Kye, my nine-year-old grandson and I, arrived home on Monday night after the 10th annual French Dharma Yatra conducted in the foothills of the Pyrenees, not far from Limoux. We dumped our tents, backpacks and daypacks on the floor at home, cooked up a bit of food. Kye took a long soak in the bath and slept for around 12 hours.
We both loved the edventure and the challenge of this annual walking pilgrimage. In the months before the Yatra, Dharma friends will inquire about the walk. Almost without exception, inquirers start with a single question. “How far do you walk each day?”
I reply around three hours or so in the morning and around two hours in the afternoon. Sometimes we walk a little further than this and sometimes we have a half day of walking. Second question is: “Do you carry your backpacks?” “No, we have large vans to carry backpacks, tents, food, marquis etc.”
Back comes the reply. “Oh, I thought you had a long day of walking from dawn to dusk. It sounds like a nice, easy day for everybody.” My response is: “You had better come and experience the yatra for yourself. It can be challenging.”
We walk in the silence, rarely touching the road, up and down hills, winding, narrow paths and broad farm tracks, through forests and vast open places with breathtaking views. The Yatra challenges heart, mind and body, young and old alike, in foreseen and unforeseen ways. We need the strength of the community, the power of service, love of nature and the power to endure to sustain the daily disciplines of the Yatra.
Some of those who have joined the Yatra have subsequently revised their view the “easy” view about the Yatra. We keep alive the austerity of the tradition of the wanderers undeterred by heavy summer storms, blistering sunshine, and chilling winds with simple food, water and toilet conditions. We witnessed vultures hovering in the sky above, heard the thumping gallop of a wild board pounding in the night by our tents, acknowledged a snake disturb a guided meditation and expressed our gratitude to a farmer for pulling our large vans out of the mud after a monsoon of a night. And much more. We remember the Cathars, the brave 13th century Christian sect, who went on pilgrimage in the same region, lived as vegetarians, and suffered terribly at the hands of the armies of the Pope.
There are more women than men on the Yatra these days. Children and parents walk up the front of the long line as it weaves its way like a very, very long caterpillar.
In an era when Dharma practice far too often remains confined to the often comfortable environment of far too many Dharma centres, the Yatra keeps a tradition alive of human beings intimately exposed to the elements and each other, as well as themselves. With 115 of us on the Yatra, we have to communicate; to listen to each other’s needs, and attend to children and their uncensored voices and vivid imagination. The Dharma Yatra has become a genuinely life changing experience.
Our team of Walter, Muriel, Dominika and Ewa act as guardian angels before and during the Yatra. They put in tremendous Dharma service to ensure the smooth flow of the Yatra. Christelle, Zohar, Ella Ya and myself form the core offering the Dharma to ensure the daily integration of Dharma and Yatra. We plan to have the same core team to take care of Yatra management and same teachers next year. We have invited others to step forward to assist as we did this year.
Next year, we will start the Yatra on the last Thursday of July in the same region of France. Do come. www.dharmayatra.org
Someone kindly left Kye and I a loaf of bread and litre of milk on the porch when we arrived home. It is usually Peter who acts so thoughtfully but he is still in France after the Yatra. A special thank you to the anonymous angel.