Finished reading Jivamukti Yoga by David Life and Sharon Gannon. It comes highly recommended. I think I will read it again and again. We had to order me a copy from Page 1 at the Taipei 101, so that I can do what I do best with books... read them, highlight them, underline them, dog-ear pages, add sticky notes... Mmmm... I love it. Now I am reading The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac (hence the quote above). I borrowed the Hatha Yoga Pradipika from Eric, but it's the smaller translation without the commentary... I think I may need to order the BIG version from the internet. But I'm already waiting for many many things to come in the mail (other purchases, cheque, binder for the Yoga History course)... maybe I should wait. Maybe maybe. We shall see, won't we.
So I am not really blogging about my reading choices at the moment. Though really, I probably could write about only that and be completely happy. Nope. Not today.
I was perusing the Lonely Planet Taiwan yesterday, specifically the SIGHTs section... I came to realize that Ryan and I have (by chance) seen quite a few of the "attractions". Longshan Temple, Ximen (mecca of Taiwan youth culture), Taipei 101, Flower Market, Hot Springs... So now I have two more things to add to our list of Taiwan Tourist attractions recently attended: Da'an Forest Park and Hauxi Night Market (a.k.a. Snake alley).
I suppose I will start with the night market... It was sketch. That is the only term to describe it. Ryan and I had been close to it without knowing... even took a picture. It is on a street alongside Longshan temple... You know our photo of the "ninja scene" with the Hi-Life sign in it? THAT's IT! It was pretty empty compared to the Shilin night market. It had one alley - Snake alley - that was enclosed. It had an odd mix of booths with live snakes on the floor, dead snakes in jars... booths that sold statues of deities... and tiny booths with plastic curtains, red lights, creepy old men and sex toys. Yum. Certainly no Seduction (yeah, you know who you are). Amanda would be the equivalent here, to a small very old asian man, kind of dirty, kind of creepy, eating noodles in a room the size of a closet. Like an ugly alternate universe. Hilarious. So that was mostly that. The noteworthy part anyways... Oh, and I bought a mala made of turqoise, a statue of Kuan Yin and a statue of Buddha for 800 NT.
Moving on.
We went to Da'an Park this afternoon to get out of the apartment. ...the park was pretty close by and beautiful. I'm not sure if I would call it a "Forest Park" so much as a park full of grass, small trees, many paths and other fun features (playground, roller rink, massaging footpaths, basketball court, flowers...). But I suppose that name would be too long. It was a nice way to get some fresher air. We sat on a bench, on a more secluded path in the shade, and read our books until it got too dark. *sigh* It was nice.
C'est toute for this evening. Oh, except I listened to the Mandarin CD and have learned a little bit more. I'll get a hang of this "speaking a different language" thing yet. xx. -n.
""...And I then I am going to Japan and walk all over that hilly country finding ancient little temples hidden and forgotten in the mountains and old sages a hundred and nine years old praying to Kwannon in huts and meditating so much that when they come out of meditation they laugh at everything that moves. But that don't mean I don't love America, by God, though I hate these damn hunters, all they wanta do is level a gun at a helpless sentient being and murder it, for every sentient being or living creature these actual pricks kill they will be reborn a thousand times to suffer the horrors of samsara and damn good for 'em too."
"Hear that, Morley, Henry, what do you think?"
"My Buddhism is nothing but a mild unhappy interest in some of the pictures they've drawn...I'm not much interested in the belief part of it." In fact it didn't make a goddamn much of a difference to him. "I'm neutral," said he, laughing happily with a kind of an eager slaking leer, and Japhy yelled:
"Neutral is what Buddhism is!""
(The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac)
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