Hitchhiking adventures in Italy - Livorno featuring the Dalai Lama #12

in #travel7 years ago (edited)

After a good night sleep in our tent in the middle of Volterra we continued hitchhiking. At first the weather was very nice and we could enjoy the landscapes while walking but after a while we noticed that a lot of dark clouds were rolling in and that we had no idea where to go next. Standing next to the road we were discussing if it would be better to catch a train to Livorno and go to a hostel there for we were eager to sleep in a bed to give our backs a rest from all the backpack carrying.

This is how the landscapes looked like when we left Volterra.

This is how it looked like when we were waiting for a ride. We were quite lucky because we got picked up the moment when it started to rain some first drops. The driver took us all the way to Livorno. We had no idea what was expecting us there.

We enjoyed our walk through town even though it was many km to the seaside where we wanted to go. It took us some hours because on the way there were such beautiful things to discover. Like this one little park with these lovely turtles :)

This guy was suspicious.

And the pigeons looked like they were meeting there to gossip or something like that. We continued our walk through town and asked in different hostels and hotels if it was possible to get a bed for the night but everyone told us that they were completely booked. That was kind of strange but we continued our search until one women answered (we were already asking random passengers for affordable hostels): "Oh I think everything will be booked for the Dalai Lama is in town!"

And we were like: "What?" And she told us that he would give a speech in the morning. We still did not have any place to stay yet and the chances where bad to find something so we decided to build our tent in the park next to the sea and go to see the speech of the Dalai Lama the next day. We had a nice dinner at a 50s restaurant next to the seaside. I think it is easy for you to find if you ever visit Livorno and the food tastes amazing. I can really recommend it. While we were eating it started raining a lot! And it got worse. We had to build our tent while it was raining like hell and then a thunderstorm started.

I was a bit scared to be honest. Sleeping in a tent while every view seconds the place was lightened up by lightning and the sound of thunder was drumming in my ears. But we had no other option that night. We wanted to hear the Dalai Lamas speech and there was no other place available beside our tent.

But we survived. The next morning we went to the place where the Dalai Lama would have his speech and payed something for the tickets (I cannot remember exactly how much it was but something in between 20-40 bucks per person for the speech, the blessings where much more expensive - is this the spiritual way?). Since this was such a funny coincidence we did not want to miss it but we decided that those blessings were too expensive and that continuing our travels alive after this thunderstorm was enough of a blessing.

In front of the building where the Dalai Lama was having his speech there were a lot of protesters. I tried to find out about the ritual the Dalai Lama was banning for those practitioners but I really did not understand what it was about. I speculated it has to do with the use of psychoactive mushrooms in Buddhist monasteries but I really am not sure and if you know more about the ban of the Shugden practitioners please let me know because what they told me when I asked them was very blurry. Some people also told me that they were actually working for China in order to have a Anti Free Tibet campaign. I have no idea. Anyways the songs they sang for hours against the politics of the Dalai Lama were real earworms. One was "False Dalai Lama - Give religious freedom!". The other one was "False Dalai Lama - Stop Lying". Very groovy :)

This was the place and the decoration. So fancy but not really what you would expect when you think about the ideas of Buddhism.

And here he is, wearing the coolest monk cap ever: the Dalai Lama. I really liked his speech on compassion and how it is good to be selfish if your selfishness leads you to compassion for you receive the best things if you are compassionate with others. I think he also wrote a book on this subject.
He talked for two hours and answered questions for another two hours. I was really impressed and touched by some things he said. I remember how he reacted when a women asked him how she could make her mother happy again after the murder of her sister and her children. First he was not answering at all but you could see how his body shape changes to some expression of pain. Then he said: "This makes me very sad. Very, very sad. I cannot say anything more." With this he showed that he was just an ordinary man and that he would not just say something intellectual that makes him look like the half god like he’s seen by some people but like normal person that cannot do anything else but being understanding and compassionate. I think in such horrible situations this is the only thing one can do in the end.

After the speech we went to Pisa where we could stay in a hostel for one night. In my next post I will tell you more about our Pisa adventures. If you would like to read the previous adventures of this journey check out this posts:

The way to Ostia - 1
Ostia Antica -1.1
Bracciano -2
Viterbo -3
Tuscania -4
Lago di Bolsena -5
Pitigliano Part 1 -6
Pitigliano Part 2 -7
Sovana -8
Saturnia -9
Talamone & Siena #10
Volterra

Lots of Love and Light <3

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Such a great article! Thank you, @yoganarchista.
At first I just got curious about the hitchhiking adventures, taking me back to when I would go hitching just for adventure's sake, not knowing where I'd end up or how long I'd have to wait, if I'd get rained on...
But then I saw your awesome photos! (Honestly, pigeons have always reminded me of hip-hop kids hanging out on street corners, doing poor attempts at break-dance moves and free style rap, but mostly just trying to be cool.) What I liked most about your article is your approach to the Dalai Lama and the organized part of his faith. I know, paying money for blessings??? I mean, c'mon! The way I see the world, just that fact that you wrote about it on Steemit should secure a nice big blessing for you, don't you think? In any case, it did secure a follow and upvote!

