the quintessential book that changed my life, the People’s History of the United States. If you haven’t read it, whether you are American or not, it will without a doubt re-frame everything you thought you knew about world history since the Declaration of Independence.

In a 2004 interview passed along from BNT writer Daniel Harbecke, Zinn discusses his beliefs around whether or not the desire to kill is a part of human nature:

Essentially, from his own experience in the Air Force to the vast research on history and anthropology that he focused much of his work on, Zinn could not accept the idea that young men, in particular, have a “desire or thrill” to go to war. Instead of humans possessing a “killing instinct”, he believes that leaders use complex tactics to get a population behind war.

Zinn questions, why would we need a draft if we have the spontaneous urge to kill? Propaganda through media outlets, whether that means the intricate placement and timing of code alerts and Bin Laden references, or men being sent by horse to towns throughout the land to espouse the government’s message, goes far to shift the perspective of a group of people (read: instills fear).

For those who don’t jump on that bandwagon, there is coercion punishable by jail time, otherwise known as the draft.

It seems to me we often like to blame atrocities on human nature. But as Zinn notes, the environment in which one finds him or herself has a lot to do with an urge towards aggression or murder, just as much as it has to do with the urge to be peaceful and loving. For example, Native-American and African tribes are often thought of as extremely aggressive OR peaceful, while in truth, their outward expression has had much to do with whether or not another “tribe” ruled over them – in other words, their environment.

While we can’t always choose our environment (perhaps this is part of what pulls us to travel), we do have a choice in how we act and react to our circumstances. Hopefully, our continued evolution allows us to better understand this fact. So instead of blaming “human nature” for war and killing – therefore blaming the people of a land – we can see more clearly the agenda of our leaders.

Rest in peace, Howard. We will miss you.

Do you think the urge to kill is inherent in humans? Share your thoughts below.

Not all gurus looks like this… Photo: baronvonhorne

Some years ago, I had a discussion with my friend over the value of spiritual literature. I had offered her a particular book (okay, I’ll be honest, it was The Celestine Prophecy) with the wish that she find some sort of insight into her own life.

Months passed. When I asked her about the book again, she confessed to tucking it into a drawer and promptly forgetting about it. After pressing her further, it was clear she had an aversion to even attempting to the read the book.

Granted, the Celestine Prophecy has its flaws. In fact, I can’t remember ever reading a novel where so many characters stared at each other “intensely.” But the narrative does contain an overall message that many around the world have found beneficial – the idea that there is more to life than what we tend to see with our eyes.

When I explained this to my friend, she remained unconvinced. “Why do I need to read about someone else’s version of spirituality?” she asked. “Why can’t I just find out for myself?”

I considered her question. “It’s true, you could do it yourself,” I replied. “But think about it this way: if you were about to head into an unknown jungle, wouldn’t you like to have a map?”

Union With The Divine

At the time, we were only speaking of spiritual literature, yet I feel the metaphor extends all the way back to the spiritual teachers… or as some call them: gurus.

The word guru tends to evoke mixed feelings in most people. You might conjure images of Indian sages who preach non-attachment on the hand, while using the other to pick the pocket of their devotees.

But to understand the true meaning of guru, you must first look to the Yogic system of beliefs, succinctly described by Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love:

Yoga is the effort to experience one’s divinity personally and then to hold on to that experience forever. Yoga is about self-mastery and the dedicated effort to haul yourself [to] a place of eternal presence from which you may regard yourself and your surroundings with poise. Only from that point of even-mindedness will the true nature of the world (and yourself) be revealed to you.

In this case, yoga can be swapped with any belief system that offers the tools and motivation to turn inward. To return to the question of my friend: of course you’re free to stumble about life on your own, making mistakes (and hopefully learning from them), until finally you arrive at the same place.

But often this stumbling causes much unneeded suffering to yourself and others. To use the same metaphor, it’s like trying to hack your own trail through the jungle again and again. Authentic spiritual literature can save us valuable time to practice self-inquiry much more effectively.

Finding A Guru

Fortunately, books can only bring us so far…which brings us to gurus. Elizabeth Gilbert offers her eloquent description:

A great Yogi is anyone who has achieved the permanent state of enlightened bliss. A Guru is a great Yogi who can actually pass that state on to others. The word Guru is composed of two Sanskrit syllables. The first means “darkness,” the second means “light.” Out of the darkness and into the light. What passes from the master into the disciple is something called mantravirya: “The potency of the enlightened consciousness.” You come to your Guru, then, not only to receive lessons, as from any teacher, but to actually receive the Guru’s state of grace.”

I’m sure you’ve experienced the presence of a graceful being at least once. They may not consider themselves gurus, but they appear to attract people to their calm; their inner peace permeates the air around them.

Photo: dey

Now imagine this presence offering you the guidance and wisdom to understand your own mind and self. If a book can quicken your path to enlightenment, the right guru can light a fire under your chakra.

So let’s say you agree with me on the value of having a relatively enlightened spiritual guide. How to actually find a guru that fits your heart?

If you take a stroll down the nearest big box book store, you’ll quickly drown under the warm smiles of “gurus” of every size, shade, and style. They’ll offer you spiritual laws of success, how to find the perfect love, how to attract a massive bank account, and how to banish suffering (along with those extra pounds on your hips).

In truth, offering enlightenment is big business. With the rising amount of people beginning to awaken from their slumber, many teachers fill the demand with their specific brand of spirituality.

How can you tell the holy from the hubris?

There’s no real guideline for how to discern the right guru for you. In fact, it may require much trial and error, along with intuition and insight.

15 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Choosing A Guru

With the help of my friend and Taoist teacher Casey, I’ve compiled 15 questions to ask yourself as you navigate the guru gauntlet. I’ve used the word “teacher” in place of guru, just to give the label a rest. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Does the teacher ask you for money before he/she offers their teaching?
2. Does the teacher believe in absolute certainty?
3. Does the teacher encourage you to think for yourself?
4. Does the teacher pose problems that only he/she can answer?
5. Does the teacher focus primarily on ideas without action?
6. Does the teacher make you laugh or smile?
7. Does the teacher laugh at themselves?
8. Does the teacher encourage you to talk to other teachers?
9. Is the teacher in good spirit and health?
10. Does the teacher mix physical, spiritual and mental techniques to help a student grow in a balanced manner?
11. Is the teacher just following mass media or mass market trends?
12. Does the teacher try to use complex language, other terms or jargon to hide what they don’t know?
13. Do you like the other students?
14. Does the teacher break their own system (make exceptions for themselves relative to their own rules of conduct)?
15. Does the teacher show the unexpected?

To reiterate: do you need to find yourself a guru? Of course not. You’re free to experience existence on your own, discerning your own lessons from your experience.

On the flip side, there is a very real danger of becoming dependent on the guru for their presence, wisdom, and clarity. In this way, the relationship can mirror an addiction and in fact, become an obstruction in your spiritual path. An authentic teacher should merely lead you back to yourself, to realize truth on your own terms.

There’s a Zen saying: If you meet the Buddha on the road…kill him.

But that’s a topic for another article.

What do you think about choosing a guru? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo: Bracketing Life

There is something about a brief glimpse of understanding the self that feels like a window into humanity. Rarely does it last. But hopefully, it comes around again, albeit in small pieces and unexpected moments.

To me, seeing an astrologer (a good one, at least), is a bit like getting a glimpse. They will explain to you some fundamental aspects about yourself, how the stars take part in making it so, and that at different periods of your life, you will be forced to stare deeply in the mirror in order to propel forward.

Sure, one can say “I already know myself well, and understand I will face some hard times in life,” but it is often helpful having someone else clarify, at least in part, why you do what you do. A lot of “ah ha”s can come from that.

Yeah, if you haven’t guessed by now, I love my naturopaths, massage therapists, and psychics. Fine, call me a new-age hippie – I can take it. But even if you can’t get on board with any of those alternative approaches, astrology tends to be a bit more of an accepted genre – who doesn’t read their horoscope at least every once in a while?

Well, it’s time to forget that horoscope, since it’s never right (it’s almost impossible to tell the whole world of oh say, Capricorns, what’s going to happen that day; so much is dependent on a person’s time and place of birth) and open your mind to something that can help you figure out a good time to push your career forward, when love might approach, and maybe most importantly, the best time to travel.

Here are five things to keep in mind when you decide to get an astrology reading:

Photo: Oslo In The Summertime

1. Get a recommendation.

Yep, same goes for astrologers as psychics. Really, get a recommendation for any professional you are paying good money, from a lawyer to a bikini-line waxer (very important).

Would you drop off your beloved dog after randomly coming upon some house with a broken-down sign outside that says, “We luv pets”? No. Don’t just pop in an astrology establishment because you are on vacation and think it might be fun to ask what’s happening in the stars. Unless, of course, you don’t really care about the answer.

2. Do your homework.

Learn a bit about astrology before you make an appointment. For example, the astrologer will need to know your exact time of birth, and usually specifically what questions you would like answered. Not only is your sun sign (the one most people know) important in defining your personality, but so are your moon and ascendant signs.

Astrology will become a lot more clear to you if you learn about your chart in this way. You can hit Astrology.com to get a free natal chart. Although you only receive part of it for free, you’ll get the essence.

Also, understand that there are different types of astrology, including evolutionary astrologers and Chinese astrology, among many others. Get clear on which one you are most on-board with before you make an appointment.

3. Think about the bigger picture.

I know I can sometimes get caught up in what is going on in the moment, and desperately want to know if that hot guy is interested or if that proposal will get accepted. What a waste of time to see an astrologer and ask these piddly-little questions.

Before the most recent trip (via phone) I took to an amazing astrologer, I deliberately decided to mark it as a practice of mapping out 2010. This is the second year in a row that I’ve used my birthday, which neatly falls at the end of the year, as a stimulus to both plan for the coming year, and see what makes the most sense to focus my energy on. Usually, what has already been in my thoughts ends up showing up in my chart, but rarely in the way I thought they would.

Learning that May might be the best month for you to try and make some extra cash because the stars are aligned is helpful information. Also knowing when it is best to sit back, relax, and rework (like during the dreaded Mercury in retrograde, which occurs four times a year for three weeks at a time – THAT’S why it feels like it’s always happening) can save you a whole lotta aggravation.

4. Be emotionally prepared.

Seeing an astrologer can be a bit like going to a psychologist. Hopefully, through recommendations and homework, you’ve happened upon a very loving astrologer (as far as I can tell, there are a lot out there). But, they are also here to tell it like it is, and not sugar-coat the work that needs to be done.

They should skillfully take you through the process of understanding yourself a bit deeper, but as with any self-inquiry, some of it certainly can sting if you aren’t already aware.

Photo: Image Editor

5. Have fun.

Although astrology, like meditation or travel, gives you a chance to go deeper, it also gives you a chance to get out of yourself a bit at the same time. I often laugh uncontrollably when I’m “called out” by an astrologer (it is scary how dead-on they can be).

For example, in my last reading, the astrologer noted my Scorpio (dark, brooding) in Venus (sign of love) would have me always attracted to that which I shouldn’t be attracted to, so I’d better start working on accepting it instead of fighting it. Thinking about my propensity toward men who are for some reason or another out of reach, I couldn’t help but respond with a “touché”.

Let knowledge give you a chance to make fun of yourself. We all gotta take things a little less seriously, right?

What do you think about astrology? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: Pam from Tokyo

I stepped off the night bus at 5:30 am into a dark, cold Kyoto morning. My last morsel to eat had been the night before and my stomach gave a little rumble for food, to which I replied, “Quiet, you’re fasting.”

I had been reading a lot lately about Japanese Zen and the country’s old capital Kyoto. The city has long been the cultural and religious centre of Zen culture, and today it still retains an extraordinary cache of ancient temples, shrines and gardens.

For these reasons it was an easy call. I would make a pilgrimage to Kyoto and get away from the mayhem and mind cluttering pace of my job in Tokyo.

Tokyo was recently ranked number one in the world by the US Census Bureau as the most populated and most expensive city to live in. On other unofficial lists Tokyo rated number one for most neon, concrete, and sweating, stressed, gray-suited salarymen.

In a megalopolis of such gargantuan proportions, like Master Daito said:

“Time flies like and arrow, so do not waste energy on trivial matters. Be attentive. Be attentive!” Zen Master Daito, 1337

My days are a blur of crammed subway cars on my way to work, then somehow it’s Friday night and I am in an izakaya (Japanese pub), drinking sake trying to recall where the time went.

This is why after reading Zen Master Daito’s words I was inspired to make a move.

Seeking True Zen

After taking the week off work, I bought a bus ticket and was on my way to Kyoto. My plan was to wander from temple to shrine, teahouse to Zen garden through the back alleyways and foothills of the city savoring the beauty, autumn and life.

Photo: Stuck in Customs

There would be no email, no cellular phones, no television, no shopping, no restaurants, pubs or socializing. It was to be five days of detachment from all things meaningless, and a disciplined focus on the path. It was a simple plan, which coincidentally is one of the main precepts of fundamental Buddhism, simplicity.

Another Zen master named Ikkyu Sojun (1481) once professed, “The appreciation – the savoring – of beauty in all its forms is true Zen.” That was my goal. I knew the stressful social reality of the urban work-a-day world would still be waiting for me when I returned.

Looking around to get my bearings the sky began to lighten at the edge of the horizon. I wasn’t in a robe and straw sandals in the traditional ways of other monks, but I had packed as light as possible and was shouldering only a small daypack.

To make my pilgrimage to Kyoto even more interesting and beneficial I figured a five day fast couldn’t hurt. Around 1600 years ago the Buddhist monk Boddhidarma became famous for meditating against a rock wall in a cave for nine years, and cutting off his eyelids to keep from falling asleep during meditation.

I knew my sacrifices were only small compared to the great monks but I knew every journey started with just one step.

A Special Pilgrimage

Kyoto was not the ancient wood and tile roofed city that I had half expected it to be. The train and bus station was a monstrous ultra-modern complex, and the city rolled out in front of it like a glass and steel swell.

Beauty however, is something Buddhists preach as being innate and intangible, a value which you must look closely to see. I took it as the first lesson of my pilgrimage and stepped off the curb, heading out into the city to start my training.

The first night I checked into a ramshackle, one hundred year old guesthouse from the Meiji period. It was tucked in a small alley off the main road. I was given a sheet and pointed towards a futon on the floor of a big tatami matt (woven straw) room. It was a traditional house with paper-thin walls.

All the noise and cold from the streets outside filled the room. I had packed only a few clothes so I put on everything I had and sat cross-legged on my futon reading a Buddhist text. Across the street sat an old Shinto shrine, painted bright orange with a thick thatched roof, and next door an antique shop selling old Japanese scrolls and trinkets.

Though I was staying in a guesthouse in a thriving metropolis, it still felt like I was on a special pilgrimage. I curled up under the blankets on my futon and went to sleep early.

Emptying The Mind

The next morning I snuck out of the guesthouse while it was still dark. I had rented a bike the night before and as dawn broke and the stars faded I peddled my way to the edge of the city towards Nanzen ji (temple) enjoying the calm of the empty streets.

Photo: Deadly Tedly

My head was empty. I was thinking of nothing.

A sturdy, monstrous two-story wooden entrance gate greeted me at the foot of the temple complex, which rolled back into the colorful autumn foothills and lost itself amongst the trees. The bright sunrise sparkled in the dew and glistened on the dark timber temples.

The current headquarters of the Rinzai school of Zen, Nanzen-ji is scattered with simple and extravagant teahouses, halls and temples all meticulously built during the Edo period. Each is surrounded with impeccably trimmed gardens. The complex was ancient and still.

I wandered aimlessly around the grounds for an hour without thinking before sitting beneath a blood red Japanese maple for some Zazen; seated meditation.

Emptying your mind of all thought is not an easy task. It takes discipline and practice. Your mind is constantly filled with a continual procession of thoughts on every subject under the sun.

Most are trivial and unneeded responses to certain sights, noises, smells and other stimuli. Training yourself to clear your head, block out your surroundings, and suppress the series of useless thoughts that bubble up from your unconscious is very difficult.

But like everything else in life, with practice you get better and it becomes easier.

And when you first begin to grasp the process of emptying your mind, of thinking of nothing, of quiet meditation, the pervading calm and feeling of peace you experience makes you feel more alive and more eternal than ever before.

The First Test

Leaving the temple I approached the spot where I had left my bike, only to find an empty bit of fence. I looked up and down the bare sidewalk. I stood frustrated.

A moment later, realizing that my face had squashed into an angry grimace and my muscles were tense, I laughed aloud and relaxed. I remembered the philosophy of the Zen Buddhist ‘koan.’

A koan is a riddle devised by the Chinese Zen masters to stop budding Buddhist minds from wandering. They had their students meditate on a koan and channel their thoughts and feelings into a single purpose. Sometimes koans made no sense, focusing on a state of mind rather than words. They were a valuable exercise in helping students work towards enlightenment.

Standing there I recited my first koan, the riddle I would meditate on during my day’s wandering:

‘Feet or wheel what makes a better discipline. Was the bike actually real in the first place or are my feet just a figment of my imagination.’

Without a bike and with no hopes of getting my deposit back I mentally detached myself from the lost piece of metal and went on my way unconcerned. I had passed my first test.

The Second Test

My second test came later that afternoon at Ryoan ji, legendary for its Zen rock garden, the most famous of its kind in the world. Created in the fifteenth century, the garden is simplicity itself—fifteen rocks arranged in a sporadic rectangle of raked white gravel. The designer is anonymous and the message of the garden unknown.

Some scholars believe the rocks are the peaks of mountains poking out above a bed of clouds, others say the rocks are islands floating in the sea. I sat on the viewing platform with the other visitors staring at the rock garden.

People came and went. I sat. I stared. I focused on the stones as everything else around me faded, lost in my own mind
Suddenly I gained my second minor enlightenment.

Nothing! The rocks and the garden meant nothing. There was no meaning. Just as Buddhist philosophy preaches that everything comes from nothing and returns to nothing, and that life is all an illusion, there was no rock garden, there was no Ryoan ji, there wasn`t even an ‘I’.

It was just another koan, a physical koan written in stones and pebbles not words. I had passed my second test of the pilgrimage.

The Third Test

Kyoto in autumn is notorious for crowds. They followed me everywhere I went that week. The great Zen monk Hakuin’s master once told him: “If you can maintain your presence of mind in a city street teeming with violent activity, in a cremation ground amid death and destruction, and in a theatre surrounded by noise, then, and only then, are you a true practitioner of Zen.”

Wandering through the crowded temple grounds of Kikanku ji, home of the stunning Golden temple, I suddenly noticed that I had stopped dead in my tracks. I was standing still in the middle of the path staring blankly ahead, focused on nothing.

When I noticed the crowds having to step around me, I began walking again, joining the thick stream of visitors heading towards the temple. I was finally aware of the ancient practice that I had so often read about, ‘Zen in action.’

Monks continually speak of it — the total absorption they experience when doing basic tasks such as raking leaves, polishing floors, chopping wood, or simply walking. I realized what master Hakuin Ekaku (1768) meant when he said, ‘Meditation in the midst of action is a billion times superior to meditation in stillness.’

I passed the third test of my pilgrimage.

Essence of Existence

The week was not easy. My struggle to fight off the tempting smells wafting from soba noodle shops and the sight of fresh, red sushi calling to me from shop windows made my mind wander to grand dinners and plates piled high with delicious food.

My slow exhausted plod up the smallest of inclines required me to lean against buildings or rest against trees to catch my breath, and one hour in the middle of night four I awoke with stinging hunger pains in my stomach. ‘Hard training is the essence of the Buddha’s and the Patriarchs.’ Sojun Ikkyu once said.

I knew my sacrifices were only little, but they were tests, and I was passing. Sojun Ikkyu also once said, ‘Buddhas are made, not born.’ It’s not that I wanted to become a Buddha, more that I wanted to shake off that materialistic, false cloak of unconstructive priorities we have sewn for ourselves in this modern age.

Boarding the night bus to return to Tokyo, Japan’s oppressively crowded, teeming capital of flickering neon, Louis Vutton hand-bags and fancy hair-do’s I somehow felt more alive then ever before.

Old Zen Masters like Ikkyu, Indian sages like Rama Krishna, and old poets like Keats and writers like Emerson had insights into the real essence of existence. They recognized the beauty and timelessness of nature, understood the value of simplicity, and practiced the sentiments of kindness, patience and honesty.

The Return Home

I did not venture to Kyoto to become a Buddha, a patriarch or even a monk, but ‘The wisdom attained by practicing Zen in the midst of the world of desire is unshakable.’ A little strength, a little benevolence, a little hint of wisdom, that’s what I was hoping to attain. And I had. I had tasted them without even eating.

I was ready to return to the world’s largest megalopolis and the stressful social reality of the urban work-a-day world that I knew was waiting for me.

However, I vowed to myself that it would not overshadow what I had learned in Kyoto and what I knew was most important in life. Sitting in my seat as the city disappeared from view I remembered a poem written by Ikkyu Sojun that summed up my five days in Kyoto and the culmination of my pilgrimage:

I won’t die,
I won’t go anywhere,
But I won’t be here.
So don’t ask me anything –
For I won’t answer!

Have you experience the essence of Zen? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo: guydonges

When I set foot in a new place, consciously or unconsciously, I’m assessing the people around me. This is true whether I’ve driven three hours north to Lake Tahoe or have just landed in South Africa.

Putting people into boxes, for good or for bad, is our mind’s way of easily identifying what might threaten us, and at the same time, where we best belong. It’s actually an evolutionary survival mechanism, one it is good to recognize so we can counteract it when necessary.

But how exactly do we determine another person’s values? And what do we do when they seemingly don’t correspond with our own?

Religion often guides our values and beliefs. Either we are brought up with a certain religion, and therefore were instilled with a particular set of rights and wrongs. Or, we go against what we have been taught, believing the opposite – or somewhere in the middle – is truth, and so we subscribe to a different religion, or no religion whatsoever.

Unfortunately, condemnation often quickly sets in once we’ve subscribed to a certain belief system. And we all have one, even those hipsters that don’t think they do.

Judging From Afar

In the media these days, there is a lot to judge from high up on the mountaintop (really, isn’t that the main thing the media does?). I just learned via the Values Gals that Brit Hume gave Tiger Woods some advice: Buddhism won’t give him “the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith.”

Sweet. Guess Tiger is a Buddhist (and apparently a Christian wouldn’t do such things). Not sure if this is a new, post-sexilicious-scandal-breakdown, or if he’s been a devoted one for years. Wait, I guess this quote comes from a 2008 Reuters interview with the man himself:

In the Buddhist religion you have to work for it yourself, internally, in order to achieve anything in life and set up the next life. It is all about what you do and you get out of it what you put into it.

Amy of Values Gals adds:

Okay, I’m not a Buddhist but that makes a lot of sense to me. I believe that it is what is inside of us that guides us in our choices, helps us become better people and allows us to reach our goals and realize our dreams.

I’ve began to wonder lately if our values are not only guided by our backgrounds and experiences, what we normally deem as “inside of us”, but also by something bigger than, and outside of, us. Something that may force a change in those values depending on the situation in which we find ourselves.

Accepting Fate

Photo:*Aemaeth*

Though I am no Tiger Woods (fingers crossed), during a recent astrology reading, I was pressed to accept that I must learn how to hold a fate that includes both taking care of people and sometimes hurting them.

Turns out it is in my nature to be drawn to the dark underbelly of the human persona (like I didn’t know that already).

Hearing this did not exactly sit well. I believe similar to most people out there, I like to think of myself as a good person who tries to be aware of the course of my actions and how they may effect others. But why exactly should I try and fight myself when it is my fate to learn how to accept this humanness? Maybe real values are based on wholeheartedly looking at our sometimes ugly/sometimes insensitive/sometimes cruel side and handing it some love?

It also made me realize even more (or once again?), that if we haven’t walked in the shoes of another person, how can we know their lesson in this life? I understand this can be a slippery slope – a good example is the possible manslaughter defense of a man who shot and killed an abortion doctor in order to save “countless” unborn babies – but, on the whole, I’m not sure condemning others for something that is a necessary part of their path is the best way to create a more harmonious existence.

Of course, a lot of this depends on if you believe in fate or not. Still, for the purposes of stepping foot smack in the middle of a new culture with extremely different values than your own, it might be worth remembering that not every “bad” action or value defines a person. Rather, it simply makes them human.

Do you believe there are certain necessary values? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: earthfrommybrain

I feel like bopping myself over the head for this feeling of guilt that has crept up over me.

My husband and I worked hard for five years to save money for our round-the-world trip, and we continue to work while we are on the road to keep our resumes active. When we were busy traveling, I was thrilled we quit our jobs, sold our house, and meandered about the world. We love the flexibility that comes with travel, the ability to work and play when and where we want.

Yet, as soon as we came home for the holidays, a wave of guilt flooded over me. I see my family and friends working 40-hour weeks, making steady paychecks, and contributing to their communities, and wonder whether we are being selfish by investing so much time and money in ourselves.

The dictionary defines “selfish” as being “concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself” or “seeking or concentrating on one’s own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others.” Isn’t that what long-term travelers do?

Staying Home Vs. Exploring the World

Photo: Dipanker Dutta

When we work, we contribute to the economy and the community; by traveling long-term, we stop contributing to both. The suffering American economy could use the money we spend on our house, our car, and food. The volunteer activities we used to be involved in fell to the wayside.

Aside from our impact on our home country, we harm cultures abroad by creating economies oriented toward tourists and introducing our Western insights and habits into those societies. For example, cultural dances traditionally performed within a certain community for festivals or events, like the Maori haka or Masai dance rituals, are now performed every evening to gaping audiences and buffet diners for tidy sums of money.

So, is long-term travel selfish? Simple answer: yes. We sacrifice the values placed highest by Western society – having a steady job and income, house, and family – to satisfy our individual pleasures.

Selfishness May Be Good

I can quell a bit of my guilt by looking to Ayn Rand’s belief that selfishness is a virtue and:

The moral purpose of a man’s life is the achievement of his own happiness. This does not mean that he is indifferent to all men, that human life is of no value to him and that he has no reason to help others in an emergency. But it does mean that he does not subordinate his life to the welfare of others, that he does not sacrifice himself to their needs, that the relief of their suffering is not his primary concern.

By choosing to leave traditional paths and plans, we challenge our belief structure and strengthen our resolve in ourselves. As Rand explained, “[the] [r]ationally selfish man – a man of self-esteem…is the only man capable of holding firm, consistent, uncompromising, unbetrayed values. The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.”

Self-doubt kills the motivation to make any change. Thus, by continuously changing our perspectives and locations as we travel, we get rid of our self-concerns and increase our self-esteem.

Is High Self-Esteem a Bad Thing?

Photo: bfick

Though we have always been taught that we can do anything if we believe in ourselves, Jean Twenge argues that our generation – people born between the 1970s to the 1990s – are suffering because of that reinforced notion that “the self comes first.”

