Jumble Juxtaposition.... a lotus petal !

What i am fascinated about this crazy mixed up world is just that, it is mixed up, with no obvious rhyme or reason that things come together the way they do. I both love it, and at times loath it. Good example of this is on 10 nte. in Playa del Carmen. Just down from Java Joes (see Gaggia Expresso Machines) and just up from the Condo & the Faro (see How close can you build a Condo to a Lighthouse ?) there is a really cool looking hotel. The KINBE, avec un accent on the e. While i am no HIP Hotel photographer, here are some shots of the reception. I haven't seen the rooms but i suspect that the design aesthetic has been transmitted with fidelity. The set at an angle book shelves is truely original.The fact that there is a copy of Sur la Rue by Jack Karouac en Francais among the collection, and that there is a Canadian number on the business card leads me to believe there is French (Canadian) Connection. A first Lotus Petal
is duely awarded!

Ship Shape mas barcos

Ask any Naval architect and they will tell you that hull shape determines the way in which a ship will glide through the water.Heres a shot of the bow of one these wonderful local barcos, and an idle beauty about to be put to work.

Incommunicado

Etymology; from the Spanish Incomunicar to deprive of communication.
There is something in the anonymity of travel that does one of 2 things.It either creates an anxious frenzy of communication
to friends, family & associates to let them know where you are, and what you are doing , or it drives you deeper into the realisation that you don't really want to be that connected to the people who are in your life. At least for awhile. Some quite space might be healthy. Now here is a traveller's challenge that dawned on me many years ago that not that many people have had and it is this : Have you ever been anywhere on this planet where no one who you know , knows where you are ? For a week perhaps or even for a day ? Where you are completely Incommunicado with the world that you know, and that knows you. For people who have occasionally gone underground, dissapeared, dropped of the map, gone AWOL, like your reporting Agent, i can tell you it is a liberating experience. Once you have had it, you may finally get into direct communication with what is around you, where ever you find yourself. And more scarry than that, you might get into direct communication with yourself. Once achieved you can bring more of your real self home.Leaving the excess baggage behind.

Mayan Pyramid Selling?

No its not a Mayan Pyramid Selling Scheme. Or for sale, or an illusion from Egypt.This pyramid house is on the northern end of la playa. It has been there at least since i lived here in 2005. I have never seen anybody living in it, all the time i came to the beach. Who ever owns it has done something very unique with a prime piece of beach frontage. However with development creeping steadily in, it could be lost like a lot of pyramids in the Yucatan, but this time to the concrete jungle.

Gaggia Italian Expresso Machines

Some of the best shots of expresso are poured around the world, from Italian made Gaggia expresso machines. This one is in Java Joe's in Playa, an establishment cafe popular with locals and tourists alike. Adjacent is the Hotel Libreria.Very airy, spacious reception, interesting concept with the books, a neat space to walk into.

The idle beauty of boats.El Barco

I just love the sleek shape of the local sea craft - el Barco.

How close can you build a Condo to a Lighthouse ? bout this close ...

Now Playa del Carmen has this little Faro , well its not that small, and it is probably not a functioning Faro in that it warns ship captains of dangereous reefs, but it is a lighthouse non the less, and was a standout edifice on la playa. Until. The question is 'How close can you build a condo to a lighthouse?' Well, about this close....I know beach front real estate is as prime as it gets, especially in paradise, but this is a prime example of selling architectural space that doesn't exist to build in.
I could continue my polemic on The CondoQuest of Paradise, alas this morning, i would rather focus again on The Idle Beauty of Boats.

