Today (2006) I met up with a couple from Germany who where headed to (.) which I was too un-benounced to me. I have a general direction of heading towards Mt. Kalish the mountain seat of Shiva in the Hindu religion but Ive definitely not been taking the most direct rout. The couple Ferdy and Aldona spoke a little English and even more Tibetan but where definitely not fluent in either. It was nice to travel for a bit with some one who could at least read the road markers. Something Ive found in traveling that no matter how far away something is if you at least know its a set distance it makes its seem closer, within grasp at least. Its like waiting at the DMV if you have your number and you can hear the G-128 to window ten even if your G-567 you know your at least one step closer to your turn it makes the wait some how bearable, can you imagine if you never knew how long it was going to take could be 5min could be 5 hours, at least if you know its 5 hours you can go outside get a smoke or really set in for a cat nap on the hard plastic chair. Its the not knowing or worst to know it will never end, not ever seeing the goal thus no way to gauge your progress that causes the most struggle. The continual joy of reaching a hill top or the point where you can see around the bend only to be again disappointed when your destination is not there and it must be over the next hill top way off in the distance and no matter how hard you try and tell yourself not to get excited that it may be just around the next corner some how your still are disappointed when its not. Many things in life are this way especially this enlightenment thing I heard so much about in the western world. I had convinced my self that certain people where enlightened and if I read the same books, visited the same places I would be too and granted I didnt do a lot of research or anything but some how I thought I would come to this country and find the little known monastery way up in the hills with a giant stone stair case to climb and once there some wise old Asian dude would tell me the secret or some montage of training would flash before my eyes and there it would be yet Im still walking down this ice covered dirt road looking but dont worry youll be the first to know if I find it.
So at dusk was coming upon myself and Ferdy and Aldona had reached another small plateau which even with Ferdy to tell me we had another 20miles or so before wed reach the next village I still some how was at least a bit disappointed not to see it but was quickly subsided by what I can only call shock! There was a naked man sitting on a rock pointing upward! I simply looked at my two companions and back at the man again. I mean Im not homophobic and it wasnt the site of a naked man that shocked me nor was it that there was a man sitting on a rock in essentially the middle of no where, we had seen a few jeeps on the road that day so it wasnt completely deserted but the combination of both was a bit surreal. The man was a little, elderly and there where quite a few gray hairs in his matted dread locked mane as well as his bread was nearly completely gray so he looked to be in his fiftys or so and took no notice of us at all. Aldona did say something in when I looked back to them that I didnt understand at the time but now know as Namaste a greeting used more in India than Tibet although we where in the general region I guess which means to my under standing something like the light in me shines on the light in you. Ferdy had suggested that it was getting dark so we should set up camp there on the road side with (I want to say our new friend but he hadnt even looked in our direction yet so wasnt really sure if friend would be the best term to use) anyway I was completely Ok with it after a short what I can only call logical mulling over of whether or not to camp next to a naked an LA city looking vagrant type was a wise choice but figured it was a different county so what the heck I dont know any better why not, could be good for some laughs at the very least . Although Aldona didnt seem to keen on the idea and who could blame her not only was she hiking and now camping with a complete stranger (me) even if they had been hiking with me all day with their broken English and my complete lack of German we really hadnt said much to each other but now we where going to add another motley misfit to the crew for the night and this one was a naked native, well probably not native as he looked more Indian but at least more native then we where and I only assume that because if you feel comfortable to walk around naked in another mans country then if you not native you better at least have family that lives there. I could tell from the discussion my companions where having with gesturing for us to go further down the road that the idea of sleeping there was one she was a bit uncomfortable with. Even though I had no clue what they where saying but me and my male bravado decided to pull out a length of rope from my bag along with my best game of charades and tried to explain there where three of us and only one of him so if he got out of line we could just ties his ass to that rock and we had nothing to worry about so with that she agreed Im guessing as much because Ferdy walked over to the man and said something in Tibetan Im assuming asking if we could join him there for the night so with that we made camp. The man just sat there as we made camp and got the fire going as the night overcame us he did finally come over and joined us at the fire. We each sat and made some dinner which was quite good actually but that might have been simply because I didnt know how long Id be on the road and had packed mostly nutrition survivalist bars which are bad enough the first time you try one but after the 10th day are horrendous. I did have some rice as well and Aldona had added it to what they where making which was some vegetable curie stew like stuff that was great. (if your reading this Aldona thanks again best camp fire food I had the whole trip) Ferdy spoke to the man and did a bit of translating in both German and English for me and aldona. His responses from what I gathered he too was on some sort of spiritual pilgrimage or coming back from one as he was headed the opposite direction that we where, he was a guru of sorts in his village and was traveling quite far. The conversation some how got around to our decision to camp there with him for the night as the man picked up the rope I had pulled out of my bag earlier and was now sitting next to it by the fire. I hope Ferdy didnt mention my comment about tying his ass up if he got out of line but never the less he began using the rope as if as mime might if they used props and pretended to climb it. Ferdy explained to me that he had chosen to stay there because he had hardly noticed the man on the rock not to mention that he was naked! What he was noticing as we topped the hill was the beauty of the evening sky and the first star peaking out of the purple evening above that the man was pointing at not the man at all. How the man was explaining that trying to show a person the way to enlightenment was as futile as trying to use my rope to climb to the havens. I realized at that moment that it is our fear that distracts us, fear works like a magician. The magician makes you fixate in one direction while the magic is going on in the other and if you can not allow your self to be distracted and simply look at whats going one right in front of you may catch a glimpse of the magic, you may even be able to train your self to see it every time and see it for what it really is, a slight of hand. Enlightenment is no magic trick its seeing the beauty of the world, the reality of what really is even if you dont catch it or understand it every time. I was so shocked at seeing a man living without fear, just naked in the world that I was missing the beauty, the realty right above my head. (I later discovered that there are certain sects of hindu/budist that believe that clothing is a excess in life that is not required.)
