The World Peace Diet: Eating For Spiritual Health And Social Harmony

Journey of Transformation / 259
potentially available. Spiritual teachers and certain poets spoke clearly
and passionately of their existence.
As the weeks went on, we gave up one thing after another. Extra
shoes and spare clothes were all donated one by one, gradually lightening
the load in our backpacks. It felt wonderfully liberating to let go of
less physically bulky attachments as well, like the little address book
with some friends around the country I thought we could visit on our
journey. I discarded it early on in upstate New York, and soon after we
gave away a $200 emergency fund we had in the form of four $50 bills
hidden in our packs. I took my glasses off as well and put them away,
which was quite a challenge, since my prescription was strong, with
20/400 vision in my better eye! The world was blurry for a few weeks
but began clearing up noticeably as my eyes and mind gradually began
to recover their natural ability to see again. I began realizing that it was
my habit of wearing glasses and contacts that had caused my vision to
deteriorate and would have made me a lifelong customer of the optometry
industry. Though it was a bit frightening at first to remove those
artificial barriers between the world and myself, it became increasingly
liberating, and today I haven’t worn corrective lenses for over twentyfive
years.
As the golden autumn days rolled by and we continued walking
south, I began to feel more alive than I ever had before. It was as if layers
of armor were peeling away. Waves of pure joy would suddenly
sweep over me and I would feel as if my heart were absolutely bursting
with gladness. It was a joy that seemed to have little relation to what I
had always thought would bring happiness. We had no money, virtually
no possessions, and no idea where the next meal or lodging was coming
from, and so why would these unexplainable waves bubble up from
within so vividly? One thing was certain: we were living our life, not the
life that had been dictated by media images or by parents, teachers, relatives,
and authority figures. It was perhaps the essential joy of being
that arises spontaneously when we are true to our inner calling to
evolve. It seemed to create a field of freedom and blessing around us
that was protective and almost palpable.
The quest for understanding was everything. We somehow knew