Steppps – Friedenspilgern

It seems that the weather is changing again. Actually monsoon is until the end of the month of September. Though it seems, that it is becoming dryer already? I can feel at my feet. They need cream…. Monsoon is a great time for my feet. They like it more humid. No cuts from dryness at my hills. And anyway, its just so beautiful to walk on a wet street for the feet.
Also somehow, walking beside the road, dust is there. More dry, more dust. Indians dont clean there streets (only rarely) so the sand and dust collects themself at the side of the road, sometimes for month and years. So when it gets more dry, everyone is suffering from ’not taking care‘ in time. Also in the towns, mostly there is an normal pavement at the street. The shopkeeper also take care of the area in front of there shops. But between shops and street- there are some meters of sand, dirt… whatever. Shopkeepers broom there dust away from the shops towards this sand/dirt area/street and street traffic moves by making wind the dust away from the street. Because no one is sealing the dust area between shops and street and no one cleans regularly the street, its a ‚wonderful‘ circle of sand/dust circulation anoying and making anyone uncomfortable. Sometimes its just 1 or two meters of this dirt area.
Often people just move all the rubbish towards the no-mens-land. Because often there is no rubbish service by the town, that the area you find all kind of not-anymore-belongings. Delicious.
And on top of that, people like to spit on the street, especially together with there chewing tabaca leaves.

Again I am fortunate to find myself partly on small roads again. On a big road, government cuts all the trees away, so I feel so disconnected from nature. Also no shade to find on a big road. On the small roads, still the pavement and the presence of that smaller street has there own consciousness, but nature is closer and reachable and my heart and nature can easier interconnect.

I reach the town ‚Barpeta Road‘ after 2 days. I am getting already quick exhausted. Its because I often have to walk around 30 km, to reach the next hotel, but also because I have a basic level of exhaustion in me, which is not really taken care of.
And my body/mind system dont let me sleep all night long. Already at least one month now, I always wake up in the night and cant sleep for some hours. Sometimes I meditate, sometimes I can’t, because for sitting I need more rest…..
Anyway, I have to take care for my Visa again. Its running out in one day. After sleeping into the next day and having a Pizza, yummy, at lunch, I have to do something. Ok, to the police station. They sent me from ‚Barpeta Road‘ to the Superintendent of Police in the district town Barpeta. Its a 20km ride by rickshaw. There, at the Superintendent’s office, they sent me to a side office , which has a sign ‚FRRO‘ (Foreign RegistrationOffice), but the people in there dont have a clue, what to do. They even suggested me to drive back to the first villige, entering Assam…. But I have been there, even at the police station, but its a small police station, it would be so stupid to go there. FRRO is actually the right place to go, but because everything is online to do now, offices at the ground of the district towns don’t know what to do anymore.
After speaking personally to the Superintendent, he orders me to another officer, actually a whole group of officers. They look at my paper ‚ok, exit Visa for the 6th of September‘ ‚You have to leave immediately the country until tomorrow‘. Oh no, I came here to prolong my Visa at least for another 7 days, until the online FRRO gives me a following certificate. I know from several police stations, that the Superintendent can do that.
Finally one officer calls the FRRO online office in Colcatta/Kalkutta. With a surprising result. Because I did already the next online application and it is not answered by the FRRO, my Visa will stay valid. (I think in the Corona circumstances the FRRO online office is only allowed to give other documents than certificate exit-visas) So this officer on the phone tells me, I can stay in India, and he knows me from one month earlier, when I phoned him too, as long as I want. My eVisa is good until 2024 and I only have to inform him 15 days before I want to leave the country for Myanmar, so that he can issue me a final exit-Visa, so that I dont have to pay a penalty fee by leaving the country.
But… I don’t have a whatever kind of paper now, to show at the police station or at any hotel, that anything is valid…. (therefore the FRRO officer has no solution…. but since then I show only my eVisa document… until now it works)
One problem less in my journey….?!!!!

Monsoon is back. Heavily rain all night long. It comes down, when i have to leave my place, feet are happy again.

