Month: November 2023

Around 1 pm the boat took us to a snorkelling spot near the ‘floating restaurant’ that we had visited earlier. Snorkels and masks were dispensed and we entered the water. What a disaster! There was hardly any corel here and people were swimming into each other. My mask didn’t fit well allowing a lot of water to enter and my snorkel’s mouthpiece was too small to ‘grasp’ as it were. Also, I felt, real or imagined, that the tide was pulling me away from the boat. I love snorkelling, under the right conditions it can be a very meditative experience, just drifting and being with my breath, but I am not a strong swimmer; so it was time for me to return to the boat. No one stayed in the water long and everyone was back on board after 15-minutes, which in itself says a lot.

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It was now late afternoon by now and I took myself for a walk to the nearest public beach which was about 10-minutes away. It was nice enough but I would not be over keen to swim here. I returned to the Yellow House through a graveyard which always cheers me up as I remind myself “…and then you die”.

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This regular online community meeting, along with ‘Sit-and-Share’ meetings (when I can make them), and a Bodhi College study group are very interesting and supportive. I am only just starting to appreciate how beneficial it is for my mental well-being; they help combat loneliness and aloneness. Also, in attending these different sessions, I am not just turning up for myself but I am turning up for the other attendees too… it’s a two-way street.

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Once settled in my room, which includes a small kitchenette, I went to leave the hotel to stroll around the neighbourhood before it got dark. But when I got to reception the hotel was ‘closed’ and I was advised not to go outside. The ground floor windows had been boarded up, albeit in a temporary fashion. Apparently there are ongoing, sometimes violent, demonstrations happening all over Panama because the government has issued licences for open cast copper mining. Ordinary Panamanians are not happy about this and government officials are suspected of corruption. The hotel receptionist suggests leaving my walk for an hour or two until the current protest passes. From the hotel roof garden, I can see protestors gathering at the highway intersection and Riot Police standing in a side street.

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I took a short walk to Crespo (airport neighborhood) looking to go to Cartagena old town . The problem was that you can’t pay on the bus, you need a transport card topped up with enough money for your journey. Despite asking, I couldn’t find where to buy a ticket. Some things are not meant to be.

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When I first heard this poem I couldn’t agree with the final line. I thought that maybe you can stop handing on misery to our children, and teach them to do the same. Perhaps this is true, but the mere fact of ‘existence’ is misery whether we want to call it that or suffering, or unsatisfactoriness, or pain… whatever. There is no animal alive including humans who will not suffer. Suffering is Universal but there is no suffering in non-existence.

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In recent years I am increasing drawn to the principles of Antinatalism, which I might explore in more detail on another day. For now it might be suffice to say that were I in a position to have more children, I would choose not to. 

I find it interesting to note that the Buddha left home shortly after his one and only son, Rahula, was born. Later, Rahula became a monk and as far as we know did not have children. The Buddha did not have grandchildren. There is no pain or suffering in non-existence

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As the Buddha observed, life is difficult and then you die. I am grateful to be alive with a modicum of ‘good’ health… although it’s probably more accurate and better described as not having too much ‘bad’ health. 

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The Buddha didn’t suddenly just “awaken” under the Bodhi tree, some of his important insights into the human condition happened even BEFORE he left home “while still young, a black-haired young man endowed with the blessings of youth in the first stage of life.” 

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As I am waiting patiently, I notice the variety of wandering street vendors selling everything from bottles of water to mops and brooms. There seems to be an army of coffee trolleys on the move. I did notice one woman in the queue ahead of me buy a small coffee from one vendor only to tip it away almost instantly on tasting. Another coffee was purchased from a different vendor which seemed to be much more palatable. I can’t imagine how many mops and brooms get sold by wandering street to street in this way. Life seems very hard sometimes… well, all the time in reality. Unless we strive, we don’t survive. 

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