Michal Trpák, „Looking for happiness”, instalacja na ulicy Odborů. Praga 2014

„All my old fears and concerns weren’t solved, they were just meaningless. I understood that my anxiety of ‘the mud’ the malaria and the mosquitos and the bugs, were just me failing to realize that I was the mud too! Those organisms are in me and around me like the water itself, and while sometimes they may get out of balance, the body can find ways to bring the harmony back, as long as it is conscious. I remember receiving a small jungle banana, and it was a feast worthy of a king. The embrace of an old friend had the electricity of the touch of a new lover. If someone would have dropped a solid beat, ecstatic dance was a in the aether. After hours that felt like a joyful millennia, we packed back up into the canoe to travel the rivers home at dusk.

And so the medicine began to change. The reflections on the water blended into the empty spaces of tree and sky and it felt as if we were floating along the divide between water and air. It was a visual metaphor of the principle of non-duality. From that vantage of the canoe, the perspective of spirit, there was no real difference between the elemental forces. And yet from the perspective of life there was indeed a difference. A phrase got stuck in my head, that I’m not even sure I understand fully yet. I kept saying over and over to myself, ‘Life is the ecstasy of dichotomy’.”

Aubrey Marcus, Huachuma Mesada. A Journey Beyond Fearlessness.