She names us the Me Generation because we have “never known a world that put duty before self, and believes that the needs of the individual should come first.”

Though we “enjoy unprecedented freedom to pursue what makes us happy,” she argues that our high self-esteems and high expectations result in depression, anxiety, cynicism, and loneliness when those expectations are not met.

She claims that the pressure of self-reliance can be stressful to many young people when they realize that they are on their own in a difficult world with few chances for success.

However, unlike most cubicle dwellers, the long-term traveler usually does not have high expectations. Few (if any) of us expect to get famous or rich – actually, most of us expect to spend money traveling and budget appropriately.

Thus, even if we become more confident because we travel, that confidence does not lead to the depression that many others in the Me Generation find because the traveler has voluntarily given up many high expectations in search of a nonconformist lifestyle.

Most long-term travelers are instead looking for that elusive “happiness” through experiences, whether that means sitting in a café drinking the perfect cappuccino or climbing the peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Then again, it could be that all of these philosophical principles hide the unvarnished truth: that long-term travelers are selfish and go against the moral ideal of altruism. And, if that is the case, I guess I don’t mind being considered selfish because I am so happy traveling long-term.

Do you think long-term travel is selfish? Share your thoughts below.

James Cameron’s Avatar

In the ancient Hindu epic, the Ramayana, the god Vishnu adopts the avatar of Ram to fulfill materially his role as the Preserver. The main purpose of this incarnation is to demonstrate the “righteous path” for all living creatures on earth.

The word “avatar” is a Sanskrit term which refers to a deliberate descent of a deity from heaven to earth. The modern usage of the term is more accurately described as an “incarnation” or “manifestation” – which is how Neil Stephenson reintroduced the term in his 1992 novel Snow Crash.

The book hit me and other science fiction readers with an impact not soon forgotten.

I have encountered only a rare few books that predicted the future and commented deeply on the nature of human existence. Snow Crash is that book.

The main story follows Hiro Protagonist on his mindwarp cyberpunk-samurai-pizza delivery-neurolinguistic-action adventure through California.

From the sovereign kingdoms of gated suburban communities to the magnetic grappling hooks of the hitchhiking freeway skateboarders, Snow Crash repeatedly throws out new ideas of technology and society.

Fiction Meets Reality

The Internet, with its lightning fast data transfer speeds and extensive human involvement, has begun to match some of Snow Crash’s predictions. Its relevance continues to grow as we tumble into the future our on-line world is creating.

Neil Stephenson’s Snowcrash

In Snow Crash, the materially real characters adopt their own avatars in the electronic world to perform tasks in service of their needs in life. It’s those needs and roles that not only help move the plot along, but offer a real portion of Hiro’s identity.

In the book, there’s a virtual nightclub where Hiro meets his friends. He has a history in the club, and also in developing the skills of swordfighting used in the occasional online duels. He is a popular, well-respected avatar in the club, reconnecting with a brilliant ex-girlfriend.

Even though it’s virtual, it’s a legitimate place where he meets old friends, makes new relationships, and inquires about the news. His avatar is his mask, but also an actual social entity.

Today, in social communities like Second Life, we can interact with real people, and indeed earn a real-life living.

Yet the author doesn’t let us forget that the characters are still human, vulnerable to the tough realities of the material world. While you can make a living in the online realm – the earnings need eventually translate into real-world money. You can’t eat digital gold coins.

The Idea Virus

In the novel, there is also a strong exploration on the symbolism of linguistic concepts. A specific thought can be like a virus, and can move the world in a new direction.

The crew in Cameron’s Avatar

Think of the concept behind the words “twitter”,”status”, or “meme”, and you’ll see how these have sparked new societal formations.

Unlike Vishnu’s divine universe, our material world can be altered strongly by the virtual world. Through these linguistic concepts, the virtual world can directly affect our own lives, and even that of people not directly interacting online. Sometimes these conceptual changes are for the better, but sometimes they can be devastating.

In James Cameron’s film, the main character inhabits his Avatar and affects real-change in the Navi tribe. His Avatar’s actions have real-world consequences.

This is not yet the case today, where avatars are still relegated to the virtual realm. Is there still a danger of taking our online identities too seriously?

The answer lies in the Hindu epic. It’s doubtful that the eternal deity Vishnu was really that concerned about his avatar Ram’s trials on Earth. Vishnu is an eternal concept, and will be reborn a million times in the eternal universe. The avatar is an extension of their essence, not their real essence.

Eventually, no matter how deep you are into the virtual dungeon or how many you’ve accumulated online, you are going to have to get up to use the toilet. If you can’t laugh about that, you are in trouble.

After all, humor is a great escape hatch from the online, subordinate world.

What are your thoughts on avatars and identity? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo: bigaila

The School of Life is a fascinating education, made challenging by a quirk of human nature:

Knowing a lesson isn’t the same as knowing how to employ it.

Myths contain essential lessons of human existence. Read properly, they teach how to live a life, and how to live it with others; they reveal an order to the universe, as well as mysteries within it. But while we can learn the morals, seeing them at work in our own lives is a separate discipline.

Mythologist Joseph Campbell created a modern map for the journey of life in his Hero Monomyth. (See my three-part series on Heroic Travel).

The Hero Monomyth provides mythic landmarks for how to leave a familiar place, enter the unknown, and return home with transcendent knowledge. These markers appear in life events all around us, but it takes a keen eye to recognize the mythic in the mundane.

Now, to illustrate how such themes appear in real life, let’s create some everyday examples and run them through the Hero Monomyth.

1. The College Student: Jenna’s 19, and in her first year of full-time study. She’s done well as a part-time student, but doesn’t have a clear idea of what she wants out of college.
2. The Accident Victim: Mary was a track all-star, but after a car accident the doctors said running is out of the question. She refuses to accept this.
3. The Traveler: Blake’s using the last of his savings on a motorcycle tour of the West Coast. Something keeps pulling at him to do this, but for the life of him he can’t figure out why.

Separation

At the start of her semester, Jenna feels like she’s following a call to adventure. She loves the freedom of being on her own, but she enjoys it a little too much. Jenna begins to procrastinate in her studies, refusing the call of what she’s supposedly at college to focus on. “So what?” she says. “I can handle a little partying. I earned it.” Her routine has changed drastically by semester’s end, and she spends her weekends sleeping off the excess of the night before.

Mary’s having trouble following her therapy schedule, so she holds the key at the end of her necklace and thinks of Dad. Before he died, Mary’s dad gave her this key. It belongs to his 1969 Mustang, which he rebuilt as a kid. His friends said he couldn’t do it, but he saved up, bought the parts and did it all himself. “You make your own truth,” he told her. The key is a supernatural aid, reminding her she can do anything – and it makes her feel fast.

Blake is excited to finally cross the threshold of the open road – “there’s no going back now,” he said. But so far, everything Blake touches turns to crap. A tank-slapper early on caused him to drop his bike – he was okay, but the entire left side looked like hell, and the muffler was hanging on thanks to a bent up coat hanger. This was truly the belly of the whale – there really was no going back.

Initiation

Mary’s therapy isn’t working. Her knees are getting worse, to the point where even walking is agonizing. The road of trials is sheer misery for her: “Why am I failing? What am I doing wrong? Who am I if I can’t run anymore?” She takes it more slowly, not pushing herself like she always has. She listens to what her body is telling her, tries patience instead of force. It leads to a meeting with the goddess, in learning the serenity of healing – a side of herself she never knew existed.

By the end of her first year, Jenna’s close to flunking out – but she’s having such a blast with sex and libations she doesn’t care. She’s definitely not the wallflower she used to be. But one night she wakes up in a strange man’s bed, and can’t remember how she got there. She realizes she’s going way too far. Her new lifestyle is a temptress: she’s in danger of losing herself.

In an atonement with the father, Blake realizes why his dad loves travel so much. All the rough weather and unexpected problems have been worth it. Blake finds an unexpected, almost mystical boon to his tribulations: he puts himself in the hands of fate, and makes it through every time. Blake discovers not every aspect of life must be planned – it can be wild and unpredictable, and something magical comes from accepting that.

Return

After learning to welcome the unexpected, Blake doesn’t want to return. He imagines his return to “real life” will be flat and unappealing. He faces a choice – but for now, he doesn’t have to make it just yet.

Jenna made an important discovery: the whole meaning of going off to college was to learn it’s her life to mess up, and no one can clean it up but her. She’s ready to get help, but the hole she dug herself is pretty deep. She needs a rescue – some guidance to prevent sliding backward. Her parents support her, and she values her studies in an entirely new way. She feels like she’s crossed a second threshold – the growing pains were necessary to help her discover what’s important in her life.

Mary has learned there are some things she simply won’t be able to do anymore – but swimming isn’t one of them. Originally part of therapy, Mary finds she enjoys it more than running. The demons of her fear mastered, she resolves to be a sports therapist – to help people who suffer a setback realize “You make your own truth.” And the truth will set you free.

The End of the Road

It’s important to understand the Hero Monomyth isn’t a step-by-step instruction. Some themes will be more emphasized than others. The Hero Monomyth’s real benefit is to help orient yourself on your path.

The art of the Hero Monomyth is the origin you set for your journey, and where you set your destination. It’s often difficult to tell where one journey ends and another begins – one road leads seamlessly into another, then another, and the many more beyond that.

But there are pivotal events in everyone’s life where the path is clearly blazed; with practice, you can learn to identify the signs in between, so the mythic twists and turns work more decisively in your favor.

How have you seen the Hero Monomyth at work in your own life? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo: spcoon

This is my last post for the week as I begin the holiday ritual of traveling to see family and friends. It is a ritual that takes on a bit more importance with each passing year.

I’ll admit, Christmas has always been an exciting time for me. More than a few of my friends say that’s because it’s also my birthday. Ok, ok – I’m not going to deny that’s part of the reason. But the type of excitement around my birthday has changed dramatically since I was a child, or even since my early 20s. It now comes from appreciating the year I’ve just lived through, and anticipating (and declaring) what I hope for in the coming one.

Last night, a recurring dream – one I haven’t seen in a while – showed up. It always begins with me as an undergrad at UNC Chapel Hill, usually right before senior year. I’m debating where to live – on campus or off – even though I have already been living in an apartment.

It has had its odd variations depending on where I find myself at the time, such as if I live on campus there in North Carolina, how will I make it to dance practice in San Francisco? Living off campus meant tiny rooms, while living on, being a senior, I had the most massive and expansive rooms to choose from.

Still, I could never decide. The one thing that is always noted, though, is that I had already graduated from there and gotten my Masters. Yet for some reason, I’m back.

There was a palpable difference in the outcome this time, though. Last night, for the first time, I chose what I wanted – the big, beautiful (shared) room on campus. And I was extraordinarily happy about it.

My take-away: I’ve been debating whether to change something in my life that I’ve been hesitant to take on because of struggles I previously encountered. But the purpose of change arriving now is to get it right this time, to take my time with it, without the same type of struggle. This dream showed me I’ve finally taken that first little, yet expansive, baby step.

The Rise and the Fall

Photo: Beverly & Pack

Sometimes – often – we look above the surface for proof of change. We want big, ferocious, in-your-face, Obama-winning change. All else takes too long and therefore doesn’t feel real.

I can’t help but give a little knowing look when people start to complain about how “little” Obama has done since taking office (Jacob Weisberg shows a different perspective in his piece on Slate.com).

This knowing look does not come from the fact that I believe he has done little, but rather that the day he was elected – although historic on many levels – I thought, “oh no.”

Americans (in this case, at least the ones who backed him) did what we do best – quickly elevate a “savior” to heights impossible to attain, and then when he doesn’t immediately deliver the goods, we tear the savior down just as swiftly and call him tragically flawed.

The reality is, change comes at a slow, but steady pace. We must first determine the larger vision, what we want in the end. But we can’t get hung up on that; instead, we must contemplate the ingredients necessary to make the changes happen, and then implement them in a steady fashion.

The fruits of our labors won’t show up right away – as my 23-year-old self had hoped after finding out I had some sort of vague, undefined sickness – but rather over time, with small shifts and changes, tweaks and re-tweaks.

I guess maybe the one-foot-in-front-of-the-other Capricorn goat of my almost 31-year-old self is finally beginning to emerge.

Burden of Proof

Photo: The New Yorker

The New Yorker recently ran a story about a safe zone in Pittsburgh, one that has risen from the ashes of “deindustrialization and urban decay”. There on the North Side of the city, the owner of a successful telemarketing firm, Ralph Henry Reese, bought a house in 1980.

Since then he, along with his wife Diane Samuels, purchased four more on the same street, and in the last decade, decided to turn these houses into refuges for persecuted writers from around the world.

Previously a blight on the city, this block of homes now provides rent-free shelter for two years to writers whose lives are threatened, mostly by their own governments. As a part of the international organization Cities of Asylum project, Reese and Samuels also provide extra expenses and medical care.

Sometimes we revel in these small stories of change; sometimes, we barely notice them. But as we sit in a season tailor-made for reflection (if we want it), the story of a house shifting from something seemingly useless and ugly to a true sanctuary with immense beauty clearly demonstrates the power of change. There is death of the old and rebirth of the new, but without the old, and in many ways, revisiting it, we have no new. The key is to give it the time, and energy, it needs to bloom.

I hope all of your desired changes build slowly and fruitfully through 2010, and that you give them the time, space, and air that they need to flourish in the long run. Me, I think I’m going to dream a little more.

What are some of the changes you’d like to see in 2010, personally or globally? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: vramak

Have you experienced “expectation hangover®” (yes, it is trademarked) yet?

Well, if you are in your mid-20s, actually have a job (or don’t have one), which you attempt to balance with a social/family life, you are probably suffering from it. At least according to writer Christine Hassler.

Much like the vomit that you were trying your best to hold down the morning after a couple of neon-colored drinks followed by a six-pack of the Beast, the EH is basically a “group of undesirable feelings that arise when a desired result isn’t met.”

In other words, it’s the job you kinda hate, the relationship that isn’t living up to the dream, the trips you aren’t taking. As a life coach, Hassler prompts people to do everything from suck it up, lower your expectations, or start looking elsewhere.

Well, it looks like meditation might be providing the “elsewhere.”

According to a recent Boston Globe article, the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA is pulling in the 20s-crowd like they were serving free microbrews and tapas. Week long silent meditation retreats are apparently all the rage as a way to step away from the cell phones, the iPods, and the status updates, among other things (like, you know – work):

At a time when homework or job pressures and the likes of Facebook and Twitter compete for attention throughout the day, meditation groups say an increasing number of young adults are signing up for retreats and classes, seeking a temporary escape, a haven to reconnect with their thoughts.

Wait, that means no iPhone? Even on vibrate?

Technology as Soul-Suckage

The interesting thing is, I don’t believe we think often enough about the implications of all the “fun” and seemingly “connective” technology in our life – how the faster this technology gets, the more it takes us outside of ourselves. Social media becomes work, something we do into the wee-hours of the night, and our sleep – and soul – suffers in the process.

In the Globe article, one of the retreat leaders, Rebecca Bradshaw, notes:

Young people are much more stressed out than people 20, 30 years ago…we have a fast-paced and alienating culture.

Sure, it’s kind of mind-boggling to read the news online, write about it on your blog, tweet it, link it on Facebook, check Twitter and Facebook, where you come across other articles and other blogs which are undyingly stimulating, and then start the whole process over again. Oh, and get that report to your boss by 1pm (side gig, of course).

I have no doubt that our ever increasing fast-paced world is why so many of us are drawn to outer travel. It promotes reconnection, both with others and ourselves.

But how is this reconnection being affected by having a laptop with us wherever we go, and updating our statuses anywhere from our wedding “I do” to tweeting from the ends of the Earth? And what about our inner travel? It needs backup too, and on a daily basis, because most of us aren’t able to constantly move from place to place.

So, hmmm, possibly the expectation hangover (yes, yes, TM) can be cured less from a “suck it up” perspective and more from a “disconnect from that which disconnects you” perspective. On that note, I’m shutting down the computer to sit for a while, and will attempt to “let go” of any humorous status updates running through my brain.

Do you think that social media impacts your overall well-being? Share your thoughts below.

“A new, wide eyed and freshly minted vision surfaces: as a species we are just now in the process of being reborn. Insights abound, awareness rebounds, and shackles are being untangled, we might, if all goes well, be free. Free of our genetic heritage and free of our biological roots, free to soar into a promisingly magnificent future, the future of commingled information, of interweaved sensation, of co-opted dreams.” – WildCat, SpaceCollective.org

My name is Jason Silva. I host and produce a show on Current TV, the Emmy-winning international cable network co-founded by Al Gore.

I’ve tried to use the opportunity as a platform to celebrate big ideas – to harness the power of the information technology revolution and use television, social media and beyond, to share my enthusiasm for human technological ingenuity: to celebrate our ability to find creative ways to overcome problems, go beyond our limitations, and extend our reach.

In surveying my peers and trying to gauge the level of enthusiasm for science and technology, what I have found is that there is very little excitement about the scientific breakthroughs that are occurring every day.

Not too many people in cocktail parties are aware of Bioprinting and growing organs, or the coming technological singularity; I’ve seen very little philosophical speculation about how far we can go, how much we could achieve.

I shared my disappointment with a close friend of mine; someone who shared a passionate and optimistic outlook about the future.

We decided that the problem was lack of art-direction. For whatever reason, the scientific community was failing to elicit a sense of awe and wonder out of people… you can’t win the hearts and minds of the masses unless you inspire them.

You must lift their spirits and enliven their hearts. We have to give people emotional experiences. Science can always use better art-direction: scientific progress and discovery must be presented to the world in a way that excites and titillates people’s sense of what is possible!

I recently read a Newsweek article about the space program that I think was right on the money. The article, titled ‘Rocket Men‘, written by Jeremy McCarter, spoke of the importance of artists in the effort to re-ignite excitement about space exploration.

It mentioned an idea by Buzz Aldrin, from his memoir Magnificent Desolation, in which he made an “intriguing suggestion: Send an artist into space.” The author of the Newsweek piece goes on to say that what is needed is a true “Romantic hero for our 21st-century space adventure” …and that we “might need a little star power to make it out to the stars.”

The point here is the same: big ideas need to be packed in a thrilling, sexy, emotionally-appealing way.

In the case of space exploration, the author eloquently puts it like this: “NASA itself needs to help the public grasp that sending human consciousness 40 million miles into space can be its own mesmerizing reward….”

I think this very same challenge applies to those working in other areas of cutting edge scientific exploration: Synthetic biology, genetic engineering, stem-cell research and beyond. We need to help the public grasp that enhancing humanity, merging with our technology, extending our lifespan, reaching for the infinite, really, is it’s own reward. It is the most magnificent of undertakings.

In the same article, I also learned about Richard Holmes’ fascinating book titled “The Age Of Wonder“, about the late 18th century, or as the author refers to it, “the romantic age of science” – a time when the scientists were poets and the poets knew about science… What scientists and artists shared then, and what we need to regain now, is a fascination and love affair with what Holmes calls “the exploratory voyage.”

My friend’s production company, Transcendental Media, uses the slogan “To agitate the sleep of mankind.”

I’d like to borrow this line as a mission statement for all of us who believe in reason, science and technology as the tools to help us overcome our limitations. Lets agitate the sleep of mankind and then find better ways to inspire people to embrace our next evolutionary leap.

Let’s all become what Alan Harrington calls “Un-comprimising Child-Voyagers”…. and let us retain a child’s-eye-view of what might be.

One of the best examples of the marriage between scientific speculation and brilliant, emotional aesthetic design, is www.SpaceCollective.org. Started by Rene Daalder and Folkert Gorter, this wonderful enterprise excites, inspires and thrills the mind. I recommend it to anyone in need of a little inspiration.

John Maeda, from MIT, quoted in an inspiring essay titled ‘The Universe will Fly like a Bird‘, said this:

“Amidst the attention given to the sciences and how they can lead to the cure of all diseases and daily problems of mankind, I believe that the biggest breakthrough will be the realization that the arts, which are conventionally considered ‘useless,’ will be recognized as the whole reason why we ever tried to live longer or live more prosperously.”

What do you think about science’s need to inspire wonder? Share in the comments!

Community Connection

Want more Jason Silva? Read BNT’s interview on How Science Will Make You Live Forever, and The End of Death: Further Conversations With Jason Silva.

Photo: DavidCiriaco

Questions, debates, and arguments tend to flow non-stop from our media about such loving and easy topics as the war in Afghanistan, global warming, and Tiger Wood’s affair(s).

I’ve felt particularly pulled from end of the spectrum to the other over the past couple of days. One of Matador’s writers, Nick Rowlands, passed along an interesting, albeit extraordinarily we’re-going-straight-down-the-tubage, debate between George Monbiot, author of several investigative travel books and a weekly column for the Guardian, and Paul Kingsnorth, director of the Dark Mountain Project.

In the letter exchange, well worth reading by the way, Kingsnorth takes the “shits already hit the fan, let’s get on with this apocalypse now and start over” approach. He discusses a set of graphs that marks the steady rise of a wide range of occurrences since 1750, including the rising CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and rate of species extinction, and how they suddenly “veer steeply upwards” since – you guessed it – 1950:

Yet very few of us are prepared to look honestly at the message this reality is screaming at us: that the civilisation we are a part of is hitting the buffers at full speed, and it is too late to stop it. Instead, most of us – and I include in this generalisation much of the mainstream environmental movement – are still wedded to a vision of the future as an upgraded version of the present.

Monbiot, while identifying with the fact that we are in a precarious situation, believes that we have to go on fighting the good fight. If we don’t, instead of the emergence of an utopian society, we (well, those of us left, anyway) would be in an even uglier place than at the moment:

I’m sure we can agree that the immediate consequences of collapse would be hideous: the breakdown of the systems that keep most of us alive; mass starvation; war…the survivors of this collapse will be subject to the will of people seeking to monopolise remaining resources. This will is likely to be imposed through violence. Political accountability will be a distant memory. The chances of conserving any resource in these circumstances are approximately zero.

Monbiot ends one of his letters with this: “Perhaps we are both in denial: I because I think the fight is still worth having; you because you think it isn’t.”

Whew, intense. I certainly felt compelled by the certainty of both men that no matter which way we turn, things aren’t going to be pretty.

Or Could They Be?

Photo: Maira Kalman / New York Times

And then, lo and behold, a friend sent along this piece by Maira Kalman at the New York Times blog. Beautifully illustrated through pictures and actual written words (ok, maybe it’s a writing font), Maira looks to how our land, eating habits, and movement have changed greatly – and negatively – since our “founding fathers” stepped foot in the US.

Yet there is this undercurrent that – dare I say it, is beginning to overflow – of people not only understanding our need to return to the Earth, but who are actually doing it.

Kalman states:

It is not about dropping out (though that sounds tempting now and then). It is about bringing elemental things to the present time with commerce and optimism.

In “not dropping out,” she doesn’t forget to ask the questions. On the picture of a cow, she wonders, “Land of cows that we eat. Should we? Shouldn’t we?” And in showing children in Berkeley, CA growing, preparing, and eating organic meals together at school, she poses, “Many children often do not sit with their own families. And some drink soda for breakfast. So what do we do about that?”

Even if we are working in our own lives to make changes, I think that forgetting, or dismissing, the reality of what is happening outside of the confines of our own world is a huge part of the problem. Positivity is a beautiful thing, as long as it doesn’t negate the realities of others.

Yes, we create our own reality, to a certain extent. Yet each of our realities runs up against everyone else’s. That means chemicals being dumped, wars being fought, and food being frankened effects you. But don’t forget to check yourself on negating the positive realities of things happening around you, too.

So then what is the answer – watch and even hope for the apocalypse? Fight it tool and nail? Look at the bright side? Maybe, just maybe, the answer is somewhere in the middle.

What do you believe is the answer to our survival conundrum? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: wwarby

Sometimes, I think about the romantic notions that arose in my Masters program, on my part just as much as others.

A good chunk of what we did was take a look at traditional ways of healing. Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, and Native-American healing are all extremely valid, deeply historical systems that are often dismissed in our Western allopathic mindset.

Even though, of course, each has been around hundreds to thousands of years, and seen millions of more patients than medical doctors.

Sometimes, learning about disregarded, lesser-known or underutilized traditions can lead us to the conclusion that all is right with the world in the “natural order,” while our current approach is kind of, you know, evil.

Sure, there is a lot wrong with the way we live life in the West. That’s a given. So it is easy enough to fall into the trap of longing to live in a place where the 8-6 job does not exist, people are still rooted to the Earth because they actually work with it, and family connections leave little room for depression or other American institutions. Ah, wouldn’t life be grand?

The Wrong Parts

Photo: Sand Paper

Then, way over on the flip-side, there’s the shock that arises when seeing a traditional culture up close and personal. Andy Jarosz at 501 Places just tackled this topic in his piece, When is ‘local culture’ just wrong? Now you are facing a particular tradition that you not only don’t understand, but inherently believe is immoral.

The first thing that popped into my mind as I began reading the piece was female genital mutilation, and my own struggle around believing we shouldn’t step into other cultures and tell them what is what (through war or other means) and at the same time, believing no woman should ever have to face this barbaric, misogynistic act.

One of the stories Andy related was about a blind girl he met in Uganda while working at an eye camp. He notes:

Her corneas were totally opaque. At first she said didn’t know what had caused this, but on further examination and in conjunction with a local nurse, we found out that she had been to see a local shaman about a matter unrelated to her eyes, and he had given her a liquid to wash her face with, and specifically to put in her eyes. The main ingredient was horse urine, and this potion had proceeded to render this young girl blind.

He was obviously extremely angry about what he witnessed, and rightly so. But the nurse he was working with explained it was a “slow, frustrating and often dangerous” process of educating people away from their faith in witch doctors.

And what exactly might be offered in return? A system that also damages a lot of people with pharmaceutical drugs and unnecessary surgeries? Even with the positives of Western medicine, these traditional societies would never have continuous access be made available to them.

Not So Pretty

Reality is a lot less pretty and succinct – all cultures and places have their ups and downs, their “rights” and their “wrongs.” Trouble is, some of the things many on the outside see as wrong, such as wearing a burka or even seeing a shaman, are not only deeply embedded in cultures, but also have valid points that we would never truly be able to comprehend from our own cultural mindset.

Sometimes, what we see as gruesome may actually be distinctly connected to the Earth in a way that our Western hands-off approach to all things icky just can’t wrap our heads around. And as Andy noted in his piece, there are certainly things indigenous cultures would be flabbergasted by if they came to the West – people being forced to live on the streets as open, empty buildings sit nearby, or the forgotten elderly generation that is so prized in their own culture.

The real question is, how does removing both romantic ideals and disapproval get us closer to a just world for all?

What do you think about romanticizing or condemning other culture’s beliefs? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: Randy Wick

Swept up in the notion that life is meant to be happily lived, many of us often struggle with what it means to be happy on any given day. Am I feeling good at this moment? Was I feeling better yesterday? Why can’t I get to that balanced state of bliss?

