You must leave now take what you need you think will last,
but whatever you wish to keep you better grab it fast...
Bob Dylan, It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
...one last trip to the house where I grew up for any childhood or adolescent relics deemed worthy of occupying a storage locker corner until god-only-knows-when...(that's my dad's old guitar leaning against my official-document-of-bein'-real-smart, and boxed up pictures, paperbacks, comic books, letters, ticket stubs, and a couple Matchbox cars)...
...last week took my beloved mountain/city bike into the shop for a minor repair only to find out the frame was broken...tried to see it as a lesson in impermanence and non-attachment and even came up with a mantra for the experience...
om
shanti
fuck
...since, ultimately, the Philly boy I am values honest expression of feelings as highly as those more proper Buddhist-y yogi virtues....but now feelings are even more complex...leavin' nothin' much to say, for the moment, and nothin' much to fall back on but old rock lyrics...(with gratitude to the fearlessly non-traditional yoga playlists of the inimitable Sarah E.)...(kirtan? wha...?)...
Take me to the station,
and put me on a train,
I got no expectations
to pass through here, again...
Mick Jagger/Keith Richards, No Expectations
9 comments:
"Take me to the river.... Drop me in the water...."
om shanti fuck
oh
om shanti go
Jane and I are renting our house indefinitely and selling all its contents in an effort to return to near college level mobility. First expat location--northern Italy. Our approach to retirement is to shake things up completely into a totally new life. (We've lived in the same Milwaukee house for 20 years, ever since we were married.) My interests have reverted strongly to the interests of my youth--flamenco guitar, foreign languages and culture, and living, not just traveling, overseas. This is the ultimate in non-attachment and the ultimate in attachment, as we are jettisoning everything, except for the the most important attachment we have, each other.
omnia mea mecum porto... old dream to be free. Welcome to Europe! Are you blogging of this experience?
Om Shanti Fuck.
I'll have to use that one.
Namaste bitches...
Hello!
I just ran into his old comment of yours over at Elephant Journal and wanted to clear up your misunderstanding:
"There's homophobia, as well as rampant sexism in every religious/spiritual tradition (and not just in the past, either, as the most popular yoga guru in India is one of the country's leading opponents of decriminalizing homosexuality) (yes, homosexuality is illegal in magical mystical India). If you're going to idealize ancient traditions and hold up mythical pasts as purer than the modern world, you're either gonna end up a crazed fanatic like Phelps or wrestling with a who lotta contradictions (like the gay and lesbian yogis I encounter who seem to think traditional Indian village life is an ideal we should all aspire to). "
The British made homosexuality illegal in India during their terroristic rule and a lot of their bullshit laws have not been taken off our books yet.
Many of us Indians are still mentally colonized. We need to scrap all of the British laws and rewrite our own, from start to finish, reflecting our civilizational values.
As far as homosexual "yogis" (and I'm using that term very loosely) thinking a return to traditional Indian village life as ideal... ONLY if its pre-British Raj and pre-Islamic Indian village life would it be close to ideal for them.
Ancient Hindu Civilization did not make the personal political and therefore if someone was homosexual and wanted to enter into a marriage with another homosexual, there was no central government authority making laws against that. The family was (and to a large extent still is) the epicenter of culture, social life and ethics for a Hindu and therefore if their family gave blessings, no one could stop them. If their family did not give blessings then they could always move away from family like the rishis and munis often did.
Anyway, gradually I see more and more Indians shaking off the shackles of colonialism, imperialism and Abrahamic influence.
I'm hoping within 100 years we can return to our roots and the individual freedoms our original civilization promoted.
Thankyou!
'. . . first there is a mountain / then there is no mountain / then there is . . .'
I suppose it's not too strange that my Dad recently left me a guitar also, or other Stones & Dylan (& Donovan) connections . . .
'Strike another match, go start anew . . .' Cheers ~!
I have an older friend who loves to go to estate sales. She can't drive any more, so I take her.
Seeing people haggle over a "World's Greatest Dad" mug made me want to go home and give away everything. It really drove home to me how things really have no significance other than the significance we give them.
Compassion! Compassion? Hmmm, I couldn't find it for those young men. I found myself thinking "if they were taking selfies perhaps they picked up his body lice". That is definately not compassionate. 3617
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