WorldCitizen

India/Nepal 2025

2025-03-20T22:01:00.002-06:00

yurt

2023-01-01T20:01:00.004-07:00

2022-01-21T15:25:00.006-07:00

I don't like happiness, I like suffering;

If I am happy, the five poisons increase.

If I suffer, my past karma is exhausted.

I don't value high positions, I like the low ones;

If I am important, my pride and jealousy increase;

if I am lowly, I relax and my spiritual practice grows.

The lowest place is the seat of the saints of the past.

~ Patrul Rinpoche

Fall

2022-01-21T15:18:00.001-07:00

Summer

2021-08-28T22:14:00.007-06:00

No saint without a past, no sinner without a future

2020-11-06T20:39:00.010-07:00

🍄

Japan

2019-03-27T13:22:00.000-06:00

statue at cemetery in Koyasan

I had a 6 day layover in Japan after leaving Thailand. This was my second time visiting Japan, I came here back in 1998 and did a bike tour for three weeks or so. I remember really enjoying the country so I was looking forward to exploring Japan a bit more. I bought a week rail pass and went from the airport to Kyoto and spent a couple days visiting the amazing temples. I then went to Koyasan, which is a place where Kobo Daishi founded the Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism. He went to China and brought back a vajrayana lineage which he established at mt. Koya. there is also the largest cemetery in Japan here. I was only able to spend 2 days at Koyasan but it was worth the effort getting there. The temples and culture in this town were impressive and powerful. Overall it was a pleasant whirlwind tour of Japan. After being gone for 6 weeks it was good to be back in the mountains of Colorado. I was happy to come home to a lot of snow.

Kenninji temple

the streets of Kyoto

temple at Koyasan

headquarters of the Shingon sect

on the way to mt.Koya

National museum Kyoto

mt. Fuji from the train

returned home to a lot of snow. grateful

Thailand

2019-02-26T20:22:00.001-07:00

Chi Nei Tsang course with Ohm in Chiang May

this temple just outside of chiang mai is called Wat Chet Yot it was built in 1453 to host the eighth world buddhist council. designed after the original mahabodhi temple in bodhgaya.

painting of sen lines at Wat Po

happy losar/chinese new year

Bangkok

Nepal

2019-02-01T23:09:00.000-07:00

HH 42nd Sakya Trizin

In early January I left for a 6 week trip to Asia, the plan was to spend 3 weeks in Nepal, 2 weeks in Thailand and 5 days in Japan. I had not been back to Nepal for about 8 years or so and it was great to be back in the country and reconnect with some old friends. I first went to a two day inauguration of a stupa build for my late teacher Chogye Trichen Rinpoche. The two day puja was presided over by the Sakya Trizin and other senior Sakyapa lamas. The stupa contains the kudung or body relics of Chogye Rinpoche and is situated at a beautiful location overlooking the Kathmandu valley on Naratayan hill under Shivapuri mountain.

I then went for a little pilgrimage around Nepal. Originally I wanted to go for a trek and get high in the himalaya, however being winter it was going to be a little too cold for me. So I decided to go to the Guru Rinpoche cave known as Maratika and spent a couple days there. Then I went down to the Terai to visit the city of Janakpur, which is a holy hindu place where Sita was born and later married Ram. The last stop before heading back to Kathmandu was Namo Buddha, there I spent 4-5 days at Thrangu Rinpoches monastery.

Nepal is slowly rebuilding after the 2015 earthquake. The country clearly continues to struggle with the political complexities and practical reality of trying to become a modern nation. The chaos and growing pains are evident wherever you go, however the Nepali people seem to be as positive and resilient as ever. I sincerely wish Nepal can maintain its powerful, unique and amazing cultural heritage far into the future.

