As many of you may know my sister (Maya) Casilda came to visit when i got back from Barcelona. it was really good to see her (you in her case). but anyway, just go give note to the events that happened while she was here. first of all we had a sweet party. for those of you who have facebook you can see pictures of it on her profile. there was live music dancing drinking and all sorts of merrymaking. unfortunetly we eventually had to stop when the neighbors came to complain at 3 am. we tried to invite them but they wouldnt listen. so yea generally great evening.
other than that we just did alot of chilling and stuff. whenever she comes to visit everyone seems to come around alot more, which is quite nice. so there was alot more social life in the house than there has been lately. it did conflict a bit with my attempts to get back in a routine of studying and not vacationing in general.
well just to share a personal comical story. friday was 'el dia de San Canuto' which is the spanish equivalent of 420 and for those of you who dont know what that is, it is essentially the national marijuana smoking holiday. so i was invited to a concert/celebration in Malaga by the woman with whom i intern (see Cannabainternship). i should note that i hadnt smoked in a few weeks so my tolerance was reduced to nil. i should also remind you all of the potency of the cannabis in the region. so me and carlitos made our way there and to as we appoached we smoked a joint (in reality i took one hit but it was more than enough). sure enough it took us like 90 minutes to find a parking spot. so we parked and within two blocks or walding we had already lost the car, so we had to head back find it mark it on the map and set out again. we got to the destination just in time for the juggeling act to start. it was quite a gathering, from the sky it must have looked like a regular forest fire. we proceeded to watch the show and i took a few hits of joints that were passed to me. knowing my currents state of intolerance i did my best (relatively speaking) to keep my consumption down to a minimum. after the juggeling we went to get some food as i felt my blood sugar droping. we walked around the same block for half an hour before finally settling on a bar. upon returning there was a concert about to start, quite a good percussion group i might add. at this point i smoked some of another joint and tried to settle into the mood. within a few minutes i was starting to feel little dizzy. i went to lean against a palm tree. i remember a strong vibration from the gas generator next to the palm tree that was powering the whole shibaz.
and then i woke up. i opened my eyes to see a large group of people standing around me asking me if i was OK. i looked over to see i was about 20 feet from the palm tree and i had no idea how i had gotten there. from what was told to me i stumbled there as i feinted. its not over either. after i had layed there a little while i sat up and took my time to recover. after an hour of so we started to make our way home. we judged it would be a good idea to stop somewhere to get some coffee. keeping with the trend of the night we stopped at 3 rest stops without finding anything and at the third there was a police man waving some flags in there air. i figured ' damn, a detour, this is really going to slow us down, and i folowed the direction i though he was indicating' at his point carlitos mumbled something which i didnt understand. within a few moments there were sirens blaring behind me and the police pulled me over. apparently the 'detour' was in fact an alcohol checkpoint which i so casually drove away from. needless to say my behavior was suspicious. as i had wisely not drank anything that night, for fear of creating a symbiotic intoxication with the marijuana, i passed the breathalizer test with flying colors. i was still searched and they confiscated all the wonderful chronic i had been given at the celebration, some real once in a lifetime jewels. but in the end i was glad they let me go. we finally arrived about 4 hours later than we planned to sleep with great satisfaction.
now, many of the people who read this, probably over the age of 30 may be saying to themselves, 'what is up with this kid, one day hes all spiritual and shit, the next hes passing out from drug overdoses.' and to you i say, you have a very good point, but i assure you that i did not smoke very much on the relative scale, and that i only reccount the story to you for its comic value. i would venture to say that those who know me well would be impressed on the other hand by my current lifestyle despite how many drugs and other hedonist recreational activities i have available to me, with nothing but self discipline to deterr me.
just to give you an update as far as what ive been doing lately. i started yoga classes last week and i have already payed for 3 months in advance as a way of ensuring my commitment.i have now settled into an athletic schedule that suits me quite well, 3 days of soccer per week complimented by two days of yoga and two days of rest, in order to keep all the articulations operating at optimal levels. arabic classes start back up this week, finally. it has been a long recess and i am quite anxious to start back up. i am happy to say that i have purchased my tickets to india this summer and i will be there from may 29 until july 4. i have read several books lately, some of them extremely thought provoking and i wonder if you have read any of them.
The Perennial Philosophy by Aldoux Huxley- this book is basically an anthology of all the great mystics from most religious traditions. huxley has attmpted to compile his notion of what the core of these religions are, which are shared by all spiritual practices. honestly i found this book to be phenomenal, although its a bit heavy reading. it is certainly written from a european perspective, but with great admiration and understanding of the eastern spiritual traditions. as i have lately been in search of spiritual teachings i must say that aldous has served as an excellent teacher and i was more than happy to learn from him. i recommend to all who feel that all religions are essentially different fingers pointing at the same object, and who seek personal spiritual guidance.
Brida by Paulo Coehlo- another terrific book by the almost mythical author of 'the alchemist'. apparantly this is a true story which adds quite a bit of allure to it. this one chronicals Brida O'Fern's quest in becoming a witch and finding true love. as with all coehlo's books (at least the ones i have read) this book provides useful and practical moral and spiritual advice. his writing style is simple and easy to read. the thing i like most about his books are that they really make me dream of what is possible, and believe taht it can come true, and better yet that it is in my hands.