So at dusk was coming upon myself and Ferdy and Aldona had reached another small plateau which even with Ferdy to tell me we had another 20miles or so before wed reach the next village I still some how was at least a bit disappointed not to see it but was quickly subsided by what I can only call shock! There was a naked man sitting on a rock pointing upward! I simply looked at my two companions and back at the man again. I mean Im not homophobic and it wasnt the site of a naked man that shocked me nor was it that there was a man sitting on a rock in essentially the middle of no where, we had seen a few jeeps on the road that day so it wasnt completely deserted but the combination of both was a bit surreal. The man was a little, elderly and there where quite a few gray hairs in his matted dread locked mane as well as his bread was nearly completely gray so he looked to be in his fiftys or so and took no notice of us at all. Aldona did say something in when I looked back to them that I didnt understand at the time but now know as Namaste a greeting used more in India than Tibet although we where in the general region I guess which means to my under standing something like the light in me shines on the light in you. Ferdy had suggested that it was getting dark so we should set up camp there on the road side with (I want to say our new friend but he hadnt even looked in our direction yet so wasnt really sure if friend would be the best term to use) anyway I was completely Ok with it after a short what I can only call logical mulling over of whether or not to camp next to a naked an LA city looking vagrant type was a wise choice but figured it was a different county so what the heck I dont know any better why not, could be good for some laughs at the very least . Although Aldona didnt seem to keen on the idea and who could blame her not only was she hiking and now camping with a complete stranger (me) even if they had been hiking with me all day with their broken English and my complete lack of German we really hadnt said much to each other but now we where going to add another motley misfit to the crew for the night and this one was a naked native, well probably not native as he looked more Indian but at least more native then we where and I only assume that because if you feel comfortable to walk around naked in another mans country then if you not native you better at least have family that lives there. I could tell from the discussion my companions where having with gesturing for us to go further down the road that the idea of sleeping there was one she was a bit uncomfortable with. Even though I had no clue what they where saying but me and my male bravado decided to pull out a length of rope from my bag along with my best game of charades and tried to explain there where three of us and only one of him so if he got out of line we could just ties his ass to that rock and we had nothing to worry about so with that she agreed Im guessing as much because Ferdy walked over to the man and said something in Tibetan Im assuming asking if we could join him there for the night so with that we made camp. The man just sat there as we made camp and got the fire going as the night overcame us he did finally come over and joined us at the fire. We each sat and made some dinner which was quite good actually but that might have been simply because I didnt know how long Id be on the road and had packed mostly nutrition survivalist bars which are bad enough the first time you try one but after the 10th day are horrendous. I did have some rice as well and Aldona had added it to what they where making which was some vegetable curie stew like stuff that was great. (if your reading this Aldona thanks again best camp fire food I had the whole trip) Ferdy spoke to the man and did a bit of translating in both German and English for me and aldona. His responses from what I gathered he too was on some sort of spiritual pilgrimage or coming back from one as he was headed the opposite direction that we where, he was a guru of sorts in his village and was traveling quite far. The conversation some how got around to our decision to camp there with him for the night as the man picked up the rope I had pulled out of my bag earlier and was now sitting next to it by the fire. I hope Ferdy didnt mention my comment about tying his ass up if he got out of line but never the less he began using the rope as if as mime might if they used props and pretended to climb it. Ferdy explained to me that he had chosen to stay there because he had hardly noticed the man on the rock not to mention that he was naked! What he was noticing as we topped the hill was the beauty of the evening sky and the first star peaking out of the purple evening above that the man was pointing at not the man at all. How the man was explaining that trying to show a person the way to enlightenment was as futile as trying to use my rope to climb to the havens. I realized at that moment that it is our fear that distracts us, fear works like a magician. The magician makes you fixate in one direction while the magic is going on in the other and if you can not allow your self to be distracted and simply look at whats going one right in front of you may catch a glimpse of the magic, you may even be able to train your self to see it every time and see it for what it really is, a slight of hand. Enlightenment is no magic trick its seeing the beauty of the world, the reality of what really is even if you dont catch it or understand it every time. I was so shocked at seeing a man living without fear, just naked in the world that I was missing the beauty, the realty right above my head. (I later discovered that there are certain sects of hindu/budist that believe that clothing is a excess in life that is not required.)
givememedicine:
Beautiful
givememedicine:
Happy birthday! 