Courses in Rishikesh
I went to Rishikesh because I have been curious about this spirituality thing and as some friends acknowledged, this is the right place. Partly because of the atmosphere there and because there is looks like a normal thing to do to occupy yourself with this kind of stuff; partly because in India or on any other vacation in general you are just out of your normal “busy” life.
Since I had nearly two weeks time, I didn’t want to rush to find something so I took my time to explore Rishikesh and around – (drove and) hiked into the mountains to paradisaic waterfalls and other places. For example the Beatles Ashram which is closed nowadays because of disputes with the government. It is located a bit outside Rishikesh, directly at the Ganges in midst some caves of some Sadhus.
Anyway, by chance, I met Thiago, a Brazilian guy who did yoga for 2 years but at the same time retained his scientific view of the world of a natural scientist. When we met, he just finished reading works of Schopenhauer. And really, even if you unleash European calculated logic on this spirituality-blah, you can’t prove that it doesn’t exist (or that is does exist) because there is very much left for your belief and particularly your perception. We talked a lot. Everyday we used to go the beach or go hiking and discuss these things. It is difficult to sum up our solutions… Basically, everyone creates his own reality since our perception is the only thing we got in order to experience it. There is no absolute reality because there is no one that can perceive it and define it. Only a shared reality amongst people (which is an overlapping reality).
It’s great to speak with someone about this who is very well able to think and argue logically, who has similar doubts and at the same time is open to new ideas or views how to see reality.
However, a few days after I arrived I managed to stuff my day full of activity:
By chance, I found an opportunity to attend a basic Ayurvedic massage course. By chance because the teacher and I talked for a while and as it turned out, he needed a website. Since I just finished a webdesign internship, we made a deal. I think things like that – where no money is involved – can only be a win-win situation. I visited his house everyday to work on the website while sitting on his terrace. This was not only a really nice working and learning atmosphere but gave me a nice insight into an Indian household. They even had a spastic German shepherd dog – he reminded me of the ministry of funny walks very much :D
Later, Thiago and I found a Yoga course which I can only recommend. We did not only do Asanas but we had a lot of lectures too which gave me more than enough background-information to satisfy my curiosity.
Regrettably, I could only stay for the first three days. Then I had to leave to Delhi to fetch Jens and Joern from the airport.
