Artificial

Facts and truth have nothing in common.

It’s a blessing to understand another human being without words.

I hang laundry near the street. Memory’s lie is tempered by talking monkeys. Two boys harvest trash. One barefoot boy plays silent music with a long thin bamboo fiber. The other twirling a walking stick used for prodding garbage carries a plastic bag. Papa’s got a brand new bag.

Local people mill around. Milling around is an art form. They exist with a pure innocent childlike wisdom. Passive is their inherent Buddhist nature. They’ve suppressed their ego. Ease god out.

Others voice imaginary alien freedom ideas.

I am Other. I live in my heart-mind luminous universe.

A sofa with a roof on wheels towed by a motorcycle carries fat white Europeans to see 8th century Angkor temples.

They are the look and leave people. They are too busy passing through life to feel anything.

Eternity, a young handicapped man wearing his new skin-tight artificial plastic left leg and foot shuffles through dust. He walks home. It is everywhere and nowhere. You can’t go home again.

Sweet

The tender gravity of kindness says howdy hi howdy ho.

Buddhist Khmer are soft and gentle. They live in the now. Present.

Their challenge is to focus on more than one thing at a time. This unpleasant fact is illuminated by their dopamine addiction to phones. FOMO - fear of missing out.

Text me baby, I feel alone and alienated in a mean old world. 

Gadgets make great babysitters.

For the majority it’s about entertainment distractions vs knowledge.

Relationships here are like adopting a child.

All the adults need childlike supervision.

After serving and clearing breakfast dishes three happy female housekeeping staff go to the garden.

#1 you sweep leaves into a pile.

#2 you brush them into the plastic container.

#3 you dump them into the black plastic bag. Repeat through the garden. Same when cleaning rooms. Everyone has one clear task and one clear task only the lonely. Consistency is a challenge.

Earth is a precious garbage dump. Plastic Styrofoam food containers, bags, cups, straws litter soil and water.

The world is a village.

Mandalay

You can take the people out of the village but you can’t take the village out of the people. They have green Environment Awareness garbage trucks. It all ends up somewhere. Garbage in - garbage out.

Everyone speaks at once. Comprehension and intelligent conversations develop. In Laos it is loud and louder. Here the loudest one is the big winner.

Cognitive dissonance loves attention span, memory and reasoning.

Milling and crowding around is an art form like wild animals in a feeding frenzy. Indecision breeds a new generation of passive anxious consumers. This has nothing to do with tropical heat affecting DNA or innate Buddhist spirituality.

Let go or get dragged along...in Burma.

Angkor Draft

Greetings,

If I begin this dance by calling it Angkor Draft you may surmise it is about a local beer. It's not. While the beer is very popular with tourists and locals, the latter consuming huge quantities to cement construction deals, it's actually a urine based liquid reference favored by extremely thirsty red dust covered humans unloading huge packs with a weary sigh of relief. They've traveled far and wide to reach this epic point in their short sweet life. The average tourist will spend 3.5 days here and consume 9.6 large bottles of Angkor Draft.

As I wrote, in early January, I bought a 7-day pass for the Angkor Wat complex. This allowed for seven relaxed visits over a month's space-time. This was necessary due to the intensity of the experience. In advance I visited the Angkor National Museum to learn about the Khmer culture and Angkor. These entries are in the January Blog Archives. 

The Angkor image galleries are in a folder with a descending order of discovery. I began far away; specifically at Banteay Srei (9th C.) and The Roluos Group (8th C.) My last two visits included the main Angkor temple and the Bayon. I also revisited Preah Khan, Ta Som, Ta Prohm and Banteay Kdei. 

Angkor Wat was built in 1113. It is the largest religious monument in the world. It took over 30 years to complete and is dedicated to Vishnu. It is a symbol of the divine; Mount Meru in the center, surrounded by smaller peaks, courtyards (continents) and a huge moat (oceans).

After the 13th century it was a place of Buddhist worship. Extensive graphic wall galleries and carvings depict battles, regal processions, heaven and hell, and the Hindu creation epic "Churning The Sea of Milk," where gods and demons cooperate to create the elixir of immortality. Galleries also include battles between Devas and Asuras, and the Battle of Lanka.

Angkor reinforces the reality of small humans. How did I feel here? Serene. Impermanent, calm and centered. 

The Bayon is a three-tiered pyramid temple with 49 towers. Archeologists theorize the multitude of faces symbolize the god-king looking over the entire country. There are fine bas reliefs. My feeling was the immensity of energies and perspective. I avoided crowds and found solace and serenity in secluded places. The image below is an example. Not a single traveller exploring Western walls, courtyards or just sitting.

"You cannot photograph space," said a girl sitting in the shade.

All the temples offered deep surrounding forests, labyrinths, mazes, delightful discoveries and magical light-shadow play. Feel free to wander around at your leisure. Double-click on images to see larger visions. 

Angkor, Bayon and beyond...

Metta.