Travelin Books

The was a wonderful documentary that i really loved called Traveling Birds.It tracked the migratory paths of a number of long haul feather flyers around the globe. Using some very inventive camera techniques mounted on UltraLights, you literally climbed on board with them and flew over vast stretches of country and ocean. No mean feat navigating from breading grounds in the Arctic to your winter residence somewhere in Africa.
Now i think books do the same.When ever i am on the road i am always on the look out for books to read. I catch up as do many travelers on unread novels whilst on the move. As you move, so do the books you are hauling. And with the vast distances these days that travelers cover, books can clock up the miles in no time. If you fitted a gps chip in the cover of a classic novel that readers tend to re read , say Siddharta by Herman Hesse you could track its movements around the globe.
There is a sort of unwritten code of conduct with us travelin readers, ok maybe you buy your departure Airplane reading book from a bookshop before you leave home , you progressively read it on the road , but once you finish it , you quickly become aware of what i call Book to Back Pack Weight Ratio- B2BPW%. Now your beloved author, whom you have been so intimate with inside of his or her fabricated world becomes a weight liability. It might be just paper weight, but books are heavy critters especially when they are read. So what to do ? well meeting a fellow traveller you offer as a gift, or you find a second hand bookshop and do a trade, or you leave behind in your hotel room, a random act of reading kindness that you enact for the next occupant. With great delight I have done all three.
Travelin Books will get future posts for sure and there is a lot to recommend and discuss. This pic is of the interior of Mananas Cafe on Isla Mujeres , which has a sizable colony of resting books, probably the 2nd largest collection of novels after Alma Libre in Puerto Morelos. At Play in the Fields of the Lord by that remarkable American author Peter Matthiessen has hitched a ride with me this time, who knows where it will end up in the Caribbean, who knows where this novel has been so far ? I always look for any readers inscription or a stamp inside its pages , that might indicate a previous owners memo to him or her self or to the next reader. This book has done some miles by the look of it, published in 1965, it has a Los Arcos Reds English Library book stamp from Antigua inside its cover, so its been migrating around Central America probably for some time.
The other pleasure that always goes with reading in cafes at least for me, is a good short sharp shot of expresso, if Isla Mujeres is on your flight path be sure to go to Mananas and refuel there, get Karen to make it for you.

The idle beauty of boats

The kind of boat you see along the Riveria Mayan coast, often idling on beaches , is a sleek strong workhorse of a craft , but once it takes to the water, zips along muy rapido.

The impermanence of I

Walk along a beach. Look at your footprint in the sand . It is there, and so are you. And then your footprint is gone. Many have walk this earth, Don't get attached to who you think you are.

The CondoQuest of Paradise´part 1

For many road weary travellers like me, averse to the more frigid latitudes, the tropics is Paradise found.Unfortunately the more i see of 23 degrees north and south of the equator, the more it looks like Paradise lost!
Dense equitorial rain forests have been denuded at an alarming rate around the globe,more for their wood resources than any idea of surburban habitation.However a few more degrees of lat north or south and the Sun Belt becomes an attractive Real Estate proposition. Having grown up in semi tropical Oz, i know how attractive that kind of living can be,especially if you are situated by the coast.Here on the Riveria Maya it is no exception, with crystal clear aquamarine waters, talcum powdered white sands, cenoytes , and pockets of exotic rain forest scattered througth out the more coarse low lying selva.This side of Mexico might not have the surf of the Pacific coast, but it does have alot to offer the self unemployed beach bum, in between gigs. Leaving aside sleeping in a hammock suspended between two palm trees on a Tulum beach, civilisation here has exploded like the big bang ,along the Caribe Mexicano coast line.Its only & what seems to be its prime directive was proglamated about 40yrs ago in direct competition to the thriving tourism of the Pacific west coast, with popular resorts like Acapulco.
Go forth and multiply
And multiply was what has happened since, in the shape of Condos , Mega Hotels & Beach Resorts. Often with little or no eco impact planning, creative architecture, or a thoughtful urban infrastructue.Paradise lost. Well for a while ...maybe ?
When i lived here for 2 years thats pretty much all i saw, and most of it was an eye sore, devoid of anything distinctively Mexican in its venacular or inspiring in its design.The ubiquitous Condominium was so homogenus that you wouldnt know you were in Mexico, let alone in tropical latitudes. To be sure there were some exceptions but alas few and far between. Eventually i turned my eye to the world of natural beauty here for which there is no man made competition when it comes to creativity and organic design.
Where some maverick builders had sort to integrate natural harmonies in construction & materials was south of Tulum a little out of the geographical reach of the general investor, at least at that time.
6 months ago i came back to Playa del Carmen to teach, and witnessed at 1st hand how that town , now city i guess had expanded. At one time it was Latin Americas fastest growing location .When i lived just south of there in Puerto Aventuras it reminded me of an energetic frontier boon town, that sprawled in dissaray every which way.I once made the rather unkind comment that it looked no different after a hurricane had ripped through it.Re organise chaos with chaos and it is still chaos. One taste- plain ugly.
But then on my last trip i saw something new, i discovered something between the gaps in the prime directive , i experienced a vibrant Mayan community that filled the space outside of the Glitzy distractions of 5th Avenue. I also saw evidence of a return to a more inspiring design ethos in some resturants, boutique hotels , shops, ocean front appartments and in the general beach culture.

