In Pursuit of Mysteries

Tulum Ruins

Tonight is our last night in Tulum, Mexico. We’ll spend the night here and then drive to the ruins of Coba in the morning. Following that, we’re driving to Merida, the capitol of the Yucatan province.

Today, we took things casually. Mostly we swam, hung out at the bungalow and got massages. In a little while, we’re going to a sweat lodge run at the site here.

I’ve uploaded a bunch of pictures from the first two days to Flickr. Here is one:

Arrived in Tulum

We took the red eye flight to the East Coast and flew from Charlotte to Cancun. We then got our rental car, fended off the hard sell for tours from the car people, and drove an hour and a half to Tulum.

We have occasional internet access if I wander into the main lobby and ask for the ethernet cable. I probably will do that once or twice a day as we’re waiting to see if our house offer was accepted. I may upload some photos over the next few days too.

Other than that, we’re wiped and just getting our little bungalow on the beach. Time for a nap.

Some Thesis Difficulties Resolved

I received a reply from my thesis mentor today that seems to resolve some of my concerns. He did not address my reply point by point but sent me a briefer response since I pointed out that I was leaving town for a week and a half tonight.

Thank you for your detailed response to my remarks. You are very generous with your time and energy and I appreciate it. I’m not too sure that I needed reassurance but I am certainly impressed with your seriousness and with your depth of knowledge concerning the subject matter, far deeper than my own. My question about your stance and tone was intended as a warning flare, a way of alerting us that the hermetic tradition does not view truth as coin that can be passed simply from hand to hand but requires transformational effort from the student, an effort powered by faith. As Augustine said, we must believe in order to understand. In any case, you have clearly stated your own position on this and I have full confidence that you will produce a thesis from which I will learn a great deal. Have a safe trip

This is somewhat reassuring that I am not going to have a great degree of trouble working with him. The matter of truth as a coin to be passed back and forth (or not) is an interesting point. I’m not sure that I entirely agree concerning the tradition though it is clearly true to some degree.