People are friendly in Assam. But conversation is real limited to the minimum for most of them. Assamese don’t have a rich English.
Usually they just ask ‚where are you from, where is your home‘. Very mostly they are very happy with the answer ‚Germany‘. And satisfied.
If the coversation is longer: where do you go – Myanmar.
Ok. You can go, is sometimes the last comment. It always is for my ears a command sound ‚You can go!!!‘ and feels often uncomfortable. But, this is just, what people learnd at school, or to follow other orders… ?!?!!
Sometimes I get an unasked advise, that the way I have chosen, is the wrong path. They always tell me, to get to the main road. Mostly I stop the conversation, turn around and go without any comment.
Strange I found it sometimes, when people just approach for a selfie. Today a few people came, just by saying no word, and I did not too. Making a photo and disappear without a word. After being surprised, I am just so grateful, I even have not to communicate. Beautiful. Thankful. Grateful!!!

I feel very blessed, that I could walk a lot of way from Siliguri in West Bengal to here on small roads. Looking at the map I thought that I had to walk along the bigger highway, also because I had to reach at night always a hotel in some bigger place. But… often the highway did turn or had another route, than the direct ways. It was a little bit miraculous, that I so often found myself on these smaller roads, and day by day so unexpected. Thanks.

Today and yesterday I looked for hours at different banks and by walking kilometers until I got today successfully some cash in my hands….

Unexpected I stay 2 days in Kokrajhar. It’s the blister and general exhaustion after 36km walk. At the 3rd day it rained heavily in the morning, so I take that as a reason, to extend another day. Later it stopped raining at 10 or so…. but desision is made….

Jitendra supports at day three with a motivational whatsapp message.
‚You’ll get the delicious taste of nadu made from coconut mixing with sugar and pitha made from rice mixing with coconut and molasses. You’ll find a dance form called Bihu. It is a festival of harvesting of paddy. Assam is a land of river and forests. As you proceed towards Guwahati, you’ll see hills and hillocks here and there. Green paddy fields attract you a lot. Fishing is a common hobby of the Assamese. The Assamese ladies wear a special type of clothes. It is called mekhla chadar, two parts of clothes. They make it at home. About 1500 years ago Sankardeva, a great social, educational and spiritual leader was born in Assam‘

After this message I finally know how to write Assamese, the people of Assam.
For my feet, especially the blister at my sole, it was really good to rest another day. So, I am able to walk without pain. It is raining again, but I really want to get on the streets. As soon as the rain looses its intensity I step out of my place, barefoot, and it’s always so good to be in connection with Mother Earth, and my feet love wet conditions. And my whole body is also so happy to be earthened.
Some hills I saw before arriving in Kokrajhar in the distance and now I can see them closer. They built a beautiful silhouette together with the over flooded rise fields, bananas, palms, other tropical plants and the very rich green of the Monsoon season.
One man approaches me, when I was resting at one place, at a bridge close to a power plant. He, because of Corona, wants to check my papers. Quickly lots of others gather. A little tense atmosphere arises. I don’t show anyone my passport, except of police, hotel or other officials. There is also no prove of the Virus status within my passport. After a while a young men comes by and relaxes the situation.
In Basugoan, with the help of the police I find myself in the government guest house.

So long ago that someone served breakfast to me. 3 ladies from the neighborhood came with the most beautiful smile around the corner to ask, if I would like breakfast. They had this beautiful colourful dresses on, as Jitendra mentioned before. I very much enjoy the service and enjoy the meal. Again it’s a rainy morning, it’s always cosy when it rains.
The distance is today only 15km, but with some delay, suddenly 15km can become a task. And what further happens, google maps shows, that the distance is 16km, after I walked already 1 km…? Then I take a wrong way, realise after 500m the mistake, again one km more. I real like the Monsoon. It’s not that hot that I thought (it’s mostly 3 degrees above or below 30 degrees) It’s not raining that much, as I expected. I love the greenery and I also love it a lot, when plants and trees can grow, when trees develop mosses and ferns in there branches, this super rich lush tropical green conditions.
Arriving at Bongaigoan I have difficulties to find the right hotel for me, walk up and down the road. At least another km. Then I really really want pineapple. Or at least some fresh pressed fruit juice. But… njet… pineapple season is gone and a fruit juice is not to get anywhere. For this I walked another 2km (back and forth) Suddenly out of 15 I have walked today 21!!!