Ah, yes, the “balanced state of bliss.” What in the world could that possibly imply? Some sort of a delusion, at least on my part. After a better part of my childhood and 20s fraught with depressive tendencies, I feel a daily pull of that which remains, on some levels, an enigma. Which gives me full appreciation for something I recently read on the Happiness Project blog:

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned (through a decade of practice with Zen Buddhism) is that melancholy is perfectly normal – it’s neither happy nor unhappy – and it’s all right to walk slowly through it.

Sometimes, I feel with all the positive affirmations, law of attractions, and 2012s being thrown around, we are forced, in a way, to feel “happy” all of the time. Even when we don’t. It’s as if sadness, anger, and discomfort have become four letter words that we beat to a bloody pulp as if they were a rabid raccoon attacking our child.

Here at Matador, we’ve searched far and wide for the ingredients to happiness, best summed up in Carlo Alcos’ piece, 5 Key Ingredients in the Search for Happiness. He found that introspection, freedom, compassion, generosity, and contentment were all necessary aspects for happiness.

But can’t these just as easily be ingredients of melancholy? And is that necessarily a bad thing?

To be human is to feel all the emotions available on the spectrum. I sometimes want to cry out that to accept where you are right at this moment is to be free. The problem comes in when those emotions, whether happiness or sadness, take over. Then we are no longer who we are – we have instead become the emotion.

The Absolute End of Happiness

Photo: | spoon |

Within the context of feeling happiness is necessary all of the time comes the idea that death is looming to take life, happiness, and – as Ian MacKenzie recently explored with filmmaker Patrick Shen – meaning away.

We all only have a set amount of time here, and we best power-pack it full of smiles, giggles, and moments of perfection.

A recent post over at the New York Times contemplates these beliefs around life (and death). Author Todd May explores our fear of death, as it “extinguishes” the light of our future, which we are programmed as humans to be constantly striving for.

But May argues for the validity and awareness of death in truly living life:

It is equally true that a life without limits would lose the beauty of its moments…this is the paradox death imposes upon us: it grants us the possibility of a meaningful life even as it takes it away.

He continues, “we cannot live forever, to be sure, but neither would we want to,” and I believe the same is true for happiness. Would I want to be happy forever? No, because then I could not truly understand what it means to be happy.

And though I believe fully in shooting for a middle-ground, and understand how important this is for the sake of mental health, I also revel in the ups and downs that the universe hands me (or I hand myself?) as a way to feel fully alive.

We can’t get rid of death (well, according to most, though Jason Silva disagrees), and by the same token, we can’t get rid of melancholy. The question is, why do we continue to fight so hard against both?

Do you think sadness or melancholy should be avoided at all costs? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: digitalbob8

Drugs certainly hold the possibility of being mind-expanders, at least for some people.

And many travelers have had the opportunity to partake in an illegal drug or two while visiting spiritually-enhancing areas, which also hold the potential of many years in an extremely scary foreign prison if caught.

But this guy goes above and beyond what few have done, or would ever contemplate doing. The British man, ‘Mr. A’ is reported to have taken 40,000 ecstasy pills over a nine-year period. The previously heaviest lifetime intake was 2,000.

Whoa.

Can’t imagine that was good for the brain, body, or spirit. According to doctors from London University, it wasn’t. The man stopped taking pills seven years ago, but still suffers from:

…severe physical and mental health side-effects, including extreme memory problems, paranoia, hallucinations and depression. He also suffers from painful muscle rigidity around his neck and jaw which often prevents him from opening his mouth.

And it seems like many of the symptoms are permanent. His short-term memory loss, including “the time, the day, what was in his supermarket trolley,” makes living life on a day-to-day basis a frighteningly hard task.

The Dark Side

Photo: azrainman

I think that most who have taken ecstasy, ranging from just once to more times than they would like to count, can still agree that 40,000 is a bit over the limit and would naturally cause trauma to the brain. But I’m a bit more interested in the why of choosing to ingest that massive amount.

Some people might just call this man crazy, off, mentally-deranged. Yet, something in me wonders if this is just an extreme example of what is happening for people all over the world.

A lack of connection – be it to community, self, or the spirit – pushes us, consciously or unconsciously, to search for that connection. For some, this can be a very positive experience, and as Jennifer Blair writes, can lead us to our soul place:

A soul place is an island, a building, a city, or a natural vista that speaks to you in a language unheard. It opens up a space within that you didn’t realize was closed.

For others, the drive may be toward darkness. From a traveler’s perspective, dark tourism, or “the practice of visiting sites related to death and suffering,” can put you face to face with the underbelly of humanity: genocide, natural disasters, terrorism, slavery, the effects of drugs on a community. These are the ugly parts of history that on certain levels, we all share.

And there are many things out there that can make us spiral further into the darkness, including drugs, alcohol, work, sex, TV – the list goes on. None of these things are bad in and of themselves, but it is when we come to depend on them to catch a glimpse of connection that we disconnect from that which we are searching for.

The key, according to many who are spiritually-inclined, is that we must fully and deeply look at our shadow, lest it take over. By shining a light on the darkness that is within each of us, it is no longer dark.

So I wonder, for this man and his 40,000 ecstasy pills (who has since dropped out of his doctor’s care), what shadow was he running from?

What do you think is behind this man’s ecstasy binge? Share your thoughts below.

God is a popular topic these days. Most people seem to have an opinion on a) what God is, and b) who’s side he (or she) is on.

And thus arises the problem: how can God be on more than one team at the same time? If humans are the sort of species that don’t mind a few glaring illogical realities, than we’d probably get along just fine. Unfortunately, as most of us know, humans aren’t that sort of species.

Instead, it appears ever since the idea of God took hold, we’ve decided to fight about it. The only thing that’s changed is the size of our weapons and the stakes of the conflict.

Luckily, filmmaker Peter Rodger decided it’s time once and for all to explore how God is perceived around the world. The film, premiering this Friday in the US, is Oh My God.

Watch the trailer:

Suitably intrigued, I decided to interview Peter about the film, and his epic experience shooting around the world.

The Interview

BNT: What initially compelled you to start this film?

PETER RODGER: Frustration. I was amazed in a shrinking world of enhanced communication, mankind can be so seemingly narrow minded. There seems to be such a childish schoolyard mentality that permeates our world – I call it the “My God Is greater than your God syndrome.”

Where you have grown men flying airplanes into buildings shouting “God is Great”; where you have the leader of the free world telling the BBC in 2003 that he invaded Iraq because God told him to; where you have the constitution of a country (Iran) that dictates that its supreme leader is God’s representative on earth; where you have young men and women blowing themselves up (and innocent others) to buy a place into heaven.

None of these concepts made any sense to me, so I thought it was about time someone went around the world and asked people what this entity that goes by the name of God means to them.

Did you have any expectations on the journey and what you would learn?

No. I just knew I was going along for an interesting ride. I wanted to rid myself of expectation and see what the experience would throw at me. I had no idea what I would learn when I set out. I was far too concerned about how to make a film out of such a wide, sensitive and seemingly unanswerable question!

Your film features some stunning cinematography and editing – at times resembling a music video. How important was this aesthetic to the content and message of your film?

Filmmaker Peter Rodger

Extremely important. Another reason I had for making the film was to be able to go shoot without clients around my head – make a film where I wanted to point the camera and not because someone was paying me to point the camera. (I’ve directed many commercials!)

The aesthetic became extremely important. There is also a sub plot going on in the film. I wanted to shoot the earth with as much artistic integrity as possible – to wrap the audience in the amazingly diverse beauty that surrounds us – in the guise of a bucolic landscape or the look in a child’s eye.

To use a biblical phrase, the earth became the garden of Eden for me. If you want to explore the entity of God – then open your eyes, grab a camera and shoot it. Music played an enormous part in the process. Film is sound and vision. I would cut sequences with John Hoyt, my editor and then Alex Bubenheim would score to it – but in two instances in the film – we switched.

Alex had come with me on to Australia and Japan and had recorded all sorts of music/vibes/sounds etc that he incorporated into a track – so we cut to the track instead of vice versa – which gives you – as you said – a music video vibe in places. It’s a film full of amazing words and information – throwing 2 sequences into the mix like this has the effect of pulling you back and keeping a pace at the same time.

What were the challenges of travelling with a small crew? What are the advantages?

The challenges were a bad back and having to do EVERYTHING split between myself and my one crew member – Line Producer Patrick Ellis. But it is amazing what training does for you.

Masaii Tribesman

I learnt to put things back! Instead of just leaving a lens cap, or a filter somewhere for some assistant to deal with – I actually PUT IT AWAY! Amazing. It soon became that I could prepare the camera and prep to shoot in complete darkness without thinking, – just by knowing exactly where everything was.

The advantages for the film were amazing. We shot under the radar – no one would know we were making a theatrical movie. We slipped in and out of places, unseen, as tourists or NGO workers or whatever.

Once we walked into the Palestinian Parliamentary building one Thursday afternoon unannounced in Ramalah and got amazing stuff and a great interview with a Hamas leader. If we had a full crew – with assistants and production coordinators, translators and egos – we would have been arrested and locked up – especially as we didn’t have a permit.

In your opinion, why do people all over the world have a need to believe in God?

Because they don’t have the courage to believe in themselves. They have been conditioned to believe in something greater than the sum of all their parts. They are scared of death, and don’t know where they came from.

We are all just primitive little organisms on a big rock in a scary vacuum desperate to have something to hold onto. God, usually in the image of something, and mostly in the image of man, becomes a comfy thing to hold onto. The trouble starts when people hold on so hard they push other human beings away.

What Mankind has to learn is that there is room for us all.

Who were the people you met that appeared the most profoundly at peace? How did their understanding of God (or the divine) contribute towards their peace?

Zen Master Kanju Tanaka from Kyoto Japan. He was wonderful and made so much sense. Being a Zen master he rejects the concept of God. He believes that we are already in paradise – we are already here and conscious now because we have earned our place in paradise – here – already.

For some, life on earth is hell. It is up to the individual to have peace and realize that problems are self created and then even in the most dire situations with the right outlook and in-look we can learn to make our hell – heaven. That concept is very powerful.

At one point in the film, you make that connection that conflict is usually caused by two things: land and religion. I would argue even further – conflict at its core is never about religion. It’s about human insecurities cloaking themselves under religious guise. Do you feel in some ways the search to unite us in the common thread of belief detracts from the social and economic reasons behind world conflicts?

All wars are about money/land and most use religion as the excuse. Throw in emotion and you have a lethal cocktail. Good news is no news.

We are all guilty – filmmakers, journalists, readers and watchers – of that one. Nobody talks about the great charitable work each religious institution executes. They just talk about the guy that blew himself up, and the blood and turmoil he caused. No one mentions institutions like Rabbis and Imams for Peace – they just talk about katyusha rockets and walls.

When it comes to conflict it’s about the club in which people belong – that maim those that don’t belong. So the answer to your question is yes.

Who was the most surprising interview you conducted?

Christian Hernandez, the little boy with cancer. (I am very happy to say he went through a bone marrow transplant and is doing REALLY WELL and he came to a screening last week.) I asked him – “What is your greatest wish today?” His answer blew me away – but you have to go see the film to find out why!

By the end of the film, how did your perception of God change? And what was the most important insight you learned about yourself?

Oh boy! My perception of God melted from any human form into a much more powerful force – a glue if you like – that binds humanity together.

I think Jesus Christ was bang on when he said he was the son of God because I think we’re all the son of God. We are all right now collectively what a lot of people would refer to as God – the Anima Mundi – the reservoir of every thought that has ever taken place in the history of time.

And what was the most important insight I learned about myself? To learn to let go.

Oh My God opens this week. Check the website for showtimes.

What do you think about the diversity of God? Is it a concept humanity needs to let go? Or does it serve a binding purpose?

Photo: Eddi 07

Part III: Return

To see our lives in the poetic light of a heroic quest is empowering. It frames our experience in a creative context.

Imagining ourselves as heroes in the cause of our own lives is to embody timeless attributes. Far from childish fantasy, it’s a powerful and motivating vision for facing life’s challenges as champions of our own stories.

Yet every journey ends, and there comes the need for home. Outlasting the journey is a kind of impotence in fighting the return – a running away from connection. But re-entry is a challenging process, and perhaps a greater test of heroism than undertaking the journey itself. The unconscious bonds with home must be reaffirmed or recreated, and the experience of the journey translated into ordinary terms. If this isn’t completed, there is no Return.

Joseph Campbell’s Hero Monomyth details the themes of the mythic journey, reflecting the issues of mortal travelers who experience profound transformation in their own travels. Rediscovering home – wherever it may be – is the final leg of the journey, often taking longer to come to terms with than the time spent in travel.

The Six Stages of Return

1) Refusal of the Return: Reaching the end of journey and winning the spiritual prize, the hero may be tempted not to resume their life in the home they left.

Photo: h.koppdelaney

Campbell noted, “…the responsibility has been frequently refused. Even the Buddha, after his triumph, doubted whether the message of realization could be communicated, and saints are reported to have passed away while in the supernal ecstasy. Numerous indeed are the heroes fabled to have taken up residence in the blessed isle of the unaging Goddess of Immortal Being.”

The hero faces a kind of fatigue, a skepticism of meaningful placement within their original context. There’s a tale of a mighty warrior who refused home, asking to be granted eternal sleep. When his rest was disturbed, he had the choice of rejoining the world of men.

Again, he declined, and “retreated to the highest mountains”, and there dedicated himself to the ascetic practices that should finally release him from his last attachment to the forms of being. Said Campbell, “…in other words, instead of returning, (he) decided to retreat still further from the world. And who shall say that his decision was altogether without reason?”

2) The Magic Flight: Leaving “Dream World” for “Common World” is easier said than done; it’s difficult to convert the radical experience of initiation into a mundane plot. A hero may become trapped by the psychological impact of the transformation – and the abyss that has been stared into will stare back.

But all hope is not lost. According to Campbell, if the hero locates and grasps a sense of purpose in the prize of their journey, “the final stage of (the) adventure is supported by all the powers of his supernatural patron.” Yet, he continued:

On the other hand, if the trophy has been attained against the opposition of its guardian, or if the hero’s wish to return to the world has been resented by the gods or demons, then the last stage of the mythological round becomes a lively, often comical, pursuit. The flight may be complicated by marvels of magical obstruction and evasion.

3) Rescue from Without: “The hero may have to be brought back from his supernatural adventure from without. That is to say, the world may have to come and get him.” Heroes sometimes require some kind of prompt to escape the egoless Dream World.

The true climax of the Hero’s Journey is not in the winning of the boon, but in re-participation. Returning home is about regaining the ties that bind; the emphasis here is that the connection has always been within reach, though perhaps disguised. It is “paradoxical, supremely difficult” – but all Dorothy needs to do is click her rubied heels together.

4) The Crossing of the Return Threshold: The hero returns home intact with their knowledge of the other side – an awareness that spans barriers which must be kept ever separate.

Photo: Eddi 07

The hero has passed through something which cannot be defined in Common World, but which must yet find a voice. For example, when someone speaks of a powerful vision of love, they speak of timelessness, inner conviction and need that swallow other needs.

How can love be made into an easily-related symbol? Its unexplainable nature shows “the reality of the deep is not belied by that of common day.” Even more unnerving: the artifacts from the journey are seemingly more potent than those of the Common World, operating from a primordial energy with its own inscrutable logic.

More than the bravery of confronting the inner fears and entering the incongruous Dream World, “The returning hero, to complete his adventure, must survive the impact of the world.”

5) Master of Two Worlds: The hero now embodies both worlds, no longer fully of one or the other. Harmonizing one domain with the other is the cosmopolitan challenge of mastery – deciphering a mystic experience without defeating it.

The difficulty is that the discoveries cannot be represented simply – and this is the problem with understanding myth in general. As Campbell explained, “The problem… is to keep [the] symbol translucent so that it may not block out the very light it is supposed to convey.” The hero must find a context for interpretation, relate their unrelatable experiences as a form of mastery.

Keeping this doorway open is “freedom to pass back and forth across the world division… not contaminating the principles of one with those of the other.”

6) Freedom to Live: After witnessing the relationship of oneness that all things are part of, the hero shifts beyond the narrow confines of ego into a selfless existence.

Photo: h.koppdelaney

The meeting with the unknown dispels “the need for such life ignorance by effecting a reconciliation of the individual consciousness with the universal will.”

It’s to abandon mere preference for a greater connection, a surrender of staunch certainty to admit the absurd – to accept the indefinable as a natural condition. Casting off these demands frees the perception of life to include many more possibilities to meet the unknown flexibly.

Entering adventure and returning home is to share with others the greater kingdom beyond that of the little king. Campbell understood why myth continues to resonate in the modern heart: because it is a cord tethered to the past, a link to the basic elements of the human equation and our common nature. More than that, they can be used as stepping stones to our own potential – a path we can follow in the steps of the hero.

Have you had a hard time reintegrating at home after your own Hero’s Journey? Share your thoughts below.

Read the series:

• Part I, Heroic Travel: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Mythic Journey
• Part II, Heroic Travel: Navigating the Mythic Journey.

Photo: yosoyjulito

Part II: Initiation

Travel is a fundamentally human activity, practiced around the world for thousands of years. It’s about discovery – the passion of following where an unknown road will lead us – and it can reshape how we see the world and ourselves within it.

The same can be said about myth. The reasons for travel are identical to why we study myth: to explore new ways of life, to learn more about the world, and to better understand the nature of human imagination.

What no mythologist before Joseph Campbell recognized was the relevance of myth to issues of contemporary living. He was keenly aware that myth can speak to the modern world. The key is to view myth as a metaphor of spiritual instruction, rather than historical fact. Campbell believed fixating on literal readings leaves us blind to underlying messages. Myths provide existential signposts to navigate by, and they should be read symbolically, not factually.

For example, imagine a man getting ready to go to work in the morning. He kisses his wife and says, “I’m off to slay the dragons.” Certainly we understand his meaning – he’s going to face the day’s challenges, not to chase down oversized lizards. He casts himself in the metaphoric role of a hero.

However, if he walks out the door with a sword in hand, he has taken the metaphor literally. The problem isn’t only that this is inappropriate for the office, even on casual day. By recreating the image literally, he misses the point of the heroic image – the deeper meaning of the figurative message.

Where the Mythic Road Leads

Campbell’s hero endures mythic themes in their journey, and some of the most profound are encountered in the world outside home, or “Dream World”. Echoing the spiritual experiences of many travelers, Initiation to the mystery involves six stages:

Photo: h.koppdelaney

1) The Road of Trials: The Dream World represents the proving grounds of the hero’s aptitude. Marked by a fair amount of stumbling, the hero faces surface challenges of every kind: mental, physical, emotional, ethical, devotional, and so on.

The trials of the volatile dream realm are preparation, a chance to learn the rules. Heroes may suffer the return of doubt, but facing these obstacles proves the hero’s worth. Only those who “talk the talk and walk the walk” can progress to future stages.

2) The Meeting with the Goddess: “Woman,” wrote Campbell, “in the picture language of mythology, represents the totality of what can be known.” A common feature of the Hero’s Journey is to encounter divine feminine insight, interpreted as “true seeing”.

Though traditionally depicted as male, literal translation of the hero’s gender is not the message. Spoken in today’s dialect, the theme of this stage is to harmonize masculine action with feminine mystique, uniting both aspects of the hero’s identity without one facet overwhelming the other.

For a hero too soft or gruff to the union, the journey becomes anti-heroic. Execution and essence must be balanced to bring the hero’s identity into accord, without losing grace or potency. Vigor becomes brutishness, charm becomes conceit, if one side overshadows the other.

Only by display of the “gentle heart” do heroes and heroines court their “missing half” – a step which affirms the full range of the engendered psyche.

3) Woman as Temptation: Arguably not part of every journey, this stage refers to the ever-present libido. Campbell regards the issue of sexuality as critical: heroes mustn’t be lured either from the journey or their own identity. Embracing the goddess of knowledge, a hero is also made conscious of the “impurity” or “carnality” of contact across borders – movement is sexual.

Often a prelude to union (some might say reunion) with the goddess, the hero must deal with enticement from the path. Like a flame with the power to help or harm, respect for the union must be paid. Walling off the dark side creates stress, while contact with the radiant source of life burns and corrupts the hero’s higher self. The conflict is to stay in control – resisting the siren’s lure is freedom to choose, versus servitude to personal demons.

4) Atonement with the Father: This stage begins the climax of Initiation: to amass the final powers needed to assume the mantle of the role model. In simpler terms, it’s to say, “I can do it myself” – to change potential into confidence.

By incorporating the symbolic position of father (or mother, if female), the hero also integrates a model of the “law” – the law of how to live on one’s own terms. Campbell described this stage as developing the vital wisdom for the final prize to complete the Initiation. He saw it as a form of atonement (“at-one-ment”) with one’s potential, to see the parental figure as a mortal keeper of wisdom, not an unapproachable warden.

Photo: h.koppdelaney

“The hero transcends life with its peculiar blind spot and for a moment rises to glimpse the source. He beholds the face of the father, understands – and the two are atoned.”

5) Apotheosis: Apotheosis means “to become godlike”. The responsibility earned in the previous stage opens the hero to a new way to relate to life, the final step needed to face the “shadow-self” – the greatest threat to the hero’s character.

This is an encounter with a kind of death: a death of innocence, of “what-was”, similar to the passing on from home into the Dream World itself. The “way things were” is shattered and reintegrated; the ego dissolves and recrystallizes in a new awareness – a rebirth. The hero encompasses their naïve past, the present of their new role, and direction of the future with the fresh power they now control.

6) The Ultimate Boon: In the rebirth, the hero wins a spiritual prize. Often depicted mythically as a magic elixir, cup or device that grants immortality, endless food and water, or healing, it may also appear as treasure or a powerful new awareness. Yet these are still symbols of the boon’s real meaning: an end to suffering, to mend a rift or heal a wound. The prize supports the sense of harmonious life, and the true essence of the reward is to move beyond symbols to revelation.

A gift to be shared, the boon confirms myth as a means to link individuals to the causes of their communities. But the revelation presents a new barrier: how to connect the new self to the life left behind. The journey becomes a mirror of itself: having translated Dream World, the hero must relate their insight to the departed Ordinary World. The journey is not yet complete – the decision of where to establish home is considered in the next phase, Return.

Have you experienced travel similar to Campbell’s mythic journey? Share your thoughts below.

Read the series:

• Part I, Heroic Travel: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Mythic Journey
• Part III, Heroic Travel: The Mythic Art of Homecoming.

Illustration: alicepopkorn

I’ve been meditating regularly for about ten years now. I have to say, I’m much more relaxed than I used to be. I don’t worry as much, and I’ve become more patient.

I’m also more aware of how my mind works. I see patterns in the way I think and approach things. This makes me more aware of faults that I previously hadn’t noticed. I’ve also become more comfortable with who I am.

There are many different meditation techniques. The goals are generally the same; however, the methods for reaching that goal vary widely.

Meditation is a way to change your attitude towards life. As you practice, you gradually become more relaxed and feel more connected to other people around you. But even though it sounds easy, it’s harder than it seems.

How it works

In the type of meditation I practice, Vipassana, the basic idea is to teach you to accept things the way they are. When you meditate, you actually practice accepting reality, and like anything, the more you practice the better you get. Gradually you become more able to accept the things you cannot control while working to change the things you can.

When you meditate, you try to do two things.

First, you try to pay attention to the breath going in and out of your nose without controlling it. You just watch it. When you notice that your mind has wandered and you are thinking about something else, you bring your attention back to your breath.

The second thing that you try to do is to accept how you are doing. If you can barely pay attention at all, you just try to accept it without getting annoyed. This is contrary to the way we’ve thought our whole lives. When you try to do something, if you do it well, you are happy. If you do it badly, you become unhappy.

While you are meditating, you may accept how you are doing for a while, but inevitably something will come up in your mind that you don’t accept. You may become bored, or tired, or uncomfortable, or you will want to feel differently than you do.

You just have to try to accept these feelings. Of course you won’t be able to do this. But by practicing regularly, you gradually improve your ability to accept whatever you experience.

Practicing Acceptance

Being able to accept things for what they are effects many different aspects of your life. You become more accepting of people not acting how they’re “supposed to” act.

Photo: roshnill

These are the main causes of anger in life — you become less angry in circumstances that tend to make you angry and gradually anger begins to wash out of you. Instead of allowing the emotion to boil up inside, you say to yourself, “Whatever happens, happens. I’ll deal with it.”

This helps remove the fear of the unknown which tends to keep people from having a full life because they’re afraid of uncertainty. In the same way, meditation helps diminish people’s fear of change. As you become less fearful of the unknown, you become less fearful of the future being different from how you want.

And when you aren’t afraid of the future, you can enjoy the present more fully.

How to Practice

After a meal, you tend to be more tired and less alert. That’s why I’ve found it’s better to meditate on an empty stomach. You can sit with your legs crossed, but it’s not necessary. If you do, you should sit on an incline or put a pillow under your butt. This will help keep your back straight.

A comfortable position is crucial. You shouldn’t lie down because you’re a lot more likely to fall asleep. I meditate with my eyes closed to reduce distractions, but there are people who meditate with their eyes open. There are different schools of thought on this. Both work, so just pick whichever one feels right.

Try to pay attention to the breath going in and out of your nose. If your breath is deep, that’s fine. If it’s shallow, that’s fine. If it’s relaxed, that’s fine. If it’s not, that’s fine.

Your job is not to judge or control, simply to observe. If you can feel the breath touching the inside of your nostrils, then you should feel it. If you can’t feel anything, just notice when it is entering your nose and when it is leaving. It doesn’t matter how well you can pay attention, only that you keep trying to pay attention.

Your mind will wander, and it’s shocking how quickly it will wander, often after less than one breath. When you notice this, bring your thoughts back to your breath. When it wanders again, bring it back again.

The goal is to work without caring how it goes. However, you will find that you do care how it is going. As you practice, you will improve and you will become more accepting of how you are doing.

After years of practice, my mind often wanders as much as it did when I started. The big change is that I am much more able to accept this fact. THIS IS THE ONLY MEASURE OF PROGRESS.

Dealing with Frustration

There are many different ways you may not like how your meditation is going. You might get frustrated at your awful concentration; you might get bored; you might feel angry, sad, upset or annoyed; you might want the meditation to relax you and get frustrated that this isn’t happening, or countless other things.

But you have to realize that this is how meditation works. It’s supposed to bring up these feelings so you can learn to accept them. When you work out, you use weights that are difficult to lift because that is what makes you stronger.

It’s the same way with meditation. It’s designed to be difficult.

Sometimes when you are meditating, you can have strange experiences. You might experience emotions for no apparent reasons. You might see lights, or your body may feel like it’s a single point. You might have visions pop into your head.

