Tag Archives: spirituality

Mindfulness on a Modern Camino

Posted on by under Adventure Travel, camino de santiago, CaminodeSantiago, Hiking, spain, spirituality, travel

As I left Santiago and headed down the Camino Frances, I thought of the struggles I might face on the way. Walking backwards might not only pose a bit of a navigation problem, but as a fairly introverted person I feared it might get rather isolated with no way to make a Camino family. Turns out neither of those worries would be a problem because a) turns out tracking 1000’s of people is really easy, and b) it was really easy to struck up conversations with people knowing I would never see them again. What I wasn’t prepared for was the sheer number of pilgrims on the trail and the logistical problems that resulted. Even at it’s busiest after crossing the Portugal/Spain border, the number of pilgrims on the Camino Portuguese paled in comparison to what I would face on the Camino Frances, and as I headed against the crowds, the number of pilgrims seemed to multiply by the day as I was headed straight into one of the busiest months on the Camino, not to mention by year end 2016 would mark the most pilgrims on the Camino in recorded history (~278 000). The official number of pilgrims that arrived to Santiago via the Camino Frances the month I was walking was 21, 309, meaning that on average I was crossing paths with 710 pilgrims per day!

The number of pilgrims walking the trail had doubled in a short seven years, and as I began the Camino Frances I quickly learned that the number of albergues and beds were hard pressed to keep up with the hundreds of pilgrims on the Camino per day. This shortage (or perceived threat of shortage) created a rat race culture on the Camino; pilgrims would wake up at ungodly hours in the morning and rush to the next albergue to ensure they got a good bed, and after 3PM I was lucky if I was to come across a pilgrim on the trail. While the Camino Portuguese had more of a laid back atmosphere, we rarely booked beds in advance, were in bed by 10PM, or out of bed by 8AM, the Camino Frances had a somewhat militant structure. The accommodation created a culture on the Camino Frances that to me, was all to similar to the culture than many pilgrims were trying to and needed to get away from in their daily lives. At home, many have a fairly strict schedule leaving little room for the unknown, and on the Camino with morning wake up, departure, and arrival times strictly planned out, many pilgrims were allowed to continue on with their habitual routines, allowing the Camino to pass under their feet in a haze.

My first stay in an albergue on the Camino Frances, I would be irritatingly woken up at 4:30 AM by the “bag rustlers” shining their lights and packing up to head out for the day, falling back asleep I would be rudely awoken at 7:30AM by the receptionist and informed that all pilgrims must be out of the albergue by 8 AM! This I had most definitely not signed up for. I am not a morning person so I was pretty peeved to learn that on my vacation I would have start setting an alarm. As I made no move to get out of bed calculating I could sleep for another 20 minutes and make it out by 8, the clearly thought otherwise as she looked dubiously at my belongings that were strewn on top of my bag. What she didn’t know that my bag was similar to a children’s puzzle, and while it may look like it would take a bit of time to put together to someone who hadn’t seen the picture on the puzzle box,  I could put my bag together in about 5 minutes.

The number of pilgrims on the Camino France route and resultant culture was so overwhelming, that after a few days on the trail some pilgrims would hop a bus and start down a different route to Santiago such as the Camino del Norte or the Via de la Plata. If you’re looking for a quiet enjoyable hike that may be a fine thing to do, but if you are doing a pilgrimage it is important to trust that everything on the Camino is exactly as it should be for your journey. For myself although there would be some growing pains and grumpy early mornings as I got used to the Camino Frances, I knew that if I was mindful enough there were lessons one could learn that could only be taught through crossing paths with 100’s of pilgrims everyday on the path. As I worked to change my perspective of the number of pilgrims on the Camino from negative to positive, I realized that the growing number of pilgrims in recent years was a reflection of our modern lives. With internet we find ourselves interconnected with more and more people than ever before, with social media we may interact with 100’s or 1000’s of people a day when pre-internet we would be lucky to talk to 20 people a day. It was only fitting that the Camino had changed over the years to mirror this. Much like the Camino, in our lives we can choose to distance ourselves from others and try to hack it on our own, or we can use the increased interconnectedness to our advantage.

On the Camino Portuguese I had learned not to rush from point A to point B, and the Camino Frances tested this as I tried not to worry about arriving to albergues early enough to ensure a bed. It was a practice in releasing control and having faith that everything would work out, something easier said than done. Luckily, I had brought an air mattress, so I knew if worst came to worst I could sleep on a floor or outside, and with this backup I was able to step away from the bed races and hike the Camino on my time. As it would turn out, despite some late arrivals after 6PM, I always managed to find a bed! I would end up using my air mattress to camp out some nights, but that was a result of deciding I would camp when I set out that day, not due being turned away at albergues. It was amazing how having a little faith could reduce so much of the stress and worry that many pilgrims had on the trail. Once I stepped out of the Camino rat race, I had very little worries and my Camino experience would transform for the better in other ways as well.