I would not say, I am weak, but a lot of conditions are there to let me be exhausted. Sometimes it’s a bit surprising. Beside the climate, which I can manage somehow, its walking in plain areas, where I am exposed to all the human conciousness, this is always so difficult. Its like walking under water. The collective Corona stress is another weight I feel. And than I have all this bodily sensations, stress points, which take also some energy. Especially there are from diaphragm area incl. liver and spleen up to the shoulders tension areas, (it feels like compressed energy) which includes heart, lungs, mussels and than up to the neck. I am happy to work while observing through all of that, but it’s a lot… on top I have still some areas on my body with a rash, partly with little inflammations and lots of itchiness. Its exciting to observe all of that…. puh…. And with the knowing that nothing stays forever, everything has a beginning and an end… …. ….

Love
Thomas

After 5 days rest I continued walking today. Problem: I had to cover 37km.

Yesterday I thought came in my mind: even after 5 days sometimes feet and body neet to be first trained again…..

After 23km – really nice scenery. People are relaxt and friendly in Assam… – I arrive at a bridge. Underneath a small river. From the other side someone, Ramajit, calls me to come over. Ah, a temple, a outside temple. Quite some people sit together at 2 different locations. Lunch is offered, rice with dal, served on a banana leave.

After a while Ramajit invites me to stay for the night. Bath in the river is also included in the offering package.  The young men smoke and share one joint, 30 min later again….. I look around at the different locations, another guy explains everything. I am not sure if I should stay. It’s really nice to get a invitation after such a long time. Sleeping should be together on a wooden big bed with four or so…. I speculate to sleep at the riverbank under a tree, if weather stays stable….. I lay down on  the wooden supersize bench….. sleep a bit … get awake by smoke from burning rubbish…. hmm

I decide to leave…. out of insecurity if maybe someone comes closer two the night and kicks me maybe out, because of Corona fears? (Ramajit promises this would not happen) Or I want to have it more comfortable at night? Or….  Actually the spot is great… I did not have a bath this summer in a river or lake…. I wished to find a somehow outdoor spot to sleep, its so nice to be in nature when it’s so warm at night…..

14km more to go….. its 2pm and I think I can manage…. but…. it’s a bit hard and…. I walk myself a BLISTER underneath of my left foot…. rrrr

The univers wanted to safe me from overdoing…. and I did not listen…..

According to my exercise I still say ‚Thank you‘ to my sensations on the body…. and try to just observe……

How to promote peace

Jitendra sent a question to me:
I wish to know from you how do you preach the message of peace among the people by walking a so long distance from Germany to India.

First I can say, that I don’t preach. I like to share my knowledge, experience….

Lots of answers can be given to this question. In fact the real answer can not be given by words.

Peace and Love is something that we all have somewhere, if not on the surface, than deep in our heart. Because it’s our nature.
If we like to experience the way towards it, we just have to do the little effort, that we wish to walk towards it. But… it is maybe not always a easy way, because we have to face everything what’s in the way. And it can be a lot…. But…. and you can be sure to reach the goal. This does not mean, that you reach it in one day, month, year, years… it can even takes lifes to reach the final goal. But it is possible to reach it in a second if the time is ripe. We don’t know.

Peace is nothing what we can make with our mind. It has to be done by heart.
We have to give up our mind to reach the goal.
We have to give up our identity as a person to reach the goal.

It’s an inner path.

There are some guideline we mostly learn at our religious places. Here we have to be careful to get the universal truth. One religion who preaches this way and another religion preaching that way and he third religion…..
There must be a universal truth relay underneath of this teachings – and even if the preachers use different words, it must be possible to find the common universal truth in it.
To find the universal truth it’s also necessary to understand the teachings in its common ground.
If there is no love and peace involved, something is wrong, something is not true.

