Hello.
It's been some time since my last 'real' update. Here is a scenic picture of Hampi, taken from the lookout of my retreat cave. Hampi is beautiful, more so it is magical. It has elements of Escondido hills, Hawaii volcanic rock, Indian palms and bright green rice plants, and a deep and clean water like none other flowing through it. Hampi is the original inspiration for the Jungle Book, and I can see why. It is also the setting for different parts of both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, India's two main epic poems. Having just arrived, I sat down underneath the shade of a boulder and quickly composed this:

Worn Rock-
Bare top-
Sun above-
Water runs-
Sparse trees-
Cooling breeze-
Feel the ease-
Of Hampi

Even as the Living Routes program focuses intensely on spiritual/personal growth, the Hampi experience hyper focused us as a group and as individuals on this same growth. It was truly exhausting in the best way possible. Here was the first time I have gotten sick since arriving in India. I had, lets say, a micro-brewery in my stomach for about a week; producing sulfurous gas from both ends. I resisted taking antibiotics, instead using a regiment of Neem capsuls and Grapefruit seed extract, then following that treatment with a few weeks of acidopholus to re-establish my gut fauna.

I understood my sickness to be a purging of sorts as it came right after our sacred solo. A little bit more detail, the sacred solo was 40 hours of fasting and seclusion up in the caves of the tumbled Hampi hills. These very caves have been used for thousands of years by rishis and sadus to attain to the divine, and needless to say the experience was quite difficult and rewarding. I will post a few more pictures of Hampi following this.
om namo bhagavate!
justin