The Mindfulness of Wandering

By Julian Bound

The Mindfulness of Wandering by Julian Bound

 

21 Mindful Walks through 7 Buddhist Countries for Reducing Stress and Anxiety and Finding Peace of Mind in your Everyday Life

 

Calm the mind and start a journey towards finding peace with twenty-one short mindful walks through the beautiful temples, gardens and shrines of Asia and South East Asia.

 

Finding peace in today's modern world can be difficult. Although calm appears at times in our daily lives it is often fleeting, allowing elements of stress, anxiety, sadness and at times exhaustion to take dominance again. By practicing mindfulness in our day to day activities of work or play a once elusive peace can become a constant.

 

The Mindfulness of Wandering guides a reader towards being in the present moment through cultivating awareness to our surroundings. Each mindful walk is designed to encourage observing the world around us with curiosity and accepting things for how they really are in a non-judgmental way.

 

From Tibet's high altitude temples to Cambodia and Thailand's golden shrines, and from Japan's bamboo forests and tranquil gardens to India's sacred Himalayan pathways, every walk takes a reader on a journey through nature and sights seen within the comfort of mindfulness' embrace.

 

Take a journey in mindfulness today and transport yourself into peace.

 

About The Author

Born in England, Julian is a documentary photographer, film maker and author. With photographic work featured on the BBC news, his photographs have been published in National Geographic, New Scientist and the international press. His work focuses on the social documentary of world culture, religion and traditions, with time spent studying meditation with the Buddhist monks of Tibet and Northern Thailand and spiritual teachers of India's Himalaya region.

 

His photography work includes documenting the child soldiers of Myanmar's Karen National Liberation Army, the Arab Spring of 2011, Cairo, Egypt, and Thailand's political uprisings of 2009 and 2014 in Bangkok.

 

With portraiture of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Julian has extensively photographed the Tibetan refugees of Nepal and India. His other projects include the road working gypsies of Rajasthan, India, the Dharavi slums of Mumbai, the riverside squatter slums of Yogyakarta and the sulphur miners at work in the active volcanoes of Eastern Java, Indonesia.

 

Present for the Nepal earthquakes of 2015 he documented the disaster whilst working as an emergency deployment photographer for various NGO and international embassies in conjunction with the United Nations and the World Wildlife Foundation.

 

With numerous published photography books Julian is also the author of nine novels including Subway of Light, Life's Heart Eternal, The Geisha and The Monk, By Way of The Sea and All Roads.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Julian Bound
• Release date: Aug 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223440031

Julian Bound

Born in the UK, Julian Bound is a documentary photographer, film maker and author. Featured on the BBC news, National Geographic and in the international press, his work focuses on the social documentary of world culture, religion and traditions, spending time studying meditation with the Buddhist monks of Tibet and Northern Thailand and with spiritual teachers of India’s Himalaya region. His photography work includes documenting the child soldiers of the Burmese Karen National Liberation Army, the Arab Spring of 2011, Cairo, Egypt, and the Thailand political uprisings of 2009 and 2014 in Bangkok. With portraiture of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Julian has photographed the Tibetan refugee camps of Nepal and India. His other projects include the road working gypsies of India, the Dharavi slums of Mumbai, the rail track slums of Jakarta and the sulphur miners at work in the active volcanoes of Eastern Java, Indonesia. Present for the Nepal earthquakes of 2015, he documented the disaster whilst working as an emergency deployment photographer for various NGO and international embassies in conjunction with the United Nations. Julian has published  photography books of settings across the world, including portraiture work, and city guides, and has also published several poetry books, including ‘Haiku, a Journey Through the Deepest Emotions’, Julian is also the author of  the novels ‘The Geisha and the Monk’, ‘Subway of Light’ and ‘Life’s Heart Eternal’.

Book preview

Novels by

Julian Bound

Subway of Light

Life’s Heart Eternal

The Geisha and The Monk

The Soul Within

Of Futures Past

A Gardener’s Tale

By Way of The Sea

Four Hearts

All Roads

Non-Fiction

In the Field

The Mindfulness of Wandering

Of Eden’s Touch

The Seven Deadly Sins and The Seven Heavenly Virtues

Ten Minute Travels

INTRODUCTION

Everybody’s busy.

Finding peace in today’s modern world can be difficult.

Although calm can and does appear in our daily lives it is often fleeting, allowing elements of stress, anxiety, sadness and at times exhaustion to take dominance once more.

By practicing mindfulness in our day to day activities of work or play an elusive peace can become a constant.

But, what is mindfulness, and what benefits does it hold?

Mindfulness is the act of maintaining moment by moment awareness of our surroundings, thoughts and feelings. In being mindful of our actions three integral benefits can be identified - intention, attention and attitude.

Where intention brings about the first steps to cultivating awareness to the world around us, attention grounds us in the present moment.

