SLIDESHOW-River of Life and Death

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Waking up before dawn to take a rowboat along the Ganges' bathing, burning, and ritual ghats was a surreal experience to say the least.To be around people with such devotion, and belief in ceremony and ritual was very moving as Americans in general are so far removed from these things in their daily lives.
I have kept busy with a steady stream of music, yoga, and meditation classes. I could not imagine a better place to partake in this as this city has been a spiritual learning center for thousands of years. When I do my breathing exercises, I can feel my soul tapping into the the millions of other souls who have reached for the light as I do.

Stream of Consciousness

Flies, coconut, trap doors, seeing myself through time in a daydream, taking photos in life is but a unexpected but highly contagious…fear, lust, sex, death, a trip in a starry night, camel lips, sutras, yantras, bindis and a mago lassi for me and you, girls who talk to much, a sore heart and aching back, love to open up to the higher divine, cowshit mixes with my salty feet, horns pierce my head, can’t you shut up!@ cripples, beggars, I have nothing for you but my compassion, we are one in an ocean of nothing, Buddha like joy emanate from me please, I’m running low, running scared, I don’t want this to end, this creative force within, don’t give up on me now, I’ve come this far, lotus light, let it be captured, let it be free in my heart…please let me let go of her.

VIDEO-Varanasi, Ceremony, Ritual, and Spirit

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Once you step outside of your guesthouse in Varanasi, you enter a world like no other you have experienced. Holy people, holy rituals, holy water, and holy spirits...

SLIDESHOW-Varanasi...City of Shiva

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Varanasi…the holy city of shiva, holiest in all of India, sitting along the banks of the Ganges, where life and death coexist harmoniously. It is one of the world’s oldest cities dating back to the 6th century AD. It is a “crossing place” that allows devotees to access the divine and enable Gods and Goddesses to come down to earth. A Hindu who dies here, attains instant (moksha) or escape from the cycle of life and death. Because of this, many sick and elderly come here to live our their final days.
At first arrival, Varanasi seems like a God-forsaken and even God-less city, but if you give it a chance, it will slowly seduce you and reveal its soul to you. It truly is filthy, it is nearly impossible to walk 6 steps without walking in cow shit, and red paan (after-meal tobacco chew) stains cover most of the walls. The smell of the place is quite hard on the nose and you are offered charas (hash) every 5 minutes and silk and saris every 2, not to mention the car horns that incessantly blow all the time in your face. The first couple of days were quite draining but the characters who inhabit this place and those who make the pilgrimage to bathe in the sacred Ganges, make it all worthwhile. Ironically, the Ganges is one of the dirtiest, if not the dirtiest, river in the world, plagued by chemical pollutants, dead bodies, garbage, and poo poo. It is odd that this river that the Indian people revere with such passion, gets physical respect, but that is one of the many “why do they do that” things that are abound in India. Along the 7km stretch in Varansi, where there are over 26 bathing and “burning” ghats, over 30 sewers discharge into the river. The pilgrims and locals are literally washing in their own shit. Water safe for bathing should contain less that 500 faecal coliform bacteria per 100ml (a small glass of water) of water, the Ganges contains over 1.5 million!!! However, by far the worst problem affecting the river is the chemical waste that is discharged into the river.
Yesterday, we visited the burning ghat, where bodies are cremated and then released into the river. It was one of the most intense things I have ever seen as the bodies were very visible on top of these beds of wood and you could see and smell the flesh and organs burning right in front of you. It is the most auspicious place for a a Hindu to be cremated as the fire is supposedly lit from the same fire that Shiva’s wife Parvati made. The wood is carefully measured weighed out as they know exactly how much it will take to incinerate a body. Wood such as sandalwood and mango wood is more expensive and the uppercaste are usually cremated with that in a separate area cordoned off as to be separated from the lower caste Hindi’s.
One of the most fascinating things to watch here are the morning Puja rituals and evening time Ganga Aarti rituals. At dawn, thousands of people come to the river to perform prayers and songs to the river. The mellow morning light gives the river a mystic glow as Sadhus perform elaborate rituals waist deep in the water appearing from a distance to be fantastical creatures from another world. At sunset, Ganga Aarti is performed where thousands of floating candles, flowers, and food are released into the river and young priests oversee the affair with an elaborate ceremony involving lots of fire and incense. To see people with such reverance for ceremony and ritual is truly inspiring to me even though most of the time I understand none of it. I have enjoyed just sitting and watching the parade of people and plays go by me as I try to take it all in.
Seeing that Rishikesh did not live up to our expectations, we will be doing extensive yoga and meditation classes here as well as music lessons as Varanasi is the musical capital of Northern India. Breathe with me...