The CondoQuest of Paradise will continue all around the global tropical zone, nothing will prevent that. If you build um they will come ! maybe not so fast in these slightly surreal financial times, but they will come and alas, Paradise will go.

Part of what i am searching for on this trip around the Caribbean, is that unique creative spark, that holistic design intelligence, that x factor essence of wonderment, which is inspiring in tropical architecture & living. Where designers have created a tropical space, a place , where the heart & soul of a sensitive sentient ( not a client or the buyer or an investor)can sojourn at peace. For that at least in this ever changing mundo, will be return to Paradise.
In part 2 i will be looking for The Lotus in The Mud.

Windy one day Wiped out the next!

A comment should be made on my previous post about paradise. About how the tropics is a delicately balanced weather system, particularly between June & October. Hurricane season. Having been through 2 Cat 5 ´s here in the Yucatan, Wilma & Emily, i can say that it ain´t no fun, before, during and after they hit.Before its the impending fear and semi hysteria about what to do , board up & do airport , or board up and stick it out.Once a 3 - 5 day track is issued by the NHC and you know that its probably going to hit you , airfares go up, there is a run on petrol, and food, generators , water and everything else you need for survival.Sticking it out is pure hell, i have never felt such power in nature. Once it has ripped through you, you wake to a devastation that you can´t really get your head around. And then the fun begins , with no power , water , communications, petrol, banks for money,ect you find yourself in a very basic environment devoid of the single thing we take for granted 50 cycle hum - electicity. Candles are very precious, so is freshwater and food. I can remember one time really seeing the stars here at night as there were no street or condo lights. Fishing became a necessity and the one house that had gas to cook with in Puerto Aventuras became a nightly tribal HQ.Communities spring up everywhere made up of those residents who have stayed.With the airports closed tourists are stranded in schools. In this part of the world it takes time to get things back together, i admired very much the spirit of the local Mayans who are tireless workers and had no doubt seen big Tempstas come and go for hundreds of years. Everyone thinks that Cat 5´s make landfall only in certain areas around the Carribean, but i saw a map once charting exactly where they had appeared from 1896, hurricanes were marked in red. The entitre Caribbean was red.

Perfect one day Beautiful the next !

There is something magical about the tropics, that kind of lulls you into a trance state of relaxed wonder. Back when i was growing up in Oz ´Perfect one day Beautiful the next´(or was it the other way around ?) was at one time the Queensland´s tourist commission branding tag line. Well it also fits the Riveria Maya. I must be aligned to these lazy latitudes now as i completed swimming freestyle the full length of the local beach early this morning. Last time i was here in Nov 07 it took me about 3 weeks to train up to. Its not that far maybe half a kilometre +, but i have´t swum for 6 months living in the European north, and so i was not expecting to do it so soon in 3 days worth of swims x 2 per day.I had vowed not to leave the island untill i had done it.When i travel i always do some kind of training.You can get out of shape very quickly when you travel for various reasons being On the Road as Jack Karouac called it can be challenging to your health & fitness.
Right now i am easing into my morning travel training routine. After a meditation , BreathFlex & Pranya exercises on the pier on the playa(more later on that system of exercise)i swim. I go back for another afternoon swim before sunset cevesas.Following Fit for Life eating system, which i always find easier to do in the tropics, haven´t quite got into a Mexican version of Paleo nutrition yet , more on that later.
Swimming is an absolutely delightful sensual total fitness activity , currently i am trying to learn more about reducing drag resistance in the water, rather than power stoking through it.The system of Total Immersion Swimming has a revolutiuonary technique for this. I have to find a course to learn.

