THE PRESCOTT-RUSSELL NEWS AUGUST 17, 2007
Marie Cicchini
Jon Peter Vis, a.k.a. the walking monk, passed through Russell, Embrun and Casselman August 7 in his third pilgrimage across Canada to promote spiritual solutions to the material problems of life. The newspaper caught up with the 54-year-old born in Chatham, Ontario, in the middle of a sunny summer afternoon. He was sitting on the shaded lawn of the former agricultural museum in Casselman and had already socialized with the retired owner, Jean Dumontier. Wearing a peach-coloured robe, traditional Hare Krishna garb, the hairless monk had walked down Bank Street through Metcalfe, Russell and Embrun, accompanied by Doug Kretchmer, a video production business owner who joined the trek at the Ontario border on May 10 with his pet bird, a female parrot named Billie. The 7800 km walk that will take him to Cape Spear, Newfoundland by the end of September is not a fund raiser, he says. At 20 years of age, as a fine arts student in need of a spiritual outlet, Vis adopted a monastic lifestyle in the Hare Krishna movement. He is now known as Bhaktimarga Swami
(which means path of devotion). Vis started teaching yoga and mantra meditation based on a popular Hindu text. He manages to take an active role in theatrical productions, scripting, casting and directing morality theatre. He has a spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, famous for his work on the translation of the Bhagavad Gita as it is. Heading east, the walking monk is trekking the second half of the country this summer. Kretchmer is there to drive and secure accommodation as needed. This third pilgrimage is broken up in two this time because the walking monk has commitments with youth groups. In 1996, he crossed the country from coast to coast, and completed the circle in 2003, walking from Cape Spear back to Vancouver Island. Swami was featured in The Longest Road, a National Film Board documentary detailing the history of the people who shaped the Trans-Canada Highway. On a typical day, starting at 4:00 am., the walking monk travels 40km on average, chanting a Mahamantra with chanting beads, a strand of 108 round beads in a bead bag, ending the meditation well into nightfall. This time, people understand the purpose behind it. The vibrations are better. They are curious and stop to chat. Some of them will open up their home and offer hospitality, said the amiable monk. The pilgrimage gives him a chance to connect with people, he says. Walking, meditating, and communicating with other travellers allows him to eradicate a modern-day culprit which he calls intolerance. Some of us tend to brush each other off so very easily at the slightest provocation, he says, blaming what appears to be a vacuum of virtues in society. So the pilgrimage is fortifying him. It’s a matter of personal growth, which he believes can be achieved by working on his inner strength. The moments of strain in the walk and the unpredictable weather humble him and build up his tolerance, while connecting with other travellers along the way softens him a little. The message I am conveying is an encouragement to integrate long walks and meditation into your lifestyle, he says for those who are not already treading a path of spiritualism. One can also participate in the walking culture through donations to the 108 club at www.thewalkingmonk.org.
Walk A Friend Raiser
by Gerry Therrien
Mattawa Recorder
A Chinese proverb states that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Bhaktimarga Swami’s walk has already taken him 2066 miles to Mattawa and the shores of the Ottawa River. His first step of his cross Canada trek began in Victoria, British Columbia this spring and he hopes to reach Cape Spear Newfoundland by September.
His journey is one of self discovery.
“Through its moments of strain, the walk aids in my own personal growth. The unpredictable weather helps with tolerance. And connecting with folks along the way tends to soften me a little. So I walk for spiritual growth,” he said.
The Hare Krishna monk hopes that his pilgrimage will promote people to slow down and do some reflective walking.
He stated, ” If people would walk for an hour every day we’d be living in a different world. If something like that could be achieved collectively -how much more potent that would be.”
This is Bhaktimarga Swami’s third time walking the whole length of Canada. He explains his obsession with walking in this way, ” For me, walking on the road while meditating and communicating with other travelers is an attempt at seeking inspiration from other people. It ‘s a chance to make a lot of friends – it’s a friend raiser.”
During his short stop over in Mattawa, on July 4, 2007, Bhaktimarga Swami whose name means path of devotion shared how he became part this lifestyle. More than thirty years ago, John Peter Vis of Chatham, Ontario adopted the principals of Eastern monastic life. He enrolled as a monk in the Hare Krishna movement back in 1973 when it was hip to be radical, daring and different. Since that time, as a celibate monk, he has evolved as an instructor of Bahakti-yoga and mantra meditation. He explained that the experience has left him personally content and philosophically satisfied. He admits that being a monk is not everyone’s calling but that it is indeed his.