hello my family! i've been gone for a few weeks but i'm back with tales of beauty, respect, humility and love. a proper report is forthcoming....and i promise to make it GOOD!

i will let these pics whet your appetite. this is some work SWIM got whilst in the land of smiles. in thailand, the buddhists (of which i consider myself one) worship in their respective wats with a lotus flower and a stick of incense held within their praying hands. as i told an elderly monk after the fact, "back home we don't have lotus flowers so readily available, so i wanted to make sure i always had one available". the monk took my hands in his, bowed his head to them and proceeded to incant a minute-long prayer over them after which he kissed them and said a blessing over me. this was just one of a million profound, life-changing experiences i had there....

can't wait to get this down in written word for you all...there is no question that the spice led me to this experience and opened me to be able to see and feel things i would never have been able to otherwise. reintegrating back into western culture has proven challenging to say the least...but time will set things right. i do feel, however, that shifts were made within me that have set great changes into motion.
powerful changes.
beautiful changes.
changes i will share with you all as they surface.

with love and gratitude....

cant wait for the full story

antrocles!!!

Very nice!!

Much love!

Seems now you'll always have a lotus flower handy!
(heh sorry I HAD to)

Man I enjoy your posts and anticipate the whole tale!

Tales of adventure, enlightenment and acheivement. Antrocles is back in town

That's got to be some hard skin to have a tatoo on. Well it was way worth it.

Very cool

Antrocles

Welcome back my friend, I am looking forward to all the stories you are going to tell us which happened during your amazing and incredible journey. I really love your lotus tattoo, the lotus is the seat of the Buddhas and its the most sacred flower in Buddhism (I understand where you are coming from because I am a Buddhist myself Tibetan Buddhist to be exact.) :b Truly very special, i have wanted to get a lotus tattoo for some time now, but first i am getting a fairly complex and delicate tattoo on my back then my next one will be on my inner wrist. So i will have to assess the situation after I get those two sorted. I am very glad that you have returned in safety and in happiness.


Much Peace and Compassion

Wow that's some nice looking tattoo, is that your first one?
If it is, it's damn cool you go for such open spots as the hands as a first tattoo, i really love the symbolism/idea behind them.
I love tattoo's.

A tattoo always needs to have a background story imo, random tattoo's can be cool too, but when they tell a tale it's way more interesting.


Looking forward to your story, it seems like you lead a great life.

NICE........................

Awaiting the details


PEACE
MV

my life is truly blessed indeed! life as a whole is a beautiful, wonderful, fascinatingly mysterious journey into awakening. every inhale, every vista revealed after every blink is a loving reminder of what i/we truly am/are. my journey to thailand unequivocally solidified an already clear buddhist perception of life for me. it helped me to "let go" just that little bit more and by so doing, even more has come into me.
interestingly, i had the most confirmed belief when i got back from thailand that i needed to travel even more than i already was. that it was part of my process right now. without doing ANYTHING, a sponsor called me 4 days after i got back to ask me if i would race in the world championships in australia next week if they paid for everything...

...????? ?????.....

just BECOME that which you seek....


as for the tattoos....no, they are not my first. i have a few and they all have huge stories behind them. i have the green tara on my entire outside of my lower leg which i got when my father passed away. we studied tibetan buddhism together for the last year of his life. the following year, my mother passed away and i got the tibetan buddhist deity Kincara on the opposite side of the tara. i have the kanji for love and gratitude on each wrist (love on the right = GIVE WITH LOVE, gratitude on the left = RECEIVE WITH GRATITUDE). and now this lotus which symbolizes respect and humility. respect for ALL life. that is a buddhist tenet and one i saw enacted in real life before my eyes. no talk, all action. the real deal. it was beyond moving.

spiced- sounds like YOU either have some nice ink yourself or you are ripe to go get some! either way, thanks for the love

"THAILAND: A MEMOIR" is coming along nicely....i think you will all enjoy many of the crazy, profound, beautiful, and hilarious experiences i had in the "land of smiles'. and (this is the last plug, i swear!) if you haven't yet gone....go...now..