There are countless different things that can happen, and they all make it harder to pay attention to your breath. If they do happen, you should treat them like every other distraction and try to pay attention to your breath as well as you can, regardless of the distraction.

As well, the way you are meditating can change from minute to minute and from day to day. It can be frustrating to have what you consider an acceptable meditation one day and one that you are unhappy with the next. Try to accept that this is just how it works. If you cannot accept this and are still frustrated, try to accept that your mind is frustrated.

Practice Regularly

It is important to keep a regular practice. I would suggest starting at no less than fifteen minutes and gradually increase the time as you progress.

Photo: el photopakismo

As time goes on, you will develop a more relaxed form of concentration. This may seem paradoxical because we normally associate strong concentration with a tense, furrowed brow.

Meditation changes the way you view the world, so many of the analogies people use to describe it can at first seem contradictory. As you begin to practice, these examples begin to make more sense.

Let’s say you are in a situation that makes you upset or angry. Try to accept the situation. Just by trying to accept it, you are practicing accepting things, which gradually improves this ability.

If you are too agitated to accept the situation, notice the effect that the situation is having on your body. In the same way that fear creates a sensation in your stomach, all strong negative emotions create noticeable sensations in your body. Observe how the anger or frustration affects you physically and try to accept the physical feeling.

This is something more concrete to work with than the abstract emotion. In addition to helping improve your ability to accept things, you begin to use negative experiences to recognize the positive side to them. They begin to have purpose in your life, just as much as joyful events.

Meditation and Faith

It should be evident that you don’t need to follow any religion or believe in God to get the benefits of meditation. However, every major religion incorporates some form of meditation. I think this is because meditation can help deepen you faith.

The reason many people are atheists is that they look at all the awful things in the world and cannot see how there could possibly be a God who cares about people. However, people who have a faith tend to say that everything happens for a reason that we cannot always understand God’s plan.

There are different levels of faith. When something awful happens, like the death of a loved one, a person of faith is able to cope because they feel like it is part of God’s plan, or at least derive a reason from the loss. However, someone without faith can be easily upset by minor setbacks because they cannot accept that every event can be learned from.

As you use negative events in your life to develop your ability to accept things, you begin to find a purpose in them. This makes you feel more like negative events are just as important as positive events. As you progress in meditation, your faith will deepen. You will also begin to understand how religion is connected to meditation.

There’s an old saying, “Prayer is like talking to God, and meditation is like listening to God.”

Many meditation schools teach that if you want meditation to have an effect on your life, it is important to live in a moral way. One of the main reasons has to do with the attitude you cultivate through meditation. It helps you feel more connected to people.

When you act selfishly and screw people over, you act as if you are only accountable to yourself. When you act selflessly, you are working to develop an attitude of awareness and compassion, enhancing the attitude that meditation develops.

Free meditation courses

One great way to progress in your meditation and delve deeper into your mind is to attend a free ten-day course given in over 20 different countries at a Vipassana Meditation Center.

They put you up for ten days and feed you for free. They operate only on donations given by people who’ve taken a course, but they don’t pressure you to donate. The catch is that it’s incredibly hard work. Their students meditate for ten hours a day (not in a row) for ten days straight.

When I first heard of the course, I thought there was no way in hell I could meditate for ten hours a day — I could barely sit for 30 minutes. But after talking with some people who had taken the course, they explained the hardest part was deciding to do it.

I gave it a shot. It surprised me when I learned that that 90% of the students finish the course and many are experiencing meditation for the first time. But I made it through, and I highly recommend the course for anyone willing to challenge themselves.

For a list of centers and course dates, visit www.dhamma.org

Community Connection

Waiting around for the best time to meditate? Think again. Read Why You’ll Never Find the Perfect Time To Meditate. And check out 20 Basic, Fun, Sexy Resources For Beginning Meditators.

Photo: King Chimp

The original plan for today was to find and write about something funny making it’s way around the internet, it being Friday and all.

Or maybe something about Halloween, its origins as All Hallows Eve, the day before the beautiful celebration of the Day of the Dead.

But instead, I feel a bit overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with being a woman, living today, in the world in which we live.

That might come as a surprise, what with me being a white gal living in America, and though far from rich, just as far from destitute.

Yet, I can’t turn off what happens to my sisters throughout the world, both abroad and right down the street. From death threats to a doctor who performs reconstructive surgery on women ripped to shreds through female genital mutilation, to the gang rape of a 15-year-old high school student by up to ten 16-25 year-olds in the town next to where I used to live, we are not safe.

We are mothers, we are sisters, we are friends. We give the gift of life to those who wish to keep us down or take our lives.

I can’t help but recount the number of women I’ve known that have been sexually abused, assaulted, or raped repeatedly. There are many more that have than not. I also can’t help but struggle with my own “maybe” and all the implications it has had for my life. Who would I be now if it, whatever “it” was, hadn’t happened?

The Power of a Single Moment

Think, for just a moment, what effect we have on each other in our passing interactions every single day. Bridges are built or destroyed by single words or sentences, intentions are paramount to success or failure, and whether we choose to scream out in anger or somehow engage in dialogue can impact us for hours, days, weeks and months to come.

Photo: Ingorrr

Now think about the long term impact of an unwanted, and as is often the case for young girls, a misunderstood advance. The repercussions are a life of mistrust of themselves just as much as others, and acting out in ways in can take a long time to process or come to terms with.

Further down the line, you have women that will never, ever, EVER experience sexual pleasure in their lives – and in a way, what it means to be a woman – because all that is left “down there” is scar tissue.

What about the ever present “rape as war tactic” that is valued by military (and apparently, peacekeepers) the world over, despite the recent UN resolution classifying it as a weapon of war? What exactly does that resolution do to change anything?

And maybe, worst of all (is this even an area for comparisons?), are those girls and women, living in “free” Western countries, who are sexual slaves. Look no further than the Houston Maria Bonita Cantina or the Asian massage parlors in San Francisco to contemplate the complete ravage of life this $8 billion international industry promotes. I’d honestly rather be dead than in their place.

The End of Oppression?

As I write, I wonder if this world will ever exist without the oppression of women. Even that word, oppression, hardly scratches the surface of what these tactics do to women; they rob part of our soul. There has got to be a word that when said, strikes at the heart of men who commit acts against women – something that implores them to feel what tremendous pain and anguish their actions cause.

At the very least, I’m amazed again and again at the resilience I see in the many beautiful women that surround me near and far. There is a small part of me that understands that even if they rob a bit of your soul, it’s regenerative, like a starfish. We have the power to heal ourselves.

But what can also help it to regenerate are the men who understand it’s not about protecting the women you love – it’s about changing the mindset of the men who don’t love women.

Please share your thoughts on this subject below.

Photo: h.koppdelaney

Part I: Separation

Joseph Campbell returned home from his studies in Europe soon after his twenty-fifth birthday. Inspired by the brilliant tapestry of thought he encountered there, he planned to combine modern art, medieval literature and Sanskrit into a single doctoral thesis.

Predictably, his advisors didn’t support the idea.

This prompted Campbell to abandon doctoral work completely, leaving him without a clear direction in his studies or his life. Two weeks after his decision, the Wall Street Crash of October 29th, 1929 left millions of Americans suddenly destitute.

Yet Campbell was about to embark on a quest – one which would endure throughout the Great Depression to generate a remarkable new vision.

Committing himself to an arduous program of private study, he buried himself in books for twelve hours a day, supporting himself in the evening by playing sax in a jazz combo. After five years of rigorous self-education, he emerged a formidable authority in comparative mythology and religion, fusing philosophy, psychology and anthropology with – sure enough – art, literature and Eastern studies.

The Role of Myth in Everyday Life

Photo: !anaughty!

One of Campbell’s great talents was to connect seemingly unrelated ideas into harmonious design. His most influential work came from linking archetypes, or fundamental human themes, to myths from around the world.

Campbell believed myths were more than just fanciful stories – they were guides to dealing with the mysteries of existence.

What is the best way to live? How do we explain the natural forces all around us? Where do we fit in the grand scheme of life? Myths provide grounding beliefs for these questions.

Though many of the ancient tales seem absurd to modern sensibilities, we still invent our own myths to function in a world of unknowns. And, because these problems are inherently human, we confront them in ways which follow similar patterns.

The Hero’s Path

Campbell discovered that no matter where they originate, hero myths follow a consistent outline he called the Hero Monomyth – a template that applies not only to mythic tales but to our own lives.

In essence, this means any journey or life-altering event can be seen as a heroic quest. The Hero Monomyth offers points of reference to help orient the traveler with a meaningful experience of life. Depending on the level of involvement, journeys can be deeply transformative.

According to Campbell, a hero’s journey follows three stages:

• Separation (or Departure) – the hero leaves home to follow a defining mission.
• Initiation – the hero enters the Dream World, a place where normal rules are suspended.
• Return – the hero claims a transcendent prize and returns home to share it.

Leaving The Common World

Separation has five substages, each of which addresses an element of crisis in leaving home for the “undiscovered country”. It should be noted that not every theme will appear. Every journey is unique, as well as the lessons they teach.

The Call to Adventure

The hero receives a “call” to action, a prompt to leave the comfort of home for something more. Whether literal or figurative, the call may come in as many forms. The hero may be lured by curiosity to a strange new place, awaken to a new situation, have no other choice but to adventure, take a “wrong turn”, or suffer a significant loss.

The call carries with it a sense of destiny. Sometimes it is announced by a symbolic herald, or perhaps the “invitation” is misunderstood at first. Regardless, transformation begins at the hero’s discovery of need – something which may cause great distress or confusion.



Photo: h.koppdelaney

Refusal of the Call

In many cases, heroes are reluctant to face impending destiny – instead of answering the call, the hero hits the snooze bar.

The longer a hero denies fate, the more they or their loved ones suffer. This “converts the adventure into its negative,” and the hero becomes a victim to be rescued. Often, heroes are unaware of qualities that mark them for the quest. To join the adventure, heroes must escape the paralysis of doubt, or act in spite of it.

Supernatural Aid

After accepting the overture of destiny, a hero may encounter a helper with unique insight. Their purpose is to aid the journey with protective knowledge and tools. The patron appears mythically as a little man of the woods, a good fairy, a kindly crone, a blessed virgin, a respected wizard, or an innocent bystander. With luck, the hero will recognize an aide’s form when it arrives.

The Crossing of the First Threshold

The hero crosses the barrier separating the ordinary from the fantastic, a symbolic commitment to face the unknown. The crossing is seen as a subtle but meaning-laden “coincidence of opposites”, an intersection of normal and exotic, comfortable and alien. Defending the boundary may be a “threshold guardian” that chases off casual or unprepared travelers. Part of the test ahead is to respect the nature of the guardian – secretly, an embodiment of the hero’s fear.

The Belly of the Whale

Once past the barrier of extremes, the hero enters the Outlands: a dreamlike, hyperreal place where rules no longer apply and nothing can be assumed. This stage of “passing beyond” is key to a discovery of purpose; from outside, it resembles a kind of annihilation or death.

The new world reveals a fullness and dimensionality of life to the hero.

But the “betweenness” isn’t entered into lightly; the foolhardy or overconfident are soon undone. A hero’s task is to integrate the personal and cultural ghosts projected in this realm: some cannot, defensively blocking out the full experience.

Without honoring their commitment, there’s little to save the hero from defeat. But for others, their potential awaits.

What do you think of Joseph Campbell’s Hero Monomyth as it pertains to travel? Share your thoughts below.

Read the Series

• Part II, Heroic Travel: Navigating the Mythic Journey.
• Part III, Heroic Travel: The Mythic Art of Homecoming.

Photo: NeoGaboX

Yoga teacher Hilary Carter began to notice how often she would look at the clock and notice it was 11:11. Or 2:22. Or 3:33.

Since she was already the type to be interested in such “coincidences,” she decided to start following the numbers, à la The Celestine Prophecy, to see where they would lead her.

After beginning to compile “past lives, premonitions, and number signs,” she found herself purchasing an ancient convent in Spain in order to renovate it. As Hot Indie News noted, after her purchase:

First, her financial backer died, then her first builder ended up in prison and the second builder became paralyzed in a tragic accident – and all this only scratches the surface.

Carter’s book, The 11.11 Code: Secrets of the Convent, goes deeper into the adventures that entailed, but also invites each of us to contemplate our own destiny, and the signs available to direct the process.

Facing One’s Destiny

I remember a time in my life where the idea of such signs, connections, and karma didn’t touch the surface of my brain. I’m sure some beliefs around destiny were hidden somewhere deep inside of me, but they were nowhere near my intellectual comprehension.

Photo: whatmegsaid

And yet now, I live by signs and connections (well, most of the time anyway). Doing so certainly makes life more interesting, more full, and makes me feel, well, more connected.

I think when I’m traveling, I see it most – and can imagine that many of you would agree. That’s part of why it can be so hard to come “home” sometimes, to get back into a daily routine that seems to lack spark, intrigue, or any sense of a life force.

New places provide a sensory overload that is stimulating and satisfying, and people that often think completely opposite from you (or exactly like you, which is even more amazing).

But what if you brought that feeling and view point back home into your daily life? That’s certainly part of what we try and keep alive here at Matador, and debate on how exactly to fulfill this quest.

Often, you have to radically alter your conceptions and perceptions of “home” and whether money or career will dictate your life. Yet this process is powerful in and of itself, and really, isn’t life about shifting, changing, and getting better?

Sometimes, all it takes is to “let go” in whatever way you personally need to. As my friend Amar says, “I take life where it takes me.” Now, that’s a motto to live by.

Do you live by following signs in your life, or do you think it’s a bunch of new-age bunk? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: annnna.

We previously talked at BNT about what it might mean when white people take on heritages other than their own.

But I found dialogue on Reddit that delves into an area where we just scratched the surface. Someone posed the question, “What is white culture?”

The purpose and responses of that post happens to be about Glenn Beck’s comment that Obama has “hatred for white people or the white culture.”

Some of the readers believe Beck’s statement essentially implies that white culture is American, Christian and conservative. Other people say that there is no such thing as white culture, that culture in fact comes from:

Where you live, how you were raised, and the collective traditions, beliefs, and prejudices of the people around you.

What is Culture?

While making fun of white people can be well, funny, it got me thinking, is the term “white culture” even valid in the world? I’m taking this question beyond the borders of the US and even other white-majority countries.

Does being born white in Africa mean that a person is culturally linked to someone in Canada? Probably not, unless their family came from there.

But what if you paired the UK and the US, who share a language (minus accents), cultural heritage, and at least on a world stage, have remained political allies? Does the rest of the world think there exists, to some extent, a culture of shared whiteness between the two?

I can think of a lot of people from both the UK and the US who would not concur, though I can see how people in other parts of the world very much connect the two.

But I’m not sure if at this point in history, we can say that culture is at all based on race. While for some cultures, such as the Aboriginal people and South Asians, a large percentage of the people are still not of mixed races, on the whole, our world has intermeshed in a big way.

And place is also key – where you settle often ends up being the “culture” you take on.

This is not to say that culturally-based racism isn’t alive and thriving, or that keeping cultural history alive is not important; far from it. It is only to say that I’m not sure definitive lines can be placed according to race any longer.

And I’m not sure that we should ever listen to anything Glenn Beck has to say. But really, that’s another point entirely.

Do you think there is such a thing as “white” culture? Share your thoughts below.

Community Connection

Check out Matador Night’s Editor Kate Sedgewick’s piece White Privilege – Can You See it? to test your view of whiteness throughout the world. Don’t forget to read Buster’s illuminating piece (and the comments that came with it) about racism in Russia: Should People of Color Go To Russia?

Why does everyone have to have the same cupboard? This seemingly simple question sparks the journey of one kid who grew up under the influence of intolerant and fearful parents.

For another amazing short film, check out Sweet Dreams: An Epic Story About A Traveling Cupcake.

Makes me think there’s a melody all around us… if we listen close enough to hear it.

Want to get even closer with animals? Check out:

• 12 Steps To Healing Our Relationship With Wild Animals
• How To Put A Baby Elephant To Sleep
• Close Encounters: Reconnecting To Animals Through Our Primitive Nature

“Looking forward, thinking back”/Photo: HAMED MASOUMI

Whether you are a part of the world of travel, finance, or simply a human being in the Western Hemisphere, today certainly marks a tragic day in history.

Around the internet, you’ll find all sorts of pieces related to that fateful day in 2001, all the way from how Obama is handling terrorism to an extremely poignant recount of being in New York the morning of 9/11 by Matador’s own Tom Gates.

Here is a blurb from a 9/11 conversation on Reddit which asks, What were you doing on September 11th, 2001 when the planes hit?:

I called my girlfriend at the time and told her to stay at home because some bad stuff was going down. I made it to work in time to see the second plane hit the towers. Within hours, my company had 6 million dollars worth of software contracts canceled. A week later, 90% of the company was laid off. Over the next 7 years my rights were systematically destroyed, billions were wasted on an unjustified war and the name of America was dragged through the mud.

The terrorists won.

You may need to tweak the story a little, but the last sentence describes how many people feel.

Memorial To The Future

Memorials tend to remind us of the past. In essence, that is their purpose, beauty and how we honor innocent lives lost. But what if, along with remembering the horror of what happened, where we were when a tragic experience took place, or the sometimes painful repercussions of that experience, we contemplate all of the other amazing things that have happened since?

My big question for you on the 8th Anniversary of the US 9/11 is: where have you gone? Where have you traveled that you had previously never even contemplated going; what life work have you accomplished that might have once seemed impossible; what love has been brought into your life?

What have you learned about yourself, and the world, in order to make both better?

How have you memorialized lives lost, whether those lives were in New York at Ground Zero, fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan, your grandmother, or your 23-year-old friend that died of cancer? Beauty begets tragedy and tragedy begets beauty; what I think counts most is what you are doing with the only moment we are guaranteed: now.

Those who have given their lives willingly or unwittingly wouldn’t want it any other way.

What are some of the amazing things you’ve done since September 11, 2001? Share your experiences below.

Community Connection

Check out Julie Schwietert’s thoughts on last year’s anniversary of 9/11 in “History is ours, and people make history”: Some thoughts on 9/11. And I can’t reiterate enough the importance of reading Tom Gates view of 9/11 in 8:46 am, 9/11 Manhattan.

Photo: badlogik

I will attempt not to stray too far in the direction of ‘political’ in this post, but there will certainly be politics involved.

Mostly US politics in fact, so I will go ahead and apologize to those outside America, or who are trying to stay away from the madness. I’m not here to make anyone’s head explode.

But, there has been quite the ruckus about President Obama’s supposed “socialist agenda” stay-in-school speech being shown in classrooms, which finally occurred yesterday. The Obama administration has also had a tough week with what I see as the forced resignation of Van Jones, the Green Jobs czar, over the fact that several years ago, he signed a petition asking that the Bush administration be investigated for allowing 9/11 to happen.

The specific issues don’t really matter when it comes down to it; there will always be something. For me, it brings up the question of how we, both as a nation, and as a world, plan to ever move forward.

We don’t all have to believe the same things, and we never will, but we need to be respectful of each other in the process, whether the question be about religion, our sexual orientation, or our politics. We are 99.9% genetically identical, and doesn’t that count for something?

Or really, most everything?

Thinking Critically and Repectfully

I was moved by a piece by Terrance Heath on Huffington Post entitled, How To Think. In it, Health talks about a high school teacher he once had named Mr. Harrison. Mr. Harrison was politically conservative and a devout Christian, while Heath was a gay teenager who was reading the The Gnostic Gospels.

Photo: Capture Queen ™

But instead of pushing a particular agenda, this teacher was doing what all teachers should do: showing kids how to think critically, and then make up their own mind.

For example, Harrison was supportive of Heath and other students as they wrote letters to the school board opposing the banning of certain books, even though Harrison didn’t approve of some of the books in question.

To think critically, we must see and hear both sides of the story, and come up with our own truth. This truth may not coincide with the truth of the person next to you, but hopefully in the process, you’ll come to understand, at a least a bit, where they are coming from.

Blogger Munz spends this whole post trying to convince us of Van Jones “socialist” and “communist” roots, which are just so anti-American. I certainly have quite a bit to say about this, having worked in the same social justice circles as Jones. But instead, I’ll just ask, so what?

How many openly racist, sexist, and/or classist conservatives have held office over the years, and are those things that the US was supposedly founded on? No. Can these people still do their job? Probably. Because each and every one of us holds some “extreme” beliefs that other people will not agree with.

Stop Blaming, Start Listening

I’m not trying to blame only the right in America – the left is just as guilty in spouting inflammatory remarks. Same goes for either side of a belief system in just about every country in the world.

Maybe the deeper question here is why, as a world facing economic hardship, fear of persecution on just about all sides, and environmental implications that could easily mean the end for us all – really, really soon – do we continue to have these snide and unapologetic discussions in mainstream media? Why are we burning our brain cells on standing in place?

Critical thinking, and listening on ALL sides, is necessary now more than ever.

What do you think it will take to make the world move forward instead of stand still? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: jcheng

I found myself around two old friends in the past week who are living extremely hectic lives.

One friend is in law school, and barely has a moment to breathe, much less sleep or eat properly.

The other has a four-month-old baby to breastfeed, along with taking care of her 22-month-old, working a couple of night shifts as a nurse, finishing her Masters, and somehow cooking and cleaning.

Yeah…

I watched as they moved frantically around me and thought, “wow, I’m not doing enough in my life.” Even as the law school friend’s head just about hit the table at dinner, and I barely exchanged a word in four days with the friend who is a mother, I berated myself for taking too much time to, well…relax.

And then I thought about what “too much” looked like, and how it made me feel, in my 20s: extremely sick.

What You Love

Erica Johansson’s (not related to Scarlet, as far as I can tell) recent blog, Reminding Myself of What I Love, drove it home even further. Many of us can get caught up in what we see other people doing, and compare ourselves – positively or negatively – to how we perceive them.

Instead, as Erica points out, it feels better (and I believe, gets us further) to remind ourselves of what we love in our life. The best part about her list is the fact that she names pretty simple things, ones most people can do pretty much anywhere in the world. Yoga, reading, writing, music, movies, water, driving, cycling, running, dancing, food, and museums made her cut.

As I sat on a long train ride Saturday, I thought about what would make my list, things I could do on the road as well as at home. This is what I came up with:

• Travel
• Writing
• Dance
• Being connected to others
• Driving a different car than my own
• Balancing food (having a little bit from every type of food, but knowing what feels best to my body to eat)
• Hiking
• Plain old excitement

I could go on, but I’ll stop there. The point of this little exercise, though, is palpable: thinking about what you love in your life takes away the need, or desire, to compare yourself to others.

And isn’t at least one of the points of life to find contentment with what you have?

What makes your list of things that you love? Share your lists in the comments.

Community Connection

Interested in finding out the guilty pleasures of Matador editors? Then check out Travel Guilty Pleasures: What’s Yours? And if you want to employ the simple pleasure of saying “Cheers!” just about anywhere in the world, How To Say “Cheers!” In 50 Languages is your go-to reference.

Photo: inhisgrace

Have to admit, I had a few toxic thoughts this weekend.

First, there was some jealousy of the many friends, acquaintances, and basically everyone surrounding me in Truckee, California who are on their way to Burning Man. This is the first year I really wanted to go, was supposed to perform, and have been living in a town right off the I-80 path to Black Rock City. But I couldn’t afford to go.

Then there was a feeling of being disconnected from one friend, my roommate, and a couple of other people I was hoping to meet up with. Feeling disconnected with one person is doable for me, but these things tend to come in threes, and end up making me feel pretty unhappy.

Yet, toward the end of the weekend, I came across the piece, 10 Ways To Transform Toxic Thoughts by Sandra Ingerman. Aha, right, there is something I can do.

Whether we are on the road or at home, we all face some of those moments or days (or weeks), but without sounding too new-agey (I’m trying hard here), we do have a choice of how to look at things. Sometimes we just need a little prompt to see things in a different light.

In that vain, here are my favorite four ways, from Ingerman’s list, to transform those ugly, unhelpful thoughts:

Breathe Through Your Heart

She says: “Place your hands on your heart and feel your heart moving as you breathe.”

Photo: helgasms!

We often forget both the power of breath and the power of the heart, much less the power of touch (even our own). Put all of those together, and you have a recipe for feeling calmer, safer, and less toxic.

Don’t forget breathing through your stomach. The number one thing that quiets my sometimes extremely loud head is the breath of fire, a kundalini yoga technique.

Breathing at a very fast pace seems to clear out my anxiety and leave my mind soft (yes, you are free to compare it to sex – I have no problem with that).

Express, Don’t Send

One of the issues that I was having this weekend was feeling an acquaintance had some sort of a problem with me, though I had no idea what. I sat with the feeling of anger and general pissed-off-ness (’what did I ever do to him?’), vaguely understanding that hurt lived underneath that anger. Finally, after rolling the situation around in my head for so long that I couldn’t sleep, I realized I had to say something.

I’ve learned that in this life, with my personality, I need to express myself or I will eventually explode in a much less constructive way (to put it mildly). I actually believe most of us need to verbally express our issues, but we are taught we aren’t supposed to, that we need to keep the peace. Yet I wonder if more peace would occur if we actually expressed our feelings more often.

So I want to shift the “don’t send” part of this one to “don’t send negative thoughts and feelings.” Express what you have to say in a respectful and constructive manner. For me this weekend, I started out wanting to write an email saying, “What the hell is your problem with me?” It evolved to asking if there was something that happened which bothered him, as I was feeling hurt by his disregard, and I wanted to clear the air.

Much less toxic.

Connect With Nature

Sometimes, this is easier to do on the road than at home. I know that nature saved me this weekend. Right now, I’m lucky enough to be in a place that is filled with amazing fir trees, so many hikes it would take a lifetime to do them all, and more watering holes (of the lake variety) than most states contain.

Photo: Mike Pedroncelli

I sat by the Truckee River on a warm rock, feet dipped in the cool water, getting my Vitamin D on. It was lovely.

You can’t help but feel better, physically and emotionally, once you get outside in nature. If you don’t have that luxury, try and have a plant or an animal close by – they can also work wonders.

Respond With Love

Ah, yes. The easiest and the hardest thing to do in life: show love. It’s especially hard to show appreciation when someone, or something, has hurt you. And feeling angry, hurt, or upset is completely valid. Just don’t let it take you down.

After fully feeling the pain, it can be really healing to respond with love to whatever has hurt you. It changes the energy of the situation, and probably even the outcome.

If you can’t seem to show love because it feels like the other person doesn’t deserve it, do it for you. Then you get to move on with your life and bring more good people into it.

So I’m sending lots of love to everyone I know and don’t know who is heading to Burning Man, to my roommate, and those I have felt a bit disconnected from. And I’m taking that love along with me to the East Coast. See you guys on the other side!

What are other things a person can do to transform toxic thoughts? Share your ideas below.

