I have left the ashram and am on my way back to Hangzhou. How grateful I feel at this moment! My energy, concentration, patience, and overall sense of well being has increased dramatically! Never before had I consistently eaten so healthy, woke up early, practiced yoga and meditation, limited my sexual thoughts, and sang devotional songs. I am truly inspired and am looking forward to integrating these practices into my daily life.

I expected this. I knew I would return with a better understanding of how to live a healthy life.

What I didn't expect is that, for the first time in my life, I am interested in God. I discovered all the wonderful feelings I am having are merely side effects and that the main point of yogic living, and the Vedanta philosophy on which it is based, is God realization.

One thing above all that I will take from this experience is the slight twist in wording that I have so long rejected. Instead of saying "There is only one God," Vedanta states, "There is only God." When I first heard the swami say this about a week into the course I was rattled.

The concept is totally inconceivable. I came to learn this is exactly the point. Vedanta asserts that the rational mind cannot possibly understand God. Therefore, in order to understand God one must transcend the rational mind. Instead of being irrational, which means to draw false conclusions, one must be non-rational, which which means to stop thinking.

The concept of the non-rational approach merely shows the way. To slow down the mind and eventually transcend it, you have to do the practice. "An ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory," said Swami Sivananda (1887-1963), the founder of the particular lineage of yoga I was learning. Nonetheless, I am glad to know the theory behind the practice. It helps to explain the feeling of other-worldliness I often have at the end of a really good yoga class and, ironically, the non-rational approach seems to be the most rational approach to religion. May not be what everyone needs, but it works for me!

Oh, and how about that cow with the painted horns!!!

I've been at the ashram in India two weeks now. Week two flew by, but it was also a lot harder. I've felt more tired and I'm having a harder time focusing during meditation. They say week two is the hardest, that after a bit of healthy living your body starts to release toxins and tucked away emotions start to come up. I think it's also because we have started talking a lot more about Indian philosophy and all the interesting ideas have got my head spinning.

One of the weirder things we do is chant in Sanskrit (a romanized version of course, the language itself looks like this: संस्कृता वाक्). The sounds are fairly simple, and we have a chant book to follow, so now I can sing along most of the time. What's interesting is that this ancient language is thought to vibrate and influence various energy centers in your body! Apparently there is a bunch of interesting research going on right now in India regarding Sanskrit and energy vibrations. One story our Swami told piqued my interest. He said a bunch of people gathered together to chant the sacred word "Om" while circled around a pool of water filled with floating objects. Gradually the objects formed the shape ॐ , which is exactly how "Om" is symbolized!

At this point, all I can say is that chanting Sanskrit is relaxing and it doesn't feel weird anymore. If it's doing something more that is beneficial, great.

I've come to India to study yoga at an ashram for one month. Click here for more photos. One week has passed and I already feel transformed. Everyday is calm, but busy. Here is my daily schedule:

Wake up at 5:30 AM. Chant in Sanskrit and meditate 6:00-7:30, tea break, learn to teach yoga 8:00-10:00, brunch, clean ashram 10:45-11:45, chanting class 12:00-1:00, nap, yoga philosophy class 2:00-3:30, tea break, do yoga 4:00-6:00, dinner, do homework, chant and meditate again 7:30-9:00 PM. It's a long day! All the classes are done in the room in the picture and when were not doing yoga we are sitting upright on the floor. Needless to say, my back is killing me.

The point of all this is to purify the body and mind; the body through yoga and healthy vegetarian food (which is incredible!); and the mind through yoga, cleaning, chanting, and meditation. The purification process is supposed to help us calm down and concentrate the mind, which in turn enables us to build energy, compassion, clarity, and discipline.

I wake up early with ease, take a cold shower without too much complaining, and then proceed to do a whole day of "boring" stuff in good spirits. You'd think I'd be going insane. What keeps me going is this growing feeling of calm, which at certain times during the day escalates into intense relaxation and joy; usually that moment is at the end of afternoon yoga class, or during evening meditation when the ache in my back suddenly disappears, my body doesn't want to move an inch, time passes quickly, and my only thought is the sensation of my breath moving in and out. I'm so curious to know how I'll feel in the weeks to come.

It also helps that the people here are really nice and interesting. They include an Indian singer, an American college student that was a drug addict, a friendly German guy that stutters constantly but still has the courage to become a yoga teacher, a Japanese girl that speaks Chinese, and other Indian guy that's been telling me all about Ayurvedic medicine. Our yoga teacher is a soft spoken man from Uruguay and the lead monk, the Swami, is a very articulate Indian man who deeply passionate about yoga philosophy and has a beautiful singing voice for chanting.

I'll end with an image that has stuck in my mind. A few days ago, at dusk, I wandered down to a quiet spot where two hammocks have been hung. The temperature was perfect, cool air with a slight breeze. To my right were the sounds of bugs and frogs, and to my left the Indian singer chatting in Hindi on his cell phone. In the distance I could barely hear monks chanting in the temple. I lay there and felt so calm.

