Author Archives: Reino Gevers

I met an interesting character walking the Camino between Muxia and Lires on the way to Fisterra. The guy is offering refreshments to Peregrinos for a small donation in a makeshift tent.

  
He coined the term ‘Turbo-Grinos’ – those guys in such a hurry to reach their destination that they have no time to really enjoy the Path or to stop for a conversation.

They are up in the morning at 4 a.m hurrying to secure a place in the next Albergue or even worse – racing the Camino on a bicycle and you better jump fast to get out of their way.

One of my Taiji teachers once said: ‘If you’re in a hurry you are out of alignment and need to practise more.’

When you walk longer distances – 25 to 30 km a day with a back pack – you are forced to slow down. If you don’t you end up with sore knees and feet.

The Camino forces you to wind down to a natural walking rhythm. And, wow there is a world of chirping birds, crickets and rushing streams to be discovered. You just don’t know what you will found around the next bend.

 Staying in the moment is perhaps the hardest practise in a world of distraction.

But as an old Zen Koan goes: ‘You have all the time in the world but no time to lose.’

Reino Gevers – coach, trainer, author

http://www.reinogevers.com

There is a difference between religion and spirituality. While religion is based on a set belief system or theology, spirituality is a much broader concept leaving room for many different perspectives.

I would see it as the difference between ‘head mind’ and ‘heart mind’

During a break in a cafe along the Camino I was talking to a fellow Peregrino on the reasons why the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela has become so popular in recent times. In the past it was mainly a Catholic tradition. But today people of all religious traditions, natonalities and age groups can be seen walking the Camino.

 

 
One young woman, who describes herself as non-religious, said she made a point of stopping in every chapel, church or cathedral on the Camino, moved at times to tears in feeling the ‘heart mind’

My fellow Peregrino in the cafe said experiencing Bach’s Cantata 140 in a live concert felt each time like a ‘tremor vibrating through my body.’

Belief structured only by a ‘head mind’ can be imposed by institutions but will never have the power of individual experience as felt by the ‘heart mind’

With the devastation caused by intolerant fundamentalist religion – not only in the Islamic form – I have the feeling that more and more people are becoming seekers and in the process discovering the ‘heart mind’

Reino Gevers – coach, trainer, author

http://www.reinogevers.com

Its always an amazing experience to walk into Santiago de Compostela from Monte de Gozo in the early hours of the morning. 

 

Centuries ago there was a clear view of the Cathedral from the mountain and I can well imagine how pilgrims must have felt walking step-by-step toward this awesome building after being on the road for months and overcoming enormous hardship.

The view today has mainly been obscured by modern buildings and the front is currently being renovated so that one has to enter through a side door.

If you arrive in the Pilgrims Office prior to 11 am to receive your certificate that you have walked the Camino, the country you come from will be read out during the Mass. Some of the pilgrims today  were from afar as Ecuador and South Korea.

The Pilgrims Mass itself is a very moving and individual experience as all the images, the highs and lows and conversations with fellow pilgrims during the past two weeks on the Camino Primitivo come to mind. 

Our group of pilgrims who bonded on this challenging Camino met one last time outside the Cathedral to say farewell. Even the Czech guy, Frans, who nobody thought would make it, was there -proudly holding his certificate!

Reino Gevers – coach, trainer, author

http://www.reinogevers.com
 

 

 
I involuntarily started my walk in the early hours of the morning from Melide after a group of young men began packing their back packs at 4 am in the morning, waking everyone in the Albergue in the process.

‘Learn to be tolerant. Don’t go into anger,’ I had to tell myself repeatedly. And I couldn’t be angry because they kept smiling and wishing me Buen Camino!

In Melide the coastal and primitive  routes merge into the Camino Frances – the main route from St. Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago.

In the mid 1980s only about a dozen pilgrims walked the Camino Frances annually. Last year the figure was about 150,000 and the figures are still rising. The Camino is meanwhile an economic factor in Spain with countless bars, cafes and albergues on the main route.

After spending the past 11 days sometimes walking the Camino Primitivo for hours in solitude, the Camino Frances is a bit of a shock. 

So today was a real lesson in staying in my own walking rhythm, in my own alignment despite the crowds racing to get to Santiago.

Thoughts during the day:

• How often are we pulled off our path by others?
• How often do we just follow the crowd without deeper thought?
• Sometimes taking a deliberate step backward or to change the pace is the answer.