Photo: Burning Blog

Life changing. Mind blowing. Complete insanity. These are just a few of the words I’ve heard tossed about when mentioning Burning Man to those that have made the pilgrimage to the sands of Nevada.

I decided this was my year. It’s time to experience the mayhem and beauty first-hand.

I have no idea what to expect, but I do know that a few familiar faces around Matador Network will be joining me, including Ross Borden and Josh Johnson.

As well I hope to meet up with inspiring travelers from around the web, including Pat the Vagabond, the rest of the crew from Camp Nomadia.

On the eve of such a trip, I find myself reflecting on the many people I’ve recently met in person, or more likely, online. These are people busy doing. They are changing the world in their own way. Or more appropriately, they are changing their own worlds, which in turn affects the world at large.

I can’t say exactly how we cross paths. A meeting through a friend, an article published online, a comment left on a blog. I like to think we’re both putting out the vibes. This in turn, attracts people on a similar wave length. It’s like…science for the spiritual.

Sometimes, we trade ideas for collaboration. We fire each other up with our mutually positive energy. We know there’s a project we could work on… but…

The problem is time. There are only so many hours in the day, and so many ways to spread yourself too thin.

And so, this brief moment of mutual collaboration among like-minded individuals fizzles… perhaps we both sense it’s not going to happen. Part of me feels disappointed, knowing that the chance to work with another’s creativity may have passed.

But another part of me realizes that these moments come and go. The very fact that I’m creating positivity means that other like-minded people will inevitably arise. Not all of them will result in a collaboration. And that’s okay.

When the time is right, we will work together to build something. Or we won’t. It may be just the two of us, or it could be a much larger crew. Which brings me back to Burning Man.

I suspect Burning Man is what you get when a vast amount of people pour their hearts and energy into manifesting the impossible: an alternative city in the middle of the desert.

As I said earlier, I have no idea what to expect, but I have no doubt I will cross paths with an array of enlightening individuals that will challenge, inspire, and most importantly, teach me. In anticipation of these future encounters, I want to offer my sincere gratitude.

I’ll see you in the desert.

- Ian

p.s. I came across this bit of prose and thought it was entirely appropriate to share. I hope you enjoy it.

A SPIRITUAL “CONSPIRACY”

On the surface of our world right now
There is war, violence, and craziness
And things may seem dark.

But calmly and quietly
At the same time
Something is happening underground.

An inner revolution is taking place
And certain individuals
Are being called to a higher light.

It is a silent revolution
From the inside out
From the ground up.

This is a global co-operation
That has sleeper cells in every nation.
It is a planetary Spiritual Conspiracy.

You won’t likely see us on T.V.
You won’t read about us in the newspaper.
You won’t hear from us on the radio.

We don’t seek glory.
We don’t wear any uniform.
We come in all shapes and sizes, colors and styles.

We are in every country and culture of the world
In cities big and small, mountains and valleys
In farms and villages, tribes and remote islands.

Most of us work anonymously
Seeking not recognition of name
But profound transformation of life.

Working quietly behind the scenes
You could pass by one of us on the street
And not even notice.

We go undercover
Not concerned for who takes the final credit
But simply that the work gets done.

Many of us may seem to have normal jobs.
But behind the external storefront
Is where the deeper work takes a place.

With the individual and collective power
Of our minds and hearts
We spread passion, knowledge, and joy to all.

Some call us the Conscious Army
As together
We co-create a new world.

Our orders come from the Spiritual Intelligence Agency
Instructing us to drop soft, secret love bombs
when no one is looking.

Poems ~ Hugs ~ Music ~ Photography ~ Smiles ~ Kind words
Movies ~ Meditation and prayer ~ Dance ~ Websites
Social activism ~ Blogs ~ Random acts of kindness…

We each express ourselves
In our own unique ways
With our own unique gifts and talents.

“Be the change you want to see in the world”
That is the motto that fills our hearts.
We know this is the path to profound transformation.

We know that quietly and humbly
Individually and collectively
We have the power of all the oceans combined.

At first glance our work is not even visible.
It is slow and meticulous
Like the formation of mountains.

And yet with our combined efforts
Entire tectonic plates
Are being shaped and moved for centuries to come.

Love is the religion we come to share
And you don’t need to be highly educated
Or have exceptional knowledge to understand it.

Love arises from the intelligence of the heart
Embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse
Of all living beings.

Be the change you want to see in the world.
Nobody else can do it for you.
Yet don’t forget, we are all here supporting you.

We are now recruiting.
Perhaps you will join us
Or already have.

For in this spiritual conspiracy
All are welcome, and all are loved.
The door is always open.

~ Author Appropriately Unknown

Indian students in AU protest attacks / Photo: will ockenden

Although I’m under no delusions that racism isn’t alive and well in this world, I have to say I’m a bit surprised about the attacks happening lately to students of color in traditionally white countries.

Between Buster’s piece on Matador Abroad asking Should People of Color Go To Russia?, and a recent article in the Times of India about attacks on Indian students in Australia, the fear reverberating from the ruling class of the past is palpable.

It hardly escapes attention that those being targeted, according to both of these pieces, are students, some of which are working on their Ph.D. To me, it seems like the fact that people of color are being educated to a higher degree than most of the rest of the population is triggering some deep insecurities of being ‘less than,’ which are being acted out with vigilantism.

For both Blacks in Russia and Indians in Australia, the need to tell roommates their whereabouts at all times, be on full alert while taking public transportation, and not be out past a certain time at night certainly makes one feel like a second class citizen.

What Is Being Done About It?

The Times of India tried to come up with a more subdued reason for the prevalence of attacks:

Another possible reason for the attacks against the Indian students could be the fact that they work part-time along with pursuing their studies and travel late in the night, which makes them vulnerable to assaults.

Hmmm. Well, the Victorian Police have started “sensitisation programmes” in order to educate the community about the attacks happening in Melbourne. Also, Buster notes in his article, “most people in Russia are not violent racists.”

While in one way, these are attempts to stem the assaults, I feel like a much stronger message needs to be sent to those initiating the attacks. Unfortunately, that may not come from within these countries, so pressure from the outside – by the media, or your blog posts – might be the way to help keep these students safe.

What can we do to help stop attacks on students of color? Share your thoughts below.

Community Connection

The first week of August was International Blog Against Racism Week, and you can find links to blogs leading the revolution here. And if you think that racism isn’t outwardly tolerated in the US anymore, check out the piece, A “Whites-Only” Pool in 2009?

Photo: Azriel Cohen

Last month, I wrote two articles on inviting us to think about including animal culture – and not just human culture – as part of our explorations as we travel through the world.

Healing our relationship to wild animals may hold keys to reversing the environmental crisis as well as helping us rediscover our own natural state of health.

Now, I wish to share an experience that introduced me to a new way of thinking about humans and animals, and changed my life. Afterwards, I will share twelve principles, distilled from my experiments, that I invite you to try yourself.

There are at least two reasons for you to take my invitation seriously. Firstly, it may assist you in developing a more healthy relationship with nature, which is so crucial given the serious environmental crisis we are living with.

Secondly, while most humans desire to move towards more balance, we often cannot tell if we are actually moving towards balance or away from it. Eastern medicine teaches that in a state of imbalance an individual’s tendency is to move towards greater states of imbalance, while believing what they’re doing is the healthiest.

If collectively we are in such a state of imbalance, we need to be extra mindful to ensure we move in the right direction. Wild animals can serve as reliable “tuning forks” to help us calibrate our nervous systems towards states of natural balance.

Peace Within Myself

The experience that forever changed my relationship to the animal kingdom was in 2002, after a retreat focused on “peace within myself”. I went into retreat because of my first experience of war.

Thich Nhat Hanh followed by Israelis and Palestinians in
walking meditation at Plum Village (Azriel Cohen
holding the umbrella), summer 2001

Shortly after I left the retreat, I had an experience with an animal that I never imagined possible.

Having grown up in war-free Toronto, my ideas about war were not rooted in any direct experience. I thought that the roots of war were just emotions and attitudes. But living in Jerusalem during the second Intifada (Palestinian Uprising) in a field of great violence, I sensed there was something else at the root of war that was not being addressed – something physiological. Something subtle shifted in my body as a result of living in a field of extreme violence, and I began to wonder about the role of the nervous system in cycles of war and violence.

I sensed that war zones had something intangible that could, in a sense, infect people, and that peaceful places had something intangible that could help people heal.

I decided to take a leave of absence from Jerusalem and immerse myself in a peaceful zone. I chose the eco-village Findhorn in northern Scotland. The main inspiration for my retreat was a program that I co-founded called “Peace Begins With Myself” in July 2001.

This program brought Israelis and Palestinians to Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village Meditation Center in France. It was rooted in the Buddhist perspective on peace – that peace in the world begins with each of us working on peace within ourselves. Peace exists in every detail of life, even how we walk, sit and eat.

In addition to various practices that I learned in Plum Village, I spent a lot of time in the woods around Findhorn. I had the sense that tuning into nature held a key to rediscovering an embodied peace.

I constantly wondered: if this state of being was my central focus, would I experience the world differently?

Encounter

After two months in that bubble, I left Findhorn to meet a friend in the Austrian countryside. During a walk near a forest, experimenting with that embodied state of peace, a young male deer emerged from a distance of about one hundred and fifty meters.

The deer walks away / Photo: Azriel Cohen

Something in my body and mind urged me to become very still and calm. I did all the things listed in the twelve steps below – it was not a rational decision, but rather it came from listening to my intuition and my body.

I calmed my thoughts, breathing and muscles, made the most gentle of movements and never initiated direct eye contact with the deer. The deer walked closer and closer, until it came right up to me. I was almost shocked, but I continued to calm myself on all levels.

With the curiosity of a young child, the deer slowly came closer and closer, until it reached me. It sniffed the sleeve of my jacket and proceeded to lick me.

It took a couple steps away and I began to walk. It followed closely behind, sometimes letting a larger distance separate us, but then would run back to my side, like a dog without a leash.

This continued for about thirty minutes and then it retreated into the forest.

I took photos as the deer walked away. Otherwise, I would probably still wonder today, if it was but a dream.

Post Encounter

Since then I have had more experiences with wild animals that have absolutely surprised me. I deconstructed the experiences and extracted the following twelve principles, or steps, so that others may reevaluate their relationship with wild animals. These steps are meant as guidelines, but the process is organic, not linear.

In the process of refining these principles, I consulted with three international experts in human-animal relations (Tara Lumpkin, Marta Williams, and Wynter Worsthorne).

I am grateful for their time and feedback.

Twelve Steps Towards Healing Your Relationship With Wild Animals

(Please exercise caution: this is not for use with dangerous animals)

1. Your emotions, thoughts and intentions

Connect to a feeling of love, as you would as you approach someone dear to you. Keep sensing that you are energetically communicating love to the animal. Focus your mind on the phrase “I am safe for you.” Repeatedly think this phrase towards the animal.

Focus on the following intention:

“I believe we have scared and hurt you, causing great damage to our relationship. My intention is for you to know that I will not hurt you, that I care about you, that I am safe, and maybe in a tiny little dose I can contribute to healing our relationship. I have no expectation whatsoever to get anything from you. Just to be a caring human being who, for at least a few moments, has a presence that is not a threat to you.”

2. Your breath:

Notice the sensation of your breathing in and out. Allow your breath to get deeper, slower, steadier and calmer.

Elephant kiss / Photo: Azriel Cohen

3. Your heart rate:

Allow it to slow down.

4. Your muscles:

Let your awareness scan your body from head to toe. Gently release every place where you notice tension, especially around your eyes and mouth.

5. Sense your whole body:

As your attention moves from head to toes, keep your attention on the sensations of the body part your are currently focused on, while focusing on the sensation of the body parts you have already passed. Do this until you can feel your whole body at once.

6. Movement:

While sensing your body as a whole and your breath, let the movements of your arms, legs or head be slow, steady and fluid. Move without altering speed or tension. If you have ever done or seen Zen walking meditation, you will have a good example.

7. Your eyes:

Keep your vision relaxed. Allow your eyes not to fixate on anything as you look ahead. Keep the range of your visual awareness as wide as possible.

8. Your jaws:

Release all tension around the mouth and keep it loose.

9. Approaching a wild animal:

Simultaneously do all steps 1-8 (thoughts, breathing, heart rate, relaxed muscles, body sensing, slow movement, soft eyes, relaxed jaw) as you move as slowly as possible towards the animal. At some point you will likely sense to not move closer, but rather to let the animal move towards you. Do not make direct eye contact, but rather allow the eye contact to be via peripheral vision.

10. Making contact with a wild animal:

Spend some time close to the animal – it may be a few feet, or a few inches away. Allow it to feel safe and stay steady with steps 1 – 8. Pay attention to subtle sensations, images and thoughts without censoring. Some animals may initiate contact with you, if you feel safe enough.

11. Open mind:

Keep focused on the possibility that this isn’t some crazy new-age esoteric practice. As you do these exercises, think to yourself,

“I am open to the possibility that all living things are able to communicate with one another, although that communication might be different from how I communicate with humans. I know there is within me the capacity for communication with animals, because my ancestors had that capacity within them. There are people today who are able to communicate with animals.”

12. Experiment:

Be patient. If, indeed, this is a lost capacity, then modern humans as a whole lost it long ago. Realize that it might take some time for you to rehabilitate your animal communication instincts.

The goal: try these techniques and report back here. Share your experiences in the comments!

I don’t know about you, but doesn’t it feel like our society is extraordinarily self-centered? Sure, we pay taxes, donate to charity, send aid to foreign countries… etc.

Yet at the end of the day, our lives seem geared toward looking out for #1: our own personal happiness.

Is there anything wrong with this picture? Not necessarily… unless our own quest for self happiness has been co-opted for the gain of corporations, as explored in this brilliant BBC documentary “The Century Of The Self.”

From the film’s website:

To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really?

The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?

I highly recommend watching the entire film, with all four episodes below. It offers a fascinating glimpse into the current state of the self and the forces that seek to taint your inner journey.

Episode 1 – Happiness Machines

Episode 2 – The Engineering of Consent

Episode 3 – There is a Policeman Inside All Our Head: He Must Be Destroyed

Episode 4 – Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering

What do you think of the argument in the film? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Non-violent protestors advocate for Tibet / Photo: lecercle

Spiritual Activism is the coming together of spirituality, and activism.

It is not about any form of dogma, it is simply activism that comes from the heart, not just the head, activism that is compassionate, positive, kind, fierce and transformative. It focuses as much on what we are for, as on what we are against.

Mother Theresa’s response to a question about why she did not attend an anti-war rally, was “When you have a pro-peace rally, I will be there.”

Spiritual Activism is rooted in an understanding of interdependence, and works to end of the suffering of all beings, even our opponents. Nothing could be more inspiring and more rewarding than being the change we want to see in the world, within and without.

Below are some suggested tenets I have adapted from a group called Humanity Healing. This is not a definitive statement – just one groups’ suggestions – but a good set, and well worth considering.

The path of Spiritual Activism enables individuals or groups to develop the noble qualities of compassion, wisdom and gratitude.

It is in itself a Path of Transformation – a Spiritual Blueprint for living. The core dynamics behind the Spiritual Keys of Activism are creativity, adaptability, understanding and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

1. All Action is Based on Compassion

When championing a cause, the mindset must be altruistic and the motivating emotion must be positive. Spiritual Activism is action for the benefit of something, not against something.

2. Compassion Flows from the Understanding of the Connection Between All Living Beings.

We are all connected through our shared Humanity. When you learn to see that our differences are superficial and our similarities manifest, sympathy (or worse, pity) gives way to compassion. Our actions shift from one of “us helping them” to one of “for the good of All”. We become One.

“The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.”
 ~ Thomas Merton

3. Compassion Must Be Applied With Wisdom

There are more causes that exist than an individual or group can possibly be involved with. It is important to choose your causes carefully. Learn to act instead of react.

4. Apply Synergy and Teamwork to Accomplish Goals

Synergy is the process where two or more actions combine to produce an effect greater than the sum of its individual parts. Like ripples in a pond, spiritual actions combine and build on each other to magnify an effect beyond what each could do individually. Whenever possible, team up with others to acquire a multifaceted and more holistic approach.

“The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”
 ~ Unknown

5. Spiritual Activism is the Pursuit of Service for the Good of All, Not for the Advancement or Benefit of Individuals or Selected Communities.

The mindset behind your actions is noble, holistic, universal and non-partisan. Be mindful that ego and self-service have no place in Spiritual Activism. However spiritual activism is all about Self serving – it serves your highest Self, not your ego, and is a pathway to true and deep happiness, as opposed to the temporary and unstable happiness of the ego.

6. Pursue Integrity, Honesty and Dignity in the Conduct of Your Actions

Embrace mindfulness in the application of your activities and be aware of how your actions may be perceived by others. Machiavelli’s “The ends justify the means” has no place in Spiritual Activism. If our methods are not noble, our results will not be either. Practice spiritual transparency, allowing negative energies to bypass your system without harming it.

“Integrity is doing the right thing even if no one is watching.”
 ~ Unknown

7. Do not Defame Your Detractors or Those Who Doubt You

A confrontational approach leads to a defensive reaction. Approach others with openness and compassion in your heart. Build on the commonalities between you instead of focusing on the differences. As much as possible, detach yourself from the results of your actions. Aspire to always be a peacemaker.

“Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

8. Raising Another Up Raises You Up As Well

Helping another becomes a form of self-love as well as an expression of outward love. This becomes an upwardly spiraling cycle of increasing awareness, connection, compassion, involvement, capacity, and back to increasing awareness.

9. Learn to Listen to Your Heart and Not Your Mind

Your mind may only see the problem. Your heart will always feel the solution. Learn to act with Faith and cultivate a loving perception when facing collective problems.

“Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
 ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

10. Search Out Viable and Sustainable Solutions

Seek out solutions that maintain or restore the dignity of individual human and their communities. Solutions that become self sustaining.

“Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.”
 ~ Jesus

11. Spiritual Activism is about process.

The process by which you arrive at the goal is as important as reaching the goal itself. If we live the change we want to see in the world, we cannot lose. We have already won.

First published website for the documentary Fierce Light: Where Spirit Meets Action.

What are your thoughts on spiritual activism? Share in the comments!

Photo: Ed-meister

More than one of us have heard a grandparent or elder say, “Back in the good old days…”

What surprised me is when I began to utter these words, about days that came before I my existence was even a contemplation. I think it is a by-product of studying alternative health, and more specifically, ancient medical and spiritual practices.

I think believing the Eastern spiritually-inclined of the past kinda knew better than we do, or were at least more tuned in than we are, is part of my generation’s burden. We have much more access to Eastern ideals than ever before, and spirit beyond Christianity has infiltrated pop culture.

So when I came across a recent article on Slate.com entitled, Do Shamans Have More Sex?, I chuckled a bit (at myself) when I read author Robert Wright’s opening paragraph:

Wouldn’t it be great to be back in hunter-gatherer days? Back before the human spiritual quest had been corrupted by the “relentless onslaught of Western scientific materialism” and “dogmatic male-dominated religion”? Back when there were shamans—spiritual leaders—who could plug us into “the realm of the magical,” show us “the reality behind apparent reality,” and thus lead us to understand “how the universe really works”?

Wright goes on to say is that he doubts “selfless, spiritual leaders” were any more common in the “heyday of shamanism,” or that the “spiritual quest was any less corrupted by manipulation and outright charlatanism” than today.

Though I’m not sure I agree that there was a heyday of shamanism, I can see his point. Along with our search for purity, we often like to grasp at the grass is greener on the other side.

The Conundrum of Inner and Outer Travel

I know I can also take this approach with travel, as the inner and outer travel are obviously deeply connected. I often think another place (in this case, physical land) is better, offers more, and has more depth than the place I currently find myself.

Where to next? / Photo: Randy Son Of Robert

And so I set up in a new place, and for a few days, I see all of its greatness. But eventually, I begin to notice the less bright spots “hiding” underneath, as the varnish slowly comes off.

Suddenly, many of the issues that were there in the last place have shown up in the new place, and I start to dream of that next perfect destination. But what is the connecting factor here? Me.

If we are always looking outside ourselves for perfection – whether this be an ancient tradition that did spirituality right, or the ultimate place to set up shop – we’ll always be disappointed once we unearth the entire picture, which is bound to have some bad with the good.

So love your shamans and the world around you, but don’t forget to take off those rose-colored glasses and check into reality. It makes life, well, more real.

Do you often think somewhere else is better than the place you are, or are you satisfied with where you find yourself at the moment? Share your thoughts below.

Little monks at play / Photo: Sukanto Debnath

A colleague of mine came up with a wonderful project for her thesis: develop an adult play center.

No, she doesn’t plan to have a jungle gym, at least not that I know of.

But she will offer classes ranging from dance to making art, a cafe where people can just sit and chat (not sure about the allowance of computers), and a free space for people to do anything they’re playfully inclined to – keep your mind out of the gutter – like tumbling or playing hopscotch.

The idea is that we all are so caught up in work, family, and all of those daily to-do’s, that we rarely take time to truly play. And play, is in fact, a central part of life.

Sure, many adults might consider going to happy-hour play time, or taking trips to tropical islands as adult amusement. But what about just jumping on a trampoline or counting the stars? Sometimes, I think these forms of play can be even more fulfilling for adults than kids. And they can actually be an easy way to connect to nature, self, and spirit.

Along those lines, I recently ran across an article by William McKenzie about the role of play in different spiritual faiths. Here are a few excerpts of what religious leaders had to say:

Taoism

Amy Martin, Executive Director, Earth Rhythms; Writer/Editor, Moonlady Media:

Photo: Eustaquio Santimano

Taoism refers often to the folly of striving, the appetite of acquisition that can never be sated…to be like a young child, in a natural state of joy, capable of wonder, seeing only love, is the highest state of man, says Lao Tze…The success of books like “1000 Places To See Before You Die” speaks of a widespread desire to experience more of life, to see the places that are so uniquely of this earthly existence, to experience them with the senses, seeing, hearing, feeling and even tasting what the Earth has to offer.

Christian – Baptist

Larry Bethune, Senior Pastor at the University Baptist Church, Austin

…The Bible reflects nonetheless a playful party tradition in the sense of joyful, self-forgetful celebration. This tradition of the feast which Jesus extended was rooted in the Sabbath tradition of the Hebrew scripture, a day of rest, re-creation, worship, and celebration, a day of grace rather than productivity, a day to be rather than do. Biblically speaking, our need for rest and play are deep-wired into our beings from the beginning of time.

Hare Krishna

Nityananda Chandra Das, Minister, ISKCON Kalachandji’s Hare Krishna Temple Dallas

In the Bhagavad Gita chapter 6.19, it is understood that leisure is a part of a balanced life, “He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation and work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.”…Our recreation becomes an offering to God if our thoughts are of God and/or our purpose is His purpose.

Now that I feel officially sanctioned to go play, I’m off!

How does play fit into your idea of spirit? Share your thoughts below.

Community Connection

Need more religious backing to enjoy a bit of play? Check out Yogis At Play: Spend 10 Minutes Doing Something Fun. Or if you plan to sit by the fire and play some tunes soon, check out Carlo Alcos’ article, Learn How To Play the Greatest Campfire Songs of All Time (For Free).

Photo: freestylebmx

Early this year I interviewed Jason Silva, founding producer for Current TV and current host of Still Up. We spoke about his short film, The Immortalists, along with his own take on science’s goal of ending death…forever.

Jason paints a compelling argument. He believes death is an evolutionary flaw that needs to be overcome, rather than satiated by weaker philosophies or religion.

“By labeling death a problem,” he says, “it shifts our complacent attitude about death and turns it into an engineering problem, one that we can solve, much as we have solved impossible problems in the past.”

Since then, Jason’s interview has gnawed at my own personal beliefs on life.

I found similarities in his worldview and my own explorations in Buddhism – both which share the goal of ending our fear of death. Yet, both could not be more different in their approach.

I decided to contact Jason for a follow-up discussion. I start first with my own understanding of the Buddhist’s approach to life, then share Jason’s rebuttal.

The Buddhist: Ian MacKenzie

“Everything changes, nothing remains without change.” – Buddha

Photo: hurleygurley

The first of the Four Noble Truths, as discovered by the Buddha 2500 years ago, is the realization that “life is suffering.” For this reason, many people believe Buddhism is essentially transfixed with suffering.

But this is not the case. In fact, the second noble truth reveals the origin of suffering: attachment.

Why does attachment cause suffering? Because life is inherently transient. Nothing stays the same; not the birds, the trees, your job, friends, even your own thoughts, moment to moment. Our egos like to believe that we’re individuals, that we have an exalted place in the world.

And so we have a difficult time handling all this transience. We cling to what we enjoy and avoid what we don’t.

This is suffering.

While it’s tempting to believe that most people are affected by mortal anxiety, the knowledge they will die someday, I believe the opposite. I think most people vaguely realize they will die, but they don’t seriously contemplate it until they have a near death experience, or they’re on their deathbed.

So the problem is not quantity of life, but rather quality.

Our egos are not content to live with the present moment, instead we grasp at transient moments, never happy, never content. We can’t remain content for more than 10 minutes, let alone infinite.

For Buddhists, enlightenment is the deep realization that nothing is permanent. To fear death is to actually go against the fundamental law of the universe: everything that arises must pass away.

The goal is to become content with this transience, and therefore, content with life. Suddenly there is no more fear; life becomes eternally now. We aren’t worrying about moments beginning and moments ending.

In contrast, the idea of “living forever” seems the ultimate triumph of the mind (ego) winning over the heart (soul). The mind is so terrified of death it refuses to let the soul go. Life would become eternally static. Like a beautiful painting of a sunset…but nothing like a real sunset.

When you step back and attempt to see reality, to imagine yourself in the larger context of life, you realize that there would be no life without death.

Steve Hagen, a Buddhist author, captures it beautifully:

Pick up a flower – a beautiful, living, fresh rose. It smells wonderful. It reveals a lovely rhythm in the swirl of its petals, a rich yet dazzling color, a soft velvety texture. It moves and delights us. The problem is that the rose dies. Its petals fall; it shrivels up; it turns brown and returns to the earth.

One solution to this problem is to ignore the real rose and substitute a plastic one, one that never dies (and never lives). But is a plastic rose what we want? No, of course not. We want the real rose. We want the one that dies. We want it because it dies, because it’s fleeting, because it fades.

It’s this very quality that makes it precious. This is what we want, what each of us is: a living thing that dies.

Perhaps one day, through science, we will finally be able to preserve the body from dying. What then? We’d still have a lot of unconscious people, who now don’t have the face the ultimate moment of awakening…death.

I’m reminded of a quote from John Steinbeck, who spoke about his own impending death in Travels With Charley:

“I see too many men delay their exits with a sickly slow reluctance to leave the stage. It’s bad theater as well as bad living.”

