Higher Passages

nothing is good

2012-02-21T19:19:00.000-08:00

Let go of judgement. Nothing is good or bad.
I have been implementing this by judging everything good. "It's all good."
It's easy to let go of bad, but now I must let go of good also. Nothing is good or bad.
Why do I want to do this? Because I seek peace, and I believe letting go of judgement is key to gaining peace.And peace is good.Whoa!If peace is neither good nor bad, then why should I seek it, so why should I let go of judgement? A circular contradiction. Typical!

I already know the answer to this. It is a contradiction only in the world of logic, and there are many other worlds beside logic.

good or bad

2012-02-10T08:46:00.000-08:00

...there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
- Shakespear, Hamlet

Cremation

2012-01-25T05:02:00.000-08:00

A major priest died in Ubud and they held a procession and ceremony for his cremation. Several hundred people walked about a mile following the parade to the temple grounds where the cremation took place. This clip opens as men have carried the priest's casket up a stair to place it on a portable tower, one of four "parade floats": a white bull, a black bull, and two towers. When we got to the temple grounds, they moved the body of the deceased out of his casket and into the white bull. The priests ministered to the body for a long while and then they closed up the bull statue and lit it on fire. They also burned the black bull and I don't know what was inside there.

I let the camera roll for long periods to capture the music. There are four orchestras participating, each from a different temple. They play drums, cymbals, and gongs. They are rigged to walk in the parade, and indeed they sound like a marching band to me. They continued playing in the temple grounds, taking turns. There is a shot of a marching band at 2:37 minutes in, and a different orchestra, seated in the temple grounds, at 5:07.

to improve humanhood

2012-01-24T15:57:00.000-08:00

The advancing student will gradually relinquish his attempts to improve humanhood or to improve beliefs in order that the truth of spiritual existence may unfold in his consciousness.

- Joel S. Goldsmith. The Infinite Way (pp. 66-67). Kindle Edition.

Navigational statues

2012-01-24T13:44:00.000-08:00

When I'm on my motorbike I never know where the hell I am. There are only two street signs for every street, one at each end. So I'm learning that these statues are built as navigational aides on the major intersections.
navigational statues

The Pirate Bay press release on SOPA

2012-01-20T08:05:00.000-08:00

The Pirate Bay press release on SOPA:

...our rules are very similar to the founding ideas of the USA. We fight for freedom of speech. We see all people as equal. We believe that the public, not the elite, should rule the nation. We believe that laws should be created to serve the public, not the rich corporations.

...The Pirate Bay is truly an international community. The team is spread all over the globe - but we've stayed out of the USA... Why the US government want the american people to be fed with trash is beyond our imagination but we hope that you will stop them, before we all drown.

...The reason they are always complaining about "pirates" today is simple. We've done what they did... We've proven that their existence in their current form is no longer needed.

http://static.thepiratebay.org/legal/sopa.txt

Kopi Luwak

2012-01-17T11:12:00.000-08:00

Kopi Luwak. In Indonesian, kopi means "coffee", and luwak means "gullible tourist". I went to this coffee farm yesterday. I followed a winding gravel path through the jungle, though looking closely, most of the jungle plants were planted in rows, and along the path were labels like in a solarium. They grow coffee beans, vanilla beans, and cacao beans. They also grow lemons, lemon grass, ginger, and ginseng, and they use all these to make coffees and teas for export, all organic.

The piece de resistance is the kopi luwak. A special expert picks the best of the Bali coffee beans. This expert is a mongoose. The mongoose is a coffee connoisseur. Give him a bowl of Bali coffee beans and he will eat only the best ones. These chosen beans travel through the mongoose, the digestive tract removes the fruit of the bean and the seed portion comes out the other end where it is reharvested, cleaned and roasted, and sold for an obscenely premium price. Here at the the farm it was $5 a cup and it was delicious.

By the way, did you know, there are 6000 species of coffee. Some coffee beans are male and some are female. The males have a stronger flavor.