LOVE AND GRATITUDE!!

Wow, what do you mean race in the worlds championship?
I'm new to this forum so i don't know your background, are you a professional racer?

Become what you seek, i like that a lot.


I only have the Om symbol tattooed on the side of my wrist and my left upper arm is covered with a Polynesian tribal tattoo, but that was just for starters.
I'm planning a sleeve on my entire right arm but i'm still figuring it all out what elements that it should contain
It's planned for next summer but i'm still thinking it out, it must be perfect, psychedelic and mystical, after that i like to have my entire back tattooed, but i have to brainstorm about that design later.

Good to hear you like Buddhism so much, i started to read Buddhist books myself 4 years ago and i can find myself in a lot of aspects presented, all people should have a more Buddhist approach, the world would be a much better place, i can't understand that the Chinese government is outlawing something so peaceful like Buddhism, it must be the most peaceful practice i know, how can one be against that?

Anyways, i'm looking forward to your story, i think we all are.

Spiced

Well for the Chinese communism is their religion which makes the government and economic gain the base of their religion. There is no place for religion in a communist world, one of the main reasons china attacked Tibet is that Tibetan Buddhism stands for the exact opposite ideals that communism stands for and Buddhism is a very big threat to communism so the Chinese government invaded Tibet on the false claims that Tibet is ancient Chinese land which they said that they wanted to reclaim.

Over 1.2 million Tibetans, or one-fifth of the population, have been killed as a direct result of the Chinese invasion and occupation, most of the Tibetans killed have been unarmed. A really excellent movie to see is 7 years in Tibet (If you haven't seen it.) Three really good books to read about Tibet are Water Touching Stone, The Skull Mantra and Bone Mountain all by Eliot Pattison which have their source in true and real events. Also if you search for Tibet on Youtube you will find a lot of refugee videos as well as extra information.

I am part of a website called: Students For A Free Tibet
Also another good website is: Free Tibet
Feel free to visit both websites for more information and updates.


Much Peace and Happiness

Sorry for the off topic here but; What the hell?

1.2 million Tibetans have been killed?
I wasn't aware that there were so many, that's a massive amount of good people, the Chinese have way too much power, it's sad nobody is able to stop this misserable act of genocide.
Same thing with Falun Gong practioners, they are getting severly tortured and killed, it's just pure evil.Sometimes (most of the time) it looks like evilness is kicking goodness's ass big time.

Mao and his red book is still very alive over there, it's the Chinese Hitler and people refuse to resist, that's just so sad...

Thanks a lot for the explanation and book recomendations, i'll definatly gonna search for them, good thing that you are involved in that Students for a Free Tibet organization, i really hope it will make a difference.

Spiced

Indeed most of the world is kept in the dark as to the amount of people who have been killed and to exactly what is really going on. Many countries and nations keep quiet and stand by China because China is such a powerful economic player in the worlds economy, its really scary as to how many Chinese government officials you will see on t.v standing behind a lot of world leaders just in the background silently present.

Also something that is not very well known is that China practically owns Africa but its kept extremely quiet so they can destroy and plunder the forest and mountains for mining and their own financial gain, its terribly sad as to how much China really gets away with, the big governments have subtly kept attention on Iraq, so called terrorism and North Korea but the one nation to keep an eye on and be very careful of is China as they are a deadly silent power that just creeps in very quietly and without any notice.

Unfortunately there aren't many statistics as to how many Tibetans have been tortured and how many monks and nuns have been captured and that have disappeared. Students for a Free Tibet is an amazing organization and they create a lot of awareness and they make a huge positive impact on the situation with Tibet.

No worries, I am greatly passionate about human rights and awareness as to what is going on in the world. I hope that the information that i have posted comes in handy.


Much Peace and Compassion