Journey India

Soul of India

India has probably been described with as many words as there are souls there.

In the weeks that I was in Southern India, I feel I have a genuine taste of a vast and multi-layered, multi-ethnic, multi-textured world. It is a harsh and continous enviroment. India is loud and dirty, and the traffic non patterns are down right freaky. It is also a sublime and peaceful opportunity for learning and growth and self-examination.

Circle of Life

I wonder if the various approaches to surrender grew in India because that is all one can do there. The vastness, the multitudes, the onslaught of speed and noise and everyone just to survive, create an atmosphere where one can do little else but accept, surrender and allow.

These ideas of acceptance and surrender are deep within the Buddhist and Hindu cultures...they are shores of the river, banks of Siddahartha's wanderings to find the middle path.

Veiled Brahmins

Who Are You?

Timeless Pilgrim

I thought I would see India by motorcycle; so I rented a bike... got some bungee chords and practiced on the road a bit... it started to rain and it rained all day... I turned the bike in and traveled by bus and taxi. It was a good decision. Indian truck and bus drivers have no sensitivity other then pressing on. The middle line on the road is meaningless. Many times my car had to pull off the road into the dirt to avoid a mass of oncoming pounding metal. Then there are the cows and the water buffalo, the ox carts and the bicycles. There are people, more people and the rice drying on the road. There are potholes and motorcycles carrying more load than you put into your car. Motorcycles carry racks of pots and pans, and metal bars and plastic and rice and goats. It is the most fascinating place I have ever been.

Times Have Changed

The Inner Sanctum

I saw dozens of ancient temples and throngs of Indians at prayer and giving offerings. They are as serious about their religious ways as they are of making money and surviving. India's take on religion is like throwing a deck of cards into the air, eventually light falls onto each card. There appears to be great tolerance and devotion here.

The God and the Priest

I loved the sculpture in the temples. The relief carvings of the gods showed so much ancient history and mythology to me. The flying gods, the winged carriages are comfortable images for me. I have studied religion and religious history since I was a teenager. I see the elevating of mythology to the realm of the sacred to be half the reason the world is in the state it is in. The other and perhaps more underlying causes are greed and ego. We are so afraid to survive; we are so determined to vaue ourselves more than the experience of life itself. So we are in a state of global chaos, fuelled by sibling rivalry over who knows "daddy" best. It is a sad and insane result to the opportunity we have to know the ease and beauty of living. I was able to see the Dali Llama speak in India. He is a kind and bright man. When asked "are the world's troubles caused by ego?" he simply said "yes."

The Colors of India

Seeing Ganesh

Sleep Among Sales

Traveling is a great opportunity for meeting oneself, being tested and learning one's own tolerances. It is also a great opportunity for luck in the form of people that you meet along the way. I was lucky enough to spend a good deal of time with two Australians, the infamous Gerald Frape and Kathryn McGoldrick. They were truly gracious good friends from the get go. Sharing poetry that we had each written turned into exploring temples, ashrams, food and bookshops and marketplaces together.

Receiving A Blessing

Purified Blessings

I am glad to have survived India and miss it each day. It is a place that becomes your skin, it swallows you with no harm if you keep your wits about you. It then begins to strip down your outsides to your insides. It brings the essential to life, and that is life, the essential.

Pilgrims

Our Daily Bling

Looking For It

Indian Labor

Hypnotic Faith

Hunger

Ganesh Walking

Dancing to the Eye

Brahmins in the Temple

Dancing the Goddess

Listening hear her

Look she is showing herself

Listening hear her

Battered Soul

One Dancer Two Faces

Journey Myanmar

Bangon Horizon

Bangon Dusk

I was a bit selfish to go there, with sanctions against their regime. I went to see the temples at Bangon; a site as old as Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I wanted to visit a site so rich in ancient cultural religious history. It is now said to be the largest producer of methamphetamine in the world.
So, for $100 I flew into Yangon and then down to Bangon. For $20 a day you can hire a horse and buggy to get around. There are about 40 sq. km of temples and ruins. There has been a great deal of reconstruction in a modern way, and sadly that detracts. I took a lot of images, did some writing and drawing.
Perhaps the best part of my journey here was the journaling I have been doing. It is a strange time to be out on the road. Our country is going through such turmoil, the international human crisis, and the art business lurching to a halt. All these add up to changes for everyone. Business is slow for everyone everywhere. People are afraid, as they say, "The United States sneezes and the whole world catches cold".

Illusion

In Myanmar, every stick counts for firewood or construction. There is a lot of poverty, there is threat to the Buddhist life, and the middle class are driving around in modified SUVs listening to hip-hop. I stayed in a hotel with an Xmas tree and a Fourth of July garland in the lobby, the music sound system was playing "We Are The World". I spent New Year's Day with a monk who watches over a meditation cave. We talked and I received some more instruction on meditation and had a righteous good time!

Day After Day


Gate Light

Hey Mister!

I don't know why I chase around the world with a camera, it is what I have always done. It doesn't seem so practical given the state of economic woes we all face. Yet my life has been about discovery. Looking for guidance in my own life, and looking for what we all share. The one truth we can agree on is "Life", the living moment. Not so complicated. I have struggled internally as a man with one foot in each world. The mystic experience came to me when I 14, it has not been easy sorting out myself, life and my role and work as an artist. It all seems better for me now. We are flesh and spirit and we long to find our way for food and balance. I have found contentment in experiencing the truth of both worlds inside of me. Life is the teacher of the gift, we learn what we can and inside and out, all the lessons are true together. There is no duality, only realms of learning.

Meditation Bliss

On The Way

Vision

Gate Light