asoke continued

ok hey everyone,
sorry about that little whiny bit there, i'll try to control that. I just have a few more points to make about my experience in this buddhist community. the thing is, and please anyone who knows anything about buddhism correct me if i'm wrong, it doesn't seem to match up in general principle and practice. for example, i have a hard time accepting a religion that tells me that the reason i was born a woman is because i was probably a rapist or some other kind of sexual deviant in my previous life and so was born as a lesser, more sexually loose being. however, the general ideas of buddhism make a lot of sense to me. it's a little disheartening and a little freeing because i have absolutely no compulsion to commit to another religion, i just have some good ideas about how i want to approach the world. maybe. at least for this month.

i did have some really good times there though. i got to jump into this huge mud puddle and mix clay with rice husks with my feet for a few hours (think i love lucy) to make a cobb house. we made bricks out of it and felt very useful and sustainable and stuff for a while at least. i also got to play this game called takraw. it's similar to volleyball in a way: the point is to keep the ball from hitting the ground on your side by getting it back over the net. but, you use a small wicker ball and you can only use the parts of your body to play the ball that you would be able to use in soccer. it is really fun and the people who are good at it are just amazing to watch. we were not good at it but we got to play with a few kids from Asoke and with my favorite driver (we have the same 4 drivers wherever we go, they each have their own van and they are all really cool). i also got to spend the afternoon one on one with one of the kids teaching him english. i have to say, i'm a pretty bomb teacher, but that was a lot of fun.

i think that's it for Asoke, i don't think i'll vacation there, but it was a pretty cool experience overall.

listen to "spirit in the night", somehow it has become a part of my consciousness; i haven't been able to get it out of my head for weeks.

steph