ACHIEVING STILLNESS WHILE MOVING

Mumbai is a busy place. It's big but it's filled to the brim.. I am convinced that it makes me think that it is running out of space. People carry a lot. The vehicles are tiny. The streets are beyond 3 dimensional with full-on colors, textures and honking going on. However, in the midst of this bustle, I managed to find a stillness so timeless I could stare at the sea for hours, draw to my heart's content and get some peace in a vast, moving city. It was so unexpected it was almost a miracle to be doing this here. If I were at the beach, that would totally be predictable but achieving it here gave me hope that peace and light and calmness are things you can find within and anywhere you choose to be.

on the road

"BEST WAY TO SEE AND APPRECIATE EVERYTHING"

Mumbai, India.. on the way to Kamshet where we will try our luck to paraglide. Weather wasn't ideal. There might be not enough wind. The signals were terrible so getting in touch with the paragliders were a bit iffy.. My friend said well we can turn back.. and i said NO. it is about the trip and it is about undyingly trying, doing everything we can to make it. if the weather fails, we still tried to make it there..  and that is what commitment to experience and to life is all about... We won't expect a thing. We try all we can to make it happen. I prayed to be given enough winds while on that cliff.. And His name is Vayu. I prayed to the god who takes care of that and hoped for the best..  At that moment where light was at its best, they asked me to fly..

The world throws what we deserve and the way it goes is the way it should..

And that is the way I live and hope to live everyday.  

The journey was superb. Always is.  

Paragliding was a bonus.. 

the remedy for everything..

i found these lines in my sent box written to a friend...
sometimes it is nice to reread old stuff one has totally forgotten...

gratitude is the remedy for all afflictions they say..
it makes you appreciate where you are.
who you are. that you even wake up and see another sunrise.
and experience how it is to be where we are..

the tools are there. the skills are there. it just has to begin.. from nothing. see the world from nothing and slowly build it with what is around.. isn't it a lovely day? a divine day? just the act of being able to close my eyes and open them again.. or to bend my knees or breathe right.. gives me so much joy.. there is the sound of rain, the act of rain, such things as spoons and shoelaces and smell of grass and eyesight. .. sometimes we are in denial that life is damn beautiful. or enough. it always boils down to what cannot be had in this life. but the greatest thing to have is the ability to love anything because nothing belongs to anyone..

It is a rainy day today. It started with a faint rustle of the wind, giving curtains a little bit more room to play. The stickies on the fridge start to hold on to dear life while some unlucky ones land on the kitchen floor. And then I worry about the laundry... I sure should have because on the way to the bus stop I got drenched by a bus rushing by.. So much for staying dry..

As the weather is extremely fickle in these parts, one should really be ready for a sunny day anytime as well. But for now, that is the view from a cab today..

how much sky do you want to see?

if we saw ourselves not apart from others we might have a better chance in achieving compassion. not doing something good to others so they will do something good to us. ultimately, we think of only ourselves with a mentality like that. if we keep this world as our temple, we might take care of it better. if we see ourselves as a temple, we might really look into what goes inside and what we feed our spirit, mind and body. if we see ourselves in others, then we might see ourselves as an extension of this world as a whole and treat each other better. there might be hope to keep a temple and hold a church without discrimination in race, nationality, age, religious sects, gender, beliefs... just pure soul.

i used to clean my house weekly. a major clean-up . then, a realize that it was much easier to sweep and clean a little bit everyday. it keeps the house clean all week without having to do a major clean-up at the end of the week. just like yoga everyday for 10 minutes rather than an hour-intensive workout for once a week. keeps one grounded.

how much of the sacred do you wish to acknowledge in your life? how much sky can you really see in the midst of an urban skyline? how much beauty can you see as much as what's ugly?

hit the road, jack

i admire people who finish things, eat them up, partake, and use up something until it dies a natural death.. out of good use, not in the bin, dusty. in a consumerist world, the real sin is to not consume, i feel. i admire people who really read books from cover to cover, listen to their records in full, eat what they buy, live in their dwelling places, cycle on their bicycles, use all their shoes, and paddle to reach somewhere.

i was sketching people while sitting at a local hawker center at the east coast, having kopi, and writing this. and i was amazed by the tool in my hand. it has ultimate fidelity to what i think and see and helping me commit it to paper. how long does it take to finish this single thin lead on my pencil, or ink on my pen? there are hundreds and thousands of wonderful letters i can write with it, texture marks while observing people and the world i can draw with it. but do they really reach their full potential? most of them end up lost among the multitude of writing tools i already have. and the world keeps on making them. and people keep on buying them. it is so easy to replace something so small and all over the place. and yet there was a time when it wasn't even invented. it is so scarce one will hold on to it until one consumes it fully or one is so scared to run out of it and doesn't use it.

i don't mind products if there isn't an over-accumulation of them without being used. Whatever your passion is, you have the tools to pursue them. but for goodness sakes, pursue them. pound on it, read it, use it. create with the tools you have selected. do not stay in the acquisition phase. this age is about that. too many products. people have forgotten the time to use them. or the talent and dedication to use them to make something out of them. to create something. this age has put so much stress on having something. not using it. having houses, not living in it. having having having. i advocate using. have it but use it. don't just hold it. consume it. pass it on. or else we have already killed so much natural resources and generated trash to make things we love and yet they didn't even serve a purpose.

so, back to my first line. i admire people who consume in a consumerist world because they are the ones who live. they simplify their lives to be able to have the time to consume one product to its fullest. have more than 5 pairs of shoes and you have to do a walkabout to actually wear off the rubber that you paid for to undress the rubber trees.

i am not saying it is wrong to have 5 pairs of shoes. by all means get them. i am saying hit the road, jack.