I join three other travelers from the "house for all" to go to the famous sulphur baths of Tblisi. I am tired and hungry and get somewhat impatient while waiting for one of the group to join us. I want to go to the baths fast to have something to eat afterwards and don't expect anything special from going there.
On finally entering one of the bath complexes I marvel at the mosaic floors and ceilings. Men and women enter nude into separate halls. A pungent smell of old eggs greets me on entering the bathing hall. I am delighted: this is real! One showers with the hot sulphur water and on entering the bath every single cell of the body switches to instant meditation. Its like an enormous physical weight has been lifted off the body. I am told that a man recently died here from heart failure. The atmosphere is necessarily absolutely relaxed. I feel one-hundred-fold repaid for waiting. I was planning to leave the next day to an organic farm in the east; now I am ready to remain in Tblisi for another week.
In the changing hall tea or vodka are offered. While changing, a man asks me whether I liked the baths. I tell him that it makes me think of what I know of the social life of ancient Greece in which the public baths and gymnasiums were a central point of meeting relaxing and socializing, all nude, with no barriers, where homage was paid to the natural beauty, strength and health of the human body.
"People today forget about the importance of relaxing" David replies "They continue blindly in their course of actions. But without relaxation they cease to be productive and loose their sense of direction."
You talk to countless people over the course of the week, month or year perhaps, but sometimes, in rare occasions, you may encounter an expression, a phrase, which hits you, which really penetrates right down to your center. Davids expression in the moment does just that. I let it remain in awareness to digest, to let it spread, give shoots and grow.
"It is like breathing" I add "You need to breath in to be able to breath out."
"To be able to really relax; It is a big secret in fact." David says.
David is an opera singer at the Tblisi Opera. He live and sang in London for 16 years.
The following day decide to visit Mtskheta, few kilometers north of Tblisi, the Vatican of the Georgian Orthodox church. I encounter a town which looks like a movie is about to be shot there. The facades are brand new and not a person seems to inhabit the rooms behind them. Vistors are lead in a neat, sterile path from the huge parking lot to the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral. The Jvari Church overlooking Mtskheta from a hill in contrast retains a unique atmosphere. It was erected on the place of an ancient Zoroastrian temple.
I hitchike back to Tblisi with Stefan Waldner from Vienna, a psychiatrist. He seems touched by my experiences of traveling.
"It is great to hear of life-styles and communities apart from the mainstream homogeneity. It reminds me that society actually functions on many levels, that it is structured vertically, as well as horizontally." he says.
"What do you mean with vertical and horizontal structure?"
"Well, in the mainstream society..."
"...that which is shaped by the images of media..." I interject
"...yes that is truly so...in this society the movements one does are very much limited, bound so to say, to the same layer, the horizontal plane. This is the same on any other level of society of course, since all such levels or groupings need to retain homogeneity."
"Why so? I would think that homogeneity is exactly what many of these groupings are in opposition to?" I ask
"Well no. A degree of homogeneity is normal, its essential, otherwise these groups would simply be absorbed in a grouping which expresses some degree of it. Its the definition of the group, however strict or lax this homogeneity might be."
Stefan talks of his own life-experience:
"I find myself upholding several circles of acquaintances, living and interacting in several spheres of ideals and world-views. Perhaps the largest challenge is to coordinate these in life."
"The key is integration" I reply "And the sole element through which integration occurs is your Self."
"That is definitely so."
"Only the intellect compartmentalizes and conceptualizes. I would say that there is in fact no opposition, or separation between the circles of friends and spheres of thought you seem to move about in."
"But none-the-less there are certain forms one needs to conform to if one wants to be part of a particular grouping. I imagine for example that I would have my difficulties in being instantly recognized as one of the members in an event like the Rainbow Gathering. The forms of different groupings may be in stark opposition to one another." Stefan says
I smile "The very definition of such communities and gatherings, which are defined by a 'hippie-philosophy', is the total and absolute respect for and acceptance of all forms and mentalities, as long as these are not opposed to the foundation of love, peace and respect. You would never be seen as somebody 'outside' in the Rainbow Gathering, no matter what your form, behavior or appearance might be."
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