Just returned to reality from two days of meditation and mindfulness at the Geumsunsa Temple in Bukhansan National Park just north of the Seoul city center.

A train and two busses later from my hip hostel in Hongdae neighborhood, I arrived at the base of a mountain, famished. I bopped into a steamy restaurant and the waitress pointed to the wall with a menu in Korean. I assumed she asked me what I wanted so I pointed at something that was 15000 won, with a twinge of excitement at the unknown. She brought out the typical side dishes of kimchi and other pickled vegetables, and soon arrived with a steaming bowl of broth with tripe. I happily finished it.

I hiked partway up the mountain and through the arches of the temple, the sound of a trickling stream and the clearing of the crisp air from the less-than-clean air in Seoul bringing a sense of calm. Upon arriving, I was handed traditional garb and shown to my small room that I shared with a lovely girl from Finland..

Through these meditative hours, I learned that the path to mindfulness is always there. The path to a better you is always being laid.

I prostrate in recognition that all relations are a mirror reflecting myself.

I have led a very lucky and fortunate life. Every solo travel that I’ve taken, from Mexico City to Lisbon, London to Canada, has taught me the importance of acknowledging how unimportant, small and insignificant we all really are. Yet, the collective impact we have on one another is increasingly broad as globalization means we can easily hop on a plane and see the nooks and crannies of this world. With this opportunity comes a great responsibility to spread light, joy, and prove that we are all one.

I believe that everyone has an autonomous ability to attract what they want in the world, and the Buddhist principals that I learned about in this stay will become a guide for my life moving forward. Here are some of my favorites:

“I prostrate wishing to find the beauty hidden in my mind”

“I prostrate being mindful of my unknown potential”

“I prostrate wishing to embrace the life with pure passion”

“I prostrate wishing to embrace life with a humble mind”

“I prostrate trusting that a full life comes out of myself”

“I prostrate in repentance about having seen I and others as separate”

“I prostrate in recognition that the mind is the root of all things”

“I prostrate in recognition that I am the one who decides all things”

“I prostrate in recognition that the one who is different from me is not wrong”

“I prostrate in gratitude to the poverty that I experienced”

“I prostrate in awe that I dream as freely as possible”

“I prostrate in recognition that barriers are barriers as long as I keep them”

“I prostrate in recognition that I am free as much as I give up”

“I prostrate wishing not to miss the question, ‘who am I’?”

If you want to know who you are, carefully study yourself inside and out. Study whom you spend time with, what you enjoy doing, what kind of influence you bring onto others, and what your priorities in life are. This will lead you to discover your true-self. – Beopjeong Seunim (1932-2010, a Korean monk respected for his lifetime practice of non-possession)

Yesterday, I met with an employee of the Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism over tea at the Temple Food Center in Seoul. She attended the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Bra, Italy, where I hope to do my Master degree next fall. The conversation revolved around intersections of food values between the Italian-born food ideology Slow Food, and the centuries-old Buddhist approach to eating named Temple Food. We discussed the global popularization of the Temple Food ideology thanks to Chef’s Table, and how the celebrity of Jeong Kwan has brought with it blessings as well as hurdles.

What I took away from this conversation and the ones I’ve had with other travelers on this trip revolves around building a world-wide community through a common passion. In this case, it’s food.

Slow Food and Temple Food were born in distant cultures, in different centuries, but carry the same vision of spiritual, social, and physical fulfilment through food.

I believe collective consciousness can be revealed when people share presence through food, no matter where they are from.

More to come!..

I want to feel most alive. I dream of far-away places , but these pictures in my mind are only vessels for emotion.

In less than two weeks, I board a plane, alone, for Seoul. All of the emotion, lack of emotion, and tumbling of events that led to the decision to go there don’t matter anymore. I’ve quit my idea of the “why” of this trip, and am going with a new goal:

I want to experience emotion.

Love: to fall into it, out of it.

Fear: to feel uncomfortable, and then face it, trudge through it.

Hunger: to want something, more than anything.

Bliss: the feeling at the summit.

I will tap into my 18-year-old vagabond frame of mind and experience this adventure in a way I’ve never experienced before. I need this.

Do you?