Guru Rinpoche cave Maratika

Thamel

Drukchen Rinpoche set up camp with his cycling nuns for a week long puja for world peace at Maratika

Boudhanath

Janakpur

NamoBuddha

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The end of an era and new beginnings

2018-12-31T14:36:00.000-07:00

It has been more than a year since I posted something here, so for the sake of keeping this silly blog alive I thought I would post something this holiday season. I bought a house in September of 2017, which marked the end of an era in my life and a new chapter of settling in a community. I had spent a large part of my life living in Asia and traveling around the world on a bicycle. I was ready to settle down in a place that I loved and I feel very lucky to have found a place to live a simple but active life. So far I am calling my place 'blue feather ranch and dharma center'. It has been a labor of love repairing the place, planting trees, creating a garden and painting the interior and exterior. I really love living in Colorado but I'm not as into the winters as I once was. So i'm planning a little mid-winter travel adventure to Nepal, Thailand and Japan for six weeks. Looking forward to being back in the Himalaya! Happy New Year everyone!

this sweet and amazing kitty came with the house

last winter with mt.Sneffles

the new paint job and Bode's tiny house

new paint

new cork flooring

Blue Feather Ranch

I was able to sneak away for another pilgrimage to Esalen for a couple workshops before christmas. First, was with Tom Meyers on the pelvis. Then, Cha Dao (way of tea) with Wu De.

credit unknown

2017-03-16T20:49:00.002-06:00

Shakti Yantra

winter road trip

2017-01-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

winter solstice sweat lodge

bixby bridge

Swamis Encinitas

back in Colorado

2016-10-04T21:07:00.001-06:00

I finally got around to editing some footage from my travels around southern India during the winter of 2015-16. It was fun to go through random video clips and put together a short movie.
INDIA

Burning Man 2016

2016-09-09T19:22:00.001-06:00

A good friend offered me a last minute ticket to the Burning Man festival and a early entry pass. I attended the festival back in 1998 when it was quite a bit smaller and was happy to go back and re experience this incredible place. I arrived a couple days before the festival officially began. It was nice to get there early and beat the traffic and watch the city quickly grow. I was also lucky to be able to join a great camp from Colorado. Most mornings I got up very early and rode out into the playa to listen to the DJ's play their sunrise sets. During the day I explored the endless art installations and events held at theme camps. I also set up my massage table under our shade structure and offered bodywork to anyone who was interested. For me this was a very nice way to contribute to the Burning Man community. It was an incredible week. I had so much fun and connected with many old and new friends. I'm really glad I was able to be a part of BM this year!

with AY and Julian

setting up the city

center camp

camp 'woop woop'

early morning run

robot heart sunrise set

sunrise

Silverton to Salida on Colorado Trail - Trip report

2016-07-20T15:35:00.001-06:00

Last summer I rode the CO Trail from Denver to Durango. One of my favorite sections of the trail was segments 22 & 23 from Spring Creek Pass (near Lake City) to Silverton. I wanted to bikepack this section again. I was able to convince a supportive friend to drop me off in Silverton and I would ride to Salida going the other direction. There would be no resupply points along the way unless I took a 20 mile detour to Lake City which I really didn't want to do. I decided to do this trip the night before and didn't prepare as much as I could have. I left after work on a Thursday and was able to ride to Stony Pass above Silverton and then a few miles on the trail as it got dark. The next morning I woke to cloudless blue bird skies and started out for a long day on the bike. I was above tree line for most of the day and got quite sunburned on my neck and face. I also realized that I had very little food to make it all the way to Salida. Just after dark I set up camp and cooked dinner at Cebolla Creek on the La Garita Wilderness detour and immediately went to bed. I started the next day making my way along the long detour towards Cochetopa Pass. I had only several energy bars and one dinner left for two days of riding, so after looking at the CO trail databook I thought I found a short cut to Cochetopa pass. My plan was to trim a few miles off the trail and reconnect with it at the highway. When the county road led me to the highway I was on the eastern side of the pass far from where I wanted to be. I was quite exhausted, hungry and sunburned. Instead of backtracking to the trail I made a difficult decision to ride to Saguache for the night. I went out to dinner and got a motel room. The next day I road about 45 miles on the highway to Salida. I was a little upset with myself that I got lost and missed Sargents mesa and the long downhill from Marshall pass to Salida but it was still a very nice and challenging 4 day bicycle journey.

