Naked Revolution!

Day 38 – March 7, 2009 – Saturday

The day begins with breakfast at Discipline and a hard-core chill session where I spend a considerable amount of time just sitting and thinking. I felt that my spiritual practice of yoga, meditation, and the occasional spirit journey was missing something critical. While I have been progressing rather quickly along my path here in India I still feel that I am not taking advantage of enough opportunities, that there is something else I must look into. Lukas walked into the capsule and told me how he’s getting a new job in the area helping orphans. I realized what my practice was missing: acts of kindness and compassion. I consider myself to be a compassionate character but I don’t find myself often going out of my way for people. In general, I am kind, but I do not put myself in a position where I can perform acts and work of kindness for hours every day, which is much more uplifting and fulfilling than my current work.

Later in the day the crew at Discipline had a pancake party, and a bunch of people showed up. The food was great and while I enjoyed myself I didn’t find myself able to speak to people. My mind was elsewhere, ready to work on a grand project or engage in deep conversation, but I had no initiative to make things happen on my own.

Day 39 – March 8, 2009 – Sunday

Group breakfast at Discipline, beach with Sean and Kara, met a girl at Richy’s, briefly watched Chloe’s concert by Pizzeria Trattoria. Meditating on the ledge at La Terrace was pleasant. Dinner at Alankupam with Karl and the Discipline crew was good and cheap, but it was hard to watch them eat such delicious-looking chicken wings. We went back to Discipline and watched Wild Wild West, an experience complemented by German gummy bears thanks to Kara. I couldn’t sleep since I was so itchy, so I took a shower and ate a brownie. Boy, did that help.

Day 40 – March 9, 2009 – Monday

Still super itchy all day. I picked up a couple writings by Sri Aurobindo at the Freeland Bookstore. I spent most of the day napping and playing Final Fantasy 3 on my computer, as the itchiness pretty much disabled me for the day. More brownies with Lukas and Matthias. We went our separate ways and magically met up at La Terrace for dinner – an evening of nonstop laughter over absolutely nothing. Pizza and Haribo candy and chillage followed suit at Discipline.

Day 41 – March 10, 2009 – Tuesday

I don’t really remember the day since I forgot to write things down till two days later. Still super itchy, I continued the nap and video game festival. Sean, Lukas, Kara and I made pasta for dinner.

Day 42 – March 11, 2009 – Wednesday

Grubbed on some oats for breakfast. Matthias took me to meet some people for farm management and marketing even though I’m already planning to work for the research center, CSR, on an eco-footprint project. During lunch I enjoyed the company of many friends. After reading and a nap, I met up with Laxman to change my TVS motorbike, since it didn’t have enough acceleration or top speed. Krishna’s concert at Bharat Nivas became the night plan. His band is very talented but it’s not my kind of music. A field session and chillage with the band at a house followed. When we got to the house, I left to meditate under the full moon for a bit before joining everybody. Sean and Matthias opened up room for a deep conversation, and they couldn’t really respond to what I said, so it ended quickly. Poop. At least I had a good talk with the moon. She said I have to do vipassana meditation and live more impeccably.

Day 43 – March 12, 2009 – Thursday

After breakfast and acquiring some dollaz, I picked up a few books at the Bharat Nivas library. Matthias and I had a good talk about how to live life. A good chunk of the day was devoted to writing my daily activities in my blog and writing an introspective essay. Since I was on the net I also began my research on vipassana meditation locations and dates in India. Plenty of reading preceded yoga under Grace, Tatiana’s temporary replacement since she has a broken collarbone. After eating alone at Ganesh bakery I went home for meditation and Slumdog Millionaire with the roomies and Matthias. I blame the offer of Haribo candy for pulling me out of meditation and back to the movie…

Day 44 – March 13, 2009 – Friday

Matthias provided the Discipline squad with a lovely croissant breakfast. Plain, chocolate, and bread with jam was the perfect start to the day. Then I napped from 8 to 11:30 – oops. I finished Aurobindo’s Supramental Manifestation on Earth before lunch and ate with the crew, but nothing interesting was said. It seems that lunch is always in good company but nothing with any meaning ever leaves our lips. After using the net I started Beyond Man, a biography of Aurobindo and Mother and their lives in front of and behind the curtain. Tomas caught me reading and we discussed our mutual interest in Vipassana. A banyan tree meditation session helped me calm down a bit and gave me good opportunity to work on my half-lotus posture, but my mind was very distracted. I couldn’t keep my eyes focused on one spot and my mind drifted harder than Max in a rice rocket. I returned to La Terrace to craft the perfect schedule, then shared my New Brighton Beach rap and my philosophical influences with Matthias. Reading back at home, I kept checking my phone for reception but it never came, so I just drove to Kailash to see if anything was happening for the evening. Even though I dined at La Terrace I was still invited to pancakes at Kailash, and I kicked it there with the crew for a bit before heading out. Lucas introduced me to his girlfriend, Elisabeth, who just spent a couple months in Kenya as a school teacher. Karl took me to Junta Bar in Pondicherry, where I had good talks with Isabella and Felix about relationships, swimming, self-defense, and random bs. Felix taught me some nifty defensive moves. Rawr, I’m a warrior, watch yo back.

Day 45 – March 14, 2009 – Saturday

I found JD and Matthias outside Solar Kitchen at the weekly market, and made plans to go with Matthias to a class on the Hladina healing method. Isabella and I sat for lunch and hung out at La Terrace briefly before the class. It turned out that the class practices on Tuesdays and talks theory on Saturdays. We spent most of the session on tangential topics rather than the actual Hladina method. Everything discussed was of great interest to me but I didn’t learn anything new. Still, it was interesting to find other people interested in the same stuff: the upcoming magnetic shift of Earth, ancient civilizations, pyramids, 2012, the mass extinction of bees, Mother and Aurobindo, and more. Sonja, the workshop leader, shared birthday cake and tea with us after the talk. A much more relaxed and focused banyan tree meditation followed. Matthias was in the area, we planned on meeting at the Matrimandir office at 5:30, and we saw Toby outside with his friend Mia from Germany. We all went back to his spot at Prathna for a drum circle, music, freestyle rapping, tasty fruit, and the beginnings of the Naked Revolution. I got pretty naked, and so did Diane. While Toby and Mia stayed home, the rest of us went – instruments in hand – to pizza night at the Youth Center. We tried to spread the Naked Revolution, and we even got a few new members. We held a brief music circle and I freestyled. Matthias joined in briefly in German, which sounded awesome. When my fellow Naked Revolutionaries left the party after dancing, the only people left I really wanted to speak with were Matthias and Tina, but they were completely engrossed in a deep and personal conversation, so after meandering around a bit I left for dreamtime.