And so, the fear of death is revealed for what it truly is: the ego’s fear of ceasing to exist. The essence of a human is not contained in the mind. It is temporarily channeled into a body for a moment of existence, before sinking back into the ocean of life. As Osho says:

“You have to pass through fear and accept it as a human reality. There is no need to escape from it. What is needed is to go deeper into it, and the deeper you go into your fear the less you will find it is. When you have touched the rock bottom of fear, you will simply laugh, there is nothing to fear.”

- Ian MacKenzie

The Immortalist: Jason Silva

“The philosophy that accepts death must itself be considered dead, its questions meaningless, its consolations worn out.”  – Alan Harrington, The Immortalist.

Jason Silva

The mindset of an Immortalist is simple and straightforward: death is an abhorrent imposition on a species able to reflect and care about meaning.

Creatures that love and dream and create and yearn for something meaningful, eternal and transcendent should not have to suffer despair, decay and death.  We are the arbiters of value in an otherwise meaningless universe.  The fleeting nature of beautiful, transcendent moments feeds the urge for man to scream: “I was here; I felt this and it matters, goddamn it!”

In the face of meaningless extinction, it’s not surprising that mankind has needed to find a justification for his suffering.  Man is the only animal aware of his mortality – and this awareness causes a tremendous amount of anxiety.

As a child I wanted to understand the world. Nothing much has changed – the sense of urgency has not dissipated; I’m still running around trying desperately to understand things.  To have emerged; to be self-aware, to know that I know that I am; all these things were troubling mostly because they fueled the panic over having some semblance of control over my experience. 

I think that when I first understood what love was at a visceral level was when I first grasped the concept of death- death felt real when I pondered losing someone I loved.   Imagining that everything and everyone I loved was temporary was unbearable, even as a young child.

This is not to deny that my life isn’t sunny and lusty, packed with fascinating hours; in fact it is. But when we start to grow a little older, when we pause for just a moment, there begins to intrude on all our scenes a faint disquiet.  

The psychologist Ernest Becker wrote in his pulitzer prize winning book, “The Denial of Death,” that in the face of an acute and agonizing awareness of his mortality, man has developed three main devices to sustain his sanity.  These illusions act as temporary solutions to the problem of death. 

The Religious Solution

The Religious Solution invents the concept of God and projects onto him the power to grant us what we all really want: the ability to bestow eternal life on ourselves an our loved ones; to be freed from disease, decay and death.  

This belief in an all powerful deity made perfect sense during the dark ages when people lived short, miserable, disease-ridden lives. With no explanation for their suffering, people were better able to bear their hardships by having faith in God and believing, that in the end, their gods would ’save’ them. 

However, the gods never came.  Suffering persisted; people lived and people died.  

In an age of science and reason, however, the Religious Solution has all but become obsolete.  The irrationality of religious dogma has become clear in our modern time of scientific enlightenment, and rather than alleviating our anxiety, it has only served to exacerbate it.

Alan Harrington, wrote in the Immortalist, that “Anxiety increases with education. As we grow more sophisticated, ever more ingenious rationalizations are needed to explain death away.” Man still needs something to believe in.

The Romantic Solution 

Enter the The Romantic Solution; the second illusion Becker identifies – when we no longer believe in God, we then turn our lovers into gods and goddesses. We idolize them, write pop songs about being saved by their love, and for a little while we feel immortal; like gods beyond time.  

Becker elaborates: “If the love object is divine perfection, then one’s own self is elevated by joining one’s destiny to it.” All our guilt, fear, even mortality itself can be “purged in a perfect consummation with perfection itself.”  

When in love, man can “forget himself in the delirium of sex, and still be marvelously quickened in the experience”.  We are temporarily relieved from the drag of “the animality that haunts our victory over decay and death.”  When in love, we become immortal gods. 

But no relationship can bear the burden of godhood.  Eventually, ours gods/lovers reveal their clay feet.  It is, as someone once said, the “mortal collision between heaven and halitosis.”  

This is the revelation we all come to in a romantic relationship when sex is revealed to represent “species consciousness;” a mere process of reproduction in service of propagation, not in service of “man as a special cosmic hero with special gifts for the universe…”

Man is revealed to be a mere link in the chain, with no lasting purpose or significance. Passionate love then tends to transition into housekeeping love; boredom and routine coupled with the impossible standards we have for our lovers collides in a flurry of disappointment, and perfection begins to show its cracks. 

This is why most marriages end in divorce and why love doesn’t ever quite seem to last forever.

The Creative Solution

At this point Becker identifies the last illusion man has devised: the Creative Solution.  This explains our urge to leave a legacy; to create a great work of art that has lasting impact and value; in essence to create something that carries our signature and lives on after we’re gone.    

“This is the artist’s way of scribbling ‘Kilroy was here‘ on the wall of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must one day pass,” Harrington explains. This is quite touching and clever, but ultimately fails where it counts: still, everyone dies. 

The absurdity and ache of our condition can be summed up by the opening line from the documentary Flight From Death:

“To have emerged from nothing; to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner feeling; an excruciating yearning for life and self-expression.  And with all this; yet to die.  Human beings find themselves in quite the predicament.  With our minds we have the capacity ponder the infinite, seemingly capable of anything, yet we’re housed in a heart-pumping, breath-gasping, decaying body.  We are godly, yet creaturely.”

The Immortalist Thesis

The time has come for man to get over his cosmic inferiority complex. To rise above his condition – to use technology to extend himself beyond his biological limitations.  Alan Harrington reminds us: “We must never forget we are cosmic revolutionaries, not stooges conscripted to advance a natural order that kills everybody.” 

While Ernest Becker identified our need for heroism and our extensive attempts to satisfy it symbolically, Alan Harrington proposes we move definitively to engineer salvation in the real world; to move directly to physically overcome death itself: “Spend the money, higher the scientists and hunt down death like an outlaw.”  

While some cry heresy and might gasp in protest at the pretense of ‘playing god’, Harrington simply states: “The truth is, of course, that death should no more be considered an acceptable part of life than smallpox or polio, both of which we have managed to bring under control without denouncing ourselves as pretentious.”

What must be eliminated from the human drama is the “inevitability of death as a result and natural end of the aging process.  I am speaking of the inescapable parabolic arching from birth to death–the point is “being alive now, ungoverned by span, cycle or inevitability.”

Alan Harrington also rails against any philosophy that teaches complacency: “All philosophical systems insofar as they teach us sportingly to accept extinction are a waste of time… the wisdom of philosophers may nearly always be found trying to blanket our program to conquer death.”

“Death seems simply to be a return to that unknown inwardness out of which we were born,” state thinkers like Alan Watts.

But Harrington critiques those that embellish ‘nothingness’ as: “Voices preaching false consolation will not help us, no matter how skillfully and soothingly they arrange nothingness. This may be appraised as fine writing, but it serves also to glamorize death, and therefore, in the context of humanity’s mission to conquer death, to weaken and tranquilize our rebellion.”

The Immortalist point of view, then, could be described as a project that uses technology to “Individualize eternity, to stabilize the forms and identities through which the energy of conscious life passes.”  

This is hardly a stretch for human beings, as Harrington proclaims: “We have long since gone beyond the moon, touched down on mars, harnessed nuclear energy, artificially reproduced DNA, and now have the biochemical means to control birth; why should death itself, ‘the last enemy’, be considered beyond conquest?”

I want to leave you with this biting and eloquent passage I read somewhere on the internet:

“There is nothing about death that is less than abominable.  I am forever bewildered by the placating palaver wasted in efforts to quell this irrational horror. The cessation of all that is, the chasm that devours every memory, every fleeting intellection, every redeeming fragment of meaning and love and lust and friendship and hunger and hopeless vitality, and reduces it all to the inconceivable cosmic ash of nothing – That is my enemy.”

Enjoy your day.

- Jason Silva

Conclusion

In the end, there’s no right or wrong answer. It’s up to the reader to decide based on the evidence, and most importantly, their direct experience of following certain beliefs. Keep what works, and discard what doesn’t.

After all, very soon you may have all the time in the world to ponder life’s big questions…

What do you think of the debate on ending death (and the nature of life)? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Yesterday, as we focused on the detainment of Matador writer Sarah Shroud and two other hikers in Iran, a celebration was taking place for International World Forgiveness Day.

This event, led by the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance, was held in San Rafael, CA. Honorees included well-known spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson, human and civil rights leader Congressman John Lewis, and Elwin Wilson, a former Ku Klux Klan member who violently attacked Lewis 50 years ago.

In case you missed the story when it was on ABC News a few months ago, here’s a clip of Wilson’s apology to Lewis:

If the tale of a former violent racist asking one of the people he attacked for forgiveness doesn’t move you, an even larger inspiration drew honors at the event: Christopher Rodriguez.

A prime example of the pain that Oakland, CA continues to feel as time marches on, early last year, Rodriguez was hit by a robber’s stray bullet during a piano lesson. This bullet paralyzed him from the waist down. I remember the event vividly, as it happened about 4 blocks from where I used to live, at a piano store in a “good” part of Oakland.

Rodriguez has since shook hands with the gunman and said, “I forgive you.”

If a 10-year-old boy has the capacity to forgive a man who took his ability to walk, and we pray and hope that the Iranian government will “forgive” and release Shroud and the other backpackers, can’t those of us who have had less extreme occurrences say these same three words to those who have caused us pain?

Remember, you also have to forgive yourself in the process.

Do you have an inspiring story of forgiveness? Share your stories below.

Feature photo: ruthieonart

Photo: catusbones

In my early 20’s, I almost became a nihilist. An existential nihilist to be exact, which argues “life is without meaning.”

I based my belief on the reality I saw around me (or at least on the news): war, violence, and death was everywhere. In the face of such suffering, I couldn’t understand why anything “mattered.” The only logical explanation was that the universe had no purpose.

I quickly realized this mentality was a deep, dark hole, and decided to continue exploring other beliefs on the nature of existence.

Now, looking back 8 years later, I realize it would have been interesting to chronicle my worldview at that time. Like a spiritual diary, I would have been able to study where I came from, and better understand my personal evolution.

Recently, I came across 20 questions that eloquently serve this purpose. Featured in the 2005 documentary film One, these questions were posed to various spiritual leaders of today: from Deepak Chopra, to Ram Dass, to the Dalai Lama.

I realized answering these questions myself would provide a snapshot of my beliefs today. And if I did the exercise again in 5 years, 10 years, 25 years… who knows the insight these polaroids will provide?

If you, dear reader, would like to join me, here’s how:

Instructions

Copy and paste the questions below into a blank document or blog post. Answer each question with as much detail as you like, then publish your answers on your personal blog.

Leave a comment below with a link to your post.

20 Questions For Every Spiritual Seeker

1. Why is there poverty and suffering in the world?
2. What is the relationship between science and religion?
3. Why are so many people depressed?
4. What are we all so afraid of?
5. When is war justifiable?
6. How would God want us to respond to aggression and terrorism?
7. How does one obtain true peace?
8. What does it mean to live in the present moment?
9. What is our greatest distraction?
10. Is current religion serving its purpose?
11. What happens to you after you die?
12. Describe heaven and how to get there.
13. What is the meaning of life?
14. Describe God.
15. What is the greatest quality humans possess?
16. What is it that prevents people from living to their full potential?
17. Noverbally, by motion or gesture only, act out what you believe to be the current condition of the world.
18. What is your one wish for the world?
19. What is wisdom and how do we gain it?
20. Are we all one?

Remember, post a link to your answers in the comments below!

Photo: xlordashx

Have to admit, I thought polyamory was a San Francisco Bay Area (specifically, Marin County) original.

Ok, ok, I knew it was probably happening in a few other enclaves throughout the world, like Paris, or Salt Lake City.

But whoa, nelly. Newsweek just did a spread on this type of extreme loving. For those who don’t know, polyamory means having a relationship with more than one person at a time.

What differentiates it from Mormonism is the fact that women also have multiple partners, and marriage isn’t necessarily involved. Newsweek also refers to it as “ethical nonmonogamy,” and estimates that the number of polyamorous couples in the US alone is over a half million.

Naturally, this growing movement has brought out commentary from the religious right. But they are taking a bit of a leap, with some leaders believing that if gay marriage becomes legal, polyamory will become “normalized.” Glenn Stanton, the director of family studies for Focus on the Family, had this to say:

This group is really rising up from the underground, emboldened by the success of the gay-marriage movement.

At the same time, some gay-rights activists are distancing themselves from the polyamory movement. Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic recently wrote, “I believe that someone’s sexual orientation is a deeper issue than the number of people they want to express that orientation with.”

Exposing False Traditions

Photo: robad0b

Looks like not all Christians are against this lifestyle choice, though.

In my research, I came across the Liberated Christians site.

Here’s their mission statement:

Promoting positive intimacy and sexuality including responsible nonmonogamy or polyamory as a legitimate CHOICE for Christians and others/Exposing false traditions of sexual repression that have no biblical basis.

They believe that polyamory is simply the expression of the “God-given natural desire to connect emotionally and sexually with more than one person.” They say that cheating, so common in today’s society, comes from our repressed culture and the stigma that comes with expressing our true desires.

So, contrary to what both the religious right and the gay movements proclaim, maybe polyamory is the natural way. Or is it just an excuse to do whatever our heart desires?

Do you think that polyamory can be ethical and spiritual? Share your thoughts below.

The author (right) with the baby elephant “Faa Mai” in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Scott Meredith (left) from Conscious Media Network

A decade ago, if you would have talked to me about communicating with animals I would have said you were nuts.

Unexpectedly over the last few years, my studies and work in the field of conflict resolution has led me to theories that link conflict between humans to conflict between humans, animals, and the natural world.

It is believed that all living beings have an innate capacity to communicate with one another (this includes plants). These theories claim that if we resolved our conflict with animals, we’d find that we can actually communicate with them.

I found the idea at first to be outrageous. Yet, with a curious spirit, an open mind and the willingness to experiment, I’ve had some fascinating and unexpected experiences.

When you communicate with an animal you will likely experience a “zone” that is unlike what you normally feel in communication with humans. The closest experience might be the non-verbal awareness of holding a baby or being with a lover.

It is an embodied physical experience. In this space we are tuned into our sensations. Our intuition guides us.

It is a long lost human capacity, that most, if not all, indigenous cultures once had. Derrick Jensen’s “A Language Beyond Words” and David Abrams’ “Spell of the Sensuous” are two great introductions to this topic. Trainings that can assist developing these capacities to engage with wild animals include the teachings of the animal tracker Tom Brown and Buddhist walking meditation.

Journey To Thailand

My most recent explorations of human-animal communication have occurred in northern Thailand, with an animal that has one of the most ancient relationships with humans – an animal that as a child I considered one of the most exotic creatures on earth – the elephant.

Statue in Bangkok / Photo: Ian MacKenzie

In Thailand, the relationship between humans and elephants is anything but exotic. An enduring symbol of Thailand, the elephant is at the very center of the culture and history of the region.

Historically, elephants were used in war and as beasts of burden to build the country. Spiritually, the elephant is significant because of a legend that Buddha’s mother dreamt of a white elephant before she conceived, and also because of Ganesha, the Hindu god with an elephant’s head.

Africa is the ultimate destination for a wilderness experience of the largest land animal, but for a human-animal experience, the place to go is northern Thailand where the slightly smaller Asian elephant resides.

It is unlikely that anyone visiting Thailand won’t see real elephants. Many tourists ride elephants on treks through the jungle and go to elephant shows, where the animals perform tricks that demonstrate incredible coordination and intelligence.

But the unavoidable elephant experience in Thailand is the surreal slow sight of a colossal grey-brown creature delicately stepping down the middle of a hectic tourist-filled street led by young men begging for money.

The Elephant Whisperer

Elephants are renowned for their intelligence and sensitivity. Some people studying elephants wonder if the emotional intelligence of elephants is comparable to or even greater than that of humans.

Lek with the elephant / Photo: Azriel Cohen

Whatever the truth is, there is no question that the human-elephant relationship is very special.

My most insightful encounters with human-elephant communication have been around the Elephant Nature Park, an elephant sanctuary and rescue center about one hour outside of Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.

I spent time with Sanduen ‘Lek’ Chailert, founder of the park who some refer to as The Elephant Whisperer, because of her special ability to communicate with elephants.

When she was five years old, her grandfather, the healer and shaman of her hill tribe village, received an elephant as a gift for saving a child’s life. He gave the elephant to Lek and mentored her as to how to engage with and heal wild animals.

Most Thais working with elephants believe that without breaking an elephant’s spirit, the elephant is incredibly dangerous. Lek believes that the elephants can be trained to have a safe relationship with humans, solely through the use of positive reinforcement and love.

Breaking Them Down

One of the goals of the park is to gently influence the tourism market so that elephants that live naturally are more attractive to visit than elephant shows.

Most tourists have no idea that in order to train elephants to submit to the guidance of a mahout (the elephant’s friend, caretaker and trainer) and to do tricks – such as painting and playing soccer – the elephant must have its spirit broken.

There is a long tradition in Thailand of a training ritual called phajan, where the elephant is confined in a cage for a number of days, poked and beaten, until it becomes scared of humans and loses its natural self-confidence.

Lek’s approach is revolutionizing the way people think about elephants and elephant tourism.

The elephants at the park, many of them physically and psychologically damaged from work injuries and abuse, are encouraged to lead as natural a life as possible. There are no elephant shows or elephant rides. Visitors can observe them, feed them, bathe them and walk with them.

During my visit, the park was at an historic moment – for the first time a baby elephant was born to one of Lek’s elephants. The new baby elephant, called Faa Mai (meaning “new sky”), Lek hopes, will offer her the opportunity to demonstrate to the world that her theory of disciplining elephants is realistic.

Into The Pen

I watched Lek as she entered a closed pen, and began to play with the 25 day old baby elephant beneath the shadow of her massive mother elephant (adults can be up to 4 meters/12 feet high and weigh 3,000–5,000 kgs/6,500–11,000 lbs).

Lek invited my friend and I into the pen.

Under normal conditions it is extremely dangerous to be close to a mother and baby elephant. Tiny Lek, with absolute confidence and clarity conveyed to us that it was safe and explained to us where to go and what to do, so the mother would feel safe with us physically playing with her baby.

With an almost comically undersized trunk that it is still trying to figure out how to coordinate, a baby elephant is unbelievably cute…and bizarre.

From a human vantage point it has features that make it look much older than the adult elephants. Humans get more facial creases as we age, while baby elephants go in reverse like Benjamin Button, beginning with ancient creased faces that smooth out as they mature.

Zoning With Baby

The baby sleeps / Photo: Azriel Cohen

The 100 kg hairy baby “played,” trying to knock us over like a crazed rugby player.

When it tired, the elephant placed its head onto the lap of my friend, nearly crushing him in the process. But the baby was restless. I sensed that it was waiting for a specific kind of touch somewhere on its body.

When I “listened” to my own body I felt that I should lay my palm on the baby’s head, on its leathery cheek, just under and in front of its ear. The baby responded.

Within seconds its energy shifted from twitching around and flapping its ears to completely dropping into a deep sleep. From the tip of its undersized trunk, I could hear snoring. I had put a baby elephant to sleep!

For 10 minutes, I held my hand on the baby elephant while using some further techniques (which I’ll describe in a future article).

Later, walking with Lek among a small group of elephants in knee high grass, The Elephant Whisperer turned to me and said “People might say I am crazy to say this…but elephants can read thoughts.”

I wondered what it means that elephants can read thoughts. Perhaps, with enough effort, it is another lost human capacity waiting to be reclaimed.

Update: Watch Conscious Media Network’s interview with Lek Chailert

Have you experienced this physical “knowing” with an animal? Share your experiences in the comments!

Photo: Goldemberg Fonseca

After reading an excerpt of an interview with author and blogger Lena Katz, I’m now extremely pumped to read her forthcoming books, Sip California, Snow California, and Sun California.

I’m mostly pumped because of something she noted about finding people to interview for her books.

It certainly made me chuckle (and feel exasperated) in my little corner enclave at the Whole Foods (yes, I see the irony):

I…discovered that of all the self-involved, money-grubbing, shallow people in the city, the worst by far are… the Yoga Gurus. If you see “spiritual,” “mind-body” or “conscious healing” in a biography, you’re almost guaranteed that person will not give you 30 seconds of their time without being paid for it.

Visions of The Secret danced in my head.

Thing is, I got my Masters in Holistic Health Education. So I’ve studied the hell out of many prominent MDs-turned-holistic-heath-healers, Consciousness-raisers, and Raw-Food-Lovers (who all add the signature “love” to their ingredients list), and subscribe wholeheartedly to the system.

But between yoga trademarking, the rumors of one very well-known Ayurvedic MD focused intently on money and status, and raw foods that cost $10 for a piece of chocolate love, I get a bit weary of it all.

I like to think of both traveling and delving into holistic approaches to life as ways to expand a person’s perceptions. I see nothing wrong with making money from either; in fact, I think it is an excellent way to incorporate what you do with who you are.

Yet it certainly leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I hear that pretty much any well-known alternative practitioner is focused on making as many bucks as possible, all while spouting that money doesn’t bring you happiness (sans The Secret, of course).

It reminds me of the religious leaders of old (and sometimes new), and it certainly diminishes the quality of the perceived consciousness shift we are going through.

Do you think most spiritual leaders are simply focused on the money? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: hkoppdelaney

Given the relative safety of aviation, and the existence of many budget airlines such as EasyJet, SkyEurope, and Ryan Air, one might be tempted to conclude that travel is a common pastime, partaken of by most.

Yet, as any good traveller already knows, there’s more to travel than moving from one place to another. Travel is about broadening horizons and knowledge, and can be, as cliché as it may sounds, a way of life.

There will always be those that opt for one- or two-week holiday packages, preferring a slight respite to paradigm-altering travel that usually requires longer blocks of time and willingness to dive deep.

And then there are the wannabe travelers that have never traveled. This may be caused by the slew of valid reasons why one cannot travel—a lack of money, family obligations, legal restrictions, physical handicaps, inability for time off work, and the list goes on and on.

But assuming one is able to clear this checklist, it can be difficult to understand why someone would choose not to travel.

I believe this choice is greatly influenced by fear. The fear is layered à la Dante Aligheri’s depiction of hell; the outer layers comprise some of the more shallow fears, the inner for the more serious.

Layer #1 – Fear Of Leaving Things Behind

The first layer to overcome is the far of leaving things behind. Whether it be for a fortnight or for a year, the obstacle that every traveller or prospective traveller faces is that of what will be left behind when one departs.

There’s the inanimate that needs to be minded at home: the house, the cars, the valuables, and all the material things. Then there’s the sentient being one doesn’t want to feel like one is abandoning. Pets, friends, and the familiar faces of daily life can prove too difficult to relinquish, even for a short period of time.

Attachment is not the ally of a traveller. Instead, realize that material possessions are just that, things. They will be there when you return, or even better, can be sold before you leave.

Pets are more difficult to leave behind, though if you’re lucky, a friend or family member can adopt your animal while you’re gone. Or in the case of extended trips, a loving home can be found.

Layer #2 – Fear Of Not Reaching The Destination

Supposing the first layer has been conquered, the next challenge is achieving the act of reaching the destination. The demons plaguing this layer are the questions of:

How exhausted will I be upon arrival?
Will the plane crash?
How long will I have to sit on the train?
What if the car breaks down en route?

Often overcoming these fears can be conquered by having enough enthusiasm for the destination yet to be visited. Film, book, and word of mouth are often enough to catapult the timid from home, along with an understanding that bad things can happen, no matter if you’re at home or not.

Layer #3 – Fear Of Losing Our Security

Nearly everyone resides within a fortress of familiarity. We have our own homes, our jobs, and our daily routines. It’s this level of security and comfort that must be trounced if one is indeed to travel.

This anxiety can manifest itself in the form of prejudice. The aspiring traveller might assume the worst of the local population, convinced they are a target for violence or theft, and that the foreign cuisine’s only purpose is to spew havoc in their gastrointestinal tract.

These fears are easily counterpoised by a healthy scepticism and trust in regards dealing with the locals, along with trying a few traditional dishes before embarking on a journey.

Layer #4 – Fear Of The Unknown

The fourth band that binds the body to home is the first ardent impediment faced, as opposed to the other fears, which are largely products of conditioning and culture.

Fear of the unknown hails from something deeper, something practical at times. (Had the dodo been for frightened of visitors to its native Mauritius, where it had no natural predators, the dodo might be flourishing today.)

To defeat this obstacle it takes a strong will fortified by desire and validated with sufficient research to bring the purposed destination out of the shadows and into the light, ready for personal observation and experience.

Layer #5 – Fear Of Opening Our Minds

So, a caretaker has been found for the home and garden, friends have bid their ‘farewells’ and ‘bon voyages’, and an unquenchable thirst for the land from a childhood story has been stoked and the vigour to overcome a fear of flying is maintained.

Enough information about local custom and tourist traps has been acquired through friends, the printed word, websites, and documentaries. The expected food has been tried and emergency medications have been stocked. Research has shed enough light into the darkness of an unknown and foreign place to make it seem less than uncharted.

It’s time to brave the final echelon of fear.

The conquest of the first layers will have all been in vain if one is not willing to face the endmost trial, the last challenge. It is debatable whether or not I should even call it a fear, a trial, a challenge. Unquestionably, it is not easy, but it is something that should be embraced rather than confronted, accepted rather than conquered.

This last challenge—no, let us call it, the reward for accosting the worries of travel—is the prospect of having one’s own views changed.

Travel is the act of shattering what we know at home, the act of destroying our preconceived notions of foreign lands, of challenging what we believe based on our own cultures and previous experiences.

This is the great reward of travel.

For those afraid of having their paradigms altered, I have no advice.

What do you think of these travel fears? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Statue of Santiago on top of the Alto de San Roque/ Photo: Fresco Tours

Through advances in science and technology, we have unprecedented access to knowledge. Yet the ‘Information Age’ has left us bereft of wisdom.

We are now entering a dangerous new period — an Age of Ignorance. The worldwide launch this week of the film, The Age of Stupid, suggests we are headed towards a 6th mass extinction, the 5th being the end of the Dinosaurs.

‘Change’ is the new buzzword. It was not only Barack Obama’s platform, but also became the catchphrase of the recent G20 gathering. Individuals in every country know that we have to dramatically shift our modus operandi to achieve a stable and sustainable future. More of the same is a recipe for disaster.

Enter the Camino de Santiago — pilgrimage routes throughout Europe that are a powerful agent for positive change.

Our Past and Our Future

Photo: compostelavirtual

Of course, every age has inspired humanity to grow to meet new challenges, but this time we have reached the limit to growth. The capacity of the earth to meet our incessant demands is reaching the end point.

Virtually every independent scientist (the ones not employed by government or by multinationals in the oil, motor, pharmaceutical, food and finance industries) and forward thinking individual accepts that fundamental change is now urgently needed.

