The Walk moves on

The Walk has ended, the Walk goes on. Here I am on the last day in England before heading to the US tomorrow morning. I am at Woodbrooke Study Centre in Birmingham thanks to some help and encouragement of new UK friends. I just had breakfast with an Anglican priest, Nduma, who was born in South Africa and is now a British citizen due to the twists and turns of the apartheid experience. We had a wonderful conversation about our activities, leading into mutual insights about living with nature as opposed to living by dominating nature. Woodbrooke is a beautiful place to do that, due to its wonderful garden and philosophy. Founded in 1903, the Centre is a Quaker study place which has a rich history including the experiences of coping with two world wars as a pacifist body. And, Gandhi slept here...and more, because the Quakers sent Alexander to India during the Salt Walk so that he could bring to England the reality of the repression which resulted. This was crucial at the time. I will spend the day absorbing the ambiance of the Centre and Birmingham. Also, there is a large group of Japanese youth here who are going to be touring the Quaker places up north, which we had walked through. They are seeing if there is time in their schedule for me to share the Walk with them.

Nearby is Bilberry Centre where a Gandhi Gathering put on by the Gandhi Foundation was held for the past week. I attended from Wednesday afternoon to Saturday. Gandhi books, pictures, references were the unavoidable settings. It felt good to see how people are seeking to learn and apply his way in their lives. The group is religiously diverse and ethnically composed of people from England and Scotland, including a number of Indians living in the UK. I had opportunities to briefly share the Walk with them, and took opportunity to insert insights during their regular sessions. It seemed that most of the mainstream Christian denominations were present through members, as well as others. I think it is indicative of our times that one woman has just been certified to be an Interfaith minister. That means that she will offer various ministries from an interfaith perspective, but not with denominational ties. She has gone through a multi-year program in preparation.

Related to the crucial environmental/human issues, the group members have a fairly good idea about global warming and energy concerns. Of course, I shared my statements. In fact, the organizer had printed out part of my blog for them before I arrived.

One most difficult experience of our last evening was an outburst of a mentally affected person who threatened people. The result was having the police come in at midnight and his arrest. Some felt relief, others felt like we failed him. I left them some suggestions for future organizational tools to handle future possibilities. I compared the week to a Gandhi Ashram, which was meant to include all, also the untouchables, and to be a training place for nonviolence.

In these settings, I have been given heartfelt welcomes and honor. For me, they are opportunities to reenter "the ordinary" after more than two months of intensive involvement with the walk. (An added note, I had opportunity to walk with a man whose parents were part of Bonhoffer's Confessional Church and died leaving him as an ophan. This was a first for me, which I feel blessed with.)

I have been wanting to share a number of insights from along the road. One is from Karen Armstrong's book, Buddha. She writes, "In his view, the spiritual life cannot begin until people allow themselves to be invaded by the reality of suffering, realize how fully it permeates our whole experience, and feel the pain of all other beings, even those we do not find congenial." From especially our own sufferings to that of others like the man arrested at Bilberry to the radiated environment of Scotland and the Irish Sea life will not be full until we pass through the darkness.