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl- this is a psychological analysis of the life inside a prison camp seamlessly woven into the authors account of his own experiences in the Nazi concentration camps. the narrative is both heart breaking and inspiring, devastating and hopeful. he essentially tries to find what it is that allows some people to live and others to die while in these camps and how it is that one can find a point to keep living when life all around appears to be worthless. he also includes an introduction into his own school of psychotherapy, logotherapy, or meaning therapy. his theory, and a damn good one at that, is taht what makes our lives worth living is finding a meaning in it. we can make up any meaning we like, but if we have one and we beleive in it we can survive even the harshest torture. his own experiences are the stronges validation for his ideas.
Muhammad: Biography of the Prophet by Karen Armstrong- this is obviously a biography of muhammads life. i find it to be quite enlightening as she treats him fairly and objectively without the spite that usually taints westerners perspective or the adoration taht taints muslims. she gives him credit as a prophet, and leader, statesman, and essentially and admirable and good man. she goes to great effort to make us understand him within his cultural and historical framework without falling back on our own moral absolutism. she also makes a point of comparing the muslim and chirstian worlds on a level playing field. this is must read for those who are interested in islam, but especially for those who have a negative idea of the religion and its prophet. it should correct many of the notions we may have ingrained in us by centuries of ingorance and bad publicity.
at the moment i am reading two very good books which i also highly recomment. first of all War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. they dont call it one of the greatest books ever for nothing, im about a quarter of the way into it and it just keeps getting better. you should however set aside about a month to read this book as it is ginormous. the other book is A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. i find this book to be quite interesting but i have always had an affinity for mathematics and the natural sciences. it is an excellent choice for those who are interested in modern physics, but dont have time to become a physicist. he makes abstact mathematical concepts readily available in laymans terms and there is actually a fair amount of humor in it believe it or not.
well thats all for now.
goodluck and godspeed mateys
love
em
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so should i tell you the funny story about the time i got some severe diarrhea and i could not stop shitting. my skin hurt from the poison that i had ingested from eating the delicious mexican burrito i had bought in the streets of san diego. it was incredible how i could not hold my stool.
you know from a certain perspective this is quiet funny because i not only suffer from food poisoning once in san diego but three times. for some reason the believe that the pleasure i derived from eating those fried taquitos with guacamole was worth more then avoiding the pain and the suffering i put my body through, is beyond my intellectual or spiritual understanding.
sometimes i can be such a an idiot, or should i say human.
i heard that a group of scientist were doing research in india and china. they gave LSD to some of the monks and and the supposedly enlighten people of asia. one of them fell asleep. another got a small head-ache. and one in particular ate a few of these LSD pills and felt absolutely nothing. he thought it was really bland candy. the western scientist were baffled by how this supposedly mystics were not affected by this super powerful drugs.
no matter what or where you are at it is all a matter of perception. my doctor friend who prescribe emodiom for my food poisoning found no humor in my inability to abstain from eating those dirty tacos in the street corner. however my indulgent friends and i thought it was quiet grand to take a chance and play russian roulette with my consumption of mexican food. we thought it was so funny who got sick or who did not get sick. you may think us insane and i know think it was insane but during that time in my life i thought it was so amazing to fuck with my own digestion versus my appetite for dirty tacos.
now that i would not indulge in ingesting dirty mexican tacos there are a lot of things i do that are so contradicting to who i am. as a spiritual seeker and a soulful artist i rather think i am above a lot of things that are not very good for my being or my spiritual evolution. as i have gotten more comfortable with my short comings i try to push them away or judge them as spiritual or moral, i prefer to look at myself and see how there are so many aspects to me that at some points are so contradicting. i own a very expensive watch. why i bought myself this watch is not too clear. my dad had given me his very expensive watch when i was a kid and someone stole from me. i never thought i deserve this watch so i stopped wearing it. some friend of my stole it from me and bought crack. i got i think $150 for it. not even the tax of the watch was that little. i could have given him that money. so years later i replace this watch i did not deserve with a new one. i think is nicer than the one my father gave me.
so did my dad give me a watch or was it something else? did he give me vanity? did he give me pride? did he give me confidence? for years this watch i wore people who knew its value treated me differently than the people who had no idea what it was worth. so i think to myself what is vanity, confidence, or pride? are this things real and are they necessary? what function do they serve? did my father do me a favor or did he do me a disservice? i know that i am not materialistically driven other wise i would be making a lot of money. but i do like things that are valuable. is that pride or vanity? and did my father mean to give me that from a vanity place? he had had such a poor childhood. was he giving his hope in the form of watch. a beautiful expensive watch was his way to symbolize a better time for me? things getting sort of fuzzy at this point. sort of like quantum physics. nothing is as it seems when you take a closer look and see its connections to everything else.
the watch, my dad, myself and the watch are somehow one of the same but different facets of the same diamond. the paradoxes of life are the greatest treasures for us open our minds and hearts. i heard an amazing thing the other day. a famous athlete was speaking about the pressures that arise when one is in the finals of a competitive tennis match. how the stress can prevent you from playing to the best of your ability if you are not careful. so this lady said that the to feel that kind of pressure for someone is a privilege. i was so awed by this comment being that most of the time i am trying to resolve or run from stressful situations specially the paradoxes of life that really fuck with your mind and heart. i am forever grateful for the first time i can feel privilege for any difficult thing that comes my way.
i guess the nature of life is just that a privilege.
So i ask you what privilege those eating a mexican poison taco give me? to put my body and digestive system in such jeopardy good or useful? do i make my stomach stronger or am i disrespecting my body?
Find for yourself the myth of drugs and what it does and not do for you? because as you get closer to this issue and not use your moral human eyes but truly see what it can and cannot do for you; it might help you understand why some part of you chooses such an activity.
yes i know i am long winded but is that so bad!
peace and war to us all!
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