I don't come into town from the canyon caves so much these days, so I let cyber contact with the world slide.
During the winter I felt fairly disconnected with the world and spent a lot of time in solitary stillness. But since the spring began I've had a fairly constant influx of visitors. It's been kind of a moneyless tribe all along, but with people coming and going, like a river, no same water moment by moment, but a river nonetheless.
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| It's been raining a lot. Overwhelmed with beauty at our camp. This pic (by Pete Apicella) is from a couple years ago, but looks like these days. |
As I said in the last post, the "tribe" was down to just Daryl and me when we arrived back in Moab from the Rainbow Gathering last mid July. Then we were pleasantly surprised to be joined by my friend of a few years, Julia, a.k.a. Squirrel Girl, a veteran wilderness and wild-edible and medicinal plant expert. She's still with us, off and on, at the cave. Incidentally, we've eaten a lot more squirrel since she arrived with her fall traps.
Here's the latest on the "moneyless tribe", or whatever it is: Tom, the early-20-something wandering non-sectarian-monk-in-Indian-saddhu-garb, had come back after a stint hitch-hiking southwest of here. At about the time he came back, a couple early-20-something dread-locked guys named Benjamin and Nicolas (who also look like another variation of Indian saddhus) showed up, camping in a nearby cave. We call them the saddhus. Then a late-thirty-or-early-40-something guy (who now calls himself Max), who has an MBA in finance, walked away from his high-finance job and showed up to join us. Max immediately made a figure-4 fall trap, which caught us 2 squirrels for our pot-o-stew. A bit later, an early-20-something chap named Sean from northern British Columbia came to stay with us. And, shortly after, Daryl's friend Bayla (who looks early-20-something-but-is-30-something) showed up from New York City. Besides all them, we've had other visitors come in waves. For a few days we had 12 people up there, and I was starting to feel overwhelmed at times, wondering what I'd gotten myself into. For those short moments I feel overwhelmed, I sit with the feeling and it passes, knowing that everything works out. Some days I feel so blessed -- that blessing also overwhelms me.
Now it turns out that most everybody is leaving or has left, except for Daryl and Julia (off and on) and I'm back to learning more about non-attachment and the meaning of community. After Wednesday, it looks like it's back down to just Daryl and me, with Julia still coming and going at our camp.
Daryl and I had a great talk yesterday morning about the nature of community. I am finally learning some new things, how to do this better, thanks to Daryl's observations. I am realizing repeating patterns that have happened since the first "moneyless tribe" was launched last summer in Montana. Time to learn from them.
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| Daryl and me at Dead Horse Point. Pic by Cullen, who took us there to see the sunset. Daryl and Cullen are some of my best of friends. |
Meanwhile, I'm still doing my radio show every Sunday, 9:00PM to 11:00PM MST/MDT on KZMU Moab Community Radio, with help from Daryl and a new radio man, Raven. Julia just joined us last night, and might also be a regular. Other friends often join us at the station, sometimes also on air, but mostly just hanging out. It just gets funner and funner for me, and even better having my friends up there to join in. I comment and philosophize between music, with friends joining in discussion. The music is usually new Indy stuff (rock, nu-folk, electronic, singer-songwriter stuff, and some punk) and an eclectic mix of other things, often world music, indigenous, and sprinkles of classical. Maybe half the shows are recorded, but I still haven't gotten around to compressing them and archiving them online.
For listening online, if www.kzmu.org doesn't work, try http://www.live365.com/
There's much we talk about out there in the canyons, philosophical musings and epiphanies, and I'd love to share them here, but I gotta go for now. Maybe later I can get something together.
My wife and i walked by daryl yesterday and i figured he was on his way out to hang with you.i wish i had time to come out to and say hi but since i havnt completely been able to give up money i had to go to work.a job i have created and love.i sure do miss this time of year when the waterfalls poor over the cave intrances.its funny how no one believes me but yet they wont come camp with me in the rain.same with the fire flies.everyone says they dont exists in moab but they do.peace and love,hope to see you soon.dre.
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear your thoughts and feelings and actions about how some people show up with skills and ability to help (like the trap) and some people show up expecting you to feed them and watch out for them.
ReplyDeleteAll of them are welcome. We are all learning on different levels. Those who show up needing fed and watched out for on a physical level often feed and watch out for me on other levels. In the universe of reality, the giver is the simultaneous taker and the taker is the simultaneous giver.
DeleteDaniel that is a very generous thought. We all feeding or fed by others at some point in our lives, both literally and figuratively.
DeleteHeya i am for the first time here ,I found this board and I to find It truly useful & it helped me out much ,I hope to provide one thing back and aid others like you aided me.
ReplyDeleteCurrency Tips
this is so awesome
ReplyDeleteI very much like what you write. It makes me feel free. I am living your life through this blog (and that's, I think, the spirit and the purpose of it).
ReplyDeleteIf it happens, it would be nice to hear to some of your talks, maybe in a podcast, archived somewhere where I can click&listen during my ramblings.