While many pilgrims on the trail could be heard complaining about the sheer mass of people on a narrow trail (especially after Sarria, the 200 km point and last place to start the Camino to receive a compastella). As I was hiking in the reverse direction, if anyone was going to have a right to have an annoyance at the number of pilgrims on the trail it would be me but I was having a completely different experience! Though I had to leave most albergues by 8AM, I would usually only hike to the nearest cafe to get a tea, only really starting on the Camino by 9AM and being out of the bed races meant I could hike well into the afternoon, often stopping between 5 and 6PM. While I would pass many pilgrims in the morning, often getting weary of the pilgrim’s greeting on the trail when passing of “Buen Camino” as going in reverse I passed every single pilgrim, after 12PM pilgrims on the trail tapered off significantly. By 2PM I often found myself hiking in solitude for hours, enjoying the mild May temperatures and beautiful scenery in complete silence. One didn’t need to uproot and head to Santiago on a completely different route to find solitude, all one really needed to do was change their approach and one could find all the solitude in the world on the Camino Frances.

Potential pilgrims often find themselves turned off of doing the Camino Frances route because of the numbers and stories that circulate the internet. For myself, the Camino Frances was exactly as it needed to be for me to learn what I was supposed to learn on it. It is challenging to maintain mindfulness on the modern Camino Frances, more so than quieter routes such as the Camino Portuguese, but not in a bad way.  If one can learn to maintain mindfulness on the Camino Frances, they will be better prepared to maintain that mindfulness as they return to the hustle and bustle of their homes. For some it may be too overwhelming to start on the Camino Frances and like myself it may be better to start on a quieter route before heading down the Camino Frances, but I strongly recommend not to completely discount it based on the number of pilgrims walking it. Even if it is not clearly describable why, there is a reason it was in medieval times and still is the most traveled pilgrimage route and the Camino Frances will always be a special experience whether there are 1, 1000, or 100 000 pilgrims on the way.

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What I Learned

Posted on by under Adventure Travel, India, spirituality, travel

When I decided to make India a stop on my tour this year, it was to try to find out why Steve Jobs and other famous people like the Beetles attributed their time in India so much to their successes. On the day I was flying out to India, I was discussing with my friend who was giving me a ride to the airport why I chose India. They asked me, if Steve Jobs was so successful and spiritually in-tune, why did so many people not like working with him?  At the time I didn’t have a good answer, but the question stuck in my head. Was it that Steve Jobs didn’t find his success by following his interests and passions, but by using and abusing people like many CEOs of large corporations? I based my trip to India on the fact that Jobs had said it was influential for his career and I was desperately seeking some type of insight into my career path, but was I idolizing the wrong person? Through my time in India, I found an answer to my friends question of the validity of Steve Jobs’ success, an answer which would also prove insightful at a scale beyond just my career path.

First, what comes to mind when you think of someone who is successful? People’s answer to this question will vary slightly but most likely involve an aspect of 1.financial security and status 2. physical appearance and 3. having a spouse with the first trait (if you’re a woman) and the second trait (if you’re a man).  To be a success, one must be head of a multi-million dollar company, liked by all who meet them, have invitations to dinner with royalty, married to someone deemed physically attractive, and have 2.5 kids, all who are in the 95th percentile, and master’s at the cello and signed by a professional sports team at age 12. We rarely judge someones success based on their personal fulfillment, society will always see someone who lives in a log cabin without electricity as less successful as someone in a multi-million dollar house.

I spent a year living in the UK and couldn’t believe how much people were limiting themselves based on societal ideals (probably a problem in every first world area including my home, but easier to see as a foreigner coming in). From going to a proper pre-school to living in the right neighborhood to having a specific accent to looking to the royals for what to wear, lives were cookie cutter and full of how things needed to be done, leaving no room for people to follow their intuition and find true personal success outside the box. I found it interesting coming across an article studying graduates from Universities across the UK, how those who went to lower class Universities had more career and financial success than those at the prestigious ones. Why? Because the graduates from the lower class grew up with less of the pressure of the “proper” (and often expensive) way to approach life, and could think outside the box. More of these graduates started up their own businesses and took career risks, while the prestigious grads having had their life mapped out for them since birth didn’t have the same out of box thinking style required to be successful once out into the world. Having a strong ideal of what success looks like and how to achieve it ultimately inhibited ever being successful. Now what does any of this actually have to do with my time in India, spirituality, and Steve Jobs?

Lots. These ideals and mimicry of deemed successful attributes are not only limited to the un-spiritual western world, but very prevalent in the world of spirituality. In India this mimicry was often very visible, with physical appearance closely tied with spiritual practice. In the Hindu culture, the color saffron color represented purity and non-attachment and thus saffron colored robes were worn by many following the path of spirituality (or pretending to for begging reasons). I seemed to be the only one who found the irony of being attached to wearing a color to symbolize non-attachment completely comical. If one has reached the spiritual state of non-attachment to the material world, would what color they wear remotely concern them? There is also a strong stigma around a spiritual master and what they can and cannot do; they must be celibate, have no earthly desires, and can never make a mistake. We hold on to these almost impossible ideals of what is necessary to be spiritual, then find ourselves discouraged when we fail to meet them. We think we should see white light and auras, talk with other consciousnesses, and have no desires when we reach a spiritual state, and in our journey when we don’t experience these things we worry and think we are not on the right track.

