Why am I writing this blog?

I have to admit to a chronic fascination with the Silk Road- not just the idea of the trade routes (which is amazing on its own) but mostly with the cultural exchange that occurred along these ancient pathways between civilizations. The silk road was not just a conduit for goods but it was the living heart of world civilization. Not civilizations really, but civilization. It was the central nervous system of a vast network of peoples and places. It was the center of global hive mind. It was the conduit for countless cultural, religious, intellectual, and material innovations, but people think of it as a trade route (of course it was that as well).

The silk road began in ancient Iran as the Persian Royal road, during the Achaemenid Dynasty, in 500 BC, (https://www.ancient.eu/Silk_Road/) and became famous during the era of Han China in 130 BC, but in fact some form of these routes of exchange had existed from long before. Humans have always exchanged goods and ideas, and people have always moved around. Migrations have been endless throughout the long stretches of human history and prehistory.

The most famous place you could start for this history is with the conquest of Alexander the Great all the way from Macedonia to Afghanistan and India. His armies established a Greek dynasty in what is now Northern Pakistan and in Bactria (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Greek_Kingdom). From that time on the Greeks in Bactria continued to be in constant contact with the Greeks back home, exchanging ideas. In fact the Greeks of this region were still writing in contemporary Greek in the 300s CA (find source). During the Kushan dynasty, an important Central Asian dynasty, Greek influences persisted for almost 1000 years after the time of Alexander (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushan_Empire). The Kushan era is a fascinating thing to learn about! The syncretic culture of the Kushans is something to marvel at, and something that has had vast influence on many cultures, including our own in the West, in ways you wouldn’t believe, and you probably haven’t even heard of them.

The incredible thing about the silk road, and the example set by the Kushans, is that this trade route, and these people, set us high bar for openness to exchange on every front. These people, more like peoples, were located in the world’s preeminent crossroads and borrowed liberally from everybody they came into contact with, fusing them together into something greater than any of the parts. The took in Greek learning, logic, art, and formal philosophy; mixed it with Indian, Persian, Chinese, and Shamanistic traditions, and created a vibrant and prosperous civilization that everybody borrowed from. They hosted a commercial trade system based out of Buddhist monasteries (the location of many caravanserais) and used it to produce a beautiful cultural synthesis.

The example set by this empire and this ancient trade route gives us a model for a new way of seeing and living in our own world today.

We live in a time of immense change, when ancient barriers between societies are falling at a rate that it’s hard to keep up with. People have a hard time knowing who they are anymore. If everything I wear is from China or Peru; the movies and TV I watch are made who knows where; my food comes from everywhere; the music I listen to and hear around me comes from everywhere; the ideas I read on the internet come from everywhere; and new technology arriveses seemingly daily from these same places, am I really from my home anymore? I might be an American from Los Angeles in theory, but is that who I am anymore? Am I an Irishman; a Yankee ex-pat; a Californian; a Liberal; an Angeleno? A Buddhist?

It used to be that you knew who you were, but no longer. Nationalists are trying to send us backwards into our old comprehensive identities in order to get rid of this question, but that doesn’t seem productive to me- I think it is more likely to make things worse.

As a resident of a very multicultural place (Los Angeles) and a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Tibetan Buddhism, I have had to ask myself these questions many times. How do I see myself? I have had to wrestle with this question plenty, and over time I have found a way of looking at this that works for me, and I think that many others have sensed the same answer, even if they don’t have the words for it.

The answer is to develop Silk Road Consciousness, and to see things from the Silk Road view of the world (https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2016/02/25/new-silk-road-china-world-history). Then, whatever you do, you are already home.

We lack a perspective that lets all of these different parts make sense- they are all seemingly disconnected. But from the Silk Road View they are all parts of the same whole. All of these cultures and ways of thinking are branches of the same tree. Rather than living your life on a branch, move your consciousness to the trunk and you’ll never be lost.

There are untold fascinating things to explore with this awareness; lots of adventure and mystery; lots of romantic places and tasty foods; and lots of exciting ways to look at things. You can also learn about some amazing places and histories you’ve never heard of before.

So my objective in this blog is to unpack this vision and to help you explore how to live your life from this perspective. Along the way there are so many fun things to learn about.

I hope you enjoy the adventure!