April 6, 2019
ANOTHER VISA TRIP
For the last couple of weeks I've been off to Guatemala so that I might return to Mexico and, hopefully, be granted a new 180-day tourist visa. You may recall that this time last year I tried for permanent residence in Mexico, but new requirements favor only those who have thousands of dollars coming into their bank accounts each month, or else have at least $100,000 in a bank account, which I don't have. Border agents let me know that they're uncomfortable with all my lengthy stays in Mexico and I never know if they'll grant me the full 180 days. But, this time, there was no problem at all, on either side of the border. The Guatemalan official who gave me an entry visa actually smiled broadly, opened his arms and told me that I was very, very welcome in Guatemala.
Anyway, this was a fine trip and you'll be seeing my pictures and learning about Guatemalan plants and animals for months to come. At this time I've been unable to do research on my findings, but at least for this Newsletter I have some fine monkey pictures to share, and I'll tell you what I thought about day and night during the whole trip, in the essay at the end.
*****
HOWLER MONKEYS
During my recent camping trip to northern Guatemala's Petén department, at dawn on March 31 in the campground at El Rosario National Park on the west side of Sayaxché, as soon as it was light enough to properly see, a tremendous roar erupted from the woods beside my tent, then a couple of Howler Monkeys climbed into the upper branches of a tall Lysiloma acapulcensis tree almost above my tent. You can see them on their ascent at https://www.backyardnature.net/n/19/190406mk.jpg
On previous camping trips I've photographed Spider Monkeys, which you can compare with the above Howler Monkey picture at https://www.backyardnature.net/yucatan/monkey.htm
Usually you hear Howler Monkeys, Alouatta palliata, but see Spider Monkeys, Ateles geoffroyi. This was the first time since I began issuing these Newsletters that Howler Monkeys got close enough to photograph, and I was tickled. In the above Howler picture, notice how the Howler's head is so much larger relative to the body than the Spider Monkey's. Much of the head size is the consequence of the big vocal pouch below the throat. Also notice how the Howler's tail and legs are shorter, less spidery, than the Spider's.
In the above picture, notice the hump on the lower monkey's back. At first I thought it might be some kind of tumor, but once the monkey stopped climbing suddenly the lump sprouted appendages and rose up, a moment caught in the photo at https://www.backyardnature.net/n/19/190406mm.jpg
It's a baby monkey riding the mother's back, and what fun I had watching that baby work out its inner tensions, consisting of his uppers body wanting more than anything to latch onto tree limbs, chew on things and generally explore all aspects of limber tree limbs and feathery leaves, while his feet desperately wanted to hold onto mama. The mother from all appearances was paying no attention to the young one, seemingly fully confident that the kid could take care of himself. Another shot shows the young one leaning heavily on a stem, with the tail curled around it for extra security, at https://www.backyardnature.net/n/19/190406ml.jpg
At one point it appeared that the young one detached from the mother, shown at https://www.backyardnature.net/n/19/190406mn.jpg
But that foray was brief, quickly returning to mama's back.
The monkeys stayed in the Lysiloma acapulcensis for about 20 minutes, before drifting on. They were so dark that I couldn't make out whether they ever put anything in their mouths. Maybe they'd just climbed up there to dry out in the morning's first sun rays.
Back in the mid 1970s I served as naturalist on river trips to see archaeological ruins in this area, including a memorable four-day mule-train trip to the recently discovered El Mirador ruins in the northern Petén. I'm pretty sure that back then the blood-curdling roars of Howler Monkeys were not nearly as commonly heard as they are now. Today only a small part of the vast Petén forest remains, and I suspect that now the roaring is more commonplace because large numbers of monkeys have been forced into a few small refuges. Possibly they roar more throughout the day because they're feeling pressure from neighboring groups and need to make clear that they mean to defend their little spot of the forest.
I know of a couple of "restore the Howler Monkey" projects in the area, but habitat continues to be destroyed.