While working on our inner understanding we can work on the outer peace. Also with following the rules, the religions have done. But some religions have been very busy to make to many and unnecessary rules. The rules have to make sense and have to be in the name of love and peace.

Outer peace has to be done for the well being of all beings. It has to be done for the harmony of the entire planet.

We can engage ourselves by serving other humans, animals, plants or the whole planet. We should not harm anyone by doing so.

For my self. I love to do Vipassana meditation. It’s mainly observing with an equanimous mind. Means, no craving, no aversion, no thought about future and past. And observe the sensations on the body, but only observe.

The basic rules of Vipassana meditation ( free courses can be done around the world, see wwwdhamma.org) are
– no killing (also no animals)
– no stealing
– no lying
– no intoxicants or drugs
– no sexual abuse

Please read also my articles since June 2020, scroll down, which say Vipassana 1, 2, 3,….

Very simple said, a step of peace can be even achieved by making order…. by cleaning a bathroom, collecting trash, planting trees, being hospital, giving, being selfless and and and……

And on my way I don’t need to talk about peace, because the language of the heart is silence and silence is transmitted from the heart and the ‚It‘, God, existence, universe is situated in the heart and is not outside of it.

(If the Corona Virus is transmitted so quick around the world), why do we think God, the existence, univers can’t. ‚It‘ connects us all and it needs only a blink of an eye to transmit peace and love. It’s already in us

(In some articles of today you can also read about having peace, by not using poison for our food or in our medicine….)

Rest and ‚THANK YOU‘ exersice

The day later I arrive at my rest place, again organized by the police, a hotel some km back. But this time I had also to do a Corona test – negative.
I don’t know if the Corona test is right. Actually I had some symptoms who are a bit similar to Corona symptoms. But also they could have another source. My dry throat I could have from the ventilator which runs all night in the heat. I have also less then a little cough, could come from whatever. Then I do not have any cough for 24h. One day I felt there was something moving from my throat into my lungs, but it was only one event, did not appear there again. Then I had some headache, but it could also come from carrying the backpack ( know that from earlier). And it could come from being to much in the internet. I guess my new phone has more radiation. Also my right and left ear where swollen inside, in the lower part, but maybe just some ear wax? But it is more likely that one of my defilement is unload through the ears. I had that earlier, too.
Anyway, the test said negative. I also protect myself and others all the time by mask and not shaking hand and so on.
Fever I never had. That was checked so often. And I could always walk the way I had to walk.

Some weeks before I had a nice conversation with a good friend of mine, Elisabeth. We spoke about the possibility if sensitive people maid have sensations as collective awareness. I for example had a slide sensation in my throat when exiting the first time from the Vipassana centre for some hours. So little big as a needle head.
Also I have sometimes little headache when standing to close with to many people. …..????….

From the police officer I learned, why there so many churches is this area. And it’s not only here, in all Northeast India. Its going back to a missionary about 150 years ago.

My room is just amazing, has 5 windows to the mountain panorama side of Buthan, when Monsoon clouds are not hanging in the air.

When I have a rest, my body unload everything what he can’t show through walking periods. It seems the body has painfully re-do was he has to experience. So sometimes the first 2 or 3 days are very painful and I can’t do really anything. Even not sleep sometimes because I wake up from some pain or the body is to tense. This I do not feel necessarily earlier in the walking period, but I can guess sometimes, what’s on the way. I can also not write the blog or do other needed things, like applicate for the next Visa, also it’s difficult to meditate sometimes. Then it happens that I am lots of the time in the internet. And this is also not good.

Since 4 weeks I always wake up at night. Most between 11.30pm and 3am for about 2 hours. I try to meditate then.