Humanity’s collective greed spreads like a cancer that, if not checked, threatens to kill the host. For example, an increase in global temperature of a mere 4 degrees means humanity becomes history.

Through the exploitation of natural and human resources, we have created enormous environmental and social degradation. The core issue, however, is not about environmentalism or ethics — it is about the crisis of the human spirit.

The World Wisdom Council, and its affiliated Club of Budapest, are made up of some of the most illumined minds of our time. They include world leaders from a broad background of enlightened engagement, such as the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Muhammad Yunus, and Desmond Tutu.

The Club’s manifesto includes reference to another Nobel Peace Laureate, Albert Einstein, stating:

The fact is, one cannot solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that gave rise to it. When all is said and done, we come to a basic insight: we need a more evolved consciousness. Entering the 21st century with the consciousness that hallmarked the 20th century would be like entering the modern age with the consciousness of the Middle Ages. It would be not only inappropriate, but dangerous.

So what does this have to do with the Camino de Santiago? Put simply, the Camino, with its winding roads and paths, offers respite from the business of modern existence. It provides a unique opportunity to reappraise our direction, and helps to shift us from the Age of Ignorance to the more evolved state noted by the World Wisdom Council.

The Camino allows time away from the familiar and habitual so that new insights can be revealed. A wider perspective opens up, where we begin to realize who we are and what we came here to do.

Our lives are currently lived at such high speeds that we often forget to press the pause button. Many find themselves at the end of life too exhausted to care, while others feel powerless to make any difference.

Making the Shift

It is a given that we need a more evolved consciousness, but how do we make the shift?

Photo: compostelavirtual

Barring divine revelation, such as Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, we are unlikely to make the leap to an entirely new way of thinking while our noses remain welded to the grindstone.

There are, of course, many different paths that we can follow that may help elevate our lives and our collective consciousness. We can join a yoga class, start a daily meditation practice, go on a retreat, take a mid-career break.

But there are always temptations that come to rob us of our new resolve. How easy is it to miss just one class and then another, to skip the morning meditation because we have a deadline, or to use our timeout to travel to some exotic location where we are tempted to drink too much Tequila or to eat too many Fajitas?

With the Camino, no such temptations arise. Each day is lived in the simplicity of the path where we travel at a more natural pace of just 2 miles an hour. This allows time to witness the rising sun, the sacred landscape that surrounds us with its rich array of fauna and flora.

We proceed slowly towards the welcome that awaits us at the day’s end where the warden of the next pilgrim hostel greets us. Along the Camino, these guardians are called ‘hospitaleros,’ a softer term from which we get the word hospitality.

The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh has his main ashram adjacent to one of the Caminos in France. Here, he and his community practice ‘mindful walking’ every day.

He explains that mindful walking is one of the most effective forms of meditation for our frenetic western mind. He suggests that sitting meditation is simply too difficult for many of us and that meditation has to form part of an activity to be more generally effective.

The Divinity Within

Walking an overtly pilgrim route, such as the Camino de Santiago, reminds us every day of the divinity within ourselves and within all life.

As we walk through the landscape Temples of France and up over the Pyrenees into Northern Spain and Galicia, we are reminded every moment of that spirituality that connects us all, irrespective of our differing religions and philosophies. We find ourselves in the company of like-minded individuals that form a traveling community unique in the world.

Country cart path along the Camino / Photo: Fresco Tours

There are many pilgrimage routes, such as the way to Fatima, but that is exclusively Roman Catholic in orientation. The Hajj is exclusively Muslim, and the Kumbha Mela is sacred to the Hindus.

Only the Camino de Santiago transcends our differences to unite us in an eclectic bond of openness and shared values.

Only the Camino has been designated Europe’s First Cultural Itinerary, recognized by UNESCO, and given World Heritage status on account of “…the testimony to the power of faith and the 1,800 buildings of great historic interest that lie along its path.”

That power is as potent today as it was over a thousand years ago when the first pilgrims set foot towards Santiago. If you are in need of some spaciousness and change in your life, put on your boots and join a community dedicated to lifting collective consciousness by mindful walking along the Camino, which translates simply as ‘the Way’.

What do you think about the possibilities of the Camino de Santiago? Share your thoughts below.

Community Connection

Interested in other spiritual pilgrimages? Check out an interview with Spirit Quest Tours’ founder in Greg Roach Wants You To Make A Spiritual Pilgrimage, and amazing places to worship throughout the world in The World’s 12 Most Spectacular Houses of Worship.

Photo and Feature photo: René Ehrhardt

Here at BNT and the Matador Network, we often discuss what it means to be a conscious traveler.

As a traveler in the 21st century, respect for other cultures and our environment demands that we question how our choices will affect both people and place.

On that note, I recently came across a New York Examiner.com article entitled Conscious Carnivore that discussed whether or not eating meat can ever be a truly conscious, peaceful choice.

I personally debated this question in a big way at the end of what I term my “vegan era,” considering my ethics had kept me partaking in this lifestyle even as my health and body was crumbling before my eyes. Note: I am not saying veganism or vegetarianism is bad for everyone, just that they didn’t work for my body.

But more than that, reading through this article made me think about my travels during my vegan period.

When I traveled to Africa several years ago, I demanded to have my food completely vegan due to my belief system (and truthfully, as I look back now, also because of my ego).

I also did the same thing in Germany, where my exasperated Grandfather ranted about my requirements to my Mom in German since I couldn’t understand, and also because we hardly know each other.

Although I could easily let his reaction roll off my back because he really and truly is an angry man, I can also now see he had a point in that I should accepting of the culture and food that was available.

Was I being a conscious traveler by staying true to my ethical needs above what was readily available? Or was I a completely unconscious, demanding American tourist, who made people of other cultures that had never seen such a request, fulfill my demands?

Keeping The Peace Or Maintaining Health?

And yet when I last traveled, though no longer vegan, I wanted to “keep the peace.” So I ate quite a bit of wheat and dairy even though I had learned by body was highly allergic to both.

Photo: stlbites.com

Interestingly enough, the aforementioned vegan trip had actually kept my body healthy and in better shape than when I had left home, which I know isn’t true for most travelers.

But this time around, my health suffered quite a bit.

Upon my return home, I had to go on thyroid medication (full disclosure – I believe my low thyroid function had been a part of my body for a long time).

I also had to seriously change my diet for a few months due to elevated liver enzymes (never underestimate the power of eating foods that you are allergic to).

And very soon, I will embark on a trip around the US. While I now eat meat, I will be eating gluten-free and dairy-free because I’m allergic to both foods. I also try and only eat free-range and humanely-raised meat, and wild fish. I know I need to follow this diet in order to maintain my health, because it can quickly slide into a scary place if I don’t.

Of course, it is certainly different to request only certain foods in America as compared to say rural Ladakh. But part of me still debates whether or not it is fair to demand certain foods in places they are not readily available or accepted. Will it be that bad if I consume these foods once and a while out of respect for the place I’ve landed?

Because once again, I might be putting my personal needs above those who are providing their own culture to me.

Do you think maintaining personal ethics around food and health can be a part of conscious travel? Share your thoughts below.

On Saturday, I attended a workshop on sacred activism, where the instructor showed this video of environmentalist Paul Hawken’s speech at the 2006 Bioneers conference:

At the beginning of the speech, he says:

It is my belief that we are part of a movement that is greater and deeper and broader than we ourselves know or can know. It flies under the radar of the media by and large. It is nonviolent, it is grassroots. It has no cluster bombs, no armies, no helicopters. It has no central ideology. A male vertebrae is not in charge…it is growing and spreading worldwide, with no exception.

Hawken goes on to describe this movement as the intertwining of indigenous culture, the environment, and social justice. During his speech, on the black screen behind him, runs a list of the 130,000 minimum organizations in the world dedicated to social and environmental justice.

The power of using this tool came when he noted that the list would have taken the full three days of the conference to witness every single name. And though some of these groups employ traditional means of activism, such as loud protests, walking around with signs, or chaining oneself to a storefront, others take a quieter approach.

Sacred Activism

This “new” form of activism can happen alone through the way one decides to live their life (i.e. only shopping locally, so that you know where your food/clothes come from and that the people producing them are garnering a fair wage), or as part of a group via such avenues as microloans or community bartering.

The basic premise combines the tenets of social justice and spiritual connection.

I personally believe we are in a time of shifting perspectives, understanding that the us-vs.-them mentality has mostly lead to pain, war, and a whole lot of bloodshed. It seems that if we engage long enough with anything, there is the possibility of finding common ground, collaborating, and maybe most important of all, feeling a sense of compassion.

This might just be the new world order.

Holy War

Or am I just being naive and living in a bubble? As we watch peaceful protesters lose their lives in Peru, and big oil once again failing to be reprimanded for human and environmental degradation, Hawken’s words can ring as hollow.

China continues its oppression of Tibet (and Lhasang Tsering doesn’t think the Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way” is working), and no matter how much we hope and pray for a positive outcome for both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it seems to barrel forward.

Plus, our religious divisions worldwide seem to be growing larger instead of being bridged.

So is this where we are actually headed instead?

Illustration: Geoff Olson

Do you think we moving toward a better future or one of annihilation? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: Bhaskar Banerji / Feature aperturepriority

“Life can be pretty surreal at times. And travel is no exception to the rule,” write Dave and Deb, the bloggers behind The Planet D.

In recent post, they chronicle a few of their most surreal travel experiences.

We seem to have some of our strangest experiences when we are on the road. Some of them are completely out of our control and we just have to hang on and enjoy the ride. While others have been completely our own doing. A momentary lapse of reason if you will. Either way, they make for some fun stories around the campfire.

Which got me thinking…

Without a doubt, the most surreal travel experience I had involved snow, hot springs, and 3 mailboxes out in the middle of the desert, no houses in sight.

It was mid-May, and we left at 5 o’clock rush hour east of San Francisco, heading up highway 80 towards Lake Tahoe. Hot air came in through the cracked window as we sat in traffic, but I simply relaxed in the passenger seat.

A friend had led this trip many times before, so for once, I was able to completely let go of the reigns and just sit back and enjoy.

Due to a game of “let’s point out all the weird, dreamy stuff we see” (which is pretty easy to do once you start paying attention – pink buses, guy dressed in drag on the side of the road, etc.), several hours passed quickly, and I noticed the air change as we climbed into the Northern California mountains.

Snow And Heat

Suddenly, I noticed snowflakes falling lazily onto the windshield. I literally felt as if I had been transported to another part of the world.

Then the darkness began to set in as we made our way past the brightly-lit casinos on the Nevada side of Tahoe, turning off the road onto a dirt path.

My friend drove the switchbacks through the small bushes and what resembled tumbleweed. I wondered, “How the hell does he know where we’re going?”

Abruptly, we came to a stop at the end of dirt path, and he said to me, “let’s go.”

Out of the rented four-wheeler (it was always his approach to rent, knowing some serious damage might happen to the car in the places we were going) we jumped, and in the dead of night, made our way to a tiny, hidden pool of hot water.

Did I mention it was still snowing? That quickly became the fastest I’ve ever stripped. But I couldn’t believe the feeling of sitting in the middle of nowhere, the snow hitting my face as I warmed my body in the hot spring.

After grabbing a hotel room that night, we headed south to Saline Valley, located right beside Death Valley in California. We had to make a stop by these incredible sand dunes, where the most insane wind I’ve ever experienced made our hike to the top and along the edges a bit scary (and sandy in the teeth), but hardly prepared me for where we would transpire just a couple of hours later.

Oasis In The Desert

Mail call / Photo: Bhaskar Banerji

My friend had often told me of this “oasis in the desert,” but I couldn’t believe it until I saw it.

In the middle of Saline Valley, a humongous desert landscape surrounded by mountains, were two natural hot springs with friggin’ palm trees and grass surrounding them.

Apparently, hippies had been trekking there since the 60s, and somehow planted grass in the middle of the desert, with volunteers keeping it up over the years.

Because it is so hard to get to, and there are no signs, only those who know-the-way make it there. Which made the existence of three lonely mailboxes (what the hell are those doing out there?) all the more bizarre.

On that short, two-day trip, I felt a spiritual connection to the Earth that I had never known before. But I also found myself wondering… was it all just a dream?

What is your most surreal travel experience? Share your stories below!

Loki, the Norse trickster. / Photo: Wikipedia

For years I’ve been on the trail of discovery. Actually, that’s not quite accurate: I’m on the trail of what it really means to discover something, popularly referred to as “inner travel.”

It’s a slow-going process – like any investigation, intuition is a faster guide than fact, but you need the facts if you’re going to extend intuition further.

You start to wonder if there really is a decent way to define it. My intuition says there is, but there aren’t always facts to back it up. Sometimes, though, I spy a parallel that helps shed more light on it – this time, in travel as an “in-between” state.

Inner travel is extremely difficult to describe, I suspect, because it has so much to do with inner meaning.

Meaning isn’t physically real. You can’t hold it in your hand or buy it from a catalog. But we do recognize meaning in physical things – concepts like beauty, truth and love find expression in art, reason and spouse.

Meaning is liminal, existing in an “in-between” place, like the threshold of a doorway. Everyone knows what love is, they can’t define it; most people can describe what they enjoy in a lover, but it’s almost impossible to explain why.

As Lou Reed might say, it’s somewhere “between thought and expression.” And so it is with meaningful travel.

How do we talk about these ideas clearly, if what’s meaningful for you isn’t necessarily for me? Answer that one, and you’re on your way to becoming an “inner travel agent.” But perhaps if we study other liminal ideas, we can get clues to the journey.

Meet The Trickster

Photo: Yvonne

In mythology, there’s one character that typifies the liminality of inner travel: the trickster. While other deities mainly act for the scheme that best benefits them, tricksters are more selfless, appearing to serve a design of wider scope.

The trickster is an archetype, or fundamental human theme. Appearing throughout world religion and mythology, the trickster causes strife or commotion, seeming to live for chaos.

What they really inspire, however, is change; they represent the fickleness of nature and “shaking things up.” While not necessarily evil, they represent a break from the shared narrative of culture. Tricksters include the gods Loki and Hermes, coyote from North American belief, the sly fox from European fables, and many others.

There are four significant traits of the trickster:

1. They are “go-betweens.” Tricksters are able to move with relative ease among contrasting regions or levels of being. They have the power to escape order, crossing the threshold into another version of it. Hermes was the only god able to enter the underworld regularly and without difficulty.
2. They embody inconsistency. Rather than enforcing one view of reality, tricksters support the paradox of multiple views. They follow the guiding principle of improvisational theater: you never deny another person’s reality, you only build upon it. Sun Wukong, the Chinese monkey god, could change each hair on his body into a double of himself.
3. They have “smart luck.” Tricksters are always prepared for the unprepared because they hold their ideas lightly. There really are no accidents in the liminal perspective, only opportunities for discovery and insight: you simply play through. When Loki bet his head in a wager – and lost – he agreed to let the winners take his head as long as they don’t harm his neck.
4. They have no home. The trickster is closely associated with the road or constant motion. Hermes is the god of roads and escort of travelers. The Nigerian trickster god Edshu walked down the road in a hat colored blue on one side, red on the other. Half the farmers would say, “Did you see that god with the blue hat?” while the others argued it was red. Edshu would further complicate matters by walking the other way with his hat on backwards!

The Trickster Is Alive and Well

Tricksters are much like travelers: they stir up controversy and discussion as unsung heroes for cultural change. They’re often unpopular or misunderstood, but they speak with an uncompromised voice and have their eyes on a more distant horizon.

The Joker / Photo: LA Times

In his fascinating book, Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art, Lewis Hyde suggests that the trickster continues to shape reality.

He points to mortal examples such as Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Allen Ginsberg, Maxine Hong Kingston, Frederick Douglass as liminal creators. Throughout literature, it’s characters like the Artful Dodger and the Great Gatsby, Hunter S. Thompson and Huck Finn, Robin Hood and Don Juan, who embody the trickster.

Everyone knows a rogue or rebel with an undeniable charisma, one who can cause a fair amount of pandemonium.

Yet as much as they turn things upside-down, you’re more grateful for them than words permit. The trickster is everywhere among us, and the color they fill our lives with makes them so much more extraordinary.

It’s this spirit of travel I’m trying to capture, one that’s close enough to touch but always slips from grasp. Just as it seems I’ve got the idea surrounded, it disappears and I’m left with only a short string of footprints.

But though sometimes maddening, the chase is wonderful – as liminal as the trickster gods (and goddesses) of meaning themselves. I learned a long time ago that the most alive you’ll ever be is in pursuit of that which is just outside of your reach.

The most beautiful things always are.

Dedicated to my wife Nathalie – happy fifth anniversary, moya krasivaya zhena!

What are some examples the “trickster” has played in your life? Share your ideas below!

It hasn’t been an easy week, what with more hidden photos of torture, the arrest of a former Nobel Peace Prize Winner, and learning that all of us recyclers/composters/bikers/tree-huggers are really just taking down the planet by sending out our emails to save the Arctic.

Plus, I locked myself out of my apartment. But I digress.

Even with all the bad news out there, every once in a while, I come across something that makes me ponder the beauty of even man-made creations.

Lanscapes From Above

The Boston Globe recently ran a series of pictures from photographer Jason Hawkes called Human Landscapes From Above. Here is the first pic:

Photo: Jason Hawkes/Boston Globe

Some people may see a sea of red and metal, and think this picture is just an example of our over-consumerism.

While on the one-hand, this is true, I also see the many hands went into creating these cars, possibly being the life’s work of some. The intricacy with which the cars are placed speaks to our ability to create usable patterns that the eye is still able to get lost in.

And every once in a while, stepping back to contemplate that just over a century ago, a very simple version of these machines were just a dream in the minds of a few people, is pretty staggering.

So how are we able to bridge the two – over-production of something that is causing harm to the planet versus the art of creating machines beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors – and handle these realities without jumping to either extreme?

Call me an optimist (and most people I knew growing up never would have), but I believe that every “problem” has a solution. You shine a light in a dark corner and guess what happens? It’s not dark anymore.

And I have a sneaking suspicion travelers understand this best of all.

Natural landscapes

Another one of Hawkes’ photographs is of the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park:

Photo: Jason Hawkes/Boston Globe

The colors and landscape are a simple reminder that nature outperforms us every time. But that’s ok – we have the ability to work with (not against) nature’s beauty and bounty, enjoying all its free entertainment, if we keep trying to figure out how we can work with (not against) the Earth.

I remember a story a friend once told me about a Native-American tribe who volunteered to hold some nuclear waste on their land. Why would they do such a thing, I asked?

My friend explained: the tribe knew it was better for them, who have always had a give-and-take relationship with the Earth, to figure out what to do with the waste than it was for the US government.

Good point, and a starting place from which to ask questions.

Will human creations be as beautiful – and not harmful – as nature’s? Share your thoughts below!

Feature photo: Garry

Kuta Beach, Bali / Photo: bobby-james

Barely a year had passed since the September 11th attacks in New York City, when bombings struck the small Indonesian resort town of Kuta Beach, Bali.

Two popular night spots for tourists, the Sari Club and Paddy’s Pub were destroyed, one by a suicide bomber, the other by a car bomb. A year prior I had spent several nights in a row partying at both Paddy’s and the Sari Club.

The sting of knowing how easily it could have been me instead of those killed was undeniable.

In October 2008, I watched news reports coming out of India, detailing the horror of gunmen storming the corridors of a Mumbai hotel, exterminating people based solely on their nationality.

I’d walked the same halls a year earlier and once again, felt that same sinking understanding of how easy it is to simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones – more threats to our personal safety, none of which would discriminate based on nationality or religion. Even now, I’m writing this as the world looks to be on the brink of an influenza pandemic.

Terror, it seems, is forever lurking around the corner.

How then, can we possibly consider travel while such horrible things continue to exist? Can we escape the Enemy, be it in the form of disease, natural disaster or human being?

The Truth About Danger

Bali Memorial / Photo: antwerpenR

The fact of the matter is that there is no easy answer, no simple remedy. Danger exists, it always has and it always will.

Perhaps that isn’t much of a comfort, but once we allow ourselves to surrender to that concept, the easier it is to gain perspective.

The vast majority of the time that I’ve ventured out of my own little world, I’ve found that by and large, kind and generous people populate the earth. People whom in many cases, will go out of their way to help or lend a hand if need be.

True, I’ve also been robbed at knifepoint and on one particularly bad occasion, hospitalized after receiving a beating by a gang of skinheads.

I don’t wear these unfortunate experiences as any sort of badge of honour, but I have learned that bad things do happen. That much is inevitable.

Studies done by the National Safety Council show that one is far more likely to perish by drowning in the bath or accidentally suffocating in bed than as a result of travel.

And while such statistics are in no way consolation for those who lost friends and family in the Bali bombings, or the Mumbai attacks, they do emphasize the heart of the matter: that risk isn’t restricted solely to the adventurous.

A Broader View

Bali children hold candles in memory / Photo: leoniewise

Perhaps it is too easy to build up a false sense of understanding about the world around us. Without the first hand experience that travel provides, we tend to rely on hearsay and news snippets to define our opinions of foreign lands.

Unfortunately, too often, this information gives us a microscopic glimpse, rather than a broad view of the whole.

For example, which of these four countries would you guess to be statistically more at peace both within and without, than the United States: Syria, Rwanda, Cambodia or Jamaica? According to the 2008 World Peace Index, all of the aforementioned nations rank as statistically more at peace than the United States.

Nonetheless, we can only read so much out of such information. These statistics, as with all news and information are simply guidelines.

The reality of your experience is impossible to predict. I’ve travelled through dangerous places and encountered dangerous people, but these are isolated incidents that no more tire my resolve to travel than does losing my luggage.

Relinquish Control

What is possible to define however, is that we’re all unified by more or less the same desires: those of peace, health and happiness.

The borders that separate us aren’t arbiters of where good ends and bad begins. We live the lives that we want to live and while some decisions can lead to better results than others, in the end there’s only so much control we can apply over any given situation.

I can’t imagine a world where the art of travel was lost and I don’t want to, either.

If we are ever to bridge the gaps that divide us and if we strive to make the world a slightly less frightening place, then surely our only real option is to continue to see it firsthand, come what may.

What do you think about traveling and danger? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Explore. Dream. Discover. / Photo: satbir

Go to school, get good grades and one day you will grow up to be a doctor or a lawyer. If you are lucky you will marry someone, have two kids and own a big house in the suburbs.

Ah, the American Dream.

For decades, the rest of the world has fantasized about going to America and living the good life. They thought that the only way to be truly successful was to be in the United States living with the stars in Hollywood and schmoozing with celebrities.

With travel becoming more affordable, the growing popularity of the Internet, and developing countries emerging in the global market, things have changed.

People are realizing that there is more to life than what you own.

Life Passing By

With the world economy collapsing, people are questioning why they have put so much of their hard earned money into properties and investments as life passes them by.

Those who travel extensively tend to not want the weight of bills and mortgages. Their beliefs are slowing influencing everyone else. At one time everyone’s goal was to save for a dream home, now they are saving for that dream vacation.

People have started to feel that life is an experience and what you do with it enriches you in a way that possessions cannot.

International travel has opened people’s eyes to exciting possibilities. When once a family would only consider driving to Disneyland for a vacation, they will now go to Cairo or Paris to learn about ancient civilizations history.

Education is also changing. When children learn about geography and places in history, chances are someone has been there before. Locations linked to American history like Normandy, France and Hiroshima, Japan don’t seem that far away anymore.

A (Big) Small World

Photo: bitzcelt

The world is shrinking and cultures are blending.

Countries like China and India have developed their own middle class and their own brand of celebrity. They no longer only look to the U.S. for leadership and are comfortable with developing their own version of the American dream.

In contrast, travel has enriched the lives of Americans and opened up their eyes to different ways of living and thinking. They have learned that people are comfortable and happy in other countries and that they too can learn something from other cultures.

As flights become more affordable and staying connected with home becomes simpler, people are traveling to more exotic locations.

Millions of Americans travel abroad each year and the same can be said for tourists traveling to America. The more exposure one has to other cultures, the more one is influenced by that way of life. People are enjoying ethnic cuisine, practicing different religions and adopting values from countries that they have visited.

These travelers come home with a different perspective, adopt a new outlook on life and incorporate their new ideas into their lives at home.

Freedom to Choose

As we enter the 21st century, there seems to be a new way of thinking on earth. The definition of the American Dream is changing.

What was once considered strange and unusual is now normal.

What the American Dream truly is and always has been is the freedom to choose. Just because people are choosing to live their lives differently, doesn’t mean that it isn’t still the American dream.

Americans have the freedom to explore any way of life that they desire and that is what keeps the dream alive.

What do you think about travel and the American Dream? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo: Azam Sa’ad

I tend to believe that many of us want to live forever.

Or at least think we will. At age 20.

But, according to a poll conducted by Reader’s Digest, it turns out most of us do not want to partake in a never-ending existence.

Except Brazilians – 72% of them wanted eternal life (duh…it’s because they’re out partying all night).

Indians ranked next in hoping to break the death barrier, with 67% voicing an affirmative yes! to life.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, only 36% of Russians, 39% of Singaporeans, and 40% of Germans are hoping against meeting their maker (or not heading on to their next life). Americans also came in at 40%, Brits 41%, and Canadians at 42%.

It’s interesting to contemplate why the numbers range so much between certain countries. What exactly do these statistics imply?

Views On The Afterlife

Does wanting to live forever or just get it over with have to do with religion, socioeconomic status, or a general outlook on life? Or is it just a random process?

I suppose Indians on the whole are less stressed than Americans (although the Westernization that is currently underway may be changing this belief), so inevitably, they’d want to live longer.

But then a good chunk of the Indian population believes there is more than this one life, and hopefully the next life will be better, so that makes me think they’d want to get on with it.

I might also hypothesize that Russians have had to deal with quite a bit since the fall of Communism, and it’s not been exactly smooth going, so maybe they want the misery to end.

Plus, the largest religion is Russian Orthodox Christianity, which is pretty clear on the trials and tribulations of life and death, and the kickass-ness of the afterlife.

And yet, Russian artists seem intent on capturing the timelessness of life. As Maxim, a Russian couchsurfer, explains in a recent interview conducted by by Matador Trips co-editor Carlo Alcos, in his culture “poets, writers and musicians have always been the ‘conscience of the people.’”

For some, creating a masterpiece is certainly something worth living a long time for.

Contemplating the reasons for or against life eternal based on one’s current life seems to split 50/50. But maybe there are other reasons why the populations of different countries had such a varied response to this question.

Why do some countries want a never-ending party, while others think a finite amount of time is just fine with them? Share your thoughts below!

Community Connection

Don’t miss BNT’s recent interview with Jason Silva about how science can eliminate death, along with the interesting debate in the comments section.

Run! Pandemic is coming! / Photo: Playadura / Feature photo: y

I was reading Matador Abroad co-editor Sarah Menkedick’s dead-on piece about traveling in times of our current lovely, media-frenzied swiney pandemic, and I began to think about how we’re all going to kill ourselves from the stress of such thoughts, rather than any actual disease or illness.