Varanasi Awaits

We left behind the explosions of firecrackers at midnight and had to overpay greatly to find anyone who would take us to the train station in Ajmer, 30 minutes away on this final night of Dewali. Our ears still ringing and my stomach still reeling from the horrible and debilitating stomach illness I have been in bed the past 3 days recovering from, we boarded our train for what may be the hardest and most intense time for us on this trip so far.
Varanasi, the holiest city in India, is also the most talked about among travellers' circles. Some hate the crowded and dirty streets while others are captured by the holy vibes emanating off of the river and the ceremonies performed there at dawn and at sunset. Sadhus from all over India pilgrimage to bathe in the holy waters as do thieves to prey upon the google-eyed travellers. We have been told to watch our backs andexpectations we have and let the city unfold before us...expect the unexpected, fascination abounds. be aware of the many scams that fill the city. We are trying to dissolve any preconceptions and expectations we have and let the city unfold before us...expect the unexpected, fascination abounds.

VIDEO-Indian Dreams

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India...a paradox, an enigma, loving it, hating it, repulsion, fascination, there is no other place in the world I would rather be than right here, right now.

VIDEO-Pakistani Rebel Attack on Film!!

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Sorry, it has been so long, but we have just gotten out of Pushkar, Rajastan with our lives after being in the middle of a Pakistani Rebel attack.
You may have already heard about it on CNN, but we think this may be some of the first footage of it. We are so glad to be alive!!

Chai...

Oh, Chai on trains. Another Journey, a musical ‘chai garam chai’ rings through your ears as the man carrying the vat of chai walk by, droning ‘chai garam chai’. Thoughts are triggered with the very first sip, its warmth runs through your senses. The flavour changes. From Station to station. Assam tea. Nilgiri tea. Darjeeling tea…yet the essence of drinking tea from that rough clay earthen cup follows you from one station to another.
A ‘chai garam chai’ interrupts your daydreaming. Sultanpur. The signal turns green. Gaziabad. Delhi. The train picks up speed. The electric wires race with the train. You wonder who will win. You chuckle. Puri sabki and a cup of tea to go with it. “Ek Chai?” you nod. New friends, new stations…another sip…ahhh chai
-Tea Board of India(-:

SLIDESHOW-Pushkar...Colors of the Desert

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What first hits you when you arrive in Pushkar, Rajastan is not the smell of the cow shit everywhere, but the vibrant colors that shoot off of the cool desert background in the form of sari's, pastel painted walls, and jewelry. For some reason, the women in Rajastan are into bright colors and it is beautiful...
Pushkar is the town of the God Brahma. It is believed that Lord Brahma set out on a quest for a tranquil spot to perfom a yagna (ceremonial sacrifice) when a lotus fell from his hand. A lake sprang forth from the ground at the spot where the lotus fell. The town is centered around this holy lake and pandas (Brahmin priests) some real, some fake coerse you into perfoming elaborate ceremonies on the edge of the lake for your family members and then demanding ridiculous amounts of money for it. It is also the home of the only Brahmin temple in the world.
The town is dusty and laid back and a perfect place to chill out, drink a lassi and watch the colorful parade of people and camels stroll by. Unfortunately, I got a very bad stomach virus on our way there, probably from a dirty train station samosa, and unfortunately spent most of my time in bed wrecked.

VIDEO-Finding the hidden Beatles ashram

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Ever since the 4 Beatles came to Rishikesh in the spring of 1968 to study transcendental meditation with the Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi, Rishikesh has been a mecca for westerners on the spritual path. I was fascinated to visit the ashram in which they had stayed knowing that they had written many of the songs on the White Album while there and had seen film footage of the trip. When I arrived, I was told the ashram had been closed by the Indian government years ago, due to tax reasons but I could pay a guard who was stationed there 10 rupees to get it. I spoke with some locals and made my way down the banks of the river to try and find the ashram, with sadhus pointing me in the right direction, I found it, dodged the monkeys guarding the outside, payed the guard and got inside. It was a beautiful day and I had the entire place to myself. It was completley overgrown with shrubbery and had a very mystical quality about it. Small transcendental meditation domes were abound everywhere and I managed to find the two large ones on top of the main building where John Lennon wrote "Across the Universe". Come with me...

New Boards of Canada!!!

