I'm not exactly sure where to start this one. A lot has happened in the past several days. Many of these events relate to one another, though fully blending them would also detract from their individual uniqueness. This entry may not make much sense.
For me, the last several days are uniformly represented in my mind by the last night I spent in the basti (slum). Stephen and I sat in the cool sand, alone together, on a dune overlooking the revelry below. It was the night of a huge Hindu festival, Dushera, when the city of Jaipur (along with cities around the country) ceremoniously set fire to 50ft tall paper machet representations of figures from the epic Indian text, the Ramayana. The holiday celebrates the death of a villain, though it's not as simple as that. As they torch this character, they also mourn his passing. It's not as in the christian tradition, where Satan, who fell from grace, represents pure evil. Rather than painting a picture with two colors - good and evil - this ceremony acknowledges the greyscale of human morality, noting that a man can commit evil deeds, yet not be evil himself. Just as you and I could be angry at a point in time, but this does not necessarily make us angry people.
You know who's not an angry person? The Boss Man. The Boss Man is a character in a new Bollywood film, being released in a couple days. I've seen ads all over India, in numerous media, for his confident swagger that is composed of both Indian and western elements. This man has an Indian temperament - no need to get angry or overly emotional at slights - and the stereotypical western (perhaps American would be more accurate) physical strength. He's jacked and he sends adversaries tumbling in gravity-defying manners the directors of the Matrix would call over the top. Like many Indians I'm seeing in the bigger cities, he lifts weights, and it shows. Very few Indians do. Though it's becoming more common, as is Western fashion. Fashion trends shift, as do the characteristics of desirable bodies. Centuries ago, it was considered attractive, and a sign of wealth, to be fat. In the US today, mustaches are "out," except in Portland and Seattle (and Rajasthan, in India). Except for perhaps the mustaches (keep rocking them, Seattle), there are increasing similarities between styles in the US and India, in clothes and in body type. (Insert comments on globalization here - I'm lazy, you can fill this in for yourself). Indians (some - the priviledged) are becoming bigger, lifting weights, performing more "western" forms of exercise. Americans are eating as much as ever.
You probably know I'm a fan of chipotle. If not, ask me sometime about my patented "chiptole diet." It's part of a weight lifting routine I've done off and on for years. Great stuff. 1,800 calories per burrito if you do it right. Great if you want to put on mass. Also great for sucking up more resources than a vegetarian likely consumes in a week, when you think about what the cows who became that steak had to be fed to fatten them up, the water required to grow their food, the land where they "graze," the hormones they're injected with, the shipping costs, the methane they release, etc. etc. All this for a burrito. All this for my vanity. Because that's what it's really about. I don't need to be muscular, at least in the ways I grow from pushing a weighted bar up and down while lying on my back. I don't use that strength for anything important. The process is simply designed to generate human peacock feathers, which unfortunately I wasn't born with. But I work for them. And others in the US work for them. Because peacock feathers are pretty and desirable, or so we're told. And everyone wants to be desired. And we're a nation of peacocks. But eventually the feathers fall off and are no longer replaced. What then? Why is our ideal body that which is inherently unsustainable? Has it always been this way? Or is the way we consume related to the way we consume? We live in a culture which does not believe in recycling, with few exceptions (again, don't shave those mustaches, Seattle). Something goes wrong with a TV, we replace it. A new iPhone comes out, we get rid of our perfectly good older model. In reality, we gain little, in terms of technological advances. Yet in our socially-concerned minds, shaped by the tango between our insecurities and their resultant cravings, we gain a distraction from the reality of the moment, a respite from the humanizing vulnerability that is part of our very nature. We consume, and in doing so, turn away from the reality of the moment. We consume, and in doing so, give into past worries and anxieties for the future. Our bodies become as our minds, our minds as our bodies - docile, needlessly overburdened, useless but for performing isolated tasks that serve foremost to stroke our own egos.
My own ego, overly attached to the philosphy of dispelling the ego. Becoming attached to the philosophy of non-attachment.
Sitting on sand dunes reading Walt Whitman.
Great thanks to a good friend for pushing me beyond my comfort zone these past several days.
EDIT: I should clarify this one a bit. I was playing with styles of writing a bit to see how best to link a bunch of different ideas and events. In plain terms, I had some powerful conversations with a friend about the effects of capitalism on our body images, and how we attain the "ideal" body. He pointed out an interesting contrast between the ascetic body and one which works out, in where theyre considered desirable, and the repercussions of this. He also called attention to my own unstated assumptions in my mindfulness practice and research, some of which are naive and fundamentally ethnocentric. It gave me a lot to consider.
We also attended a couple big Indian religious festival, one related to Hare Krishnas in Vrindavan, where we met some serious practicianers and joined in some of the services. Learned w lot about that religion's philosophy. Stephen also got his glasses stolen by a monkey. Those things are cute, but beware - they're just little thieves!