*****
AFTER NIRVANA, THE LAUNDRY
Before taking the overnight bus south for a new visa, I spent several hours with my philosopher friend Eric in Mérida. As usual, from his library Eric had gathered special books in which he thought I'd be interested and, as usual, thoughts in those books helped crystallize insights that lately I've been groping toward.
This time the books dealt largely with scientific studies finding more and more proofs of the existence of phenomena that are, perhaps, unbelievable. The field of quantum mechanics seems to be providing scientific underpinning for entire fields of inquiry and belief that I've always regarded as silly.
Maybe, after all, something can be in more than one place at the same time. Maybe, in certain instances, the future can be known, or, even more unthinkable, maybe the future, the past and the present are all the same thing. In a Universe with such attributes, the books asked, how can we simply dismiss the growing body of seemingly properly documented instances of mental telepathy, of reincarnation, and ESP? You might be stunned by what you read if you do an Internet search using keywords such as "scientific evidence ESP."
That night, waiting for the bus south to near the Guatemalan border, I felt a sense of returning home. For, I was born in a state of profound ignorance, then over the years I came to feel knowledgeable about some things, but when I began seriously to examine what knowledge I was really certain about, my sense of ignorance began returning. Now that I'm no longer even certain of my basic understandings of space and time, I have gone full circle and have returned home to my old awesome ignorance of certainties.
Yet, when I was born, already I was absolutely certain about a little -- the information encoded in my genes made it perfectly clear that I needed to suck milk and stay close to warm, soft flesh. Similarly, even now in my state of primal ignorance of certainties, I seem to enjoy a little innate certainty that might be analogous to certain knowledge encoded in my genes.
The thing I'm still sure about is that I have some kind of awareness, which I refer to as myself, and that something is going on beyond myself. In past Newsletters I've formulated that thought as, There's just One Thing, and "I" am a manifestation within that One Thing.
From thoughts found in Eric's books, and from my own gut feeling, I've decided that the One Thing I've gotten to know these 71 years of life can be visualized as information reacting with energy/matter. Since I am nested within the One Thing and have no say about the One Thing's manner of being, or its dealings with energy/matter, then if my existence is to make any sense at all, it must be because I have something to do with the Universe's information.
Therefore, during this trip I've decided with greater clarity than ever before that my job as a sentient being on Earth is to use my senses, mentality and feelings to recognize, think about and have feelings for my little part of the Creation. Maybe through a process possibly associated with ESP or mental telepathy -- if those things exist -- my data finds its way to One Thing headquarters. I am a nerve ending of the One Thing.
Thinking like this, our spiritual guidance from the One Thing concept blossoms when we accept that a moral code of behavior can be based on the necessity that we humans should think clearly and honestly, and always struggle to keep refining our senses. Even "commandments" can be formulated, such as "Thou shalt pay attention" and "Thou shalt think about things," and "sinfulness" can be ascribed to willful ignorance, boredom and lethargy.
But, I was saying that during this trip I returned to the near total state of ignorance of certainties with which I was born. I notice that this is the opposite of what I've always thought that nirvana would be like, which I visualized as an instantaneous glimpse of all knowledge and understanding.
But, in this Universe that's proving itself so nicely described by the surreal predictions of quantum mechanics, maybe the opposite of nirvana can be nirvana itself.
I like that idea, and think it fits cozily within my new/old frame of mind.
Also, I think that the old Buddhist masters knew about all this long ago. And in thinking that, I'm reminded of what a master once told his student who had just accomplished classical nirvana:
"After nirvana, the laundry," the master had said matter-of-factly.
Now that once again I am nearly emptied of certainties, except for the notion that I have a nerve-ending job to do for the One Thing, for me it's back to the identifying, learning about, thinking about, and telling you about the world around me.
*****
Best wishes to all Newsletter readers,
Jim
All previous Newsletters are archived at https://www.backyardnature.net/n/.
