A mental malpractice

I know thee, who thou art.
You're not a person, you're not a condition,
you're nothing but a mental malpractice.
You're nothing but that carnal mind in action
an image, a nothingness, the arm of the flesh,
the fleshy mind, that which has no law of god,
no life of god, a nothingness.
I don't have to fight you.
I have to recognize you for what you are:
a mental image in thought without substance, cause, reality, or law.
                                       - Joel Goldsmith

Attachment

"The cause of unhappiness is attachment," I read today.

My life is dedicated to my true spirit.  When the spirit calls, I jump.  An attachment would prevent me from jumping, or at least slow me down.

Pantai Lebih

First trip to the beach.  Pantai Lebih.  Lebih Beach.  Outrigger fishing boats lined up ready to go.

Torus

Since civilization, we have organized ourselves into pyramids.  What would society look like if we organized ourselves into a torus?

The video is a clip from the movie Thrive.
http://www.thrivemovement.com/

10 June 2012, Reality check on the movie Thrive.  John Robbins, Amy Goodman and eight others publicly disassociate themselves from the movie.
http://projectearth.com/index.php?option=com_rsblog&layout=view&cid=46:humanity-andsanity&Itemid=102

Morning cacophony

This is the view from my porch at the Sulendra homestay in Ubud.  Unseen through the vegetation are homesteads and everyone has chickens and roosters and pigs who raise this din every morning.

An ingenious universe

I remember in days of darkness when I complained
what a stupid universe
who could create such a dumb place
where the only way you can experience joy
is to know what sadness is
the only way to feel good
is because you felt bad yesterday and today is not so bad
the only way to have pleasure
is because the pain has stopped

that was the world of duality

and now some people are claiming that duality is only one way to look at things
there's a better way
a world where it's all good
there is no duality, no pain, no suffering, no limitation, no lack
those things are judgements, discernments,

in this other world
it's all good
no matter what we think we perceive
no matter what we want to believe
it's good, perfect, filled wth joy

this universe is not stupid
it's brilliant
genius

isn't that amazing
in one lifetime
i used to live in a world i found stupid
and now i live in a world I find genius

Good day

Last night I met a guy from Sweden, Daniel, who is traveling in Indonesia, expecting to settle down here.  He turned me on to Esperanza Spalding.  He reminded me about Spotify, but I came home and discovered it's not available in Indonesia.

Had a great day yesterday.  Indulged myself.  My first Bali massage.  $5.  Had two meals: fantastic Nasi Gorang at Sopa Warung early in the day, then spaghetti at Kafe, where I met the Swedish guy, then back to Sopa for dessert and tea.

Earlier in the day I bought a knife and a plate so I can cut fruit at home.  Got some experience haggling.

Planning to take a motorbike into Denpasar shopping tomorrow.  I'm spending time with Google Maps today, memorizing my route.  The signage is so poor, I find navigation challenging.

Sari Organics

Nice restaurant north of main road out in the rice paddies.  Accessible only on foot or motorbike.

Kecak

Went to a dance performance, the Kecak.  Fascinating.  This is the thing that Ron Fricke included in the movie Baraka.  Met a Finnish girl and talked to her for awhile.  She is a dancer and choreographer in Helsinki and she was inspired by the dance we saw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGXcnWUqV-Y

Motorbike

Rented a motorbike and rode it to the airport to retrieve my second bag from the storage locker.  Got lost both ways, and that was the best part of the trip.  On the way down I passed through Gianyar, which was way out of my way, and saw the most magificent statue.  And on the way home I missed Ubud and found myself out in the rice paddies.  It was beautiful.  I'll go back there if I can figure out where I was.

I was on the bike for five or six hours.  Sunburned the hell out of my arms and knees.  Ate at the airport and came home with diarrhea.  Some kind of rash on my back.  My neighbor, Pavo from Poland, gave me a pill for the diarrhea he had picked up from a doctor in Cambodia.  It worked.  I feel a mess physically, with my skin all messed up.

Rooftop view

The Black Beach, an Italian restaurant, has rooftop seating with 360 degree views of the rooftops of Ubud.  They also show Italian movies with English subtitles on Wednesday nights.

Sulendra

Moved into Sulendra homestay.  People here live in family compounds.  Each compound comprises multiple structures, multiple rooms, and houses an extended family.  Sulendra has eight rooms they let to travelers.  I'm paying 3 million Rupiah per month, roughly $10 US per night.  Electric, ceiling fan, hot water, wi-fi.  One room, with private bath, a porch with a wonderful view of the river valley.  Wi-fi is pronounced wee-fee.

Wayan Sulendra is an artist.  He is currently working on a commission of eight large oil paintings for a hotel downtown.  He and his brother and nephew and their families live here.

Rice paddy view

This view is from the Tropical View restaurant.  All the roads are lined with shops, so driving or walking along the roads I can't even tell if I'm in a village or not.  It takes some effort to get out into the rice fields and find the real Bali.  Some of the restaurants in Ubud front on the street, but then you walk through the restaurant and, behold, the view out the back is of a completely different scene from the teeming bustle on the street.

Arrive in Ubud

Took a shuttle bus from Legian to Ubud.  Got out of the bus and there is a crowd of young men waiting for us. One grabs me and convinces me to come to his hotel.  $15 per night with pool and wi-fi.  I ride on the back of his motorbike, and it turns out he is the manager of the hotel and he checks me in.  The hotel is not far from the Monkey Forest sanctuary and the monkeys often come to visit the hotel.  The staff try to chase them off.  There are two in this photo if you look closely center-left.

Legian construction site

This construction site amazes me.  They are working at night with lights.  Perhaps because it's cooler.  The scaffolding is made of bamboo poles lashed together.  They have a big pile of cement on the ground, and they fill a bag with cement and then hoist it by rope and pulley to the men on the upper floors.  There is a large group of men on the ground standing around.  I can't tell if they are part of the crew or if they're just hanging out.

Legian Beach

I walked on the beach in Legian, and I was concerned about the water quality.  After seeing the canals/sewers in Denpasar, and then seeing the runoff across the beach into the ocean, I think I want to get farther away from the city before I get into the water.  I wonder if SurfRider is doing water quality tests here.

Land on Bali

Landed on Bali.  Stowed one bag at the airport.  Took a taxi to my hotel in Legian.  Stayed one night.  Then moved into the smaller, cheaper hotel next door and stayed there two more nights.  One day I walked up into Denpasar, a city of almost 1 million, to buy an Android phone.  Saw some very urban sights.  Six goats foraging in a giant garbage pile, right in the center of town next to a canal.  Open sewers.  Got off the tourist trail into areas where they did not speak English, and not only were the vendors not entreating me the way they do in Kuta, they seemed reluctant to even wait on me.  I gave up buying a phone because I didn't find the right shops.  The ones I was in had never heard of Android.

Flight to Taipei

Flew to Taipei on EVA, the Taiwan airline.  Wonderful flight.  The Taipei airport was the nicest I've seen.

Do you know where Taipei is?
Right next to Type-B.