In the South Land

Welcome to Seclusion, South America. Population 3.

A few months ago I decided to take a break from the high pressure and fast paced life of Los Angeles, California and retreat to Chile, South America.

At this point in life I am working with “non-attachment” and trying to let go of the idea of searching for the “right things”. I seem to have been caught up in the fantasy that people are able to find their own happiness in the arms of another, or from external objects and material posessions. A common misconception. Indeed quite the opposite is true. True happiness, of course, comes from within. Accepting and loving oneself is the only way to truly begin to love others or escape materialism. If we are not able to accept who we are, we will never be able to truly accept another person.

As Swami Rudrananda said, “Don’t look for perfection in me, I want to acknowledge my own imperfection…” for it is through personal acceptance that we are able to find true love.

Love that is not just another 4-letter word.

A major part of my choice to come to South America was to go on my own spiritual pilgrimage/retreat. I felt I needed to seclude myself. Having been conditioned my western society to believe that I must constantly be entertained and occupied with distractions in order to be happy is a problem I am trying to overcome. This has been an extremely difficult conditioning to work with. It is challenging to face “boredom” and to work with[out] preoccupation. I now use my “free time” to meditate, reflect and look inward for answers and “somethingness” instead of looking to the outside world to fill my mind with senseless ideas about what will complete me or make me content.
Most people don’t realize how much they are entangled in the web of distractions in modern life. I feel that human condition has metamorphosed into consumerism. The bane of man’s existence. Western society is in a comatose state because of it, and it has contributed greatly to the demise of relationships of family and community. The very “sangha” that used to provide great support has virtually evaporated in the sunshine of the great materialistic beast. - Los Angeles is a shining example. - The old saying “it takes a village” is hardly true anymore. Communities are so separated and segregated that it’s hard to believe a “village” in the modern west would band together for anything productive unless they awaken from this coma.

But there is hope.
Beyond all of the wages of waste, the stars still shine brightly and the universe is still as wonderful and mysterious as it ever was, and there are beings who are on a simple quest to find answers by finding themselves.
This practice intrigues people to open their eyes to the possibilities that we can live in a different relationship with the world around us. A place where we escape our own unhappiness and insecurities by finding flaws in others, or trying to purchase our way to a better life. Humans are deciding that perhaps they can take matters into your their own hands and learn to live in a different relationship with their attachments, desires, ideas of right and wrong and success and failure. A few phrases come to mind:

“The happiness of others is indeed our own happiness.”
“We are not separate from one another.”
“I am the Buddha’s, and they are me.”