Walking for peace
I've walked for peace and it's brought peace a long way. It's brought me a long way too, not just accross 2 continents but also to the innermost depths of my mind. Walking is my meditation. When you're crossing a country, a desert or a mountain range, the number of steps is fathomless... You'd go insane thinking about it. And what happens when you stop thinking about it? You start settling into... this very step you're taking. You observe your breath, you observe your body, and that's where you find the magical joy of now.
Writing for peace
The world has been so amazing to me that I feel like the least, and best, I can do is return the favor. Since day 1 of the walking trip, I've been documenting it by hand, hunched in my tent, in micro-sized journals packed with micro-sized text. The idea is to be able to share the magic of these experiences and what I have learnt from them, on peace, on happiness, on the beauty of mankind and our nature of goodwill, with readers everywhere.
What's been released?
For now, I'm at the eager beginnings of my publishing life and I've released one book, featuring a 1000 km walk from my current home in the Indian Himalayas, to Haridwar and back, where the Kumbha Mela was taking place: the world's largest gathering of renunciates and ascetic gurus.
The journey was undertaken without phones, money, or any form of transport other than our own two feet, and no means to survive other than the goodwill of the world and those we would meet along the way. Homeless, devoted to spirit, and living on alms, that makes us two little wandering monks.
This book is the story of what happens when you throw yourself into the unknown and choose to trust karma instead of money. To live like the Buddha's followers thousands of years back, to dedicate every step of the way to meditation, to awareness, to Yoga... Yoga not in its modern western sense, but Yoga in its most ancient and all-encompassing aspect - the inner journey to peace, to unconditional love, to happiness, to liberation.
If you like the gist of it, you can find the book here on Amazon. You can also download the PDF for free here, with an option to donate.
...and what's next?
Coming up soon is the tale of how I got to India in the first place. It started with a dream... Simply the kind of dream you get at night. I came to realize just how happy I was. Happy in almost every way you can imagine... but still... a speck. This one percent of fear, fear of death, of the unknown... we could call it the ego. This fear became a dark vortex into which I fell down, landing on a stone floor. A bit troubled, I raised my head and saw a monk in burgundy robes, sitting there in utter peace. Without a word, he stood up and headed eastwards. He was showing me the path.
The next morning, I started building a hand-pulled cart and getting rid of all the belongings that wouldn't fit inside. The start of a pilgrimage: a journey where the destination is rather an excuse, and the goal is the path itself... the journey becomes a meditation, revealing it's real purpose, revealing the purpose of life.
In awe at the beauty of the world, I pulled my 80 kg load through Europe and the Middle East, crossing deserts, jungles, and snowy mountain ranges... but even more beautiful was the vastness of the human heart, for it is thanks to mankind's intrinsic kindness that I made it through such barren lands alive at all. My survival depended on people's generosity, who would endlessly offer food, water, hospitality, and even money to a stranger in the middle of nowhere. And these offerings would come daily.
After 18 countries crossed in 4 years of walking, I reached the Indian Himalayas bathing in wonder and gratitude. This book is a testimonial of the kindness of the world that offered me the invaluable gift of such a pilgrimage, and a day-to-day narrative of the life-changing experiences that come from a lifestyle based on trust in the Earth and love of its people.