SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA
It was Tuesday morning,
October 30th, 2007, when Filipe (Master Filipe Leite de Sousa) came to pick me up for a trip up north from Porto
to Santiago de Compostela, the
famous place of the Way of St James in Spain. By the
highway from Porto in Portugal it would take about two hours or so to get
there, but we spent more than three hours for the sake of enjoying the
trip, stopping here and there. I did not come to Compostela as a devoted
pilgrim nor as a researcher willing to discover more truth about the
curious story on the relics of St. James. I came to this place, as I did
for many other places, simply because I know sacred places are places with
high energy, strong cosmic vibration, rich in history, and beautiful to contemplate.
Visiting sacred places contributes significantly to personal growth; it
enriches our individual experiences. Also at these places you have a good
chance of meeting with extraordinary people and learn unexpected precious
lessons.
At Compostela that
afternoon I met a man, an ordinary man at first glance. As you can see on
the picture I am attaching here, he was quietly sitting on a stone bench in
front of the Cathedral. Although with grey hairs and a nice beard he looked
like many normal men you can find on the street at any city in Western Europe.
However in that moment, and at that place, I paid him high esteem, and I
managed to stay for a long moment close to him without talking much.
Who was he? I don’t know.
Probably he was not a Nobel Laureate nor a famous singer; and surely not a master
of martial arts nor a champion of tennis. What did he do so that I get
inspired in him? He had simply accomplished what you and I, almost anyone,
can do: Walking. The difference
is he had walked a thousand kilometres just to come and sit here, in front
of this Cathedral of Compostela to admire it, and feel accomplished, happy,
without any other ambition. What motivated him to do so had come from the
inside, not from the outside. This makes a whole difference. We too, to
reach our goal we often walked many extra miles. Our goal, in most cases,
means winning benefit, promotion, power, prestige, admiration. The motivations
which come to us are from outside and always put us under pressure. Don’t
misunderstand me. I do say clearly that it is very good when in life we can
accomplish all these achievements. However, we should consider that this is
just one side of life, the outer award. For the inner award, we have much
more challenges to overcome because the choice comes from our inner voice. We
obtain inner peace and happiness when we really decide to walk a long way, alone,
in deep meditation, honestly facing ourselves. This man has accomplished
it. At that moment in Compostela, I saw the transcendental happiness
reflected in his quiet eyes. In some way, he has contributed to make Compostela
more famous, more meaningful. On the reverse, Compostela itself, did not
give anything tangible to him, however he needed some place called Compostela
to test himself, to make his life happier. This relationship without
premeditated aim between an individual and an event is called in Buddhism
the “duyen”. The duyen
is not a random relationship which leads to somewhere, it is the
consequence of thousands of habits and thoughts under what we daily act
without much questioning the Why.
Creating good duyen is living
accordingly to what we find good. This wise man had met his good duyen with Compostela.
We all have the
possibility to do great things, what we lack is the understanding that we
also can accomplish great things as the others did. Walking the long Way of St. James of
Compostela (Le Chemin de St Jacques de Compostelle) is not the unique way
to set your inner challenge for making yourself a strong person. The path
is wide open to you each morning when you wake up and do some Vietchi
exercises if you understand that each exercise has its name, its own
meaning,
its flow of energy, its beauty. They are not
just mere physical exercises; they are thousand challenges to train you for
not falling when you walk the long path of life. I know you know these VietChi
exercises, but I am not sure if you know yourself, the one who possesses
the miracle tool for gaining inner strength and happiness.
One day, if it happens to
you to visit this place, please do me a favour by sending me a picture of
you, taken at the same place. It would create some kind of complicity
between us.
g.m phan hoang
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