See Tikal in the Northeatern Region of Guatemala? That, my friends, is the jungle. It is also the site of the most famous of Mayan Ruins, Tikal, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.Actually, Mayan civilations were Indiana Jones´ specialty. Being a child of the eighties, I had to check them out. Being a devout follower of Indiana Jones, I was more than a little interested in seeing the place where the ball rolls out of nowhere to smush him. Sadly, that section of the ruin has been closed off to the public.
But Tikal, Tikal. It was my first experience with an ancient civilization that actually built giant things. I have done some research on the Anasazi and Pueblos in Colorado and New Mexico, first on family vacation and second when I lived in Colorado, but their ruins are nothing compared to the Mayans. These people built, with their bare hands, temples...the one in the picture above is 230 feet high. Thats the size of 2 rolls of toilet paper, mas o menos. Wow!
My guide was a Guatemalan born man who grew up in Brooklyn, Caesar. Caesar told me that because there was no river in the area, meaning that there was no water for the people to drink, and because there were relatively few trees to use to haul the limestone slabs that were used to create the structures, the Mayan rulers had to make it easy-ish for the workers to create the pyramids. The slabs of stone that were used were the size of an arm, about a cubit (they were used in both ancient Egypt and ancient Central America), and easy enough to carry by hand...the rulers were power hungry, he told us. They tortured their own people, warred with other tribes, they were cruel. Seeing a masterpiece like Tikal, it was difficult to imagine ruthlessness, but it is also difficult to imagine something of that magnitude being built without it. It is the skyscraper of yesterday, holding up on high the powerful and rich...
The problem with being at Tikal in the middle of the day is that there are tons of people, and all they want to do is take pictures. They snap a couple and walk to the next site - do they get their $15 worth? Probably, I guess. Im pretty sure that in order to get to know a place, really, you have to sit quietly with it, feel its power. When you walk so fast and talk so much to the person sitting next to you, how can you hear the sacred, the age, the place speaking to you?
I sat at the bottom of Templo IV (the one in the picture), lay in the grass looking up at it and tried to imagine the Maya living there...they were tall, apparently. They were tall and wore a breastplate and skirt over their dark sculpted bodies, and feather headdresses and jewelery - jade and obsidian.
The Mayans had a totally different concept of death than we do: they were not afraid of it. Rather, they welcomed it, especially as a sign of nobility or honor, and as some sort of culmination of a spiritual search.
It is interesting that despite the concepts of heaven and of hell that we suck on like lollipops in our Christian culture, we are still afraid of death. Even though probably heaven and hell were created to deal with our fear of death, they dont work enough that we welcome it like the Mayans...Could it be that Christianity is no longer enough? That the story we have been given doesnt satiate us - that we dont trust the religion that we have created any longer?
That was some of the diary that I wrote the day after I left Tikal. Some interesting things happened to me there, including an invite to sleep at the top of Templo IV on the full moon...something that Im sure that hardly anyone in the world has done. The only problem is that to do it I would have to sleep with the guide...so I bet that the only people that have slept there have been women in their 20s!
If you are interested in more information about the Mayans or Tikal, check out the Tikal or Maya Civilization wikipedia articles. If you want even more, contact me and I will surely send you information.
The thing is, after I witnessed Tikal, I did not want to study spanish any longer- I wanted to stay there forever. There is something magical about that place...
You wanted to stay there forever? Guess what? I think you experienced eternity!!! You only get to when you sit quiet and listen for it (as you stated) and sometimes it beats you over the head so that you don't think you are bigger than it.
ReplyDeleteEternity, Lora! You felt it in that place. You know it in your heart. You get to have it forever!
WHOA! Those are awesome photos. Thank you for not sleeping with the tour guide guy. I think it's time we Americans brought the breastplate back.
ReplyDeleteno, no, no...i didnt take those pictures, novio! google did.
ReplyDeleteLora: I want to comment on your heaven and hell ideas. Are you ready?!
ReplyDeleteI also think that Heaven and Hell were enough before our scientific age. I believe that now, since we are such a 'seeing is believe' culture, we are afraid because we have no proof of what lies after death. And if nothing lies after death, then our lives are meaningless. We cannot account for why we are 'special' (ie conscious of our own existence) and that terrifies us. So, naturally, we explain that speciality with Religion and that gives us a purpose. But what happens when the purpose (going to heaven) goes away?! We are left in a world where we mean nothing. Our lives are time specks on the timeline of the universe. And we can't deal with not being special.
So now, in our world of atoms and molecules and experiments, we want to see Heaven or Hell. We want proof that there is something after. So I think, essentially, you're right in saying that Christianity ins't enough, but I'll ammend that into saying that Faith isn't enough. We want proof. We want a signed and sealed acceptance into Heaven so that we know what's out there.
Very very cool! I can't wait to hear all about this! Love you
Like 90 proof? LOL
ReplyDeleteThe proof is in the moment! The proof is accepting that everything and all eternity exists in this very moment. And in experiencing the smallest of moments we heed to eternity which is far greater than humans can fully comprehend. We try to prove greatness when faith is proven in smallness.
Faith is knowing there is no human concept of heaven and hell--instead something much greater. A split second experienced fully is an experience of eternity. Faith is knowing that proof lives in each one of our existences. Proof is letting go of proving.
Once you experience this letting go of a need to know or prove everything, then you have faith.
Even when studying faith from ancient cultures they had concepts of an afterlife or heaven and hell as stated. But in their highest sense of "being" they also practiced the need to let go of proof in order to have faith. Existing in the spiritual dimension has always been recognized and sought. Our technology, in my opinion, isn't superior. Science continually tries to prove eternal existence and "being". Science, to me, is a form of faith. So many of the great scientists realize that there are proofs to be discovered but all the answers will never be proven or there would, ultimately, no longer be science (the need for proofs).
Could it be, instead, that science is a form of faith? And the only signed sealed acceptance of afterlife is recognizing that there are proofs all around us of something so much greater than the human race?
Monday morning coffee reflections.
P.S.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to eliminate my comment if it doesn't make sense! ;) Like I said, me + Mondays + coffee=pensando demasiado!