Hi everybody,

I’ve been living in a broken country, but I’ve crossed back over the line. 28 days in Myanmar was something as alternate universe as I think I’ve ever experienced. It’s not a black hole, but it is an inside out golden hole. Or a rainbow vortex. It’s very hard to describe, so basically I’m not going to try. Rather, I shot over 100 hours of video, as I thought it would be a bit of a coup if I could do so and get it out and share it. I know when I was looking for info in Myanmar there was absolutely no video about what life was really like there. So now I have it. And will be sharing it forthwith.

The basic trajectory of my time in Burma was a few days in Yangon, which is full of heart and soul and love and sadness. It’s basically rotting, and the people for the most part are too. No city has been harder on my lungs; the exhaust is in your face and really nothing you can do but talk to your lung cells about how yes it is very upsetting and oppressive and will try to get us out of here ASAP, and there is a big downside to cancer so please think twice before overreacting.

Split Yangon and spent 9 or so days in Rakhine state. This was where the trip took off. Most people have never even heard of this place, and I never did before I got there. Between Bangladesh and Burma, it’s its own country, people, everything. Fairly well neglected by the central government, fiercely independent, very into nature, idiosyncratic to a fault, Rakhine state is full of life lovers cut off from the mothership. This is still village life on planet earth with no outside corporate capitalist culture influence.  I loved it tremendously. It is beautiful and innocent and lovely and open hearted and tasty and fanatical and lost.

Back to Yangon and up to Mandalay, boat ride down the Irrawaddy to Pagan, couple days in Pagan and then to Inle Lake for a couple days, and then back to Yangon. I may or may not fill any of these placeholders in while still traveling. Here in Yangon I went to a Buddhist Medidation course and the Abbot invited me to study at the monastery, I accepted, and after a couple days he invited me to become a monk, which I did.

Being a monk here is not quite as heavy-duty as being a priest or something involving a change of outfit back home. Everyone  in society is expected to do it for at least one week, and it was in the spirit that I could take my robes off whenever I wanted without guilt or recrimination that I felt prompted to go ahead. That said, it’s been a very interesting shift into that identity. I will definitely share more about that headspace soon. In a nutshell though, the really trippy thing about all this being a Buddhist monk stuff is that to be one is to take on the identify of being a revered figure in their culture. So everywhere you go people are making prayer signs to you, bowing, treating you pretty nice. The thing is, it’s not you. They are saluting that you are keeping the thing they most believe in going, and showing prayful respect for that. Once you wrap your mind around that, it changes the ego’s relationship to how you’re treated, and even worship in general, and for the better.

Even during the height of Burmese power, when they controlled a truly huge amount of territory and lived in an incredibly high style, the kings never built any temples or statues to themselves. There are no monuments anywhere in Burma to people, only to Buddha and the Dhamma. The idea that we’re all in it together, we’re our own destination, and there is no God – it’s only up to us, and to get to where we want to go we have to all consciously work to 1) avoid what is bad, 2) embrace what is good, and 3) purify our mind, ironically permeates this country like no other. 

So the secret I learned in Burma is that the whole of civil society here is set up to do that in its language, culture and even physically. There are temples, stupas, payas, everywhere. There is less distinction between secular and religious than maybe anywhere I’ve been, even India. And whereas in India you are praying to Ganesha or like that, in Myanmar it’s Buddha. And not even Buddha, just the facts he uncovered about the nature of existence. 

So after all this, landed in Bangkok last night. Long line for customs. Hour wait maybe. Lovely female Thai airport official saw me in line, grabbed me to escort me through the priority monk line in 2 minutes. Was talking with a big American guy at the time, he was holding my fan, so he came with, and I think viewed me as less of a freak. Got to Villa Guesthouse, and Lek who runs the guesthouse went shopping for me this morning. Now here at the Internet cafe next morning and decompressing.  
So now I got a couple weeks out of Bangkok then fly to Indonesia.
 

More soon.

Love all, serve all…

Axil