Balinese coffee is ground fine and made like hot chocolate. No filter or press or perk. Just pour hot water into a cup with a spoonful of ground coffee and stir. Umm.

the ways of truth and love have always won

2012-01-13T05:09:00.001-08:00

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always."
Mahatma Gandhi

Buzz cut

2012-01-12T11:10:00.000-08:00

After six weeks in Bali I needed a haircut. So I selected the cheapest beauty salon I could find, also with the cutest proprietor, and asked can you cut my hair, I get a buzz cut with a number 3 foot. She says yes, and proudly pulls the electric clipper out of the drawer to show it to me. It's from Thailand. She says the person who is expert on the clipper will be here later on. Come back at 2.

So I come back at 2 and she's in the other room giving a massage. I was met instead by a twelve-year-old boy and his younger sister. They invited me in, offered me a place to sit, put the apron around my neck. I thought oh this is nice they are prepping me and the barber will be here soon. But nope, the twelve-year-old is the barber. I had to help him get the foot on the clipper. Had he ever done this before? Good lord. I held my breath and let him do it. Actually I think it looks pretty good. And for a dollar fifty, it fits my budget. I'll probably go back. We're all good friends now.

gecko

2012-01-02T02:37:00.000-08:00

I've never seen this guy. I hear him at night. He's up above my ceiling somewhere. He does this about every 40 minutes through the night. He starts with an introductory tapping, and then he says gecko eight or nine times. At least some people think it sounds like he's saying "gek koooo". One night it sounded to me like he was sneezing, "a chooo". Mostly though it sounds to me like a Donald Duck version of "fuk youuu".

Street festival dance performance

2012-01-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

On New Years Eve I was wandering around and found a street festival. A man explained to me, as near as I can understand, it was to commemorate the new pavement of the street, and also to celebrate the New Year.

There was an orchestra of 14 men, seated on the ground, playing drums, gamelans and flutes. Three females danced, one at a time. This was traditional Balinese dancing, which is derived from Hindu forms, with the fascinating body postures, hand positions, eye and head movements, and facial expressions. It was a fun, neighborhood event. Each woman danced for awhile and then went into the audience to pick a male partner to dance with, to the uproarious laughter of the crowd. One dancer picked a westerner to join her, yes, yours truly.

It appeared to be a potluck. Women kept showing up with additional plates of food which were laid out on two tables. I was invited multiple times to dig in.

Fireworks were going off all over town all night and they reached a crescendo at midnight, which I viewed from the three-story rooftop restaurant, Black Beach.

A mental malpractice

2011-12-29T22:24:00.001-08:00

I know thee, who thou art.
You're not a person, you're not a condition,
you're nothing but a mental malpractice.
You're nothing but that carnal mind in action
an image, a nothingness, the arm of the flesh,
the fleshy mind, that which has no law of god,
no life of god, a nothingness.
I don't have to fight you.
I have to recognize you for what you are:
a mental image in thought without substance, cause, reality, or law.
- Joel Goldsmith

Attachment

2011-12-27T22:16:00.000-08:00

"The cause of unhappiness is attachment," I read today.

My life is dedicated to my true spirit. When the spirit calls, I jump. An attachment would prevent me from jumping, or at least slow me down.

Pantai Lebih

2011-12-27T11:00:00.000-08:00

First trip to the beach. Pantai Lebih. Lebih Beach. Outrigger fishing boats lined up ready to go.

Torus

2011-12-26T16:06:00.000-08:00

Since civilization, we have organized ourselves into pyramids. What would society look like if we organized ourselves into a torus?

The video is a clip from the movie Thrive.
http://www.thrivemovement.com/

Morning cacophony

2011-12-25T05:20:00.000-08:00

This is the view from my porch at the Sulendra homestay in Ubud. Unseen through the vegetation are homesteads and everyone has chickens and roosters and pigs who raise this din every morning.