I’m in Vail Colorado at the moment, sitting by a fake fireplace that turns on with a flip of a switch, drinking hot tea. It’s snowing outside. The rest of the family is off skiing and I’m taking the day off to relax. Life is good.

I’ve been getting in a ton of good quality family time. Last night my sister Louise and I cooked noodles with peanut sauce and diced grill chicken as well as my grandma’s awesome steamed broccoli with melted butter. Roger cooked up a tasty potato cream soup. After dinner we played a really interesting board game called Settlers of Catan. I love playing family board games, especially with my dad involved. He is usually caught up with work, so it’s a rare opportunity to see him relax and laugh.

This time back at home in the US has been more mellow than usual. I have been spending a lot more time with family which I find really rewarding. Partly it’s because less of my friends are around; most of them aren’t students anymore so they have less vacation time. But also I’ve just made the point of hanging with the family more. It’s been great. I feel so much love from all of them.

One of my American friends has starting working at 88 club, one of the most popular clubs in Hangzhou. Eight or so foreigners work there. They all get free alcohol and are paid to dance and mingle. The patrons are generally young Chinese people, many of which are in Hangzhou on vacation and heard about the club because it’s a big chain (over 30 in China.)

The inside of 88 looks like a fancy saloon, and has tons of gaudy looking chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Like most clubs in China, entrance is free but people are “strongly encouraged” to buy a table, the cost of which includes a certain amount of alcohol. Some of the high roller tables cost a minimum of 10,000 RMB (US$ 1500).

It’s a cool place to party because the atmosphere builds as the night progresses. Everyone drinks hard until about midnight and then the place goes nuts. Some people pile on to the stage in the middle to dance, while others latch on to each other to form long trains that weave through the crowd. The club flips on a bunch of flashing lights, light sticks get passed out, and in between songs they put on live ramp performances.

The 88 club in Hangzhou has a particularly infamous reputation. A few months ago some local university students were killed there during a brawl with security guards. Apparently the students made some lewd comments and for whatever crazy reason the guards stomped a few of them to death. Violent crime is very uncommon in China, so the news shocked the community when it first came out. The club reopened recently, however, and the violent event certainly hasn’t hurt business. Even on a Monday or Tues night the place is packed.

I’m amazed my friend found this kind of job in the first place. When she first showed up at my house with 4 suitcases packed with party clothes I laughed, but now she’s actually using all that stuff.

I just got back from a 6 day trek through central Mongolia. What a different place than China! Click here to see pics. Mongolia’s population density is only 3 people per square mile! It’s practically all country and no people. Asphalt roads are almost non existent, so getting around was awfully bumpy, but the upshot of course is that bad roads disincentivize economic development and all the junk that comes with it. I saw tons of wild animals including horses, a fox, and even eagles! China ate all their wild animals long ago.

I went on the trip with an high school buddy, Brockett, and two other friends from Hangzhou. We stayed in yurts, which are kind of like tepees but they are bigger and round, with a metal stove in the middle for cooking and heating. Every day we’d drive a few hundred kilometers, and then settle at a new site. We saw some historic sites and did a bunch of hiking, horseback riding, and even camel riding.

One night we played a popular Mongolian game that is kind of like jacks. The pieces are made out of the ankle bones of sheep. Each bone has four sides that look sort of like a goat, a lamb, a horse, or a camel. You roll the bones and then try to flick the ones that match at each other. If you flick successfully, then you get to pick up those bones and keep going until you miss or there are no more matches. The rest gets picked up by the next player, who rolls the bones again. There are a bunch of other rules I don’t know.

The highlight of the trip was our last night on the trek. We’d been driving all day and pulled into our camp as the sun was setting. We soon discovered that the nomads we were planning to stay with had already left. Previously nights we’d had our own yurt to ourselves, provided by friends of our tour guide, but this time we were going to have to crash at a stranger’s yurt; it was too cold to simply sleep outside.

A woman and her 1 year old baby popped out of the nearest yurt and our guide quickly convinced her to let us stay. The four of us, along with another Argentinean guy that joined our tour, lined up like sausages on her floor to sleep, but not before being “forced” to drink copious amounts of vodka. 10 shots in, as we were dozing off, I decided to turn my body 180 degrees so I wouldn’t feel so cramped, but all the Mongolians immediately berated me for pointing my feet at the sacred back side of the yurt, smiled real big, and then proceeded to give me 3 penalty vodka shots. I slept like a log that night.

As we headed back to the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, we saw a big asphalt road being built. We were told the Chinese are “helping” the Mongolians to build a central, north-south road all the way through Mongolia from China to Russia. Our tour guide, at least, wasn’t too happy about it. He’s worried about China’s tightening economic control over Mongolia and thinks that continued economic development will destroy Mongolia’s rural communities. Half the population already lives in Ulaanbaatar, and the city has doubled in size in the last ten years. Urbanization is in full swing.