Nirvana Tonic – A Cruise on the River Kwai (with podcast)

Posted on September 22, 2005

Nirvana Tonic
A Cruise on the River Kwai
Story, photos, audio and video Â©2005 Russell Johnson
Audio MP3 5:09
Video: Windows Media
Video: Windows Media HDTV (130MB)
(Do not attempt to download this unless you have a very fast DSL or Cable connection and a very fast computer with a 1280 x 720 or better monitor)

I am a river rat. Not a rafter, but a lollygaging Huck Finn kinda swamp rodent who likes to flow with the current and poke around the slough. Lord Buddha describes The Dharma as a raft that floats one to Nirvana. A few days on a river and I find myself paddling pretty close to a perfect state of bliss.

I love jungle rivers, draped with serpentine vines (not to mention envined serpents) where steam rises in the morning, macaques squawk and shake their hairy little fists, insects whine like powertools and plumy birds, aloft and aloof, snub me as a lower form of life while I stare at them in admiration.

Thailand’s Kwae Noi, better known as the River Kwai, is such a river…MORE