Beginning where I left off, lets seeee. After a 13 hour overnight bus ride of terror  I arrived in Dharamshala (McleodGanj) about 3 weeks ago. Upon arrival this feeling of nastalgia overtook me. I feel like I have been in a state of constant deja vu ever since. I met a lady on the bus who did yoga in Rishikesh as well and she recommended a guest house in Bhagsu. I didn’t have anything booked so I thought I would check it out.

I met the owner and he took me up, twas a bit of a hike, but it was worth the beautiful view.The place is called HighSky, rather suiting . I paid 160 rupees a night which is 3.20 in american dollars.  There was also a kitchen which has allowed me to make a few mediocre Indian dishes over the last few weeks.

After checking in I headed down to the main square of McleodGanj. The streets were lined with your typical clothing and jewellery stands, and momos (a highly addicting, very cheap steamed or fried dumpling containing veggies.)  They were only 10 rupees for 4! Then I journeyed to the Buddhist temple and just walked around taking in the sights and sounds.

The excess of monks with all the soothing temple sounds gave me great peace all day.As the night came, the temperature dropped more than expected and I had a rather cold sleep.

Over the next few weeks I did a number of different of different things. There are conversation times everyday where you can meet an ex political prisoner of Tibet whom has taken refuge in India.  So many of these people have fled Tibet over the years to find further education and escape the suppressed way of living.  Each one of them had such intense stories of there life previous to now. Just another reminder as to how easy most of us have it living in the west. Its so easy to lose sight of what is truly important with all our luxuries and obligations. Life can be tough, but there’s always someone living a much tougher life, far beyond our understanding of a “hard life”.

I was really wanting to get some poi  made. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poi_(performance_art))  A guy in Rishikesh had some custom made and they were really cheap.  Luckily I ran into a friend that I also met on the bus, and she was nice enough to let me borrow her poi to get my own pair made.  They turned out alright! and I even go custom zippers. In the following week or so, I really fell into this place. There was an abundance of intimate musical concerts with the most amazing and exotic sounds.  Instruments I have never seen were creating sounds I had never heard. I also got to spin some fire poi at this place called the rainbow cafe.  It was quite the good time, meeting friendly travellers and just enjoying my time.  I went on a few day hikes with this group who picks up trash.

                                                            It was a good combination of some beautiful sceneries and  honest work for nature and the community.Now if we could only get people to stop littering haha.  That would be the trick.  You don’t have to pick anything up if it isn’t being carelessly left on the ground.

After the first week a subtle feeling of being unfulfilled began building within me, I needed to do something, but I didn’t really know what.  Maybe some mediation? I had intended to do a vipassana mediation course(ten days of silent meditation), unfortunately the course was booked all the way to june, but right next to this center was another mediation center called Tushita.  A short stroll through the woods and I arrived at this very peaceful place for mediation. I eventually signed up for an introduction to Buddhism course. It was 100 U.S. for 10 days of food and stay.  A few days later I checked in and began my journey of mediation.

Thinking back on it, I learned sooo much.  It is such a personal experience but ill try and explain a bit. First off the silence wasn’t unbearable, we were able to ask any questions we had during the lectures and each day we had a discussion group to discuss our questions about different Buddhist concepts.  A few days in I began gaining more focus through our guided mediations, and my dreams became so vivid and easy to remember. These guided mediations were different everyday and one that comes to mind at the moment was the confronting of our own death.  As our guide walked us through a scenario of experiencing the death of my physical body, I began to confront so many things.  Some deep emotions of fear, regret, love, appreciation, bliss, etc. all rose to the surface of my conscious mind. The tears came and went as did very large thankful smiles of joy.  I could go on and on about how these ten days really opened me up to myself and the world, causing a dynamic shift in my perception. It was definitely one of the craziest “Trips” I have had, far beyond most experiences with any substance. I am so thankful for everyone involved in the course.

I checked back into high sky and sank back into the mountain vibe.  I celebrated the full moon of may dancing to a massive jam session of flutes, guitar, didgeridoo, etc.! This full moon was the anniversary of Sidartha’s enlightenment, and there was actually a small earthquake and some hail earlier in the day.  Needless to say it was a night full of pure magic.

So we are getting close to my present point. The last few days I had been feeling a bit melancholy and somewhat lost. I wasn’t sure what to do or where to go next in my journey.  It feels so weird observing these shifts in emotion, from lonely, to fulfilled, to lost, to carefree. Just have to keep riding the wave though!  Sure enough I met some new people that I really connected with, totally bringing me out of this subtle void. One of the ladies has a really strong knowledge in Ayurvedic medicines so I am going to send a bunch of different things back to start using them. I also saw an ayurvedic doctor about my eczema and he recommended some different herbs and such that are really working on my body and not just suppressing my immune system (the western approach). Ayurveda is so powerful when it is used correctly! I highly recommend looking into it.  Yesterday I picked up a set of gemstones that I am going to practice using for energetic healing and aligning chakras and such. Should be interesting!

 I talked to Wwoof host who live about about two hours out of town and he had space available so come Wednesday I will be working on an organic farm. I look forward to a change in scenery and some hard rewarding work! That night I had a great view of a lightning storm that was a few miles away, I snapped a few good shots.

In the process of writing this blog I took a couple days off.  I hiked to a waterfall with some friends. Absolutely amazing, I am thinking about going to live up there after I go to the farm.  There is an abandoned tea shop that people have been living in and cooking over open flames.  What else do you really need besides nature?

