“You are your own master,
You make your own future.”
“You have too much wind, too many negative thoughts.” Says the Tibetan doctor as he takes diagnosis from the pulse on my wrist.
“What to do? “ I ask.
“Don’t think to much. Have more fun.”
The month was taken by a bronchitis, with fever and tiredness. Kathmandu’s pollution plus the change of weather after the moonsoon seems to have put me down. It was a good time to test out Tibetan medicine. I get to try out the little brown pills which taste like bitter dirt. 12 pills a day and 2 weeks laters, my body slowly recovers and hunger comes back.
I get reminded that the work we have to do on ourselves never ends, that there is always some dust to sweep away in the corners of our minds. I get reminded that I am not 16 years old any longer, that my body needs more rest, that I need to take my sweet time.
Or maybe I should just have more fun as the doctor says.
I wander what “more fun” means. I wander what “fun” means. But then again I’ve always wandered too much. “You think too much.” I think while knowing the futility of thinking. I think till I watch myself think, from afar, a tourist to myself. Like watching a car being stuck around the Champs Elysees, going around and around, trying to escape the mad traffic of other cars. Each car like a thought. The busy man has convinced himself that going around in a traffic jam is a special and rewarding task!
The wise man knows that it’s better to let go of the traffic jam we all have in the head.
“Whatever suffering arises
Has a reaction as it’s cause.
If all reactions cease to be
Then there is no more suffering.”
“Do you have monkeys in France?” asks Akash at the tattoo shop.
“In zoos wedo” I reply.
”Elephants?”
“No, just in zoos.”
Saunil andAkash look at me with a puzzled look on their face. They laugh and make jokes in Nepali.
Following doctors orders, I get the funny image of monkeys in France. I laugh with them "nopes, no monkeys in France, we killed them all".
“You have to do your own work, those who have reached the goal can only show you the way.”
Ready for next move.
Nepal allowing 5 months out of the yearon the territory, my visa expires. By next week, we’ll be in Rishikesh, North India. Kathmandu busy and dusty streets will be left behind, until next year.
“You won’t come back next year” says Saunil. “Tourists always say they come back, but they never do.”
“Oh yeah! You want to make a bet?” I reply. “When I get back I want the best thali in town, the one next to Funky Buddha. If not, I send you a package from Europe.”
“Ok” says Saunil as we top the bet with a handshake.
“You’ll come back” says Akash, “ I can see it in your eyes”.
No matter how long we stay in foreign countries, we always remain “tourists”.
So, like a tourist of life, I navigate from one scene to the next, faces coming and going, where “everyone has their story to tell” as The White Stripes sing. So,we sit on roofs, playing music, letting the stars pass by, drinking chia, eating fresh tandori between thalis. I get a package from Europe, filed with sweet delicacies, seeds and other treats.
We enjoy lemon and orange marmelade on the roof top. The Foie Gras will be kept for a special night
I collect pretty beads and I weave jewerly.Life passes like a soft wind on the skin. The last rain of the monsoon fall announcing the beginning of the tourist season. The tourists arrive in organized packs and couplings, the shop owners wake up smiling from the monsoon.
Everybody is happy. The sun is shining.
This month event was Shivapuri, for a cleaning program with UPF and a Purnima celebration atBaba Shivapuri temple.
A day walk from Kathmandu, with the villagers, we pick up thepieces of shiny paper wrap for individual candies littering the floor like synthetic diamonds set in emerald grass. Plastic is a new concept in theirworld. Plastic will not dissolve like the previous paper, it will just take a much longer time.
The Shiva temple on top of the mountain gets filled with hours of line of devotees in full dress. Pujas, music, food, shamans, people celebrate gods and life together, dancing and singing the traditional Nepale, the Dori.
It doesn’t matter what we pray to, it’s just nice to give thanks to the things we can not understand, to what is bigger than us, to life, the universe and everything.
As a tourist I watch it dissolve and pass away. No matter how far I wander, there is always the blue sky to cover my head.
I say thank you, until next time.
To keep on following doctor’s orders, I will have my last favourite breakfast of theseason at TG’s restaurant: 2 eggs over and easy, fried potatoes, toast, jelly and tea. I will watch the morning traffic go by from the terrase, open a book, absent mindenly read a few lines, sip on my chia and love every second of it.
It’s fun as the doctor says…and fun is good for you.
“Better a single day of life
Seeing the reality of arising and passing away
Than a hundred years of existence
Remaining blind to it.”
Quotes from teachings of the Buddha. Taken fromThe Art of Living, Vipassana Meditation as taught by S N Goenka, a highly recommended book for anybody interested in Vipasana, or just how the mind works and how to work with it. For beginners and a good reminder for non beginers.
See you in the yoga capital of India
always a fresh nice way to read your thoughts and seeings about life. sounds like movement is underway for a journey from higher up in the cool to the other side of hills and blessed by the river Rishikesh.
would like ever so much to meet up sit together and watch it all go by and i right now am with "family" in the tiny village of bada in the large state of gujarat not so far from uttalaracha (sp) so a meeting is possiable if the dates and places meaning and happening can come together.
taking leave from the closeness of realtionships over here requires some balance of thinking of my departure so planning can be made and those i am in the company of feels i am not wretching out and doing a drop to departure but i will mention in the next day or so that manue ( the longest of friendships outside of blood course realatives that i maintian a passing contact with to this day )
you know manyue we have know each other now for 17 years ( i think) of life with time open and going and us passing through each others space and seeing each others eyes and able to exchange stories and different different landscapes and socail systems.
any idea what dates you will be in rishikesh?
there is a nice house in dheradhun which is open to people coming trhough and the name , at least at one time, was the vipassana house and the man who opens the doors is armand.
he enjoys sharing his large and cooling home plus garden with those whom come from around the world to visit inida and his interest is in mediaitons esp. osho . i will e-mail him to see if the house is still in operation because it is a nice way of being in dheardhun which is a short and curvey one hour bus ride from rishikesh.
will you be in rishikesh with the love man of nepal?
are you both making the trip together?
if you are so inclined send travel dates and times you would like an old friend to keep cpmpany on the river bank and open aired cafes perhaps we could even visit the vipassana center in dheardhun???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
love love love love all around
rachy