To Tao or not to Tao ?

Dear people close to me are going through some turbulant uncertainty at this time, and so i remembered a chapter of The Tao te Ching which has to do with letting things arise as they will, so they can fall , allowing change to happen of its own accord ,so that then you can act at a more auspicious time. Its difficult to do because you want to act swifly to bring about a certainty that will alleviate your anxiety.
I know from my own turbulant anxious past that there is much wisdom in the old master Lao-tzu´s words, usually you get what he is saying in hind sight....which is kind of too late !

Anyway the chapter i refere to is 36, translation by Stephen Mitchell, which is i think the best one out there.

If you want to shrink something,
you must first allow it to expand.
If you want to get rid of something,
you must first allow it to flourish.
If you want to take something,
you must first allow it to be given.
This is called the subtle perception
of the way things are.

The soft overcomes the hard.
The slow overcomes the fast.
Let your workings remain a mystery.
Just show the people the results.

When you are in Slump !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO4tIrjBDkk

This is one of the best inspirational speeches ever written for film
to get you out of a slump, delivered superbly by Al Pacino ,
from On Any Given Sunday directed by Oliver Stone.

"Now, what are you gonna do?"

Form Follows Emptiness or Waking Up (part 1)

By way of introduction let me state that Agent M is half asleep. A sleeping sentient, a sleep writer. Who wishes to wake up. Who like many has realised a kind of lucid dreaming quality to living reality. When you become aware that you are dreaming, the dream doesn't end, you just know its a dream, but then some new possibilities arise. Something is aware that if its only a dream there is another reality called AWAKE! Something stirs . Now you can stay in the dream and get lost in it , and I do all the time, or you can dream the dream and watch it at the same time. A kind of eyes wide shut meditation, difficult to maintain, or you can wake up, even more difficult.....still waking up is what this blog is about.

Waking up to what?

Well that is unanswerable. Words are not going to do it .The most enlightened mystics , the most inspired poets, crazy wisdom teachers down through the ages have done their best, far more eloquent than i, they can they only point to AWAKE. The Buddha did about the best job with the pointing out instructions, but he refrained from talking too much about what its like after you wake up. So waking up to the WHAT is not what this blog is about.

To the degree that we have awoken from this world we can compare notes, we all exist in one form or another and we all share the same present, but its not about waking up to

It is about waking up FROM............

And the from i would like to address here is suffering . The Buddha nailed it in one.

The dream wouldn't be so bad if when we were dreaming it we didn't suffer, but we all do to varying degrees, all sentients , througout time , everywhere.

Another word for the dream is the Illusion. We are living in the illusion of a reality.Waking up means seeing throught the illusion of things as they seem to be, and seeing things as they really are.
By seeing i mean realising , knowing, not believing in something.

What is so experiential about the Buddhas approach to waking up is that he starts wilh varifiable facts, that you yourself can know directly,he is not asking you to believe in something outside of your current experience, like Nivarna. He is not prosletising about a heaven that awaits you or promising something that he will do for you. You have to wake up to yourself, to your true nature, and you can begin to do just that exactly where you find yourself, right here right now. Sleeping.......

Samsara, this everyday ordinary world, IS the very place you wake up, with all its seeming distractions and with all of our attachments and aversions to them.

We all need some training in waking up , or at least I know I do, and i suspect that if you are reading this you already are practicing some kind of approach to realising Truth. My current primary source of wake up training is what I understand of Buddhas insights, but I got here by a long and circuitous path of teachings and of teachers, crazy and serious , experiences and experiments, and like you from simply being curious about the world around me.

Form Follows Emptiness is a precursor , a primer , a pointer , to a deeper more profound absolute truth and that is FORM IS EMPTYNESS - EMPTYNESS IS FORM which of course is the big wake up call of the HEART SUTRA.

Wake up to that one and you will know what waking up to the WHAT really is ....

