Cave Reflections

A mentor and dear friend sent me the following quote by the Dalai Lama when I was playing saxophone in India. At the time, I wrote that the passage both plagued me while it inspired me. I still feel it pushes me to take risks and stand for what I believe in, while remaining open to redefining my perspective with every interaction, day and experience.

“Every morning, think as you wake up:

I am alive, I have precious human life,

I am not going to waste it.

I am going to use all my energies to develop myself,

To expand my heart out to others,

To achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.

I am not going to get angry.

Or think badly about others.

I am going to benefit others as much as I can.” - Dalai Lama

We only have the present - this moment NOW; and the best actions we can take are those that boost our wellbeing and happiness so that we can fully support ourselves enough to encourage those we love. 

Exploring the world has helped me learn and understand habits, customs and beliefs totally different from my own. I hope to constantly learn, to work to expand and adjust my ideas based on what makes most sense in light of where I am in life, in the world and in relation to others, with an open heart to what I do not yet know… 

Exploring something as ancient as the Elephanta Caves, that has survived so many varying global powers, ideologies and world events, truly puts this into perspective. This moment NOW is all we really know. The place you’re reading this may look the same 2 years from now whether it’s raining outside, whether there’s war or if there’s peace…. 

So where do we find the balance? Where do we find that balance between our humanistic need for rational pattern and our need to let go and remember that flow is innate. THIS, I feel, is THE Human Experience. 

Places that have evolved in human perspective, carved with tributes to ancient Gods and Goddesses remind me that I CHOOSE. They remain as beautiful as when they were carved, despite all the craziness or stillness around them. Despite how many years pass. 

These places remind me that I am no victim, despite how bad or good life gets. I have gorgeous, infinite peace inside myself no matter where I am, who I’m with, or what’s going on around me. And only me, myself and I can remember that. 

Moments of stillness, (like holding this pose in the Elephanta Caves near Mumbai, or when meditating yesterday on the subway), bring back the same KNOWINGNESS - a knowledge that much more expansive than individual intuition. It is the inner nod of being part of something intensely large and beyond ourselves, while participating in each of our individual unique ways… 

Remembering Runs in Mumbai

Image from http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/aug/01/india-cities-drown-sewage-waste

Mumbai is full of explosions of sound in which it seems every child in the world is crying, every horn is beeping, every bird is chirping and every person is shouting. They come in waves, culminating to a point where the limitless trash seems as if it may fly off the ground and pummel us all into the soil it conceals. It pushes my anxiety through my chest and upper abdomen until the tension feels like it could throw me into the whirlwind of sound and smog around me.

As I ran down the Mumbai beach last weekend, I tried to act as if I was totally accustomed to and at peace with the huge number of people playing cricket, walking hand in hand and running into the water. This tactic of acting completely unaffected is one I have acquired both living in New York and when traveling abroad. In my mind, it decreases the chance of seeming out of place or vulnerable when I may actually feel lost or uncomfortable. 

On this run though, I could barely maintain this facade as I watched people throw trash and plastic spiritual offerings into the waves. On performance breaks here, security guards, entertainers and our managers throw trash on the jungle floor as if a waste bin is permanently in place there. Still the people and cars maneuver perfectly around each other - their horns used more than even their words in a usual conversation. The wafts of extremely sour and rancid smell are a way of life here and I cannot judge considering the smells of New York and Paris I have lived with before. 

I just cannot help to think what urban planning and alternative contributions my friends and I could make to improve situations like the image I have posted and seen. I cannot help but to comment on and want to change both the pollution and poverty here. But other than coming here play music, I have come to find inspiration for yoga and alternative fitness retreats based in service. There are thousands of nonprofits and foundations devoted to the arts and education here. I am sure there have to be some directed towards improving the exorbitant level of pollution. A retreat based in trash clean-up and poverty improvement could obviously go far, especially if associated with an organization already making strides in this area.