Pilgriming Through Costa Rica...

 

I have found that in a country like Costa Rica, where there's no tradition of renunciation at all, the best, or perhaps wisest way to set your way (exoterically speaking) as a mendicant is within the realms of the people's religious signifiers. Not only on the garments themselves, but also on the words that one utters...
 
 Meaning, if one wears the saffron/yellow robes of eastern sannyasa traditions and uses complicate language, the possibilities to approach people and to receive alms becomes more limited. One has to bear in mind that the whole point of the mendicant's path is that the fact of depending solely on the charity of others, allows, not only the beggar himself but also he/she who gives, a beautiful opportunity to develop pāramitās (virtues) such as generosity, humbleness, acceptance, renunciation, contentment, loving kindness, etc... This interdependent relationship acts as permanent vehicle to keep spreading and sharing the seed of dharma and also prevents our fellow renunciate from falling in the pride of pseudo self-sufficiency... Nevertheless there are a thousand more traps (both subtle and gross) awaiting for him along the way... watch and pray!

  "Man falls as falls the fruit from the tree, Unripe or mayhap ripe, with sudden crash: and so, O king, a beggar I become, For, the sure pilgrim-life me seems the best."

Lord Buddha.


more to come...