Friday, January 17, 2014

Bhutan: Initial acclimatization days

The last I wrote online about the Bhutan trek was on April 15, 2013, just before trekking. Today is Jan 18, 2014. I have several notes and I want to write them before the next trek begins.

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DAY 1
We did short acclimatization hikes today. On top of one of the mountains, I had a realization.

I saw from the top that a cow was moving in a particular direction. I noticed that it was moving towards a pole - though it seemed pretty sure it didn't know it was going towards the pole. I could say that with 80% probability that the cow will reach the pole. Anybody from my vantage point would. But the cow didn't. If I had a way of communicating with the cow, I could 'predict' for it that it would reach the pole. The cow would be surprised at my prescience and would may be even think am God.

Anyways, Sonam educated us on Drukpa Kunley - the crazy wisdom monk. He said he would make thousands of women pregnant because their offspring would be born enlightened. Sonam told me that he and his wife went to the Punakha temple of Drukpa Kunley after which they had a child.

DAY 2
We trekked up to Tiger's nest. It's a good acclimatization hike. I remember stopping on the way with Candi and verifying our compasses - it showed two different things. The one on his iPhone and my real one. I stared and stared at Tiger's Nest and the monastery on top. It was surreal. Why did they build it there? On top of this huge huge mountain rock. If you actually see there's no practical purpose behind it - the practical thing would've been to build it close to where everyone lived so they could access it. The practical thing would've been to have an easy path to get to it. But no, most timeless creations don't have a practical purpose. On the face of it, they are all really impractical. And when they become timeless, people struggle and do all the things required to reach it, share the experience of the original thinkers who built it. To reach the same impractical purpose of the founders. So may be we are all indeed seeking not-practical things. But we don't recognize that and spend our times in the so called practical things according to some preset idea/ agenda that we have about life for ourselves.

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