Wow, the wait is over, I have to share with all of you my love for Boards of Canada. They have a new album, the Campfire Headphase, and if any of you have it, please let me know how it is. I have used quite a few Boards of Canada songs as music for our slideshows so if you havn't heard them before you probably have. Their music touches me like only a few artists do, it is surreal, nostaligic, yearning, and intense, everything I hope our music will be.

Listen to their new song Chromakey Dreamcoast by CLICKING HERE

VIDEO-Land of Enlightenment??

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I had a lot of expectations for Rishikesh, the “yoga capital of the world”. Arriving early one brisk morning at dawn, we crossed the pedestrian bridge over the Ganges river as a heavy mist/smog settled on the water. There are many ashrams in Rishikesh and we were excited to try yoga and meditation classes at some and pick where we would set up camp for the next 2 weeks. This is the same place where the Beatles spent two months post-Sergeant Peppers to delve into their spirituality and write songs for what would become the White Album. Since then, Rishikesh has become a mecca for foreigners. Being on the banks of the holy Ganges, it also attracts a large amount of sadhus, beggars, and pilgrims. The caves in the hills that overlook the town are filled with baba’s and others seeking enlightenment and make for a very interesting hike. However, upon taking our initial stroll through town, the reality of the situation dawned on us. This was not the beautifully idyllic place, where you could “sip ayurevedic tea, while taking in the good vibes” as Lonely Planet had put it. It was a cow shit infested concrete ghetto. The ashrams felt like prisons and were surrounded by imposing walls and fences. The grounds inside were not conducive to calming the mind, often filled with cheap and ugly plaster statues of the Hindu deities. The rooms in San Quentin could put the rooms in these ashrams to shame, as they were horribly depressing and dirty. I guess we had really envisioned an inspiring place like some places I have visited in California like Esalen, but this was not the case. We took some yoga classes and were not impressed by the teachers. I have had better yoga classes at the YMCA in Los Angeles and this is supposed to be the yoga capital of the world. It became apparent that our time here would not be as long as expected and we would have to get our yoga and meditation fix in Varanasi, because staying at a place like this for 2 weeks after being in Mcleod Ganj, one of the highlights of our trip so far, was not appealing.
I mustn’t discredit the place entirely though, because I have met some people here who are enjoying the place and the yoga, but it was not for us. The highlight of the trip for me though was getting into the defunct and derelict ashram of the Maharishi, where the Beatles stayed. You can see the video for that in its own entry that I will post soon. It all worked out well though, because it freed up time for us to head west to the desert of Rajastan, which was not on our itinerary initially, as well as adding some days to our trip to Nepal.

SLIDESHOW-Rishikesh

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After a hellacious overnight 12 hour bus ride from hell through the foothills of the Himalayas from Mcleod Ganj in which we did not sleep, we arrived to the fog covered Ganges and a sleeping Rishikesh. We set out to find an ashram in which we could devote the next 10 days to yoga and meditation...

VIDEO-Free Tibet

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Getting the opportunity to hear the Dalai Lama speak yesterday with such a small audience was a profoundly moving experience. He is such a spritual and physical symbol of hope for all the Tibetans here and is extraordinarily intelligient. He often "dumbs down" his speeches for mass accesibility in America but while talking to Tibetans, his talks are often very deep and hard for westerners to follow. His knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism is unsurpassed and he leads the initiation into the Kalachakra, the highest level of Buddhism, though it is accesible to anyone. Over 12 days he leads the initiates through an intricate three dimensional mandala which houses 722 deities. He is an inspiring individual to say the least and laughs come readily.
I have spent the past few days strolling around the town, talking with the monks and Tibetan refugees who have all, every single one of them, made the dangerous and arduous escape over the Himalayas from their Chinese occupied homeland to safety in India. Talking with all these beautiful people who have struggled so hard so they can preserve their culture and identity has really made this issue personal to me. I made friends with a Tibetan massage therapist named Gampo who made the journey 7 years ago. He was the only one in his family to have done so and therefore is away from his Mom and Dad and his 6 brothers. He could not stand the repression involved with living there and decided he had to leave. He has not seen his family since, but his Mom and Dad will make the journey here in February to visit him for 3 months before they return to Tibet, it will most likely be the last time he sees them…
There are thousands of stories like Gompos all over Mcleod Ganj/Dharmasala, India, the community where the Tibetan Government in exile, the Dalai Lama, and the thousands of Tibetan exiles have chosen to call home since 1959 when China invaded Tibet, and began its destruction and assimilation of the Tibetan culture. Yet these people, in large part due to their faith in Buddhism and the peaceful and compassionate leadership of the Dalai Lama have remained hopeful, forgiving, and happy despite the fact that over 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed by the Chinese. It seems ironically appropriate that we kill off the people who have been studying the human mind and consciousness for thousands of year and have the potential to unlock so many secrets about ourselves and ways of knowing if we would only let them.
I had the opportunity to speak with some Nuns who were burned by fire by the Chinese and they had no ill will or anger towards their aggressors, in fact they had compassion. They realize at the core level that we are all one, that they are not their bodies, that they are their spirits which are present in everything. This way of living struck me very deeply and has given me examples to live by.