The Pantheon

My absolute favourite pilgrimage site of antiquity stands in the Eternal City. Attributed to Agrippa,
constructed after the battle of Actium in 31 BC, the latin inscription on the facade is a generous
recognition by Hadrian, who in 125AD undertook a major organic reconstruction. If inspiring
architecture is frozen poetry, then the second you enter its massive doors you transfixed by its vast paneled Dome
& floating Oculus. I am sure the ancient gods of Roma paid homage to its beauty. Nothing prepares you for the transition from the square Piazza Della Rotunda to the Pantheon's interior, as you entered a vast sphere. The optical effect you experience is because the height of the Dome and the diameter of the interior floor, is the same, 43.3 metres.
All Domed buildings constructed since have their drawn their inspiration from this building, and for me what is truely
remarkable is that it has been in constant use for 2000 years. Just imagine who has walked in wonder over
the centuries. If you have never been, then prepare yourself.
1.Arrive at 0800hrs 2.Sip a sharp shot of expresso at Tassa d' Oro Cafe in the Piazza 3. Be at the entrance 0830hrs,
and you may be enlisted to help push open its massive bronze doors 4. Enter and let your spirit soar ! 5. Check out one very
famous Renaissance painter's tomb 6. Return and renew your spirit when ever you are in Rome.

Everything Changes for L Shakti with LOve

Nothing lasts forever

all things come & go

this earth it keeps on turning 

sometimes fast, sometimes slow

Ends are just beginnings

truths they turn to doubts

what you loose on the swings

you win on the roundabouts

Everything Changes

well thats what i've read

everything Changes

like the Buddha once said

Everything changes

yeh it really does

everything changes

just look at us ....

Cos everything changes

nothing gets away

everything changes

as night turns into day

Everything changes

and thats all i really know

everything Changes

the way all things seem to go

Everything changes

better get used to that

everything changes

cos thats where it at

Everything Changes

you bet it does

Everything changes

just looks at us ....

lyrics by Agent M

The Unbearable Heaviness of Stuff

"My hut lies in the middle of a dense forest,

Every year the ivy grows longer.

No news of the affairs of men,

Only the occasional song of a woodcutter.

The sun shines,

I mend my robe.

When the moon is out i read poems.

I have nothing to report to my friends.

If you want to find the true meaning,

Stop chasing after so many things!"

/RYOKAN

Gravity Rocks!

Rocks have personalities. There is something that calls you to certain stones on a beach.The shape, texture & feel of them in your hand instantly aligns you to mass and with it as you balance them one on top of the other - to gravity. All thoughts stop. The mind rests and allows the body to stack , balance and assemble as if in a dance. A gravity trance. If you are calm centered & patient, and if you allow the stones to fit themselves together as they want to , you end up building a sculpture. It is a great way to change a mood to access creativity and to do something different in the great outdoors, regardless if people see them or not , you don't really care. I have watched people walk right past them as if they were not there. Other people come up to me and stare.The next day they may be gone. Wind , birds , kids , a meteor on Mars. The impermanence of this art is a teaching not to get attached, but i can't resist taking a photo.  

The Migratory Urge of the Equinox

Almost the 21st September, the Autumn Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.Being here in Scandinavia i detect the urge that all migratory birds must feel.That desire to leave their spring/summer residence and head south. Well south west for me, to the crystal clear warm waters of the Yucatan. To the beach and a 2nd life in the Caribbean until the Spring Equinox rolls around next March.I check the Met reports for the mission on Sat maps, National Hurricane Centre & on my Earth Desk. 2 days out and i think i can make landfall before anything Cyclonic develops. Still i am aware that the wings of a butterfly in Brazil could start a Cat 5. I should ask one of those little birds on a wire preparing their flight plan what the forecast is. How do they navigate?  

One with Everything

Man to the Buddhist Hot Dog vendor : "Make me one with everything" gives him $10, Buddhist Hot Dog vendor : Silence, gives him the Hot Dog, takes the $10,  Man to the Buddhist Hot Dog vendor : What about my change ?" Buddhist Hot Dog vendor " Change comes from within !"

This is it !!!

Except where you are , when you are , how you are & why you are, because THIS IS IT ! Then, and only then, can you change what is ...