These spiritual ideals are no different than the western ideals of success, and their impact on our lives and actions are one of the same (we just think we are better off than the guy taking a loan out to buy a fancy new car). The ideals lead us astray and away from our intuition. Spirituality has many different faces, and wearing a orange robe chanting mantras everyday will not make you more spiritual if the reason for the action is based in fear. Many people will feel stuck in their life and/or spiritual practice and think that is has nothing to do with their actions, that it is the universe playing some cruel joke or that they are just destined to lead an average life. Being stuck is actually a sign your making the wrong decisions, rather than your choices being based on your intuition and personal truth they are shrouded with what you think is needed. Its like solving a basic math problem, but instead of reading that its a + sign, you think its a – sign as someone told you their problem had been a +. Though you are trying to solve the problem, you are only getting further from the answer. The problem is not changing or getting harder with every attempt you make, you just keep repeating the same mistake and getting frustrated that you still haven’t gotten the right answer without ever properly reading the question.

So should we really be looking at Steve Job’s external life as a measure of his success? Is a spiritual master less of a master if he doesn’t walk around in an orange robe? What I realized what the most important was to look at how he lived life. He never set out with the intention to become a billionaire, and that is probably the biggest reason he did end up so financially successful. He didn’t build any of his products with the goal of making the most profit he could, he made the products as innovative as possible with a complete disregard for costs. He did the best he could in that moment without thinking of what future gains or falls it might bring (and yes, some of his choices ended up being poor, but instead of regretting them he saw them for the value they served for learning). As per being liked by his peers, from a psychological standpoint one of the first signs of success will be having people strongly dislike you. Dislike has nothing to do with the person you have that feeling towards, but stems from yourself. To have a strong dislike of a person is a reflection of yourself, that person is exhibiting a trait you hold yourself back from embracing. Many find themselves jealous of successful people following their dreams and passions as they are too afraid to follow their own.

What I learned is to let go of the idea of what success or spirituality looks like, to learn as much as I can at every opportunity without wondering when and how it might benefit me in the future. To make choices based on the best I can do at the present moment in time, not basing a choice for some possible outcome that may come as a result. How often we think in stories when making decisions in any aspect of our life; if I do this, then this will happen, then this will happen, then this, and then I will be happy. Lots of times this happens subconsciously if we haven’t put the self work in and started to understand the basis of why we do and think what we do. How often do things go to plan and we even get to that second story layer, the first then this will happen? Never. Life is unpredictable and changes rapidly. All we can do is make the best choice right now.

A Disclaimer

Posted on by under Adventure Travel, ayahuasca, Peru, Shamanism, spirituality, travel

Before I introduce you to the concept of Amazonian shamans and my experiences with them, I want to get you thinking about modern day science in a somewhat critical light. We live in a day and age of science, with the vast technology at our disposal we can observe tiny elements like electrons and measure electromagnetic waves unseen to the naked eye.  From these observations we come up with theories for how the world works. These theories turn into laws using the scientific experimental method where if a theory, after extensive testing under a variety of conditions holds true becomes a law. We fail to realize that there may exist a situation in which the theory fails, but we don’t have the ability or knowledge to test the theory in that situation. Talk to a research quantum physics scientist and they will probably tell you that our current understanding of our world covers less than 1% of what is actually going on and our understanding is constantly changing. In 1900 the famous scientist Lord Kelvin stated “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now.”  At the time, Einstein was 21 and a mere 5 years away from discovering the theory of relativity.

When we are shown something we don’t understand we used to call it magic or witchcraft, but these days we use the word illusion or a placebo effect.  We are afraid to admit that yes this is really happening but no, we can’t understand why it is happening with our current limited technology and scientific understanding. We tend to have an unwavering belief in things we are told to believe as true, which can shield our eyes from seeing all the signs that suggest there may be more to the story. Just under 300 years ago creationism was still believed by the majority of the population, god had made the world in 7 days as well as every species on it. When people would come across fossils, they believed that they were just rocks being formed into that shape by complete chance as sometimes these fossils would be in the shape of bones of species that had gone extinct. Now it is common knowledge (for the most part), that these rocks are actually fossils and they can be used to understand the evolution of species over time.  “A foolish faith in authority, is the worst enemy of truth” – Alberta Einstein

So before you discount anything you might read in my blog about the healing work these shamans do as hocus pocus or that it’s just a placebo effect, I want you to remember that there was a time not all that long ago when the majority of the population deemed that the scientists who claimed the earth was round and that it revolved around the sun to be practicing witchcraft.  If we truly lived in a time where our current knowledge allowed us to have a complete and in-depth understanding of the world, would Donald Trump really be a serious candidate to run a country?

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