Once this pandemic clears, there will be another “it’s going to kill as all!” catastrophe on the horizon, whether it has to do with organized terror, pathogens, gangs, or voodoo.

Of course, it is important to know what is happening in the world, but it is also good to have some tools in the chest to handle the adrenal surge to avoid what is actually the world’s largest killer: heart disease.

Luckily, I found a nice little video created by the Humanity Healing Foundation about the 12 Keys of Spiritual Activism. These can easily be adapted to how to spiritually and sanely deal with the hair-and-cortisol-raising realities of, well, stepping out your front door in the morning:

Here are a few of the instructions noted in the video:

1. The core dynamics behind the Spiritual Keys are creativity, adaptability, understanding, and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

How often do we, as humans, approach conflict with the “we’re gonna git em!” attitude? How many words have been fought abroad, and at home, because of our ego’s need to win?

The same goes for handling disease. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re never going to fully kill off bacteria and viruses. They mutate and evolve for survival, just like we do. Can you blame them?

Maybe it’s time to start looking at how to work with them, instead of against them. First place is to start working on your own immune system.

2. Compassion flows from the understanding of Connection between all living things.

When you visit a country and get to know a new culture that you previously had no contact with, other than the occasional news story or Hollywood movie, you find the similarities that connect you, and the differences that sometimes challenge, and sometimes excite you.

But once you realize that most of us have the same underlying basic fears, wants, and desires, and that we depend on each other economically, spiritually, and intellectually, you can see this whole big experiment we call Earth is really based on a delicate balance between humans, animals, and nature.

And oh yeah, each of us carries around about five pounds of bacteria in our bodies at any given time. How’s that for a symbiotic relationship?

3. Learn to act instead of react.

All I can think about every time I hear the words “swine flu” is Jon Stewart’s facial reaction to the media onslaught of “the sky is falling” after he spent a day skating around Manhattan in the warm sun, thinking everything was finally getting better (priceless).

This Daily Show clip also notes at the time, swine flu had killed 149 people in Mexico. This made it rank last on the list of things that can kill you in Mexico (this is that thing they call, what? Perspective…)

Point is, we can take precautions and preventative measures around many things in life, but living a life of action really does feel so much better than living from reaction. Otherwise you might have that sour puss stuck on your face permanently.

4. Embrace mindfulness in the application of your activities and be aware of how your actions may be perceived by others.

Ahh, it’s all going to be ok/Photo: dotbenjamin

The thing that I always hate the most about these types of outbreaks (or terror attacks) is the reaction to racially and culturally segregate.

I understand that governments and health organizations want to contain the virus, but to quarantine every Mexican visiting another country on the planet? Is this necessary?

It reminds me of how after 9/11, every Muslim (and really, anyone who looked remotely Middle Eastern) was detained at airports, subway stations, etc. Even worse, how many were literally detained, thrown in jail without access to lawyers, and sent back to their country of origin, all because the color of their skin.

And during the early part of the 20th century, the Chinese who came into America via the San Francisco Bay were quarantined for months and sometimes years at what was basically a prison on Angel Island.

Are we being mindful of our (over)reactions when crisis arises? Are we thinking about how our actions may be perceived by those who are being affected by these actions?

Life is a series of ups and downs, and none of us know when it will be our time to meet our maker. So enjoy the time you’ve got, but be sure to live it with awareness.

How else can we approach crisis with a more sane and grounded attitude? Share your thoughts below.

School in Prek Toal / Photo: tajai

Being a foreigner in Cambodia often feels like one big web of miscommunication.

At the most basic level, this has to do with my minimal Khmer vocabulary. Even when I find the right words, there’s a good chance I’ll mangle them beyond recognition. Likewise, I hate seeing the shattered look on a Khmer person’s face when he thinks he is speaking English and I cannot understand a single word.

But the missed connections are more than just a problem of language. Even when someone speaks English well, there are still dozens of cultural potholes that we can fall into.

Here’s one that comes up all the time: Khmer people exist in a world in which everything is taken very literally.

Sometimes this manifests itself as funny cultural quirks. (You want an ice cream sandwich in Cambodia? It’s a baguette with some little scoops of sorbet stuffed inside).

But I didn’t realize how compelled Westerners are to turn everything into an abstraction until I saw their ideas constantly being lost in translation, and that can be utterly maddening for everyone involved.

Fun And Games

In session / Photo: tajai

At the Buddhist school where Jason and I teach an English class full of teenagers each week, our attempts to recreate Western education techniques fail miserably.

Pictionary seemed like a grand idea, but the students were easily frustrated, as they didn’t understand the concept of drawing anything besides a literal rendering of the word.

Given the word “party,” a Westerner might draw a cocktail glass or a disco ball, party hats or a birthday cake. One Khmer student drew four people sitting at a table. That is, after all, what parties often look like.

When trying to get her teammates to guess “teacher,” another student drew a picture of a monk, at which point her team guessed “monk” repeatedly. We suggested adding something to the picture, but she was confused – why would she draw an apple or a chalkboard or a pencil when the word was “teacher”?

If Pictionary was arduous, Twenty Questions was a complete catastrophe. The class seemed perplexed by the notion of “guessing what we were thinking.” (Why would they do that? Why couldn’t we just tell them?)

When we convinced them to start asking questions, the queries tended to be hesitant and completely unrelated. “Is it pizza?” one girl asked hopefully. “Is it a duck?” asked the next student.

Even after we corrected this habit of asking about single items and provided them with some hints, the game limped along pathetically. “Okay,” I said. “So remember, it’s not served hot and it’s something round. What could it be?”

“Is it soup?” one student asked innocently. I had to restrain an urge to hurl an eraser at him. The lesson had ceased to be about English at all – it had become an exercise in abstract thinking and logic.

Abstract Meets Logic

On days when we give up and teach by rote, the students are relieved, cheerfully repeating our monotone pronunciations.

If this happened in a Western classroom full of seventeen-year-olds, one would conclude that surely learning disabilities were to blame. But on the contrary, our Khmer students are very bright, remembering vocabulary and grammar rules quickly. Their learning style has little to do with intelligence level.

At first I thought the explanation would involve complicated notions of Eastern thought and perspectives (which it might). But I think the more likely answer is that most Khmer people can’t think abstractly because nobody bothered to teach them how.

Skills like creative thinking and basic logic feel innate to me, like an inborn part of my personality, but I’m realizing that they’re not. I was taught them just like so many other things, at school, from my family, and in my backyard, playing with the girl next door.

That playtime when we were very little girls is the first time I remember learning that an abstract “imagined world” and a real world could coexist.

For years, summer vacations were full of magic trees and blue whales swimming in the back yard, of royal tea parties and dastardly villains lurking in the basement.

The Privilege To Learn

Peeking through / Photo: tajai

In a country razed by horror just a generation ago, my Khmer students have never been taught to pay attention to anything other than the very real and pressing world around them.

Maybe it is a little like America in its infancy – I used to dread when early American literature was assigned in high school, all those texts of Thomas Payne and John Smith and Cotton Mather that speak of much passion and hard work but little imagination or whimsy.

They were men who were busy inventing a nation, and they had no time to invent anything else. I see echoes of this in Cambodia.

Paintings by Khmer artists, for instance, are not valued for originality of content or technique, but rather for their careful precision in replicating a few standard designs. They can recreate a temple backlit by a sunset perfectly, but would they ever again be able to translate their inner life onto the canvas?

It makes me painfully aware that a life like mine, filled with thought and art and invention, could only have been hatched in a handful of very fortunate countries.

On the one hand, it makes me newly appreciative of the country of my birth and desperately grateful.

It is both a heady and terrible realization to know that those deepest and most private parts of the mind, the mental pathways that serve as the foundation of one’s self, were granted by a privilege that I did nothing to deserve.

What are your thoughts on the privilege to learn? Share your thoughts in the comments!

How do you feel when you see this ad?

Photo: Cordaid/People In Need

I’ll tell you the truth: I uttered “whoa” as I finished reading it. The ads were created by Cordaid for third world poverty.

Sometimes a nice smack-in-the-face reminder is just what we need when we’ve been complaining about not having the latest Google phone, or top-of-the-line Mac, or even a sweet pair of sunglasses (although considering I always sit on my sunglasses, I refuse to spend more than $10 on a pair. Still, that’s $10 a pair).

But some people do not appreciate this form of manipulation, or are downright offended by advertisements like these. Two recent campaigns that caused some negative backlash.

Depression Notes

The NYC Child Study Center used a ransom note as a means of portraying how depression can “take your child.”

This campaign also included a note about autism, saying, “We have your son. We will make sure he will no longer be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives.” The campaign was pulled because critics complained these ads reinforced negative stereotypes.

The Booby Wall

Another offensive campaign was Schick’s Booby Wall (check out another one of their not-so-gender-correct ad campaign’s about “trimming the bushes“), which is supposed to bring awareness around breast cancer via an online picture exhibit of breasts.

This campaign is still in rotation, despite the fact that some viewers think it is trying to “sex-up” cancer, that it is thinly-veiled exhibitionism, and reinforces the objectification of women.

But, Do They Work?

Some social campaigns are obviously going to be smarter than others, and I’d be hard pressed to find people who don’t agree with the Dutch Cordaid/People In Need campaign.

I mean, who can argue with water being more important than sunglasses?

The real issue is whether these “shock ads” lead to much needed awareness, or merely outrage.

What is the more effective to promote behavioural changes: shame, or by positive experiences, such as directly connecting with other cultures? Share your thoughts below.

On January 19, 1971, two oil tankers collided in San Francisco Bay, creating an enormous oil spill. After seeing the devastating damage, John Francis decided to act.

For the next 22 years, he refused to ride in motorized vehicles. He also spent 17 years voluntarily silent. During this time he walked across 48 states of the USA as well as South America, and even managed to earn a few scholarly degrees along the way.

Watch his story above, and the message he learned from his self-imposed prison.

Learn more at PlanetWalk.org

What do you think of John’s story? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo: quinn anya

I spent Saturday night doing something pretty cool: I walked on coals that were upwards of 1200 degrees.

Ok, I didn’t spend the whole night doing it; probably more like five seconds or so.

But the group I was a part of did a lot of amazing exercises to build up to it, like swinging around a fire stick, in order to prepare ourselves for the big finale.

Firewalking entails walking on an 8-10 feet bed of hot coals, which have been heating up underneath a fire for several hours.

One person takes a walk at a time (not a run like Pam did on The Office), ending the ritual by placing their feet in a bucket of cold water so as to soak them, and get rid of any pieces of coal that might have stuck between the toes.

Basically, it was an incredible experience. Here are the reasons why you should contemplate firewalking if you get the chance:

1. Challenge yourself to overcome fear.

Everyone feels fear, it’s a natural human emotion. But what if that fear keeps you from doing something you really want to do? Or makes you believe you don’t want to do something that could end up being an amazing experience?

Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between a gut feeling and fear. One of the main points of firewalking is to face a really large fear and connect to what is going on inside of you right at that moment. Ulitmately, you must decide whether you are going to take a walk or hang back, both of which are valid and have their own lessons.

2. No one truly knows why most people don’t get burned.

Photo: Patty Morris

Theories include that the moisture on the foot creates a layer, or barrier, that prevents the foot from actually contacting the coals, that coals are poor conductors of heat, that the experience is all about mind over matter (the first two theories are discredited here).

There is also the little notion of “walking across burning coals is a sacred art, said to unite human will with spirit fire.” Beautiful.

3. Realize that your body is an amazing tool that can go beyond what you thought it could do.

If you had asked me earlier on Saturday if I was going to actually walk on the burning coals that evening, I would have said, “Eh, probably.” If you asked me 10 minutes before we lined up to take the walk if I was going to do it, I might have uttered, “Um, hell no.”

But as our instructor Sarah noted, you will know if and when you are supposed to go. And even though your heart will pound, and your palms will sweat, you will take that walk and be amazed at your own capacity to take on fire.

Then you’ll wonder what else your body is capable of doing.

4. It provides an opportunity to have a truly spiritual experience.

Many people are searching for answers during our current economic and environmental meltdown. The Spiritual Research Foundation defines a spiritual experience as one that is “perceived with the sixth sense, i.e. through the medium of the subtle sense organs.”

Firewalking is one way we can take part in something that will undoubtedly go beyond the mind’s comprehension and make us feel closer to whatever God or deity we believe in.

5. The “war wounds” that may show up on your feet are great for street cred.

I mean, c’mon now, it’s pretty damn cool to be able to tell people you walked on fire, no? And yes, I do have one large blister on my right foot to prove I was there.

On the recommendation of our guide, I used a reflexology chart to determine what organ of my body this blistered area corresponds to, as some believe this can be a message of health issues. (So firewalking can be informative, too).

Resources for firewalking around the world:

• The European Office of Firewalking Institute of Research and Education
• The Firewalking Institute of Asia
• Sundoor Firewalk Finder in North America.

What is your take on the idea of firewalking as a spiritual endeavor, or have you had this experience yourself? Share your thoughts below.

Tayrona Park, Colombia / Photo: Ian MacKenzie / Feature photo: Caranaval King

“Anyone need help with a headstand?” our yoga teacher called out to the class.

“Yes please!” I replied. After practicing yoga for four entire days, I thought a headstand couldn’t be that difficult.

He came over to help me balance. I kicked my legs up and yes, sure, with his hands on my ankles, I could stand on my head. But as soon as he let go I flopped over, the full weight of my near six-foot frame crashed to the mat. OK, so it was a bit difficult.

That was in May 2008, on Koh Samui, Thailand during my first-ever yoga retreat.

It was also the beginning of a months-long world journey with my partner. While she had practiced for years, and many of my friends swore by yoga, I had never embraced it. The early 70s flaky veneer was still sticking to me.

At the retreat, I felt silly doing ashvini-mudras (you want me to contract what?) and couldn’t focus on single-nostril breathing. But as the week went on, the postures made me feel stronger and healthier.

I looked forward to the 7am meditation and yoga in the studio by the sea. I liked, sometimes even really loved, the evening classes where we learned more about yoga’s origins, and yes, talked about India and The Beatles.

By the end of the week I was determined to continue the practice.

Keeping The Flow

The day we arrived back in Bangkok after the retreat, we bought yoga mats at the local department store. Shoved into our overstuffed bags, they endured eight months of travel over four continents.

In every kind of climate, at any elevation, on any surface, I could rely on my mat. We practiced at almost every stop on our journey.

This required dedication and a certain shamelessness. We rolled out our mats in the tiniest spaces. On a narrow balcony in Siam Reap, Cambodia, I had to be sure the low whirring ceiling fan didn’t turn my sun salutations into hospital hellos.

Staff at a hotel in central Thailand watched us practice, and with eyebrows raised commented “Wow, velly stlong!”

In a friend’s chilly yard in Nelson, British Columbia, we dodged dog poo and tried not to notice her tired and tearful two-year-old.

My arms, historically useful only for putting in sleeves, gained definition. My waist became firmer and twistier. My knee, long stiffened from surgery, could bend more than it had since my 20s. My back, prone to morning pain, was longer and stronger.

The simple act of drawing and exhaling breath fed an emerging spiritual centre.

Dreams And Downward Dogs

Photo Christine Mcnab

We practiced yoga in the most incredible places, where we could draw strength from the earth’s magnificent and sometimes frantic landscapes.

I did warrior pose on the pebbly shores of northern Canadian mountain lakes. I tried back bends in Phnom Penh, while tuk tuks puttered by. I reached for the sky in the late afternoon sun by the sea on Salt Spring Island.

I held downward dog on the deck of our riverside bungalow in northern Laos, the muddy red river Ou stretched out before us.

When we had to wait for road crews to clear on the Alaska Highway, I instinctively began sun salutations on the hot tarmac. While truckers looked on at me from behind their shades, I thought of all the bears we had seen that day on the roadside, deepened my breathing and pressed on.

I finished a series of standing poses just before the orange-vested flagmen waved us through.

Yoga was a solace to many of us in the days following the death of a dear relative. Family had an impromptu session together on a blue plastic tarp in view of Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper. We didn’t say a word, but instead bonded through the breath we silently dedicated to the wonderful woman we had lost.

Teachers In Every City

No matter where I was in the world, the yoga mat, my body, and the practice became home. When we needed guidance along the way we stopped into random studios for classes.

One of the best teachers I’ve encountered ran a beautiful studio in Edmonton, a city best known for its massive shopping mall.

In New York, a lovely man named Jeremy taught us how to find stillness in a space overlooking the madness of Broadway. Jeremy also helped me with my headstand. After months of practice I could do one on my own, but only if no one was looking. In class I had a fear of falling on and crushing one of my lithe mat neighbours.

But Jeremy, with the lightest of touches, steadied my headstand, talking me through the posture. I listened to him, breathing, and held it on my own. I was grinning wide, convinced my headstand would last forever.

“Now come down gently,” Jeremy said, after several grueling seconds. I crashed onto my mat with a loud thump. There were giggles. I didn’t mind. I relaxed into child’s pose, breathing.

If you’re planning to travel, I recommend doing yoga along the way. If you don’t already practice, consider a course before you go. Bring a light mat and use it whenever you feel inspired.

You’ll find a place to call home wherever you are.

Community Connection

Need some yoga tips? Check out Simple Beach Yoga For Backpackers. And read an interview with another world yoga practitioner.

What are your tips/experiences for yoga on the road? Share your thoughts in the comments!

]]> http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/04/16/yoga-travel-around-the-world-in-eighty-poses/feed/ 3 http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/04/15/what-if-you-treated-your-travels-an-experiment/ http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/04/15/what-if-you-treated-your-travels-an-experiment/#comments Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:32:10 +0000 Ian MacKenzie http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/?p=949 Unconventional philosopher talks about how to make life (and travel) more mindful.

Jumping for joy / Photo Gene

Let’s say you have 20 minutes. You sit down in the middle of a room and tune into the silence. You’re aware of the slightest sounds.

Then…you start speaking your first name out loud.

You play with the different sounds of the word that is your name. Lengthen the vowels. Stress the syllables. Maybe even imagine the word as if it hovers in the air in front of you.

After a while, you might get the feeling you are being “called.” Who is doing the calling? A very existential question. Your voice begins to appear as an “other,” almost a double. Who is this person, you ask?

This is the first experiment that philosopher Roger-Pol Droit describes in his book: Astonish Yourself: 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life

I recently came across an article on Droit, written by Richard Handler, exploring his unconvential ways of stepping outside the mundane.

As a philosopher, Droit is very much under the influence of Eastern philosophy. His intention is to “provoke tiny moments of awareness.” These tiny moments can take a few minutes, a few hours or the rest of your life.

Other experiments mentioned in the article: Peel an apple in your head. Imagine your imminent death. Telephone someone at random. Try to feel eternal. Watch somebody sleeping. Shower with your eyes closed. Become music. Try to measure experience.

All these tasks are meant to provoke a change in the way you see reality.

In fact, the life that we see before us is so obvious, so seemingly boring, that it escapes comprehension almost all the time. That’s the point of the increasing emphasis on what is often called mindfulness, which is sifting through our culture, be it in our gyms and yoga studios, or in psychological journals and certain TV cop shows.

As a traveler, you may think that you’re already challenging your reality. Anytime you step into a new culture, you’re forced to re-evaluate yourself, to hone your awareness.

But as any meditator knows, being mindful is hard work. Thoughts continue to invade your psyche whether you want them to or not. Says Handler:

Paying attention to what’s in front of us takes patience and fortitude. Just try counting to 10, or eating a single raisin, and see if you don’t get distracted by your fitful “monkey mind.”

The good news? It get’s easier with practice.

Similarly, if you were to attempt all 101 of Droit’s experiments in his book, I suspect stepping outside of the mundane would become second nature.

What other ways of experimental travel have you tried? Share your thoughts in the comments!

]]> http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/04/15/what-if-you-treated-your-travels-an-experiment/feed/ 4 http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/04/14/me-myself-and-mine-the-philosophy-of-liberty-explained/ http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/04/14/me-myself-and-mine-the-philosophy-of-liberty-explained/#comments Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:15:54 +0000 Ian MacKenzie http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/?p=800 In 8 minutes, learn how the philosophy of liberty is based on the hallmark of self-ownership.

In the USA, it seems barely a moment passes before you hear references to freedom and liberty. This could be talk about the right of free speech, gun control, property, or any other number of topics.

This is not surprising. The US was built upon the philosophy of liberty. But what does this philosophy even mean? Watch the short film below:

Seems a fair and pleasant way of living, doesn’t it? If we always look out for Number #1, everyone would be better off. Or would they?

Consider this philosophy for anyone who’s traveled to developing countries. The truth is that the world economies are vastly connected – cheap goods in one means cheap labour in another. It becomes soberingly clear that only looking out for ourselves means crippling the well-being of others.

Helen Lindsay agreees. In response to the film, she writes:

Libertarianism does not recognise the interrelatedness and interrelationships between all the people on this planet. It provides a haven for inherently selfish people – people with the ‘cheating’ gene. Unless humans recognise we have an inherent nature for materialism and greediness, which competes with our altruistic tendencies, we are doomed to compete and fight with each other forever.

What do you think of the ideas presented in the video? Is it the ideal system or fundamentally flawed?

]]> http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/04/14/me-myself-and-mine-the-philosophy-of-liberty-explained/feed/ 8 http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/04/10/osho-god-is-not-a-solution-but-a-problem/ http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/04/10/osho-god-is-not-a-solution-but-a-problem/#comments Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:17:17 +0000 Christine Garvin http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/?p=802 “I know for sure that God does not exist – and thank God he does not exist.”

I first happened upon philosopher and guru Osho when visiting LA, perusing through the Bodhi Tree bookstore. There I saw his book, Intuition: Knowing Beyond Logic, and as I had been currently struggling with my own, I picked it up.

For those who haven’t read or heard Osho, he is certainly a controversial figure.

Case in point: Intuition says that we should let ourselves go fully into our animalistic nature and vices in order to become free of them, which will connect us to our deeper intuitive sense.

In this excerpt from one of his talks, he postulates that if God “created” the world, that would have signified a fixed end point which occurred on the seventh day of creation. That’s it – done. Perfection would be the world’s truth, and therefore evolution would not exist:

He goes on to say that we need God as a “hypothesis of how the world was created,” and yet we fit this God into our own definitions of time and space.

As for Charles Darwin, Osho thinks it would be “against God’s nature to rule out evolution,” that in fact, evolution is an extension of what God created. Darwin’s work merely shows that creation is a continuous process, imperfect in nature, and will never be finished – exactly who and what we are as human beings.

View many more Osho clips here. Feature photo: tamburix

What do you think of Osho’s contentious views on God and evolution? Share your thoughts below.

]]> http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/04/10/osho-god-is-not-a-solution-but-a-problem/feed/ 10 http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/04/05/20-basic-fun-sexy-resources-for-beginning-meditators/ http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/04/05/20-basic-fun-sexy-resources-for-beginning-meditators/#comments Mon, 06 Apr 2009 06:38:55 +0000 Christine Garvin http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/?p=770 A collection of 20 resources covering all types of meditation: from laughter, to sexual, to extreme.

Photo:karl17

Ah, meditation. Conjurs up thoughts of being centered, at peace with one’s self and the world, and being rid of all those pesky worries.

Worries like the total loss of every penny you’ve made in the stock market and your dog throwing up on your bed, again.

But then you sit down to try and meditate, clear your mind, and quickly see that it takes about 15 seconds for your brain to go back to that project due 3 hours ago or to picturing the Dalai Lama naked.

Whoa. Well, while meditation may end up being harder than you thought it would be – many of us wonder, “am I doing it right?” – it doesn’t have to be.

There’s more than one way to approach meditation, and there is something out there for everyone, trust me. Just take a look at the list 20 resources below.

Basic Guides to Meditation

1. Meditation for Beginners. A nice little video guide for those who want detailed instructions.

2. Meditation for Beginners: 20 Practical Tips for Quieting the Mind. Gives some good pointers like, “Notice frustration creep up on you” and “Do NOT Stress” (a bit helpful during meditation).

3. Do you want some Basic Meditation Exercises to try? Succinct little list that mentions the all-inclusive “Choose your own mantra,” extremely helpful in developing focus. Also has links for different forms of meditation.

Laughter Meditation

4. How to Feel Great Every Day for the Rest of Your Life… Laugh as hard as you can for 15 minutes and TRY not to feel calm afterwards. Go ahead, I triple dog dare you.

5. Centered Silliness. “The physical act of laughing is one of the few actions involving the body, emotions, and the soul.” Boom, there you go.

6. Risatel Laughter Hotline. Need to hear some laughter in order to get your meditation on? This video will help.

Fun Meditation

7. Can Meditation Be Fun? There aren’t too many people out there who dare to ask the question: “If you were God, would you be serious?”

8. Notes from the Universe. Meditate daily on how cool, and funny, the Universe can be.

9. Betty Funny Meditation Pose. Is this what you’re supposed to look like when meditating? Well, maybe…

Photo:Luiz Carlos

Travel Meditation

10. Guided Meditation for Astral Travel. For a little nightime travel of the astral variety.

11. A simple travel meditation. Easy, to the point, and can be done whether you are going to work or sitting on the back of a bush taxi for 9 hours in the middle of Tanzania.

12. Baby Meditation. You can even meditate if you are a baby, anywhere in the world!

Sexual Meditation

13. Qtantra Sexual Meditation. It’s labeled “Sacred Sexuality for Lesbians,” but it looks to me like anyone can use it.

14. How to do Sexual Meditation. Even eHow, the “dummies” instructional for the internet, can show you the way toward satisfying sexual meditation for one.

15. Sex and Meditation. If you need some guidance to get your qi flowing…

Photo:MJ Mac

Movement Meditation

16. Basic Movement Meditation. Essentially, an easy Tai Chi how-to.

17. Dance Meditation for Adults. If you normally enjoy getting your (dance) groove on.

Extreme Meditation (in true western style)

18. Extreme Weight Loss Meditation and Mantra That Work. This one’s for weight loss…guess eating food is fulfilling your desire with something “simple.”

19. Meditation as Extreme Sport? For those into “slacklining with banda activation.”

20. Extreme Meditation. Taking the piss out of Zen.

And remember, the key is to realize you can actually bring meditation into everything, just by bringing awareness to well…whatever it is you are doing.

What are some other beginning meditation techniques that you have found helpful? Share your thoughts and resources below!

]]> http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/04/05/20-basic-fun-sexy-resources-for-beginning-meditators/feed/ 3 http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/03/30/asanas-for-sale-the-privatization-of-yoga/ http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/03/30/asanas-for-sale-the-privatization-of-yoga/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:07:25 +0000 Christine Garvin http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/?p=790 Sure, yoga should be accessible to everyone, but are new forms of yoga more about the cha-ching than deepening awareness?

Photo: Daniel Sandoval<