something I found

Earth, fire and water,
The wind and the sky -
You are none of these.

If you wish to be free,
Know you are the Self,
The witness of all these,
The heart of awareness.

Set your body aside.
Sit in your own awareness.

Formless and free,
Beyond the reach of the senses,
The witness of all things.

Forever and truly free,
The single witness of all things.

Know you are one,
Pure awareness.

With the fire of this conviction,
Burn down the forest of ignorance.

You are awareness itself.

Meditate on the Self.
One without two,
Exalted awareness.

My child, Because you think you are the body,
For a long time you have been bound.

Know you are pure awareness.

With this knowledge as your sword
Cut through your chains.

Your nature is pure awareness.

Desire only your own awareness.



Only perceive
That I am one without two,
Pure awareness, pure joy,
And all the world is false.

You are pure awareness,
And your beauty is infinite!

Let it all go,
The body and the mind.

Let yourself dissolve.

The world is a magic show!

Where there is no I,
You are free.

Where there is I,
You are bound.

Nothing lasts.
Nothing is real.

Know this.
Give it up.
Be still.

Rest in your own nature.
Set yourself free.

The world is just a set of false impressions.
Give them up.

Give up the illusion.
Give up the world.

And live freely.

Every good fortune,
Wives, friends, houses, lands,
All these gifts and riches. . .

They are a dream,
A juggling act,
A traveling show!

A few days, and they are gone.

You are one.
You are pure awareness.

"I am not the body,
Nor is the body mine.
I am awareness itself"

When you know this,
You have no thought
For what you have done
Or left undone.

When you know this,
You have no thought
For success or failure
Or the mind's inconstancy.

When you know this,
Desire melts away.

For you are awareness itself.

You are pure awareness,
The witness of all things.

Desire and aversion are of the mind.
The mind is never yours.
You are free of its turmoil.

You are awareness itself,
Never changing.


In you the worlds arise
Like waves in the sea.

It is true!
You are awareness itself.

So free yourself
From the fever of the world.

You are pure awareness.

You are the endless sea
In whom all the universes like waves
Naturally rise and fall.

You have nothing to win,
Nothing to lose.


Child, You are pure awareness,
Nothing less.

You are the clear space of awareness,
Pure and still,
In whom there is no birth,
No activity,
No "I."

You are pure awareness.

The world is an illusion,
Nothing more.

Never upset your mind
With yes and no.

Be quiet.
You are awareness itself.

Cochinillas---bugs that we saw living on a cactus. They are covered in white powder, but their insides, the rich dark red color you see, are used as dyes for clothing, lipstick, and other things. Our guide said that they sell a kilo of these tiny beetles for about 10 soles, a little more than three American. Crazy.

Colca Canyon

Well, this is my trip to Colca Canyon, about 6 hours out of Arequipa. I got on a bus with a couple other groups and their guides at 3:30 a.m. We stopped about halfway there to look at some condors, then headed to the town closest to the canyon where we had lunch, then headed off. We went 2000 meters down to the bottom, walked along the river and then went a ways back up to stay the night with a family in a very small village. Just in the mountains, the middle of nowhere. I have never had such an amazing view right outside my window before. We were all pretty exhausted, so after playing some cards with the rest of the group (a couple from the U.K. and a guy from Austalia) , we all went to bed pretty early.

The next day we got up at around 7, and walked down to the bottom again, to relax around some pools with spring water and baske in the sun before climbing up the canyon. It was perfect. After a few hours, we started our climb up, which was the most difficult hike I have ever done, but was so amazing. Lots of people rented mules to go up, or to bring their backpacks, and the people that lived in the villages nearby brought in supplies with them. There was not much stopping on the way up, we just did it all at once, and it took us 2 hours and 20 minutes, which I thought was pretty good timing. The view at the top was very rewarding....a lot different from looking at it before going down into it and not just because we didn't go back up the same trail we went down. We enjoyed the view and took some pictures, then headed back into town where we stayed at the nicest hostel I have stayed at so far here. The water was hot, and for once you actually had to turn on the cold water, too. After dinner, a few of us went out to the pub and played more cards. The next day we went to a different, higher viewpoint of the canyon and saw some more condors before taking the bus to Chivay, which had several very hot thermal pools. It was a perfect ending to our trip and felt awesome. Then, back to Arequipa, bustling with cars and people, far away from the fresh mountain air...I stayed there another day to see a friend, then got on outta there.

Here 'tis

There was a layer of crystalized salt over the sand. There were also huge crystal/rock formations that would creak once in a while. So I didn't get to close to the edge of the cave. The salt sometimes looked like a frozen over lake with snow and sand on top. It was pretty interesting, I have never seen anything like it before. There were also other caves with more crystals in them, but I didn't get to those. My butt was very sore by this point in the trip, and riding down the road with mounds of sand and salt was not the most pleasant thing in the world....but it was worth it.