Day 30 - Back to Myanmar in High Spirits

Started the day with a little lap swim in our pool. Caught the pool boy by surprise - leaves etc. in the pool. Then a 7/11 breakfast in the room and hanging out until our shuttle to the airport.

Other than some queue time at the Bangkok airport (geez, there are a lot of tourists in Bangkok) an uneventful transit to our Classique Inn, waiting for us with cold watermelon juice.

Rare musing: Thinking again about travel, mood and Buddhism. I'm being more mindful of my moods on this trip, possibly because of the Buddhism stuff, which is new for me.

It's perhaps a cliche that travel wears on one, but I believe that is particularly true with foreign travel, and maybe even more so for me when traveling outside of the Euro/American world, where 90%+ of the people around me do not look at all like me. Any kind of travel may be trying because it places us in unfamiliar surroundings, thereby heightening the natural wariness that our lower brains (amygdala and limbic system) use to protect us. I believe that when unfamiliar faces, language, dress, food, smells, and sounds are added to the mix, the wariness can get overwhelming, or at least very fatiguing.

Wanting to travel in tour groups where one can be transported around in more or less familiar surroundings, is, I believe, a very natural response to these pressures. However, tour group travel can also severely restrict the growth that the unfamiliar can provide.

Our guide at the Thai Grand Palace gave us what I think is an excellent insight applicable to this dilemma. He talked about Buddhist enlightenment as meaning the acquiring of intelligence that enables us to rise above the fears and worries, and actually make us happy. He did that in the context of two figures on a stupa in the Wat Prah Keo, the gorgeous Buddhist temple on the grounds of the Grand Palace (see the photos in the last post).



He said the figure on the left (a monkey, whom Buddhists - pre-Darwin believed was the ancestor of humans) is smiling because he has the enlightenment of human intelligence, which engenders happiness. The frowning figure on the right is also human, however, and is the fearful, troubled side of us that resists intelligence and thus is stuck in perpetual suffering. We get to choose, which side to favor. Based on other reading I've done, and my own introspection, I believe that choosing the enlightenment side is hard work, and we resist it, instinctively preferring to remain with the familiar, no matter how uncomfortable it may be. [The thing I really DON'T like about the images, however, is that they show the troubled side as having a darker complexion, thus perpetuating the stereotype of tying darker skin to negative traits].

I guess I've known about the choice for a long time, but the association of enlightenment with happiness is the new, Buddhist, element, and with that as a goal the struggle becomes more sustainable.

I've been using some of this thinking on this trip, and believe it is increasing my enjoyment immensely. At the very least, it prevents me from overreacting to obstacles and other potentially distressing occurrences. The goal may be nothing more than equanimity, but that is pretty dang nice to have. And the process is self-fulfilling in the sense that with greater equanimity I am more open to learning, and with that can come greater happiness, and with that greater equanimity etc., etc.

If nothing else, I think I may be a little easier to travel with, tho you'll need to check with Dana on that.




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