I practise now very much a exersice from ‚Mooji‘ (Mooji.org). Its very simple.
Its saying just ‚Thank You‘ all the time. When something positive happens ‚Thank You‘. If something negative happens ‚Thank You‘. For the sensation on the body. For the experience….. Thank you and not to judge anything. It helps with my observing exercise, observing without wanting or not wanting anything (no craving – no aversion).
Its ‚Thank you‘ to God, the universe, the existence….. how ever you like to call it.

And it helped me a lot and brought some amazing results.

For example waking up in the night, with some pain or not, I just say Thank you and the whole situation sometimes can relax and I even fall to sleep after having said Thank you.

Or once, I came to the police, and they offered me 2 free nights to stay in a hotel they rented

And little things who can only be experienced by not described.

Some days ago Vedangi, a indian extreme cyclist asked in Instagram: What do you like most on a adventure?
Actually I am not so much into outside ‚adventure‘. I love to be connected to nature.
And I am very happy with my inner adventure.

Arriving in Assam

After the rain the Buthan mountains are visible. Wow. Beautiful view to the north.

Lots of people offer there help to me. Some guy offers me a pineapple and chips out of his car. It feels a little bit, they are hiding in the bushes and turn towards me when coming closer, nearly to many to handle. I see it as a welcome sign. Later I learn, that Assam people are very hospitable…. I had the proof.

Also one man came to me. Typical dark skin, very friendly face, white fabrics around him, friendly flowers (plastic) looking out of his bags, fixed at the handlebars. All of him looked nice, but a man on the side said ‚He’s mental‘. I can’t find it. We talk a bit and then ‚Next time I see you, I will help you’…. and cycles away…..
But not long after that, he is really waiting for me again, he offers a lunch, but because again, there is someone from further away is saying ‚mental‘ I am a bit irritated, don’t take the invitation. He had prepared a paper: Om that Sat. From Sri Balanam Gonswami. I love dumb ( those who can’t speak) and Song. Please do something for them. And his phone no.
So sweet and he really wants to help me. After I refused the meal he gave me some money.

So I am through ,through this somehow birth channel, the narrow indian land between Buthan and Bangladesh. Now it becomes wider again and I can already feel it.
It’s also the land of the huge and holy river of Brahmaputra which gathers in the lower centre of Assam and carries all the water from the surrounding lands of the Himalayas and Meghalaya. Finally the stream also flows, as the Ganga into Bangladesh towards the ocean.

The night I sleep in the guest house of the forest department, organized by the police.

After the lockdown I have walked within two month since Rajgir 744 km. 204 km after leaving Siliguri in 12 days. A rest has to follow.

Barefoot walking

Actually I did not so much barefoot walking. But here and there I did.
It’s because, I have to walk mostly longer distances as normal and further have to overcome obstacles by finding a place to rest, which takes energy.

Some days ago I had a interesting observation. It was the day, entering Assam.

Through some process on a spiritual level some defilement – old karma – is leaving my body through my feet.
So this manifests mainly through a kind of pimple with some little inflammation in the centre. It usually takes the pimple to come on the surface and to dry out for several days. It’s like a red burn on the skin after it dries out and the red place takes another 2 weeks or so to dissolve. Sometimes there are a lot of pimples to the same time, which feels nearly scary. But I very much love the process, even though its itchy. Because it’s a healing process. I could go further on detail…. why and so on… but it’s a bit complicated and for this article not important….

That day it was raining often. And a lot. And long. So I decided to walk barefoot in the rain. Finally barefoot  again.

We all are not connected with Mother Earth anymore, but we need to. Otherwise it feels a bit like overloading us, because we can’t earth our energy anymore.

We are not connected with Mother Earth anymore, because we are using a plane, (far away from earth), a train, a bus, a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle. All not in direct contact with soil/earth. Even when we walk we have a isolation between our feet and Mother Earth. The isolation is mostly from plastic in our shoe soles.

So that day, when I woke up, I had a lot of new pimples with inflammation in it.
But after walking almost all day barefoot I was so surprised, when I observed my food, all the inflammation in the pimples had disappeared and all the skin area looked so much better.

