Trips By Sam

  There are two wolves inside all of us.  One is evil- he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.   The other is good- he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.   Which one will win?  The one you feed. No offense to the yoga studio borrowing inspiration from this alleged, Native American folklore, but I beg to differ.   First, we must accept the mere existence of the dark wolf within.  As the Tao Te Ching (translated by Stephen Mitchell) explains, “Long and short define each other.  High and low depend on each other.”  Without darkness, there can be no light, and vice versa.  It is only in the sun’s absence that we see the stars, guiding, inspiring, placing us in the universe.   Now aware of the dark one, we can look beyond the limits of ...

  After a week, the shock of Nepal’s organized chaos began subsiding.  The charm of monkeys scaling powerlines during morning meditation, rickshaws weaving through cattle at noon, and mutt packs howling through the night wore thin.  I needed a change of scenery, a new neighborhood, and (mostly) REM cycles without dogs whining through earplugs and a lumpy pillow.  My oasis loomed on the other side of the city at Boudha Temple’s full moon celebration.  Hostelworld featured picturesque Sudha’s Garden Home and Guesthouse, and I booked two nights in a dorm room.   I arrived covered in Kathmandu’s ubiquitous dust, annoyed that I’d allowed myself to get swindled into buying infant formula for a begging mother with a wide-eyed child.  After she absconded with the relatively expensive item, the stony faced clerk informed me that she would later return it for full price.  I shrugged and sighed.  It happened to be Thanksgiving, and I was feeling...