Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Spiritual Fire

Friday, February 18th, 2011 in: News, Travel

My first day in the Philippines has been as sharp a contrast to the life I had back in Korea as the change in weather. The day started off with a yoga session with Troy, my impromptu couchsurfing host. I spent the rest of the morning catching up with the internet waiting for Janet and Joemar, unsure of what the day had in store for me. We wove our way through the maze of malls that practically define Makati, squeezed onto the crowded light rail, and flagged down a Jeepney to get to the university campus to meet up with Joemar’s friend and slackline. On the train, Joemar showed me a text from his friend, saying that he sensed good energy from me and was excited to meet me. “my friends are a little… crazy.” I’m not sure it was meant to prepare or reassure me.

The slackline session went as it usually does, drawing a crowd of onlookers. Joemar and Janet progressed quite a bit for their first day, and Joemar’s friend Bong (yes, Bong. Strange names are one of the local quirks) arrived close to sundown, adorned with smiles and crystal jewelry. We were invited to a friend’s house in another part of the city, and on our way to another mysteriously unmarked Jeepney stop, I walked ahead with Bong and realized that for all his quirks, we thought along the same lines. We talked about religion versus spirituality, the failures of civilization, and the need for better alternatives. This sort of conversation was such a departure from what I experienced in Korea, where everyone was just killing time between stages in their lives, between schools and careers, lovers and life decisions. Some people there got tired of waiting and began making a permanent life for themselves in Seoul. Others are still stuck in limbo, waiting for the rest of their lives to happen.

The vibe in the Philippines is different, I feel as if I’m thrust onto the forefront of a new social movement. There’s talk of spirituality, the reunion of left and right brains, of change. I’m left wondering how long this conversation has been going on, whether I’m truly arriving on the crescendo of change or if this conversation has been carrying on for years and things are constantly on the verge of a paradigm shift.

It was too late to return to Troy’s apartment, so I would bunk with Joemar and Janet at Bong’s place, a small apartment in the back yard of a stately mansion, overrun by cats. On the way there, inspired by the moment and my recent re-reading of “Off the Map,” I came up with this:

The education system is designed to beat individual thought out of us, we’re taught not to seek the answers, because they’re all in the back of the book. But the pages have been ripped out and scattered to the wind. So we too must scatter ourselves in search of the answers, but what we have yet to realize is that we are the pages, and the answers are written within ourselves.

Bong looked a bit startled, “oh my god you’re one of us.”

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