The Leaning Candle of Calcutta

A few days have passed since I wrote in this blog. I wish I had a laptop with me, it would make things a lot easier, but, I can't risk losing it, or getting it broken. Anyway, it would be difficult to use it and transport it without calling attention to it, and therefore increasing the risks of it getting lost or broken. I would need a base of some type here before I could even consider having my own machine here.

I met a Korean Monk a few days ago. He was hitting the whisky pretty hard when I met him, and he smoked for the first time. He invited us to his temple to visit him, and I had to translate Korean, Japanese, and English, because two people were Japanese speakers with little English, and I was the only one who spoke Korean, so it was a bit tedious, but, we had a nice time. He was an interesting guy to talk to, and I will definitely take him up on his wonderful offer. It would be nice to live in a temple with nice scenery for a few weeks.

I've never been to the part of Korea that he lives in, its down near Pusan, and I've spent most of my time in Seoul, Gyoungido locations and Jullado locations. He told me that the food was vegetarian, but, that we could sneak out to a restaurant and get some meat, and that it would not be a problem. He's a really cool guy. He was Christian, but, converted to Buddhism, and he is very strict about his monastic lifestyle when he is in the temple, but, not when he is not in the temple, which is another thing I respect about him.

I would like to spend some time in a Korean, Japanese, or Chinese monastery. I spent some time with a monk named "Suk" in Luang Probang Laos a few years ago, and he was pretty cool, and fun to talk to and all, but, the monks seemed to have some sort of an authority structure, one was talking on his cellphone to his girlfriend, and another was guzzling beer. Now, I don't see anything wrong with this, I think its great that people can live like that, but, if I got for the monastic experience, I'd like to be a bit more traditional. Of course, that was in a dormitory for novices, monks are in different quarters and more experienced one's have private quarters, so I guess you pay your dues, you do your time, and you get your place.

Anyway, it will be interesting to be in a monastery with a dude that I was smoking and drinking with in Calcutta. The funny thing will be that nobody else in the monastery will have any idea, it will be quite funny indeed, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure when I will get back to Korea, but, I have one more reason to go back now, as the reasons keep piling up, I'll get myself back over there.

I'm learning to make more practical use of simple items, hence the leaning candle of Calcutta, my unsuccessful attempt to create a candle holder out of a water bottle with a lit cigarette. It worked the first time, but, I failed to pay attention as the candle burned low, further burning the plastic in the cap and enlarging the hole, which caused the subsequent candle to lean to the right. Well, charge that to the game, I am learning.

I also had the severe shock that I forgot my rune stones! But, then I realized that I have been putting off making my own set for far too long, and I've always used the excuse that "India would be a better place to find cheap bones and stones, and things like that." Well, now I'm here, so a sort of Magickal survival training program is going to be created on the fly. I'll be sure to pass that information on to the Adepts of the K.I.A., Z, et al. It is interesting because I left all of my references behind, and so I really have to build everything from scratch. It will be interesting to measure the results of this experiment. I am planning at least one illumination sorcery and the construction of at least one simple model of the universe for the purposes of divination.

It is interesting because the last thing that was said was that I would be losing things which I had used in the past to operate, and that I would have to return to the nucleus of what I knew and approach the gate. I would then have to pause, and step through it, and continue with the chosen path. The stones never lie.