The Messengers
In the past when I’ve taken a vacation or trip and ‘come back’ to the real world there has always been the inevitable wish to be back ‘there’, not having to participate in everyday life. Not so today. While I could sit and listen to the Dalai Lama’s teachings for years, learning to cherish the present lets me realize that being back home is where I am and what I should appreciate.
Since arriving at the Tibetan Cultural Center (now officially called the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center) Rob and I have had the pleasure of meeting some amazingly knowledgeable, friendly and compassionate people. These are people who truly practice what they preach and it has been inspiring to see the way they live out the Dalai Lama’s teachings. Upon arrival we became known as “the guys who walked” and our story spread pretty quickly through the community. By the end of the night, however, we had been given the opportunity to explain our mission and it resonated. Still, we had no idea if and when a meeting would take place.
In almost every interview the we have done so far the reporter has inevitably asked us if we were Buddhist. One asked if we were Christian Buddhists and yet another asked if we believed in God. The truth, and what we have been telling reporters, is that we aren’t classifying ourselves under any umbrella. Rob and I make no bones about the fact that we are on a spiritual journey but this trip has been about many things, including but not limited to the Buddhist faith. Over the past few weeks we have been immersing ourselves in the Dalai Lama’s teachings as well as taking meditation classes. The result is that we have each individually found aspects that we can apply to our lives to make us more compassionate and mindful. For now Buddhism is serving this wonderful purpose in our lives but we are no where near ready to call ourselves anything other than open minded.
By now many of you have seen the link to the ABC 6 piece on our walk. We had a great time filming it and enjoyed getting to know Emily and Jason, who managed to make us sound pretty coherent. We filmed that at the Paynetown Campground in the middle of Hoosier National Forest. We had entered the forest the day before, stopping only for a brief dip in Lake Monroe, before settling in at the campsite.
UPDATE: The ‘I Live Inspired’ quest of Rob and Chris was featured on Indianapolis’ ABC News 6. Click to view the report and video, ‘Dalai Lama Inspired Men on Unusual Journey’ by Emily Gimmel as it appears on theindychannel.com.
Pronounced “booty” by those who have actually heard of it, Buddha really isn’t a town at all, it’s an intersection and really its a general store. In fact, if Jimmy Ray wasn’t running the Buddha Mini Mart, Buddha would probably cease to exist all together. The first thing I asked Jimmy when we arrived at the store was what the population of Buddha really was. “I reckon your looking at it” he said, without a hint of it being a joke.
We walked into Buddha, IN this morning and right now coming to you from Hoover’s Candy Store in Bedford, IN. So far Chris has been the blogmaster as he seems to have a certain touch with the keyboard, but I’m gonna take a shot this time.
I’m making an effort to watch my mind along this trip, if that makes sense. Practicing mindfulness is something that is new to me, so I’ve been finding that catching my mind wandering is a fascinating experience. This morning I caught my mind saying, “What are we going to gain from this trek?” I noticed this thought and started to meditate on it with some things I’ve learned over the past couple years. I really have no control over what we’ll “get”. The only thing I can control is what I’m doing right now. To worry about what comes of this is such a negative distraction that I quickly get rid of it by focusing on the next step. Focusing on what I’m doing right now seems to allow me to calm down, live in the moment, and take the next step.
Along our journey, I found this quote from Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and feel it applies to us:
“Our meditation should form the basis for action, for seizing the opportunity to do something. The meditator’s motivation, his sense of universal responsibility, should be expressed in deeds.”
Day 2 began with a walk through Seymour, Indiana located on the eastern border of Jackson County. We had somewhat difficult walking along route 50 and were constantly being blown against the guardrail by passing semis. We were happy to get out of the fast food and gas stations that lined the area near the exit and into Seymour, which is a great town full of extremely friendly people.
We brought the rain to Indiana. After being dry for over two weeks and with temperatures in the upper seventies, central Indiana finally got cold and rainy. Of course we are happy to help out. It was actually up near eighty yesterday when we started walking. We hit the road at about nine, a few hours behind schedule, and walked until about four. According to the digital pedometer that’s 26,855 steps so far.
It didn’t take long to realize that aside from the name, Hope was the perfect town to start our trip in. I pulled into Hope yesterday afternoon after driving in from Bloomington. Rob and I have been preparing for Hope for awhile, checking it out via satellite thanks to Google, reading bits about its history and picturing in our heads what the town would be like. I was excited to take a look around “our town”.
In the center is a park and I pulled up to it and got out with a notebook and a camera and began taking it in. The first thing I noticed was the building of the Hope Star-Journal, and I was on my way there when another building caught my eye. It was a small one story wooden structure with massive windows and apparently no door. I got closer to read the sign: Museum of the National Rural Letter Carriers Association. No need to worry if it was open, the museum of the NRLCA is open to the public all the time. The items are displayed on tables by the windows. You simply walk up, peer in, read about “Pioneer Rural Carrier Nella Drybread” who delivered mail between 1904 and 1934, or see the actual gavel that belonged to the tenth district of the Indiana Rural Letter Carriers Association. With only three windows, the museum was a quick stop and made me wonder what other museums could boast that they are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
On Wednesday me and Rob are beginning our 100 mile journey across the great state of Indiana with the goal of getting a meeting with the Dalai Lama. We came up with the idea a few months ago but only got serious about it in the last few weeks and only knew we were actually […]
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