By being attentive our sensations and emotions exist only in the now, with no thoughts anchored in the past and holding no anxiety or fear towards unknown futures.

Attitude allows us to explore our environment with curiosity in a non-judgemental way. It permits us to see and accept how things truly are.

The following twenty-one mindful walks are personally experienced observations made in temples, shrines and gardens across seven countries.

From Tibet’s high altitude temples to Cambodia and Thailand’s golden shrines, and from Japan’s bamboo forests and tranquil gardens to India’s sacred Himalayan pathways, each walk takes a reader on a journey through nature and sights seen within the comfort of mindfulness’ embrace.

For all those who are seeking,

yet know not what for...

NEPAL

WALK ONE

Swayambhunath - The Monkey Temple

Kathmandu

Nepal

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Two golden Buddhas welcome all from within alcoves of red and blue. Between them is the first of three hundred and sixty-five steps carved into a steep hillside. Flanked by trees, this stone stairway leads up to a monkey temple’s summit.

An ascent is soon accompanied by others as monkey after monkey drops down from the canopies above.

Some carry their young on their backs where tiny hands clasp tight to a mother’s soft pelt, others clamber and play, searching for crumbs dropped by temple visitors, either on the floor or within one another’s fur.

A cool head is needed in a monkey’s often close approach. It is best not to infuriate Swayambhunath’s simian landlords.

It is said that those who climb Swayambhunath’s temple steps without stopping gain a piece of enlightenment.

Monkey companions run ahead in ease. Bounding every stone stair they soon reach a temple summit. Those who follow without a stop are granted their sliver of enlightenment.

A large brass-plated Dorje stands at the entrance to temple grounds. With a five ribbed sphere at either end of a slim ornate spool the Dorje is decorated with animals of the Tibetan calendar. Also known as a Lightning Bolt, it is Buddhism’s representation of the power of enlightenment.

Behind the Dorje stands Swayambhunath’s small white domed stupa. Its topping of thirteen golden tiers raises up into springtime skies. Four sets of eyes stare out beneath these tiers as Buddha’s all seeing perspective gazes across Kathmandu Valley to the north, east, south and west.

The stupa is circled three times in a clockwork direction before the shrines and temples of Hariti, Shakyamuni and Pratappur are explored.

Swayambhunath is a symbol of harmony in its blend of Buddhist and Hindu principles. Beside a Buddhist temple of yellow walls Hindu pilgrims kneel before statues of their own faith. They give blessings with the same candles used to light the dim recesses of Buddha’s domains.

Small pyramid shaped clumps of smouldering incense cause thick plumes of silver smoke to drift across Swayambhunath. Slight morning breezes nudge the results of incense lit in a wavering dance of spiraling trails.

Monkeys patrol the perimeter of blessings given. Beady eyes look to rice provided by a devotee’s visit. They are shooed away by all present.

When nightfall arrives so too will a monkey’s wanted meal. It is only then under the cover of darkness that Swayambhunath’s furry community is able to dine without interruption.

A red staircase spirals up to a doorway set high in yellow walls. This is one of Swayambhunath’s shrines dedicated to the Buddha. The staircase is climbed with a hand on its rail to steady its slight sway and rattle.

The chill of a Nepalese spring morning is lost on entering the temple. Gone is the day’s cool bite, replaced now by the warmth of candle light.

The temple’s single window is covered with a wooden blind of small holes allowing the minimum of daylight to enter. Only an ochre haze is present from the trays of small tea light candles lying within.

Placed across aged wooden benches each tray holds up to one hundred candles at a time. In waves of amber flicks a shoal of small flames move together in perfect synchronicity.

The hand of a novice monk begins to fill a new tray. He places each candle one by one until a row is made. Another row joins another. As do others after that initial one.

Happy all candles present are in line the novice takes a flame from a previous tray made. The new tray is patiently lit candle by candle.

There is a raise in warmth throughout the small shrine.

An increase in light allows a monk’s features to be seen. A candle lit scalp of cropped black hair and robes of burgundy become clear. The young monk steps back into the shadows away from prying eyes.

His step is cautious as not to slip. He is fully aware of the waxy film spread across stone tiles under foot.

The candlelit shrine is left, as is a novice monk to his privacy.

A spiralling staircase is taken back into early morning chills and a cautious hand steadies the body again.

A fog of burning incense hovers a few feet over stone sculptures of deities, gods, and goddesses. Each statue bares a red mark between its brow, a mixture of rouge powder, water and sometimes rice placed by a devotional thumb.

Walking by devotees kneeling within the residue of burning incense, Swayambhunath’s white domed stupa is passed and the temple’s large brass-plated Dorje is reached again.

Three hundred and sixty-five steps cascade downwards in a display of grey stone.

A descent begins. It is soon joined by a familiar