All of mind's contents are the accumulation of our experiences from the day we are born. If we can accept, from serious and extensive watchfulness, that the mind is relentless in its activity, and our moments of consciousness are very short and are separated by long intervals of completely unconscious, mechanical working of the machine. You can then see that you think, feel, act, work, without being conscious of it. 

People are automatons, their actions COMPLETELY governed by their environment. Our biggest mistake is thinking that we always have consciousness. In reality, consciousness is always in flux. Now you are conscious, and in the next you are not. Someone learning to drive for the first time requires total awareness of doing. Consciousness. After much practice, driving becomes mechanical. Unconscious. I am in india because it heightens my sense of consciousness. Everything is new, it is easier to be in the present. I am forced to be in the present. Self-observation becomes easier. Meditation is easier. I am 'at my best' when I'm in the present. I feel i am most myself. Too many months in one place, going through the usual daily activities of earning money, traveling the same route, meeting the same people, makes one unconscious. In unconsciousness, a person is COMPLETELY susceptible to external stimuli. If you don't have your mind, something else does. TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, advertising, a relentless barrage of cultural garbage created by other unconscious, materialistically hungry 
, ego-enhancing automatons. 

Even with all our good intentions, we are helpless to do anything different. We cannot change our circumstances because we dont have our minds. There are more wars and revolutions then ever before, and still we try change the outer. Elect a better president, Keppler 22b. We can only get what we've gotten in the past, because that is the basis our minds are operating from.

'Blissed' out in Tuscany

I've just had the most inspirationally mind-blowing massage in my life! We are at Albatross Park somewhere along the Etruscan coast in Tuscany until sunday when we board our pre-booked train to Venice.

It was an Ayurvedic massage. I had looked into this particular style previously, exploring my slight inclinations of expanding my aptitude in something I would be inspired and impassioned at practicing. Despite the session starting off 10 minutes late, the therapist was great and I felt thoroughly looked after. I was surprised to feel the intense emotions that welled up throughout the duration of the session, and I was particularly taken aback by the feelings of satisfaction tinged with brief but distinct infusions of ecstasy.

My point is this: I've observed something strange in my capacity to feel greater sensual pleasure, and markedly so since doing Mystical Tantra back in Switzerland. My sex life with Amber has completely transformed, the repose I felt this morning at the nude beach, and most recently the bliss I felt on that therapists table a just a few moments ago. My only conceivable explanation is that I have had some sort of sexual repression unbeknownst to me lifted since the course. I also feel this is not particular to my case, and that this 'repression' is the product of civilization as we know it. Wearing clothes, for instance, is intrinsically an unnatural thing to do, yet through societal conditioning, this has become the norm. In the process we've learnt shame and humiliation. I observe my experience to be a liberation from this to whatever extent, and what a relief it is! I am permeated by joy.

Moving on. Amber and I are here because we had landed ourselves on a wwof-ing farm from Hades. It was completely out of our vision of organic learning methods and cultural exchange, so we got our asses out of there ASAP, and have ended up here in Albatross Park, where we have rented a 'pitch' site for our tent (thanks Natasha!) we picked up in Zurich. Aside from the blaring music past midnight, this place is solace from the temporary torment we experienced on the farm. Tomorrow, we will rent a scooter and ride down the Etruscan coast in search of more nudie beaches and adventures. Woohoo! We are having the time of our LIVES!