Monday, August 15th, 2016
Surrey, British Colombia
The Walking Monk in Surrey with Tales from
Cross-Canada Trails
I was slightly confused as to identifying which place
to put at the top of the blog. The
origin of the article below, by Tom Zillich, comes as a pleasant surprise. It’s Surrey,
British Columbia, and it’s a buzz
about the U.S. walk from the Surrey “Now” newspaper:
The last place you’d expect to find a guy nicknamed
“The Walking Monk” is in a car heading toward Chicago.
So apparently Bhaktimarga Swami does not walk
everywhere, despite the moniker he’s earned for hoofing it across Canada an
impressive four times.
The Ontario-born Swami, who finished his last such
trek in 2014, is currently halfway through a similar walk across the U.S., in
another effort to promote a “more car-free, carefree lifestyle.”
This week, he’ll be in Surrey to attend a pair of
events, and the Now caught up with Swami – known as John Peter Vis before he
adopted a monastic way of life back in 1973 – via cellphone as he motored down
an interstate in Illinois earlier this week.
“Yesterday was a momentous day where I stopped at the
midway point in America, in Nebraska, and now I’m making a return journey back
to Toronto, ultimately, my home place,” Swami explained in an interview on
Monday (Aug. 8).
“It’s a pleasant day and we’ve had a great trip so far
doing half of the U.S. The whole idea is to reconvene next spring and do the
second half, the western part, heading west.”
Two decades ago, in 1996, Swami set out on his first
cross-Canada walk as something of a 100th-birthday tribute to a mentor of his.
Putting his “feet and heart together” that year, he started in Victoria and
made it all the way to Cape Spear, Newfoundland, with many stories to tell.
“I’d always wanted to see Canada closeup,” he
recalled, “because before I was a monk I hitchhiked or flew and took buses,
things like that, but I wanted to see it the way it was done by the ancients,
you know, the way you should do it, especially because it’s a kind of
birthright for a monastic person to do this kind of thing.”
He enjoyed the “CanWalk” experience enough to complete
three more cross-country journeys in years since.
“I went through a lot of pain, physical,” Swami
admitted. “The biggest challenge of all is walking on an angle – it’s like
walking on a beach. But nevertheless, everything else compensated for that
(pain), including meeting fantastic people, meeting characters, being
confronted by black bears, grizzlies, whatnot, and finally I became an addict;
I like it, gotta do it again.”
His first coast-to-coast walk was documented in “The
Longest Road,” a 2003 National Film Board of Canada movie about the
Trans-Canada Highway.
While in the U.S. recently, a spell of hot weather
prompted Swami, 64, to experiment with nighttime walking, starting at 9 p.m.
and ending at 3:30 a.m.
“It was quite nice (in Omaha and other parts of
Nebraska), you know, as long as you had a safe area to walk through, on trails,
basically,” he said. “You’re not allowed to walk on the freeways, so the
choices in America are a secondary highway or a back road.”
In Surrey this week, Swami will make an appearance at
Ram Mandir (8473 124th St.) on Friday evening, Aug. 19, and is also scheduled
to visit the market at Newton’s Zaklan Heritage Farm on Saturday, Aug. 20, from
noon to 2 p.m.
Across Canada these days, he shares his “Tales from
the Trails” at community centres, yoga studios, libraries, schools and other
places.
“It’s always an adventure and you don’t know what
you’re going to deal with on the day ahead,” Swami related.
“What happens when you’re walking is you start to
appreciate the little things around you and everything becomes significant,” he
added. “Those of us who are obsessed with the fast pace of life, we just don’t
even know what’s in our midst. By walking, you pick up on fantastic details out
there.”
In one photo of Swami, the Now noticed he wore a pair
of Croc sandals, and asked about a possible endorsement deal from the footwear
company.
“There was something happening there with Crocs, yes,
on my third walk across Canada,” Swami elaborated. “They sent me a pair, and
that was the best I could do,” he added with a laugh. “I found other footwear,
though, that was superior, but I do resort to my Crocs once in a while just
because they’re pretty lightweight.”
May the Source be with you!
5 km