Thanks!
I'm thankful that you point towards truth.
ReplyDeleteI want to be a part of this. I knew someone was doing it.
ReplyDeleteSuelo,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Mason Holiman, I am 17 years old, 18 in April, and a senior at Ozark High School in Ozark, Missouri. I am an avid follower and supporter of you and your lifestyle. Although I am young and constantly plagued with naivety, I speak to you as an adult when I say that I am called to live as you do from the orgin of my soul. I believe I was destined to live this way long before I was born. I have the soul of a sadhu, bodhisattva, starseed, etc. There is no doubt to me. This belief is less of a desire and a lot more a need, I simply cannot live the life that my society has led me to believe I must live, and I'm sure you understand this feeling. Although I possess intense spiritual insight for my age, I also have much to learn. This is why I have set out to finally contact you. I want to live with you and your tribe for as long as you might allow, in order to learn what I can about surviving this way and additionally share with you and your tribe my mission of love that I am sure you all carry in your hearts as well. If anything, I would simply love to meet you at some point, because after I graduate, I will indefinitely be living moneyless, as natural man, in pursuit of spiritual liberation and to spread the universal message of Truth. I do not wish to pester, but if there is anyway I could contact you further I would love to do so. Please email me at classicmasonh@gmail.com, It is very important that I talk to you, for you are the only person I know of on this earth who understands life in the way I do. This is an SOS from a fellow wanderer living in a world of robots. (haha) please contact me!
-MH
Hi there Daniel, I stumbled upon your blog while looking for fellow souls who would of thought of doing this and leaving society behind. I'm eager to quit my current lifestyle and start something new. I hope to be able to contact you soon, my email is elcabrera10@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteSuelo, your lifestyle--or some derivative--is the way of the future. I can feel it. Because the false idol called the "Almighty Dollar" is obviously overvalued as a source of happiness and wisdom, and has almost completely stripped away our freedom because we feel compelled to make choices based on societal values (external "success", wealth) that we had no part in selecting and aren't even completely aware of being complicit in condoning. So we grow up wanting to "be" doctors and lawyers and homeowners rather than "be" happy or wise or kind. The financial crisis came along at a great time for humanity, and I am glad you are putting your cogent arguments for this lifestyle out there for others to learn from. Monetary "lack" means you're just filled up by something else; and, in your case, it appears that "something else" is clarity and calm. Congrats, and may we all grow into the same.
ReplyDeletehi arpit no surprise to see you posting on here !
ReplyDeleteI just want to say you guys have my full support but please kindly consider my constructive criticism of your clan.
You are going about this in the wrong manner. As you will soon realize, our human species is meant to live in an equatorial climate and consume a diet rich in fruits like that of the bonobo of chimpanzee our closest 98%+ DNA sharing relatives. Please refer to 80-10-10 diet by doug graham available free in internet search.
Being free of money sounds ideal but I see it as a useful tool at present age. If not attached it can be wonderful. What about being free of clothing or bedding? Can't really do that in the cold desert winters... Why not move to a climate where you can survive naked year round? That sounds more like the garden of Eden...
Currently am in hawaii. There is plenty of food foraging opportunities here, tons of banana, papaya, coconut, passionfruit, guava, citrus, avocado, tons of others. Personally I don't want to depend on dumpsters, pizza, GMOs, and killing squirrels for my maintenance, but if you do i don't look down on you and god bless.
However, there is something special about foraging your own food and planting trees for future generations, even if you do not get to enjoy their shade or fruits. I think us enlightened beings have a responsibility to plant long lasting trees like avocado, coco, banyan(300-500 years), brazil nut trees live 500-1000 years!
the less time you spend worrying about food and physical maintenance, the more time you have for serving humanity, personal development, or doing whatever you want to do.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is why banding together with others in some form of community can be extremely beneficial, to meet the needs of community in as few man hours as possible
a friend of mine, pom, is attempting to form such community in costa rica, if you wish to check out fruitariancommunity.tk
Another possible route to help solve your problems could be breatharianism ( i can't relate much personal experience here ) but check out "sungazing" , also breatharian.info , the author has published a book " lifestyle without food " which is available as free PDF. Hilton Hotema's Man's Higher Consciousness may also be of interest and should be pinpointed in quick internet search.
I will be following this blog with great interest; please anyone don't hesitate to contact me tjeff331 at gmail dot com . thanks very much for reading I hope I've given you something interesting to think about. will be glad to show you around a bit if you ever hitch hike to big island!
-Zach
Yes, community is where it's at.
DeleteAnd where we are at here and now is where we are to be, wherever we are. Or, we could continue to buy out and take over lands of native peoples in poverty, Hawaiian or otherwise, so we can live our "simple, sustainable" lives. By the very fact we'd have to purchase it, Hawaiian land does not belong to us, nor does Costa Rica, no matter what image of sustainability and progressiveness we purchase, no matter what illusion of paradise we create. The land where I live now was also violently taken and bought and sold. But, unwelcome as we are, now we are here with no place to go, with no honest choice but to be and to bring healing and forgiveness. The only healing is here and now, even if natural selection wiping us out is part of that healing. This walk is about dispensing with escapest philosophies that have driven civilization for thousands of years and finally again affirming nature in all its positives and negatives, life and death.