camp near Stony Pass

the long detour around the La Garita Wilderness

Another road trip to California with the new van

2016-03-26T11:01:00.001-06:00

Las Vegas

After returning from India I spent a couple weeks in Boulder visiting family and shopping for a van. I finally settled on a 2010 Chevy Express extended cargo van and left for a road trip to California. I went back to Esalen for two workshops. First an advanced bodywork workshop with Tom Meyers and then for a Science & Nonduality conference. I found some great places to camp with the van and had a amazing time at Esalen as usual.

Now I am back in Ridgway and looking forward to building the camper conversion for the van this spring.

stopped in Moss Landing where I lived in a house boat for a short while after high school

Moss Landing, CA

full moon in Montery, CA

went for some nice bike rides along the coast

sunset jam sessions at Esalen

Nacimiento road, Big Sur

Bixby Bridge

Stopped in Ventura on my way home to visit friends

Enjoying Life in India, again

2016-02-09T07:46:00.000-07:00

Upon returning to India after spending some time in Greece I kind of floated around and traveled without a fixed plan. I wanted to visit places that I had not been before. Here was where I went.

Mumbai-Goa-Gokarna-Jaipur-Pushkar-Bundi-Ujjain-Omkareshwar-Nasik-Aurangabad-Mumbai

I was also hoping to find a place to study yoga, Sanskrit, music, etc. and was generally unsuccessful with that idea. I did not really have enough time to settle anywhere. But it was a great trip and I had some very transformative experiences while imersing myself with the vast and amazing Indian culture.

Pushkar, Rajastan

I really enjoyed Rajasthan and stayed in Pushkar for week or so.

the evening Puja at Omkareshwar

Mumbai

Ellora Caves

Bundi, Rajastan

Mahalaxmi dobhi ghat - Mumbai

Bibi-Qa-Maqbara. the mini Taj Mahal in Aurangabad

Ellora

Nasik Hanuman

People of India

࿉

Greece

2016-01-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

Meteora, Greece

For some reason I decided to go to Greece for two weeks just after Christmas. I stayed in Athens for a couple days and then took a ferry to the island of Santorini. I have been to Santorini in the summer when it is overflowing with tourists, during the winter months the island is almost entirely deserted other than some adventurous tourists and year round residents who keep the island alive. It was a peaceful and most interesting time to be here, which is precisely why I wanted to come in the middle of winter. It was a little windy, rainy and cold and I must admit I questioned myself more than once why I traded the sunny Indian beaches for cold Greek islands. After spending new years in Santorini I went to Naxos, the largest island in the Cyclades and then went back to Athens and made my way up north to the famous Meteora.

Martin Grey from the wonderful sacred sites website provides a concise and informative description of Meteora:

Perched high atop spires of conglomerated Calcerous and sandstone rock, the monasteries of Meteora are one of the world's most spectacular sacred sites. Located in the Thessaly region of north central Greece and overlooking the valley of Pinios, the towering rocks of Meteora, meaning 'rocks in the air', have long evoked awe in human beings. Paleolithic remains indicate settlements around the stones from between 100,000 to 40,000 BC, and hermits and ascetics have lived in the area since long before the Christian era. The arrival of Christianity began in the 8th century, organized monastic communities had developed by the 12th century, and by the mid 1500's twenty-four Greek Orthodox monasteries had been constructed upon the spires of stone. The monasteries, 200-600 meters high (and some accessible only by baskets lowered by ropes and winches), became a center of scholarship and art until the mid 18th century when popular interest in monasticism declined. Most of these meteorisa monastiria ('hanging monasteries') were abandoned and today only six survive, of which four can be visited by way of bridges and rock-cut steps. Previously a remote area, the construction of a highway in the early 1960's made the monasteries accessible to pilgrims and tourists. This influx of visitors, however, has discouraged new monks from joining the monasteries and compelled others to move to Mt. Athos in search of solitude and privacy.

