Dorans Spritual Contemplation # 2 - Stuff

One of the most beautiful aspects i have found from traveling is how light i feel, besides a backpack of clothing and a few electronic devices i own so little, and it is such a beautiful freeing thing to be not tied down by piles of things. Especially sense i use to own mounds of stuff, the contrast to a bare room here is liberating. Finding that i can be quite content with so little makes me realize how unimportant all that stuff is. Especially when i look at the world and it makes me so sad what people fight, and kill each other for. I started one day with a personal challenge, i decided to find one thing to give away each day, be it a piece of clothing i never wore or a book i would never read. whenever i got something new i would give away an extra thing just to balance it all out. Its amazing how the saying a cluttered room leads to a cluttered mind. In the book "the Gospel According to Larry" the mystical Larry only owns 88 things, always giving up one thing when he got something else, this is a bit extreme but the image is beautiful. Give it a try, the less you have the less you hold on to and the freer it all feels even if you are settled in a home, a live and job, we all could do with a little more space.

Max 2 Visited Australia

• Max 2 visted me in Australia
• We Ate and Drank with a cornucopia of international folks
• Max and I were roommates again, we gossiped and told ghost stories late into the nights
• We Made the Blue Mountains our bitch
• Max axed it running while hiking Immediately after shouting "lets do it!" I cried laughing
• We discussed life, history, spirituality and the world with Englishman, Germans, Australians and Finnish
• Talked hours of crap, because no one talks crap better than grandpa and gossip
• Had many a Happy Hour
• Partied like rock stars
• Max got laid
• Wandered the City up and down
• Max went to Tazmania not much happens in Tazmania
• Max pub crawled with all my Australian friends while i had to work
• We laughed, we cried, we punched each other mercilessly
• Got lost in the nature reserve near Manly, i tried to bury max in an old bunker
• Liz fed Max yummy nachos and kabob
• Max went to Ayre's Rock and the outback, not much happens in the outback
• Max ate a Kangroo raw with his bare hands in the desert
• We went to Bondi Beach and saw lots of topless women, max swore he would never leave
• Saw U2, Max's heart exploded when they played "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
• Me and Max hugged it out and cried like school girls when he left
• Max swore he would never leave, Max lied to me and left, his travel took him 37 hours, i laughed till i fell asleep that night thinking about his travel suffering
• Others should visit me here in Australia becuase its beautiful and rocks socks and you have a brilliant

Doran's Spiritual Contemplation # 1

First of all I am not a conventional buddhist, I am just entering a stage in my life where i am finding much more solice in meditation and through more meditation, more contemplation. Through more contemplation and some study im beginning to find wonderful new things that help me love, apprecaite and calm down my life in so many ways, and here are these things.

Take a second out of each day to appreciate something simple. There are a million things we do every day that pass by without notice. It could be as small as enjoying brushing your teeth or feeling the raze of sun as it lands on your face through the bedroom window. The way to begin to simplify our lives and be happier is to appreciate the simple things. The smell of a clean shirt, or the first bite of lunch when your absolutely starving, these are the diamonds of our day that can pull us out of our usuall thought and put us back into the present moment. If you start with appreciating one small thing on monday, and by sunday seven things, you will begin a gradual shift in the way you think. The worst day in the world may still be the worst day in the world, but all through it will be little diamonds of appreciation, sitting down for lunch, petting your dog, or a good cup of Joe. The path to a more peaceful, simple life starts with the first step, I spend alot of time on step one and am in the process of falling very much in love with it.

"Sydney Central YHA, this is Dory speaking"

So I snagged one of coolest jobs a work and traveler could ask for. Receptionist at Sydney Central Yha youth hostel, one of the biggest hostels in the world and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere sporting 550 beds, 8 floors, pool, sauna, cinema, a sweet kitchen, dinning hall, computer area library, conference room, attached restaurant and bar, yep that pimping. I got it by some stroke of luck, I wandered into the hostel with my resume and started a chat with an American girl behind the counter. We were having a chat about Maple Sugar school in Vermont she went and grabbed her manager, and a few weeks and some interviews later and i was working reception, and i could not be happier.