I am sure it had to do with walking directly on Mother Earth. It accelerates the process of healing.

Last day in West Bengal

Again I have to walk a lot today – 25km. I start early at around 6 so that I almost reach my destination Kamakhyaguri at midday. So I can slow down, have a rest here and there, some snack, sitting in the nature.
Two young men, Rajkul and his friend approach me and have a lot of questions. Finally they invite me to there home for lunch. But… suddenly they feel a bit insecure, I guess because of Corona, and walk very quick in front of me, so our distance increase. They turn right, our distance is now maybe almost 100 meter. No turn around from them, just a shy look. I lift up my shoulders for a question mark, but not a real answer. So I continue my way.
This can happen in some culture. Someone promise something and then they realized they can’t fulfill it. It’s to awkward to them, to come up and talk about there problem, so they disappear….

Some km later I meet Jitendra, a teacher on the road and we start a long conversation. Because I talk with mask and he takes with mask and motorcycle helmet, it’s a bit like screaming and my voice gets hoarse. He invites me to come to his school. Meeting point is in front of the school – 500m. He drives in front and its longer than 500m, but finally some shop keeper picks me in order of Jitendra from the road. From Jitendra is nothing to see.
After some sitting Santoosh, a Yoga teacher, invites me for lunch to his house. I ask friendly, if no one is scared to have me at his house, no problem…. Also his nephew is there and later wife and daughters, neighbor’s. Nice conversation and hospitality. The whole family speaks english. They make me a nice vegetarian meal and I eat a lot. It’s nice to get good food and being welcome in a private house after so many hotels and Dhabas. Also Jitendra shows up after a while, he had a meeting at the school. (In India are all schools closed since March, reopening is planned for 15th September)
That was a really nice welcoming encounter with good conversation and meal.

It’s a bit, that West Benghal accumulated a ‚Good bye‘ event to me through this people.

Corona, pharma and natural medicine

More then half a year we are busy with Crovid-19 now.
Most obvious people are in fear to get it. (I already wrote something about it)

Sure, people are dying. But so may people don’t have any or very weak symptoms of the disease. (In Mumbai slums 57% of the people already developed antibodies) But the statistics say, this and this many people got infected, without telling us, how many are seriously infected with heavy symptoms. Knowing this, we could relativate our view to the disease.

If we would take care of other diseases so carefully – now or earlier – I would very much appreciate that.

How is it possible, that India and other states who have Malaria, which cost 750.000 people death every year, don’t started a more efficient anti-Malaria program.

Let’s look at Diabetes. In Germany 2 Million people have Diabetes. This is calculated with 83 million Germans almost every 40th person. Sure, some of the Diabetes is from birth on and there are different types of Diabetes. But most of them are sugar related. Related to raffined sugar with is so bad to our body. Some even say, raffined sugar makes even more addicted than cocaine. Diabetes is even called sugar-disease.
And so many people dying every year from Diabetes.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi are still allowed to sell there products. Most of the food fabrics use raffined sugar in there products. Even raffined sugar is find in bread???, beside of other preservatives, flavorful enhancers and other chemicals…

I spoke about pesticide, over medication of chemical substances. We eat it, we breath polluted air, and we wonder that people get cancer. And cancer is a very serious disease.
How is it possible, that we don’t focus on healthy food and environment in order to have order in our body, and not disorder and cancer and other diseases?
How is it possible, that we don’t have scientists searching on that topic.

How is it possible, that we are so ignorant to ourselves and our surroundings? How?

How is it possible, that the Pharma industry became so big and our herbal and natural medicine is almost unknown.
Why are we humans so ignorant?
Why do we not have health care shops who offer Pharma (but little) but also all the beautiful herbs and natural medicine?

How is it possible, that we want to trust in a future vaccine, that is maybe even decoding our genes? How is it possible, that there is suddenly so much money on the market…. for a so ‚corrupt‘ Pharma industry?

I guess the humans are the biggest virus on this planet, for themselves and for all the planet.

But we can change – one by one!!!!

Hugs to you all
With love
Thomas