Day 9 - The Road To Enlightenment - Walking The Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage - Katsuura Onsen, Wakayama, Japan

                         

Day 9 - The Road To Enlightenment - Walking The Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage - Katsuura Onsen, Wakayama, Japan

Once I read a book called “Encounters with Chinese Hermits.”
The author, Bill Porter (aka Red Pine,) trekked through China's remote Chungnan Mountains in search of hermits.
Lessons on spiritual wisdom resulted from his interviews with more than twenty male and female hermits.

In one interview, Porter asked an old hermit living on a remote mountain peak how he’d weathered the Chinese Cultural Revolution, when they burnt monasteries and jailed or killed monks, under the harsh rule of Mao Zedong.

The hermit looked at Porter with his oceanic eyes, which seemed to be looking deep into eternity, and asked, “Who? I have never heard of this man.”

Wars, famine, genocide, plagues, political mayhem, have all come and gone, and this hermit, living under the same rule, has been completely unaffected.
In fact, even the news of these calamities had not reached him.

Here are some thoughts that I have collected from the internet.
Some are taken from Paul Selig, some from Ray Maor, and some are my own:

“There is an inner peace that can be found, even in the midst of the current chaos.
The chaos is being created by the way the countries of the world are responding to the coronavirus.
The chaos is the shut down, the lock down, the forced isolation, the social distancing, and the separation.

Sickness is invoked, because of a false sense of separation from God, from your holy spiritual-body and from each other.
By enforcing more separation, we reinforce delusions as reality.
We can never be separated from God, who is Life itself, nor from each other.
Thin skins do not really separate us from each other.
We are one with the mountains, the eagles, the cedar trees, the sea, all living beings and all the elements.

The global disruption that is now accepted as a means of stopping the virus from spreading is promoting more loneliness, fear, isolation and panic.

It also does not work.
Italy enforced an early and immediate quarantine on seven cities in the north.
I have followed the news there because these cities are located exactly on the Via Francigena, the pilgrimage that we had planned to continue walking this Autumn.

Despite the complete lockdown and shutdown of the region, the virus has spread all the way to Rome and all around.

Fear is an energy that can distort your view of yourself, of others and of life.
Fear wants your subservience.
It wants to tell you what is right, how to think and what to do.

To be a slave to fear, is to create a false god that will claim you.
You become fear’s servant.
The voices of your doctors or well meaning others, will affirm to you: “You should be afraid. The virus is extremely contagious, it is deadly and fast spreading. You are in an at-risk group.” And more.

You are not under the influence of fear, until you agree to fear. It is the agreement to fear that supports fear.
But you don’t have to agree to be in fear or terror.

Now, it is time to rejoice.
It is time to claim anew.
It is time to see the world with new eyes.
This is going to be a great opportunity for humanity to realize itself outside of the illusion of separation.

You might not realize it, but when you think your life is going well, and you seek just to make your life more comfortable, with better things and feelings, you are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Whether you put the deck chair in the sun, or in the shade, the boat is going to sink anyway.
Seek to discover your Higher Self.
Seek to hear the wise inner Voice of the God within.
Seek your own immortality instead.

Now, a virus is a low vibrational thing.
You can take care of yourself and be concerned, but without fear.
Be like a parent who watches her child playing with great zeal at the playground.
She can tell herself:
“I will take care of my child.
I will be concerned.
I will act when, and if action is needed.
But I will not be constantly terrified that my child will fall down or hurt herself.”

Please, give yourself permission to be calm in the middle of the storm.
The storm may rage about you, but you don’t need to lower yourself to that level of vibration.

The viruses in the air are not considered to be living things.
In fact, they are small capsules of information that only arise
when a suitable host is found.
They cannot live independently.

They have been here since the beginning of life, and they work in collaboration with all living things.
We are surrounded by viruses and bacteria, and encounter millions of them every day.

Just like you do not need to process the air you breathe consciously, or break down the food that you eat into the elements that create your blood cells and bones, so do you not need to know how to protect yourself from viruses.
The intelligence that governs our bodies knows how to do all that.

Current science has learnt that there are tens of thousands of “friendly bacteria.”
They exist in antibiotics as medicine, and some people even take acidophilus, to replenish more friendly bacteria in the gut.
But science still believes that viruses are parasites.
Perhaps one day we will know more about their purpose.

Do not be fearful of getting sick nor of death.
Both are just ideas.
There is only endless love in the Universe and you will encounter nothing but acceptance and love in death.
You are forever loved, forever safe.

Remember also, that thoughts are creative, when you say “things are terrible,” “It will be even more horrible,” “We are in for a very hard time,” “Don’t trust anyone,” “Anyone can be infected,” “Take care only of your own.”

These thoughts are creative acts.
They will align you to what you see.
In fact, by thinking these thoughts, you wish these things to happen.
You will learn the hard lessons that they bring.
Trust your Higher Self.
You will be fine.

Today we took a rest and sightseeing day in Katsuura.
We ate a late breakfast at our hotel, which was a feast of many small local dishes.

Then we did our morning lesson and meditation, and left for a long walk around town.

First we did our laundry in a coin laundromat, and while it was in the machine, we walked to a nearby barber shop and got Jules’ hair cut, plus a shave.
Once our laundry was done, we dropped it back off at our hotel, and then went out for a walk.

The day was warm and breezy, so it was very nice to go for a walk along the port, seeing both commercial fishing boats and families with fishing poles.

We stopped at the seafood market at one end of the port, and had fresh tuna prepared three different ways, all of which were delicious.

Then we walked through the older section of town, with old humble houses owned by fishermen’s families.
We saw photos of how the town looked at the turn of the century.
It was a very busy onsen and fishing town, with annual festivities that attracted tens of thousands of people.

In the late afternoon, we headed back to our hotel to use the private Onsen bath one more time before we check out tomorrow.

For dinner, we walked back into town and ate at a tiny Thai restaurant with only three tables.
The owner, a woman from Thailand, told us that she had come here from northern Thailand, where she had lived along the Mekong river.
She said she loves living here.
She loves the Meguru Sushi, but misses her family who cannot come now because of the Coronavirus.
“Perhaps it will all pass soon?”
She asked with hopeful eyes....

“It will, it most definitely will!”
We reassured her, and perhaps ourselves.....

Daily stats:
Steps walked - 16,287
12 km. walked
Active walking time - 4 hours
Total walking time today - 6 hours.
Total walking distance on the Saigoku to date - 152 km