If you would like to learn more about the Tibet issue or how you can help visit Free Tibet.org

SLIDESHOW- Beautiful People

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I am growing faster than I ever could have dreamed…what a place to be, high in the mountains, the mountains, my home away from home. Crisp air, warm Tibetan smiles, and hope and love surround me. What a place to spend my 28th birthday!!!! We have been staying at Kunga guesthouse in a room with an inspiring view over Mcleod Ganj and Dharamasala, the owner told us that when Richard Gere was here to study Tibetan Buddhism, he stayed in this room. Well, if its good enough for Richard Gere, its good enough for me.
The people here are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Their skin is deep and shows evidence of the time spent high in the mountains close to the sun, their eyes are rich with experience only gained by enormous faith and struggle, their demeanor soft and subtle.
There is so much to take in, the impressive artwork and mandalas that fill many of the shops here, the Tibetan chanting and horns that wake you in the morning, the monks in their daily practices of lively debate, and the views of the Himalayas which I have been awaiting for years. I have taken several walks around the Temple Complex and home of the Dalai Lama, watching Tibetan pilgrims and monks making the clockwise Kora(religious circuit) around the temple swinging their prayer wheels. The food has been great and I have enjoyed many lunches of Momo’s, traditional Tibetan dumplings with ultra spicy red sauce. Even though I have been sick with a nasty cold, the town’s energy has made me forget my aches and pains with a little help from some great Tibetan massages.
The images and deities associated with Tibetan Buddhism are enchanting and fascinating to learn about as they are so ancient in their origins. Several times a year, intricate colored sand Mandalay are painted and then ritually destroyed to practice non-attachment, a key Buddhist principle as attachment only leads to suffering.
I wish I could all transport you here to share this with me. Unfortunatley, I wish that you could go to Tibet to take in these same sights but because of what the Chinese have done, this is the closest to Tibet you will get today, but it is enough for me...Namaste

VIDEO-An Open Mic Night

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There is a great cafe in Mcleod Ganj which is a part community gathering place and part restaruant. They host political documentaries about Tibet, ex-political prisoners talking about their experiences and open mics. This is a little slice of life and a compilation of an open mic there. Its a great mix of Tibetan and western music, true world community at its finest...

VIDEO-A Tibetan Pilgrimage

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Tibetans who have escaped Chinese occupied Tibet, make pilgrimages to the Temple Complex which also houses the residence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, here in Mcleod Ganj. They walk around the complex in a clockwise direction called a KORA, swinging prayer wheels and chanting Om Mane Padme Hum. It was a wonderful way to spend my birthday and to prepare for seeing the Dalai Lama. Walking with these people who had struggled so hard to be able to practice their religion in peace was a humbling experience that I will carry with me forever.

SLIDESHOW-Tibet in Exile

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Arriving in the small town of Mcleod Ganj/Dharamasala, northern India was like arriving in Tibet. It has been here, since 1959, that the Dalai Lama and the more than 100,000 Tibetans that have followed him have lived to escape persecution from the Chinese since China invaded and took over Tibet. The people have a richness and softness to their faces that I have seen nowhere else. I have a lot to write about that will go up on this blog soon and a lot of photos and video, this is the beginning.

VIDEO-Instrument Shopping in Old Delhi

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While in Delhi, we headed to the row of music stores near Chowndi Chawk market in Old Delhi to start our search for sitars, tablas, sirongis, and sarods. It was a fun experience as we were often given little impromptu "concerts" by the owners showing off the instruments and their skills. The cost of these instruments is so cheap for us, just a fraction of what they would cost in America the impetus for this trip to begin with. Now we just have to figure out how we are going to get these things home...

VIDEO-Vinyl Shopping in Delhi

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Some of you know my vinyl record obsession, and when I knew I was going to be going to Delhi, I had to stop at the Meenar Bazaar, a Muslim market where there is an infamous shop, #256 which is known among vinylists as being somewhat of a holy grail. DJ Shadow would love to search through their offsite wherehouse, if he hasn't done so already. I found some rare gems while I was there...