PBTWYDNL

A few days before Christmas I flew from Honolulu to Seoul, South Korea. I found it striking, having been reading about soulful travel, when the stewardess announced, “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to S(e)oul”. With that omen I made a vow to make my time in Korea more soulful than my time in Hawaii was.

Unfortunately I failed.

I should have listened to some of the advice I had recently received – “pass by that which you do not love”.

Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoyed my time in Korea, made a decent bit of money and got to spend quite a bit of time with my sister Jalice and her new boyfriend Thor. Jalice and I had so many great moments, conversations, arguments and laughing fits that the time was well spent, though it could have been invested with a bit more of the divine.

The positive
• I continued my habit of doing a daily tarot reading, using the cards not so much as divination tools but as tools of self discovery. I also did many readings for Jalice and Thor and feel that my understanding of the cards, and myself, is improving.
• I was surrounded by kids, especially Juyoung, and if there is ever a reminder to live in the moment and to enjoy life, it can be found by watching children.
• I went to a Buddhist Temple for a temple stay (thanks Jalice!) and got a sense of the life of a monk. I was amazed by their dedication, their perseverance and their smiles. I left with two convictions – 1. I do not want to be a monk. Although it’s called spiritual practice and there is no better place or way to practice than a monastery, I do not reject the world. I am not trying to be a Buddha or a prophet, but merely to make the world a better place, for others and for myself. 2. I need to create/find/join a sangha, or holy community. To be surrounded by like – minded individuals who are working towards a spiritual life is incredibly helpful. This blog is part of the attempt towards this end. Do you ask yourself some of the same questions that I do? Then lets work together to discover the answers!

The rest –
• I had planned to be in Korea for at least two weeks, and found myself there for 6. The reason? $$$CA$H$MONEY$FUNDAGE$$$ I was able to pick up some classes teaching English for a good salary, and so once again was tempted, and failed. By being seduced by scraps of paper I was caught in a land that sought to heal all the wounds created by horrible war after war by working hand in hand with the American democracy&capitalism agenda. South Korea has wonderfully succeeded at this goal, skyrocketing up into a “first world nation” with an incredibly strong economy. However I feel that they have overshot the mark and never really healed the deep wounds in the psyche and heart of the people, instead they’ve covered them with glittering Band-Aids and distracted the people with all the stuff they could buy. It may be that I have never seen the extent from an outsider’s perspective, but their eagerness to buy things seems to outdo that even of Americans. Its as if they have decided to make up for all the time that they have missed in malls, all the auctions they never had a chance to compete for on eBay, and all the clutter that accompanies it – NOW. I have never been so overwhelmed by commercialism. By the time I left, it was all I could see around me.

So remember –

“pass by that which you do not love”