Ignorance is Bliss??? Bliss is pure attention.

The recuring theme for me on this trip has been "Ignorance is Bliss." I am not sure why, and I am fairly certian this is not a "trueism."

Alex Goofing Off

It first came to me at a concert I was attending with Brigitte and family. The opening group was a fantastic accoustic trio (guitar, violin and drummer extraordinaire) I was pretty much captivated by this group as were most of the other 800 or so people there. Directly in front of me there was an ugly conflict unfolding. It was a bit of a distraction, but frankly the music was so captivating I was not disturbed. Well it got to the point where Brigitte's friend had to summons the police, and about then I got to thinking that due to the language barrier, ignorance was bliss for me






Widening the scope of that thought I have many times on this trip been brought back to the fact that Suffering exists and there is no shortage of it. The hard part for me (being the "happiness junkie" I am, is knowing when is the right time for me to let the suffering in?

I am just thinking out loud, I have no answer.




Is it when I have something to offer to alleviate some suffering? Is it only when I feel strong enough to accept the reality of how much suffering there is? Or is it totally out of my hands, going back to the "ignorance is Bliss" theory.


Yoga Antigua Studio




Like I said, I have no answers at this, time, it has been a totally humbling experience to me, living here this past month. The contrast is almost overwhelming. Such a beautiful native population, living for the most part in extreme poverty, yet you see that they are for the most part living their lives in joy. Then there is the corrupt side, which I think is really not much different than the corruption in my country. It is just that the corruption here and in other third world countries is just much more visible, in your face so to speak. The type of corruption we experience in the US is behind so many closed doors we are fooled (I believe) into a cocoon of faux safety.



That's enough rambling for now, let´s see if I can find some nice pictures to make this more palatable, in case there are other "happiness junkies" reading this.

The view from the Yoga Studio