I found myself working with an amazing fun, hilarious cast of international staff, from New Zealand, England, America, Japan, Philippines, Thailand and all over Australia. The job is sometimes quite hard and requires endless patience, dealing with people from across the world. Along with this Job i also got accommodation in an old row house in the Rocks, Sydney's oldest neighborhood directly next to the Sydney Harbor bridge and 5 minute walk from the Opera house. So I have my own space between living with Liz and work, which is another bonus you can stay the night if you work late shifts. To top it off you can stay at any other Yha's in Australia for free, brilliant. However working at a youth hostel has its down parts, to much drinking all the time, dangerous on health and bank account.

American football with a bunch of Buddhists

sense being in Sydney ive spent alot of time meditating. I think i really needed to start sitting with other people so i found the Sydney Buddhist Center. It is a lovely peaceful place in new town that i started going to once or twice a week to sit for an hour and talk Buddhism. I am only one a few people under 30, and the mens sitting night is an especially funny one because around 25-30 peaceful dudes get together, chant a bit, meditate, eat some snack drink some tea and talk Buddhism. Overall a really amazing peaceful experience and defiantly a humorous one, as they are some peaceful down to earth Buddhists, but they still like Rugby, Cricket, cars going for a drink and even American football. After a few weeks of being there another American guy Ratana (his Buddhist name) comes up to me invites me to watch a game with him a few other guys, they tape the games Monday morning and watch next Friday. So i sat down with another Amercian, a Irish guy and an Australian to drink a few beers, eat pizza and watch American football in Sydney.

ps - I will also start posting some of my latest Buddhist thoughts for those interested, its amazing what sitting a few hours every week will open up, i feel like a spring that had been to tightly ravelled my whole life and is starting to finally unwinding, its a beautiful thing, if your looking for some, space, peace and happiness in your life, concentrate on your breath. Once you find it, you wont be able to go back.

a Haircut from my gay, tall, overweight, Korean male hair dresser Eddie

I went to get a 10 dollar haircut in china town and because i was told they were not to bad. I sat down with Eddie, a funny quite gay, tall, overweight Korean man with a funny as hairdo. He didnt say much, but when i told him i wanted my hair natural shaggy he said. "your hair ok, dont cut to short or you look stupid."

Thanks Eddie

ps - he did give a very nice cut, i will probably go back there as i find his no nonsense haircutting attitude refreshing

Three Sisters, a Sweed and two Americans are walking through the mountians

So me my new Swedish friend Yasper, and my American friend Matt decide to take a trip up to the blue mountains, and Katoomba the grand canyon of Australia and considered one of the top spots in all of Australia to visit. I was still waiting to hear about work and thought a few days of hiking would be sweetness. We roll in to Katoomba and find the funkiest of all little hostels called the Flying Fox. It only had about 35 beds, but it felt like Vermont, The living room was attired with a fireplace big confy hippy couches, and cushions, Tapestries, there was also guitars and didgeridoos sitting around for folks to play. We fell in love with the place on the spot and spent most evenings drinking wine and playing cards with the various internationals and the boat load of Germans that were living and working there. Day one lent itself to me and Yasper, a funny Sweed with an Irish accent hiking down through the Australian grand canyon in Katoomba by the famed three sister rock formations. The beauty of the place was amazing, and every turn lent itself to an entire different form of terrain, one turn rainforest the next rock desert, the next mountiany cliffs, we spent the whole time our gawking at the fricken beauty and by the end of the day we had hiked around 18 km's.

Day two brought us our new german friends Christian and Johanna and there new car Suzy. we all piled into Suzy and found Hanging rock, which is on the cover of Lonely Plant, holy crap is that black crazy, its a jutting rock hanging over nothing, and you have to jump a crack to get to it but oh man is it amazing! After our bonding session I kicked it to see a funk band with a rag tag international crew of An English girl, Canadian guy, Three Japanese, eight Germans a guy from Israel and a handful of Aussi's wow. We danced our pants off and when i got back to the hostel
Yasper, Matt, Christian and Johanna decided they were going to drive Suzy across the whole country. I quite poor, hung over and a tad jealous of there soon to be adventure went back to Sydney for a job interview and said goodbye to my new friends, but no worries they will show up again.


Overall Blue Mountains = Rock my fricken socks off, if you don't go your a silly nanny

Im a bad Blogger but i promise ill change

To all my friends and family who stumble across my blogs, im sorry i am such a bad blogger, i promise to change and i promise i will not be a religious every day blogger because i wouldnt want to read about what i do daily, but the good stories you will get, the next few will be catch up blogs but oh boy are they good. =)