An ingenious universe

2011-12-23T04:29:00.000-08:00

I remember in days of darkness when I complained
what a stupid universe
who could create such a dumb place
where the only way you can experience joy
is to know what sadness is
the only way to feel good
is because you felt bad yesterday and today is not so bad
the only way to have pleasure
is because the pain has stopped

that was the world of duality

and now some people are claiming that duality is only one way to look at things
there's a better way
a world where it's all good
there is no duality, no pain, no suffering, no limitation, no lack
those things are judgements, discernments,

in this other world
it's all good
no matter what we think we perceive
no matter what we want to believe
it's good, perfect, filled wth joy

this universe is not stupid
it's brilliant
genius

isn't that amazing
in one lifetime
i used to live in a world i found stupid
and now i live in a world I find genius

Good day

2011-12-21T04:19:00.000-08:00

Last night I met a guy from Sweden, Daniel, who is traveling in Indonesia, expecting to settle down here. He turned me on to Esperanza Spalding. He reminded me about Spotify, but I came home and discovered it's not available in Indonesia.

Had a great day yesterday. Indulged myself. My first Bali massage. $5. Had two meals: fantastic Nasi Gorang at Sopa Warung early in the day, then spaghetti at Kafe, where I met the Swedish guy, then back to Sopa for dessert and tea.

Earlier in the day I bought a knife and a plate so I can cut fruit at home. Got some experience haggling.

Planning to take a motorbike into Denpasar shopping tomorrow. I'm spending time with Google Maps today, memorizing my route. The signage is so poor, I find navigation challenging.

Sari Organics

2011-12-20T15:25:00.000-08:00

Nice restaurant north of main road out in the rice paddies. Accessible only on foot or motorbike.

Kecak

2011-12-15T19:00:00.000-08:00

Went to a dance performance, the Kecak. Fascinating. This is the thing that Ron Fricke included in the movie Baraka. Met a Finnish girl and talked to her for awhile. She is a dancer and choreographer in Helsinki and she was inspired by the dance we saw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGXcnWUqV-Y

Motorbike

2011-12-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

Rented a motorbike and rode it to the airport to retrieve my second bag from the storage locker. Got lost both ways, and that was the best part of the trip. On the way down I passed through Gianyar, which was way out of my way, and saw the most magificent statue. And on the way home I missed Ubud and found myself out in the rice paddies. It was beautiful. I'll go back there if I can figure out where I was.

I was on the bike for five or six hours. Sunburned the hell out of my arms and knees. Ate at the airport and came home with diarrhea. Some kind of rash on my back. My neighbor, Pavo from Poland, gave me a pill for the diarrhea he had picked up from a doctor in Cambodia. It worked. I feel a mess physically, with my skin all messed up.

Rooftop view

2011-12-10T15:00:00.000-08:00

The Black Beach, an Italian restaurant, has rooftop seating with 360 degree views of the rooftops of Ubud. They also show Italian movies with English subtitles on Wednesday nights.

Sulendra

2011-12-09T11:00:00.000-08:00

Moved into Sulendra homestay. People here live in family compounds. Each compound comprises multiple structures, multiple rooms, and houses an extended family. Sulendra has eight rooms they let to travelers. I'm paying 3 million Rupiah per month, roughly $10 US per night. Electric, ceiling fan, hot water, wi-fi. One room, with private bath, a porch with a wonderful view of the river valley. Wi-fi is pronounced wee-fee.

Wayan Sulendra is an artist. He is currently working on a commission of eight large oil paintings for a hotel downtown. He and his brother and nephew and their families live here.

Rice paddy view

2011-12-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

This view is from the Tropical View restaurant. All the roads are lined with shops, so driving or walking along the roads I can't even tell if I'm in a village or not. It takes some effort to get out into the rice fields and find the real Bali. Some of the restaurants in Ubud front on the street, but then you walk through the restaurant and, behold, the view out the back is of a completely different scene from the teeming bustle on the street.

Arrive in Ubud

2011-12-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

Took a shuttle bus from Legian to Ubud. Got out of the bus and there is a crowd of young men waiting for us. One grabs me and convinces me to come to his hotel. $15 per night with pool and wi-fi. I ride on the back of his motorbike, and it turns out he is the manager of the hotel and he checks me in. The hotel is not far from the Monkey Forest sanctuary and the monkeys often come to visit the hotel. The staff try to chase them off. There are two in this photo if you look closely center-left.