Words that come not from experience, not from action, have no value. If there is a breath-airian who practices it him or herself and speaks to me from knowledge, not from hearsay or books or ideologies, I will hear. I can hear nothing else. If breath-airianism affirms nature in all her ways, rather than taunts us with more escapist delusion of air carrots in front of the nose, I will hear. We must look for justice for all life, not an escape for our selves. I have little use for enlightened gurus on mountains surrounded by nations of poverty and violence. If that is enlightenment, then let me not be enlightened.
The waste of our society must be eaten, by me or by you or by a worm or bacteria or roach or raven or bear or somebody else. All must be eaten and redeemed and consecrated back to nature's balance of perfect physical life and death, which is perfect life without death in the highest consciousness.
Yes, plant sustainable permaculture food forests! It looks like such food forests are in the works right here, right now. The physicians must go where the sick are.
no land or any thing else belongs to anyone else. we are caretakers for a very short time.
ReplyDeleteall land has been raped looted bought sold pillaged destroyed thousands of times. i still don't understand why you would want to live so far away from our natural habitat... you're just being stubborn and making life hard on yourself for no good reason...
there're tons of fruits / nuts here rotting , being underutilized , etc... and i'm going to consume and share whatever i need with my brothers and plant whatever i need for the future . and i don't care if the land used to be some hawaiian persons 100 years ago. the past is the past , all we have is this present
i don't want to go plant permaculture food forests in alaska, i want to do it on equator. if you want to do in alaska , be my guest!
there is some pig feces here for last 7 days and the flies haven't eaten it all. so therefore i should eat it all because... it must be eaten! lol ok be my guest again... nothing must be eaten, u can leave it to the bottom feeders bro, eating some gmo roundup monsatano corn isn't goin 2 help u.
i not claiming to be breatharian but , sometimes u just know something in your heart... i have no desire to argue or prove to anyone ... i just know... call it intuition or insanity or whatever u please... i know it sounds ridiculous.
If you're already there and there's food freely everywhere there for you, then that's where you should be. Here is where I am and there is fruit and nuts falling to the ground, and there is an overpopulation of squirrels and deer (due to lack of predators, lack of natural balance) so this is my natural habitat. Migrating seasonally may be in order, too, or maybe not. Whatever the spirit leads. But if I have to purchase land in another place and buy a ticket there, that's not my natural habitat. Who here is telling whom they have it all wrong? Should we ship all 7 billion people to the tropics because they're out of their natural habitat? I know Southern California and Florida are about to crash because everybody thinks it is their natural habitat. And Hawaii, too, is getting more and more overpopulated, and the the natives are getting pushed more and more into poverty ghettos so white people can live in what they see as their natural habitat. You ought to take a trip to the interior of the big island and see for yourself. About argument, I'm not the one who said, "You are going about this in the wrong manner." I know what's right for me and you know what's right for you. Some can and must run away from polluted air and GMOs, some must stay at the battle front. Pretty soon, even Hawaii will be so polluted and GMO'd, like southern Cali and Florida, there will be no more paradises to escape to. We feel our days are numbered in the pristine Utah wilderness, too, as more and more tourists flood in every year.
ReplyDeletei see very few people in hawaii living in their natural habitat... everyone here eats spam , rice, mcdonalds, etc, while all this great food rots ... tell me where the "interior of the big island" is, i am on the big island right now... and will be glad to take a trip there and take pictures and report back here...( although I have some responsibilities in pahoa area right now and might not be able to get away for long... I will make the effort when able, I want to see ). hawaii is pretty GMO'd , i cringe every time I eat a papaya ; ) but i keep eating them...
ReplyDeletei see these people as a blessing , not a curse, the level of awareness in hawaii among all people, black white red or brown is extremely high... the tourists come and go... most of the locals here are seriously in to community building. the best part of hawaii isn't abundance of fruits/food, wildlife , terrain/ forests etc... it's the people/community/love/family that have won my heart.
Www.againstthegrain.org has an interview about freeganism and waste. About the 20 min mark he mentions The man who quit Money.
ReplyDelete"I have little use for enlightened gurus on mountains surrounded by nations of poverty and violence. If that is enlightenment, then let me not be enlightened. "
ReplyDeleteAn "enlightened guru" would be living in greater poverty than the surrounding nations, albeit without the suffering and violence. This is what makes him an enlightened guru.
ReplyDeleteMac McDonald gave up the ghost in 1971 from cancer while his brother Richard (Dick) McDonald lived until 1998 when he gave up the ghost at the age of 89. These two brothers never dreamed when starting a restaurant numerous years ago that their chain of restaurants would become a world landmark for billions of individuals and become a neighborhood of history for generations. they're a real example of success and what you'll do with a dream and a few persistence.
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