For me, the last several days are uniformly represented in my mind by the last night I spent in the basti (slum). Stephen and I sat in the cool sand, alone together, on a dune overlooking the revelry below. It was the night of a huge Hindu festival, Dushera, when the city of Jaipur (along with cities around the country) ceremoniously set fire to 50ft tall paper machet representations of figures from the epic Indian text, the Ramayana. The holiday celebrates the death of a villain, though it's not as simple as that. As they torch this character, they also mourn his passing. It's not as in the christian tradition, where Satan, who fell from grace, represents pure evil. Rather than painting a picture with two colors - good and evil - this ceremony acknowledges the greyscale of human morality, noting that a man can commit evil deeds, yet not be evil himself. Just as you and I could be angry at a point in time, but this does not necessarily make us angry people.
You know who's not an angry person? The Boss Man. The Boss Man is a character in a new Bollywood film, being released in a couple days. I've seen ads all over India, in numerous media, for his confident swagger that is composed of both Indian and western elements. This man has an Indian temperament - no need to get angry or overly emotional at slights - and the stereotypical western (perhaps American would be more accurate) physical strength. He's jacked and he sends adversaries tumbling in gravity-defying manners the directors of the Matrix would call over the top. Like many Indians I'm seeing in the bigger cities, he lifts weights, and it shows. Very few Indians do. Though it's becoming more common, as is Western fashion. Fashion trends shift, as do the characteristics of desirable bodies. Centuries ago, it was considered attractive, and a sign of wealth, to be fat. In the US today, mustaches are "out," except in Portland and Seattle (and Rajasthan, in India). Except for perhaps the mustaches (keep rocking them, Seattle), there are increasing similarities between styles in the US and India, in clothes and in body type. (Insert comments on globalization here - I'm lazy, you can fill this in for yourself). Indians (some - the priviledged) are becoming bigger, lifting weights, performing more "western" forms of exercise. Americans are eating as much as ever.
You probably know I'm a fan of chipotle. If not, ask me sometime about my patented "chiptole diet." It's part of a weight lifting routine I've done off and on for years. Great stuff. 1,800 calories per burrito if you do it right. Great if you want to put on mass. Also great for sucking up more resources than a vegetarian likely consumes in a week, when you think about what the cows who became that steak had to be fed to fatten them up, the water required to grow their food, the land where they "graze," the hormones they're injected with, the shipping costs, the methane they release, etc. etc. All this for a burrito. All this for my vanity. Because that's what it's really about. I don't need to be muscular, at least in the ways I grow from pushing a weighted bar up and down while lying on my back. I don't use that strength for anything important. The process is simply designed to generate human peacock feathers, which unfortunately I wasn't born with. But I work for them. And others in the US work for them. Because peacock feathers are pretty and desirable, or so we're told. And everyone wants to be desired. And we're a nation of peacocks. But eventually the feathers fall off and are no longer replaced. What then? Why is our ideal body that which is inherently unsustainable? Has it always been this way? Or is the way we consume related to the way we consume? We live in a culture which does not believe in recycling, with few exceptions (again, don't shave those mustaches, Seattle). Something goes wrong with a TV, we replace it. A new iPhone comes out, we get rid of our perfectly good older model. In reality, we gain little, in terms of technological advances. Yet in our socially-concerned minds, shaped by the tango between our insecurities and their resultant cravings, we gain a distraction from the reality of the moment, a respite from the humanizing vulnerability that is part of our very nature. We consume, and in doing so, turn away from the reality of the moment. We consume, and in doing so, give into past worries and anxieties for the future. Our bodies become as our minds, our minds as our bodies - docile, needlessly overburdened, useless but for performing isolated tasks that serve foremost to stroke our own egos.
My own ego, overly attached to the philosphy of dispelling the ego. Becoming attached to the philosophy of non-attachment.
Sitting on sand dunes reading Walt Whitman.
Great thanks to a good friend for pushing me beyond my comfort zone these past several days.
EDIT: I should clarify this one a bit. I was playing with styles of writing a bit to see how best to link a bunch of different ideas and events. In plain terms, I had some powerful conversations with a friend about the effects of capitalism on our body images, and how we attain the "ideal" body. He pointed out an interesting contrast between the ascetic body and one which works out, in where theyre considered desirable, and the repercussions of this. He also called attention to my own unstated assumptions in my mindfulness practice and research, some of which are naive and fundamentally ethnocentric. It gave me a lot to consider.
We also attended a couple big Indian religious festival, one related to Hare Krishnas in Vrindavan, where we met some serious practicianers and joined in some of the services. Learned w lot about that religion's philosophy. Stephen also got his glasses stolen by a monkey. Those things are cute, but beware - they're just little thieves!
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