Leaving Meteora would be the start of a three-day journey back to India. First a train from Kalambaka to Athens, then Athens-Paris-Mumbai-Goa

Moni Agias Triados, featured in the 1981 James Bond movie ‘For your eyes only’

new years day, Santorini Greece

The empty streets of Santorini.

Acropolis Museum

closing time at museum

This is Nikolay my couch surfing host in Athens. A Ukrainian, lives in Poland, working in Greece.

empty village

Naxos Port

Moving On

2015-12-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hampi-Kerala-Goa. I took a night train from Hampi to Mysore without too much thought where I would go after Mysore, had a general plan to go further South to Kerala. When in Mysore I found out that if I wanted to take a train to Kerala I would have to backtrack and go to Bangalore first, then transfer to a train from there. That is what I decided to do. After 3 days in Mysore I got on a late morning commuter train to Bangalore to connect with a train to Kochi, a large port city in the state Kerala and spent a few days exploring.

I then took yet another overnight train back to Goa and stayed on Manderem beach during Christmas. These were very nice days, rented a motorbike and rode up and down the coast. Woke up early for morning yoga sessions and runs on the beach and laying in the sun. While in Mysore I decided to diversify/complicate my travel plans and go to Greece for a few weeks after Christmas.

On the 27th I flew to Athens, Greece from Mumbai.

encountered this Shiva murti wandering down a random street in Mysore

socialist rally in Kerala

spent Christmas at this resort

x-mass in Goa

conversation on the train

just selling flower garlands

Hampi

2015-12-17T10:37:00.002-07:00

From Gokarna I went to Hampi, the land of Kishkinda from the Ramayana.

And birthplace of Hanuman. My favorite place here was a hanuman temple on top of Anjaneya hill.

Hampi is a town that was once the site of the Vijaynagara Empire and the city Vijaynagara. Which translates as "City of Victory". It is said that this former city was once one of the richest and largest cities in the world. At approx. 1500 Vijaynagara had a population of about 500,000 people.

The central temple is the Virupaksha temple dedicated to Shiva and his consort Pampa, a local diety. Ruins from this former city are scattered all over the place within a 50km radius around Hampi. It was very interesting to explore these ruins and imagine what life was like at the height of this empire.

Virupaksha Temple

Anjaneya Hill - The land of Kishkinda from the epic story Ramayana is also located near Hampi. It is the site of the monkey kingdom of king Sugriva and birthplace of the myth and legend Hanuman. The Ramayana is one of the core mythologies of all of Asia and especially SE Asia.

Malyavanta Raghunatha Temple - According to Myth, it is here lord Rama and his brother Laxmana waited till the monsoon season was over, and then they marched towards Lanka with Hanuman's monkey army to rescue Sita. When I walked through the gate of this temple there was a small festival happening and the temple priests were chanting from the Ramayan.

Pushkarani

Malyavanta Raghunatha Temple

I met Mr. Vijay Kumar at a Durga Temple while he was doing his devotional practice. We had a nice connection and he invited me to his house for lunch. We talked about bhakti yoga and the experience of being a grown man, unmarried and without children. Thanks for the Generosity Vijay, hope to see you again someday!

Return to India

2015-12-08T06:57:00.001-07:00

I have spent many years of my life living in Nepal and India and have very fond memories

of my time there. It has allowed me to study many wisdom traditions and grow as a person

and expand my perspective on many things. I have not been in India since 2007 and wanted to

revisit the country so I decided to escape the snowy Colorado winter and spend a couple months

traveling around the Southern part of the country which I haven't seen much of.

modern life, Heathrow London

modern life, Mumbai

After arriving in Mumbai late morning I took a taxi straight to the historic Victoria station and was lucky to get a seat on a train leaving for Goa the next morning, was also lucky to find a decent room in a guest house near the station. I was truly exhausted after 2 days of travel, jet lag and navigating Bombay. It happened to be December 2nd which is the anniversary of the arrival of the British at the port known as India Gate. I believe this anniversary is also called Navy Day and there was a large ceremony with the Navy showing off their fleet of boats and aircraft.