I mean I could go see some sites like the Taj Mahal or I could go get lost in the beauty of nature, the true source of the spiritual energy of this land.

Well that is all for now folks! I hope you got a kick out of my silly little realizations and maybe, just maybe this will inspire you to confront your own fears and problems or to emerge from the shell of mundane comfort to seek a truthfilled revitalizing journey of self discovery! Please Please Please, all that I ask is that you do something GOOD for you! Something that you haven’t ever done, but have always wanted to do!

I traveled to India with intentions of gathering more knowledge about myself.  The ultimate cliche question, “who am I”.  Yoga training would be the beginning of my trip which I have found to really stabilize me on so many different levels. I am strong in my body, strong in my mind, and now strong in my soul. I have much work to do in all three realms of being, but I can feel an abundance of positive energy truly providing an evolution of my internal and external selves!  I do hope you enjoy my blog

I am going to try and compress what has happened in the last 37 days into one post, I apologize if I leave out some details.
So my journey began on March 6th in Okinawa, Japan. Three plane rides, three “fake” travel agents, two German friends, my first rickshaw ride, a sikh temple, an overnight “death defying roller coaster”  bus ride, a good Indian friend, and 2 more rickshaws later, and I arrive on the morning of Holi(Celebration of Color) March 8th in the  city of Rishikesh!

I’ll begin with Delhi, I was only there for  half a day, but that was enough for me.  As soon as arrived down town I was constantly being approached by young guys my age, trying to guide me to travel agencies offering me “help”.  Most of the travel agencies in Delhi say Govt. on them but they are not government sponsored and they attempt to reroute your trip and make you spend more money.  Somehow I avoided getting wrapped up in this and by chance ran into two German ladies whom were headed to a sikh temple. I asked to join them so I wouldn’t have to walk around getting confused by all the “wonderful” young guys trying to hustle, I mean “help” me.

The temple was full of beauty and peace.  A very open and accepting environment :). Everyone there is a volunteer and so genuinely involved in the whole process of contributing to the things that they believe in. After the temple we headed to a cafe and had some drinks, a few beers, and I ended up buying a pack of smokes :/. I assumed I’d just stop upon arriving in Delhi, but to no avail I also.  As the night came I said farewell to the ladies that saved my day from a possible nightmare and headed to my bus stop.

I spent a good 30-40 minutes making sure I knew exactly where my bus stop was. I asked about 15 different people just to make sure I would not miss my bus, for I had no desire to spend the night in Delhi. The bus arrived and left an hour late (Indian Time). As we got further away from the city, the roads got worse and worse. I fell asleep on my top bunk, only to be awoken nearly in mid air, being thrown by the bumps in the road. This persisted for nearly the next 5 hours. There were a few rather scary moment, where the bus would sway to one side or hit a really deep bump  and id think “oh my I hope we don’t tip over”. The bust ride went by pretty fast, and we actually arrived two hours early, which would have been good, except it was 3 am.  Needless to say, there was a lack of taxis and/or rickshaws. I ended up cramming with 5 other people in one rickshaw and riding through another hour of mass bumpiness & very brisk mountain air to arrive in Rishikesh. One of guys that shared the rickshaw would become my guide in Rishikesh for the first few days, he was from Delhi and his name was Vikram.

Wow, I think I am writing in too much detail haha. From here on out I will try and cut out all the BS and just show you the wonderful highlights of my trip thus far.

So I arrived on Holi! With very little sleep, I used my waterproof camera case and we jumped into the celebration!

Every night on the banks of the Ganga there is a “Puja” which I understand to be an offering to the river through a ceremony of song and fire.  This was a great way to end my first day, such good vibrations

Needless to say it really pushed me further than I thought I could go with my body and my mind. Such intense waves of annoyance, melancholy, depression, questioning, and physical exhaustion. Half way through the training, I had to ask myself what the hell I was doing in India. “What was I trying to prove?”. It is the ultimate trip to see your ego really playing with you. Diving deep into the depths of the mind, bringing all of the past BS to the surface and completely letting go of it all. Everyone handles this differently, many wont approach themselves, in fear of what they will really find, but as for myself, it was “pretty darn tough”.  Slowly I made my way out of the instability, to arrive at a higher level of content-ness that I couldn’t quite maintain with myself before. There is still much work to be done, but I have GROWN!

Here are some more photos of my time here in Rishikesh.

I have met so many wonderful people on there own personal journeys. I just happened to get a pic with these two(andre from the Netherlands, and Natasha from Russia.) Both such beautiful people with so much to offer this world. Although this is true of everyone of course .

Some traditonal music always hits the spot! Such a hypnotizing style of melody. I found myself drifting off into an unknown realm of rhythmic bliss.

Following the Music Vibes, I also had a chance to visit the ashram where the Beatles learned transcendental meditation and wrote over 30 songs  during the peak of their careers.  It is unlike any other ashram in Rishikesh

Some more light painting with a Yogi friend (Maria) On the shores of the Ganga on a beautiful fullmoonlit night!

On our last day of the yoga training we were given the oppurtunity to meet a baba who had spent the last ten years living by himself about an hour out of the town.  He was rather young, and very shy, it was hard to grab a good picture of him.  On the way up our teacher Mahesh, bought some peanuts to feed the monkeys, he was swarmed by them!

So now we are up to date! I am a certified Yoga Teacher and I am ready for my next chapter of India!  Love, Peace, Insight, Motivation, Excitement, Realization, and Abundance to all!!!

I am off to Dharamsala, land of the Dalai Lama tomorrow!