Thank you for this nice comment. Haha I like the picture with the hip hop pigeaons :D I do not know if it was his decition to do this blessings for money or if it was organised that way by the people of Livorno to earn a bit with his visit. He is an old man and he can propably not bless thousands and thousands of people in one day so maybe this was just a way to choose the once who really felt the need for a blessing because they for shure would pay. I do not know. It just felt to strange :D I will check out your blog now as well ;)

Sehr cooler Travelreport. Glasklares Upvote und resteem :-)

Vielen Dank ;) Waren auch echt coole Tage ;D Liebe Grüße :)

Nice and luckily, you can hear and listen Dalai Lama Speech directly. He has fascinating personality and open minded. Thank you for sharing. :)

Cheers mate. Yes, and he has a really nice ways of expressing the things he wants to say with stories from his life. I remember when a little girl was asking him a question how he told a story from his childhood to answer to her. That was fun to hear.

wow richtig cooler Trip :)
Vielen Dank fürs Teilen ;)

Danke seht :) Ich freue mich, dass dir mein Post gefallen hat :)

Great article, you've inspired me to write about my own experience with the Dalia Lama and Tibetan Buddhism. Those shungden you met are indeed Chinese paid acting on behalf of the state to undermine the Dalia Lamas message. One thing to realize is that Tenzin 'Dalia Lama' Gyatso is at his heart just a man who had handed down to him the incredible weight of leading Tibet at a very tumultuous time in history. Tibet, the displaced country, is now democratic. He is a spiritual leader, not a god, or president. His message has always been one of peaceful resolution to the situation in Tibet. He is compassionate to the fact that many Chinese have never been given a clear history of there country, and this is not there fault. Mao, after a lovely meal with Tenzin turned to him and proclaimed religion a poison. He fled Tibet in '59 to protect himself, but also the tradition he represents for Tibetan Buddhism. It will be a very sad day when that man no longer walks the earth.

Thank you very much for this answer. I follow you and I am curious to read more about your experiences. From my impression the Dalai Lama was in deed a very nice man trying to help people understand the benefits of compassion and multual aid. But he also said that he prohibited a Shugden practice in the temple which he used to do himself until he was convinced it was evil. Do you know what that was? I guessed it has something today with psychoactives for a bad trip might have frightened him but I don't know...

Basically shungden was a monk who became angry at a ceremony long ago, and acquired special strength. As far as I understand it, it's basically the equivalence of the devil in western religion. The teachings the Dalia Lama received as a child were that both good and evil were praised, in a sort of hedging your bets deal for balance. The Dalia lama put an end to this practice, realizing you needn't balance the two, that you could live peacefully without war, could love some without hating others. The Chinese have used the rift between those who believe the old way and those the new. Drugs aren't in any part of their religion. A lot of 'injie'(white people) don't realize this and are generally frowned upon for their disrespect. You have no idea how hard it was for me to convince my wife's parents that I wasn't just another no good 'injie' slouch.

Thanks a lot for sharing your knoledge with me. I found it very difficult to understand the conflict. So the Dalai Lama prohibited warshipping the "evil" aspects of god? For me I like to go the peaceful way (eventhough I am not perrfect and sometimes I can have negative emotions) but I tollerate the "evil" way for I do not know who or how god is so I am not the one to judge how others should practice their religious beliefes. I thought that the use of herbs was also part of the religious way because i heard in India about the use of pschoactives in Hinduism and since the religions are related I thought this is also happening in Buddhism. Also the art and the teachings remind me of this. Thank you for teaching an injie. I had to think of a very great song when I read this word:

Buddhism is a fascinating study in religion, it's precepts are based in traditions on stories of gods and kings, but it's leader is the 14th reincarnation of a boy who left home to think, starved himself, was eventually nursed back to health, and realized that medatation and quiet reflective thought is the path to enlightenment. My favorite incarnation is the 6th Dalia Lama. He refused to take the vows of a monk, drank, womanized and wrote poetry.

In love with the lake
The swan longs to stay longer,
But the ice covers the lake
And the swan flies
With no regrets.

Is an example of his work, loosely translated from the early 1700's Tibetan scripts. The Tibetan people's main goal is to not lose their history, They have their own flag, had their own currency, language and culture before China invaded in the 1950's. As a white guy in Canada, I'd compare it to what the Europeans did to the natives 300 years ago. As such many Chinese people are taught they brought culture to savages, not that they are continuing a cultural genocide.
Nice song btw, I'll have to look up more of his tunes. Safe journeys

Wow that poem is truely awesome. I wonder what the swan will see next on his journey :) I will check out more of his poetry. Thank you for this recommendation :)

Quick note about the money for blessings, it's a way for the orginizers to recoup costs, traveling, security, venue are not covered by the door, and none of that money goes to the Dalai Lama, any access may go towards initiative like TCV (Tibetan Children's Village)

Thank you for another very interesting and informative post @yoganarchista. I always enjoy your work. :)

Cheers mate, I am happy to have you as a reader :) I was already excited to share ths part of the journey :D

It makes me happy to see your posts and photos during the day. Thank you. :)

Another lovely adventure. The Lama is cool :)

Thank you my friend ;) Yes he is ;)

Great effort

What do you mean?

Beautiful adventure indeed. You guys really had fun. I love the blue and dark skies images as they draw me closer to nature.
Thanks for sharing

Thanks for your comment :) It really was adventurous. Especially the thunderstorm. :D

You are welcome. Glad to know

I always enjoy while I reading hitchhiking stories. This one also nice :)

Thank ou :) I enjoy the hitchihiking a lot and I might do it again in a week but in Germany. T make my way to G20 protests. Greetings ;)

meep

Meep :D

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