India Gate, Mumbai

Keri Beach, Goa

After 3 days in Goa I took a train to Gokarna a few hours South down the coast and got a simple room on Kuddle beach, I also found a yoga teacher that I like and have been going to early morning classes. The town of Gokarna is a holy place and is infused with the energy of a pilgrimage site with many shiva temples and brahmin priests doing their business. I have found a good place to spend a little time.

kuddle beach

yogashala

Riding the Colorado Trail

2015-08-18T13:21:00.000-06:00

I left on August 1st for a bikepacking trip on the Colorado Trail and celebrated my 40th birthday while on the trail on August 3rd. I decided to combine backpacking with bike touring and ride the trail going from Denver to Durango. I knew what I was getting myself into, this was not going to be a casual ride through the park. The trail is over 500 miles, it passes through 8 mountain ranges, six National Forests, and six wilderness areas and most of the trail is above 10,000 ft. Bicycles are not allowed in designated Wilderness areas so there are necessary detours around these sections. It did not disappoint, this trip would prove to be one of the most difficult and rewarding trips of my life. I had to deal with some rainy weather which was expected but overall the adventure went very smooth. No major mechanical problems and physically stayed healthy other than some knee pain. Each day on the trail was an epic adventure and the views from the high country were mind blowing. It took me 11-days to complete the trail.

Day 1-Denver (Waterton Canyon) to 10 miles past Bailey

Day 2-Bailey(Kenosha Pass) to Frisco

Day 3-Frisco to Leadville

Day 4-Leadville to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs

Day 5-Mt.Princeton Hot Springs to Salida

Day 6-Salida to Sargents Mesa

Day 7-Sargents Mesa to Los Pinos Pass

Day 8-Los Pinos Pass to Lake City

Day 9-Lake City to Silverton

Day 10-Silverton to Hotel Draw

Day 11-Hotel Draw to Durango

(click on pictures to open slide show)

Monarch Crest

Segment 22

Marshall Pass

sheepherding dog

segment 23

campsite near Sargents mesa

Bolam Pass

Rest day in Salida

the long 50 mile detour around La Garita Wilderness

Georgia Pass

waiting out a rainstorm

coming down Kennebec Pass for long decent into Durango

Junction Creek Trailhead, Durango

Photos From Colorado

2015-05-25T23:18:00.000-06:00

Mountain Film Telluride

Road trip to California

2015-04-16T15:19:00.000-06:00

During the first week of April I drove to California to attend a yoga workshop with Mark Whitwell at Esalen. It was a full moon as I drove through the Arizona desert and witnessed a early morning lunar ecliplse. I met some really great people during my week at Esalen and learned quite a bit from a very experienced teacher. I left feeling inspired and rejuvenated.

Big Sur and the Esalen Institute

2015-01-04T20:09:00.000-07:00

I spent Christmas and new years in California this year. The main purpose of my trip was to go to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur to do a yoga and Ayurveda workshop with Scott Blossom, Chandra Easton and Robert Svoboda. I knew very little about the yoga teachers but have read many of Dr. Svoboda’s books and have been a fan of his work since finding his books in India. I was very impressed with the yoga workshop and thoroughly enjoyed the week in Big Sur.

After graduating high school I lived at Esalen for 3-months participating in their work scholar program. It was a very transformative and magical time and I felt drawn to go visit this amazing place after more than 20 years. I was curious to see how Esalen had changed and evolved.

I brought my mt.bike and rode the old coastal highway. Before the Bixby bridge was completed in 1932, the road following the Big Sur coast winded it’s way through the rugged Santa Lucia Mountains. I parked at the bridge and rode south, riding up to a nice view of the coast and then to the highway and back to the the bridge, making a nice 2-3 hour ride.

Ventura, CA

Esalen

Dr. Svoboda leading a fire puja, New Years eve

two ships