I had a nice chat to a young girl who is walking the Camino the first time with her grandmother. She was not feeling well. The Camino has been working on her throwing up many questions about life. It won’t be her last Camino. She is already making plans about walking again after finishing school next year.

I’ve lost most of the really nice people I bonded with on the Camino Primitivo. But we’ve been exchanging messages. We will all meet again at the Cathedral in Santiago tomorrow at 1 pm!

Reino Gevers – coach, trainer, author

http://www.reinogevers.com

An unidentified Peregrino left a message on one of the marker stones between Ponte Ferreira and Melide. 

‘Every day is a walk into the unknown.’

  
True, you never know what might come around the next corner.

Especially here in the northwest of Spain the weather can change by the hour from clear blue sky to drenching rainfall.

Although the route is well-marked losing ones way in some unknown territory is common. 

You have good days where you feel like skimming the surface of clouds and bad days where you feel every muscle in your body aching and every stone hurting your feet. 

Lessons from the Camino are lessons about life about dealing on a day to day basis with the ups-and-downs, yet staying in the moment in the full realisation: 

‘That this too shall pass’

Tolerating onself during long walks in solitude with different emotions coming and going is a good way of really getting to know in what state of mind you are in. 

All the great masters of the mystic tradition of Judaism, the Kabbala, therefore sent their students on long journeys as part of their training. 

Interacting with different cultures in an unknown enviroment, the walk into unmarked territory, opens the mind to self discovery and new experience.

Reino Gevers – coach, trainer, author

http://www.reinogevers.com

During the past two days I’ve walked 62 kilometres and I’m feeling my body going into rebellion with all sorts of aches and pains.

When I walked my first Camino in 20o6 I had some hard lessons to learn. By the time I was reaching Santiago my back pack was falling apart from the weight of all the unnecessary clutter I was carrying with me. Now I’m down to a back pack with just 6.5 kilogrammes including just the basic toiletry items, lightweight sleeping bag, rain gear, extra pair of underwear, socks – thats it.  It makes walking so much easier.

It is surprising how little we really need. A lot of our precious lifetime is spent in preoccupation with stuff and clutter that blocks and hinders us from opening inner and outer space for new ideas, projects and creativity. Freeing ourselves from the clutter or ‘old energy’ not only helps to focus on that which is really important but on a physical level can give us room to breathe again.

We had a lovely evening in Lugo, eating the local delicacy pulpo or octopus. Lugo has an intact Roman city wall that dates back to the third century and many beautiful old buidings including a magnificent cathedral. Some of the Peregrinos I’ve been walking with include a really nice Spanish couple Eduardo and Monica from Tenerife, Sandra from Valencia, Patricia from Germany and a group of Italians. Monica, a mother of three daughters, miraculously survived the 2004 Madrid terror attack. 

Some of the stories you hear on the Camino would fill a book. Sadly language is often a barrier. I would love to hear why the Czech guy Frans is doing the Camino. I passed him again this morning, struggling along only 100 kilometres from Santiago. His hands are full of blisters from holding onto those walking sticks. Offers of help are politely and  steadfastly refused. 

Today I had to ask for help. Preoccupied, I missed a yellow marker, finding myself in the village if Vigo that was definitely not on the Camino. A grinning and toothless farmer and a kind granny helped me find my way again.

Reino Gevers – coach, trainer, author

http://www.reinogevers.com

   
   
Galicia is the land of the Celts. Many traditions like the bagpipe, called the gaita, date back to pre-Roman times. 

According to legend the Celts already walked the Camino as a processional route while following the milky way.

Walking on this ancient path and seeing these old homes with stone and slate one does lose the sense of time and space. Parts of the forest trail are pure solitude.

The jolt into reality when coming into the Spanish towns is all the more real. Spain is a noisy country and you don’t find a cafe, bar or Albergue without a blaring TV.  Last night the news had just come in about the brutal murder of a French priest by IS terrorists. 

He must have been as innocent and warm-hearted as the Spanish priest of about the same age who blessed us pilgrims in the little church in Fonsagrada. Psalm 23 (The Lord is my Shepard) seemed particularly poignant in that moment.

Inevitably some of the pilgrims were asking: ‘Well how safe are we on the Camino?’ and for that matter in public places. 

There is no alternative. We cannot let our lives be dictated by these evil and deranged people. Send out light and goodness. Let us stay in trust that humanity will prevail over fear and darkness.

Reino Gevers – coach, trainer, author

http://www.reinogevers.com