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 two continents but also to the depths of my mind. Walking is 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... the 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 I can do is return the favor. Since day one of the walking trip, I've been documenting it by hand, hunched in my tent, in miniature journals packed with microscopic 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.
The saga begins
'To India on Foot' describes the original journey. My first pilgrimage 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, 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.
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.
In awe at the beauty of the world, I pulled my 80-kg load through Europe and the Middle East, crossing deserts, jungles, city squares and snowy mountains... but 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 came from a lifestyle based on trust in the Earth and love of its people.
As a pledge to better myself and hopefully the world around me, all my work is based on donations. I give the digital versions for free, and the paperbacks are available online at near-printing price. If you like what I do, feel free to donate ♡
What else has been released?
The next two books feature pilgrimages throughout India, undertaken without phones, money, or any form of transport other than two feet, and no means to survive other than the goodwill of the world and those I would meet along the way.
'Two Little Wandering Monks' portrays 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. Homeless, devoted to spirit, and living on alms, that made 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 India's truth-seekers 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.
Here's another crazy journey but this time focused closely on the Buddha's teachings: a three-month walk across the breadth of India, treading the Buddha's own footsteps and culminating in Bodhgaya, the most revered Buddhist pilgrimage site where he reached enlightenment 2'500 years ago.
The walk itself, however, was merely an excuse to tread an inner journey, which included carrying the sutras - a collection of the Buddha's words as closely as we have ever recalled them - and putting my entire being into applying them at every step. Breathing them in, breathing them out, seeing them, hearing them, eating them, sleeping them, living them, meditating them... and seeing how it would change my life.