The Buddha gave many important sermons on the impermanent nature of feelings and thoughts. The Portrait of Enlightened Man in front of his food stall One of the most enlightened folks I met in the Camino was a former pilgrim who now just lives along the way in a hut for the past decade, serving pilgrims with fruits and coffee, charging them nothing, making enough from donations to serve food the next day. But sometimes, I second-guess our drifting life, especially after kids. My wife and I are minimalists at heart and have never bought a house or a car or much stuff living off little more than a backpack. One change of clothes is all you need to live. You strip the contents of your backpack to nothing but a change of clothes and the barest gear since even 1 kilogram of extra weight is the difference between enjoying a pleasant hike and feeling like a beast of burden. I loved the simplicity of the pilgrim’s way. More than the natural beauty though, the Camino de Santiago ranks right up there with 30-Day Yoga Teacher’s Training and multiple 10-day silent Vipassana meditation retreats, as one of my most profound life experiences for more personal reasons: 5:30a.m in the Spanish countryside-Overwhelmed with Beauty One day, early in the morning in the plains, my eyes teared up at the first light of dawn, so overwhelming was the beauty around me. The landscape changes daily from misty mountains in France to the dreaded flat “Meseta” plains in Spain, then ancient, picturesque Spanish villages and iconic modern cities like Pampalona and Burgos. I’ve hiked a fair amount and the Camino De Santiago is as rich and varied scenery as I’ve traversed. As an aside, please drop me a note in the comments if you want any Buddhist reading recommendations-they that’ve had a very profound impact on my life this year. I was pulled urgently to the walk now in 2022, for example, given both my transition from the corporate/startup world to a potential path in the public sector and the time to reflect on the Buddhist text I’ve been reading very actively this year. Today, people walk for a variety of reasons, and based on the hundreds of pilgrims I met along the way I’d split as follows:Ĥ0% : People-in-major-transitions – Folks changing careers, seeking meaning and revitalisation after retirement or divorce, or generally questioning the apparent meaninglessness of the birth-life-death cycle.Ģ0%: Challenge Seekers – People seeking to challenge themselves by pushing the limits of how much they can walk and how much pain they can endure.Ģ0%: Deepening Christian faith- A notable number of people I met were Catholics looking to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ.ġ0%: Celebrating Relationships – Families, spouses, or friends walking together in small groups, enjoying the dedicated time together.ġ0% Camino Loyalists- People who fall in love with the picturesque Spanish countryside, the community of pilgrims, the health benefits of walking, and the time to reflect–and keep returning every few years. I hope this blog can inspire some of you to make the journey as a pay-it-forward to the unknown gentleman who inspired me: Quick Background: What is the Camino De Santiago?įrom medieval times, Christian pilgrims have walked from their homes to the cathedral of Saint James in Santiago de Compostela as a pilgrimage, a penance, and a religious experience. But last month, more than a decade later, after I’d first planned to do it, I was fortunate to walk the full 800-kilometer pilgrimage solo, thanks to my wife’s support in taking care of the kids in this time. Life came in the middle–jobs, startups, kids. My mother had recently passed away from cancer. I’m not religious in the conventional sense, but his energy filled up the room so much that I felt I was having a religious experience that day. His face lit up as he talked about the physical hardship of the journey, the hospitality of the churches who opened their doors to pilgrims each night, and the deep sense of community among travelers from all over the world walking for weeks on the same physical and spiritual path. A seventy-year-old French artist was making a presentation about his Camino pilgrimage in the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts in New York one night. I was pulled to the Camino De Santiago, the 800-kilometer walking pilgrimage from the Pyrenees mountains in France to the town of Santiago De Compostela in Spain, the moment I’d first heard of it in 2011.
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