Tag: bhutan

A Post Bhutan Hangover: Culture Shock is Real

On By tgentryfunkLeave a comment

Writing from the dining room table, the sun glances off the wet leaves of a cherry tree, flowers long since fallen. I’m back at home but my mind remains in another world on the other side of the globe. Moments of gentle abandon and deep sleep remind me that I was there just a few days ago. Memories are unshackled from their organized structure and waves of images and feelings wash over me as I write these words, thinking about how it was and how it is.

The culture shock of returning from Asia to the U.S. is powerful. While we tend to see and feel the world as compressed by electronic media and the lack of distance between here and there, now and past, the reality is much more powerful in that, culturally, the life I live in the U.S. is worlds away from Bhutan. Everything from the mundane, like daily routines, or the more complex, like how to put food on the table shake the ways in which culture and society are shaped.

Tiny Offerings

In Bhutan, there is a rhythm that drones in the background of days and nights. If you sit, for a moment, you can feel the sensations and the echoes of songs that resonate across mountains and valleys of the place. Walking into a temple and hearing the chanting, songs, drums of the monks and nuns wakes something inside that rattles out of a cage, freeing the spirit and allowing a more joyful, hopeful experience to take over from the dullness that is part and parcel of life in the United States. That’s what these days, here, in New Mexico feel like right now. To return to a structure that limits, that presses down, and that is all about just making ends meet and making life less meaningful than it could be.

The expression of this cultural shock is referenced by the return of oppression. Sure, being on “vacation” tends to do that to anyone. At the same time, I’d argue it wasn’t a vacation, is was a release. An opening into the possibilities of a what a life could be; not just bound by capitalist finances but shaped by the words and songs of Vajrayana. For our minds to be agthered up, shown to us, and offering us all a path that does not talk about things like heaven and hell, but offers community, collective identity, and the chance for a true, lasting freedom.

Milarepa dancing

It’s all of these things that have captured my mind. And while I struggle with spiritual materialism and the possiblity that, in fact, I’m idealizing and romanticising moments in the past, I find that those cyncial arguments collapse as everything moves toward the idea that there is, in fact, something beyond this worldly existence. So, what is left on me, in me, as part of me, is the impression of what can be. Here I sit, dwelling in this afterglow, knowing that I have a part to play in this understanding, and that it is possible to reconfigure my heart and mind toward something different, and, most importantly, as part of somethiugn beyond me and closer to we. That’s where “I” am right now.

May you be happy, May you be well.

The Promise and Reality of Bhutan

On By tgentryfunkLeave a comment

The moment I realized I was insane came when I got off the Druk Air flight in Paro.  The air was filled with a moist, earthy smell, and as I stepped off the stairs attached loosely to the side of the plane, tears dripped down my cheeks as the moment overwhelmed me.

The reality of Bhutan reshaped my understanding of the world.  Everything I thought before this day fell away into clouds of misunderstanding and hopeless analogies.  Just breathing the air of the place reframed my thoughts in such a way that my mind was forced open into awareness.  I walked, or, rather, floated toward the customs check-in, drawn toward an inevitable clash between accepted norms that, suddenly, didn’t make any sense at all.  Enraptured, I had no ground to stand on, even as my feet stood on a polished earth. 

I exited the building after gathering my bag and was greeted warmly by my future friend and mentor.  I learned quickly that friendship could extend across lifetimes and that physical space had no relevance when it came to people, we are deeply connected to over time.  

During those first few days, my face hurt from smiling so much.  I was enmeshed in a kind of joy that comes from meeting people and sharing stories.  It wasn’t from just the here and now; it was from the skin soaked in the glow of presence.  Here. Now. Every new greeting, every kind word, flaying open my critical mind, exposing the dark drama of days to an all-encompassing light.  The rich earth, now open to a truer sun, burst with life.  A sense of wholeness captured me, and I never wanted to let it go.

Will You Enter?

The van ride to Thimphu was a blur as my exhaustion started to build from the gentle rocking of the ride on curvy roads.  We settled into the trip when, suddenly, the king’s caravan slowed as we passed.  He waved, smiling at our group, and a kind of euphoria took hold of the group.  Laughter and excitement pealed through the van.  I couldn’t wash the smile off my face.

A sense of wonder rose in my mind, and the experience of the kilometers remains etched on my psyche.  The feelings, the sensations all coursed through me, and, finally, I can recapture that remarkable mood, years distant.

My return to Bhutan after six years’ absence leaves me breathless, at times, with what I will encounter.  My previous travels to the country embodied every possible positive experience of a people and a place.  

The anticipation of introducing this country and its people to students, the possibility of connecting to the feeling and sensation of awareness, and the chance that it all goes awry.  All of it courses through my body, and I wait for what is to come.

Of course, that’s how it all works, isn’t it?  Sitting.  Waiting.

Whatever happens in March, I will soon know what it feels like to return to the first place where I felt completely connected to the world.