A Little peice of India

A lot of people have been asking to see all of the pictures from my trip so I'm posting the link to my Facebook profile where all of the pictures are. There are 4 albums with 200 pictures each so be sure to take your time and enjoy a little piece of India.


Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=561063247


Being back from India for a while now I have really had an opportunity to think everything over. India, if you didn’t know, is considered the "birthplace of humanity". There is valid argument that Africa is in the running for the title as well, but none the less a very ancient civilization. Life in India dates back to 3300 BC. It's a place that's spiritually rich. Even someone as critical towards organized religion as myself can feel something there, and many do leave India with a higher sense of spirituality. Spirituality does not necessarily mean that you are religious, or believe in a god or creator or any of that. It means just what is says, to believe in your spirit. What I got from India was a higher sense of spirituality, in the context of valuing my existence and realizing how many events had to synchronize for me to come into this existence. I gained a higher sense of gratitude for life and the world I live in and an understanding that I define the life I live and no one else, I decide what I am and am not. This, for me, is my understanding of spirituality. In India, they say when you reach enlightenment you gain a level of consciousness, or understanding of all things, an omniscience of sorts. To put it in exact quotes, "you realize God". You realize it in everything, even in yourself. I am not a spiritual guru by any means but I can now really begin to understand this concept.

So how does this relate to India? How does all of this come out of traveling to India for 3 weeks? All I can say is that India is a very powerful and spiritual place. Go there and see for yourself.

Until then, watch this movie. It’s called “Enlighten Up”. (If you have Netflix, you can watch it instantly.) It’s a perfect portrayal of India, and goes into some deeper explanation of what Enlightenment is. Cheers!

Along the Rio

I took a walk with my brother down by the river today. It always amazes me how serene the river is, even in the middle of Albuquerque. The weather was particularly clear too, and the sky was brilliantly blue. A perfect day on the Rio Grande.

Images From Another World

Here they are: the best, my favorite rather, pictures from India!

Be sure to click each image for the full view.

What if Anyone Read This?

Why would anyone want to give up their technology? That's not progression, its regression right? Well, perhaps the falling out of Human connection and compassion that technology brings us, perhaps that is regression. Maybe if people put down their cell phones and ipods and talked to each other they would find they genuinely cared for one another. What if you could look a stranger in the eye and smile, and get a smile in return? What if everyone gave help and expected nothing in return, wouldn't everyone be better off? What if we spent more time being together than messaging on Facebook, or spending money on trash? Wouldn't we have stronger social and personal relationships? Wouldn't we feel more loved? What if we stopped searching for happiness in the junk we buy and instead find it in each other and in the outside world? What if we stopped relying so much on our pollution emitting vehicles and more on our bodies to get us around, and we stopped having obesity and heart disease kill millions? What if we ate whole, organically grown foods, the way food is supposed to be, and we finally realized that the foods we eat contribute to and cause caner and illness?


What if we were happier?

Wouldn't the World be a better place?

What if?

Rich at heart

To say exactly what I learned from India would be impossible. Experience can not be told or taught. Its not something small, or even concrete, but it lives with me. I can feel it.

There are some things in my conscious that I can talk about however

In India there are basically two kinds of people, the are those plagued by Westernization who are fortunate enough to have money to live what we tend to think of as a "good" life. Then there are those with little or nothing. perhaps a shop, or a taxi to their name, making enough money in one day to feed their families for that sole day. The ones with nothing live on the street, literally sleeping on a sheet on the side walk with nothing. Return to the photo I posted of the two men bathing on the street in one of my earlier posts, this is the only shower they have and it's enough.

There are children there with no families who also live on the street. Together, with stray dogs, in the trash, where ever there is a place for them to be, and they are tough kids, but they seem happy more often than not. One boy we met while were were in Kolkatta didn't know English but sat with us at a Chai stand persistently asking for money, which by the way, happens every time you go into public. This Boy, with no shirt or shoes, and grungy shoulder length hair, sat with us, and because we could not give money, we bought him some tea and biscuits. It was just about this time that an older gentleman came along and tried to shoo  him away, yelling something angrily in Hindi. The man turned to us and said "He is Nothing." Melodie, one of the others on the trip, snapped back, "HE IS EVERYTHING!"  The man left. So, we sat and drank Chai, and Melodie teared up,and I felt lost by the whole helplessness of the situation, and the Boy drank his tea, and he ate his biscuits, and he sat with us. And then he left and we never saw him again.

The boy had been branded on his left fore arm with the Letter "R". He would keep pointing to it while he was asking for money.

 Everyone we asked said that this means he is owned by someone, He is pimped out by someone who makes him go into the streets and bring back a day's money. This put a new perspective on money for me.

The people plagued by Western Influence live a much different life. we rode on a second train form Kolkatta to New Dehli, we were in a first class sleeper, that was much cleaner and less crowded, that only the upper class could afford. These people were radically different than anyone I had come into contact with in India up to that point. They all had Ipods and fancy clothes and laptop computers and noisy cell phones... and they were the most unfriendly Indian people I had ever met. Unlike the people we met in the streets, these people didn't look you in the eye, they didn't smile when you smiled at them, they didn't have conversations with us or with each other for that matter. It was as if their technology and money had completely made them self absorbed and careless to the world. 

I would rather ride on the 3rd class, filthy, hot train, with a hole in the bathroom floor, that we rode the first time, where people were living outside of their head phones, any day of the week.

Lots more thoughts to come when time gives them to me.