Blessings from Aldershot and Kathmandu

At school I had a choice between music and sport. After a lifetime of indifference to the latter, I have relatively recently learned to appreciate the political value of sport to current affairs, particularly football. Footballer Marcus Rashford has created real change in tackling child hunger, informed so much by his own childhood. And notwithstanding the controversy surrounding the the 2022 World Cup being staged in Qatar despite its human-rights record, the event was successful in raising the profile of Cymru internationally, and in promoting the nation's correct name too, i.e. Cymru. Llywodraeth Cymru (the Welsh Government) facilitated a range of greater educational cultural and economic opportunities offered by the proceedings.  There are many more such dialogues.

Suitably humbled, I admit to having only ever entered three football stadia. The only actual match I have attended was at Home Park (Plymouth Argyle) in 1974. I was cold, uncomfortable and bored. Plymouth lost to York City 2-0. Two years later I went to my 'home turf', Fratton Park (Pompey) only for a beer festival. I think I may have single-handedly invaded the pitch at one point (Dutch Courage?).

Fast forward to 2012. Thanks to an invitation from Nepalese friends, a group of 'supporters' and I were able to watch a very different pitch “invasion”: this time by His Holiness the Dalai Lama parading around The Rec (Aldershot Football Stadium), where he was a guest of the Gurkha community, exuding joy to the crowd. Many had taken their seats in the stands, or mingled in the terraces, hours ahead. My contact at the event was a member of the hospitality team. He had many 'khata' scarves about his person, so when blessed by His Holiness, so were the scarves. Originally from Tibet, khatas symbolise purity and compassion are often presented as a welcome or farewell gesture. At the end of that year we left the South East of England. Celebrating our move with a Nepalese meal, our host (the same friend) blessed us with two of the khatas that had been at Aldershot. Whether symbolic or representing something deeper, I now owned my first and only 'Football Scarf', as it were.

Five years earlier in Nepal (2007) I saw many many Buddhist sites around Kathmandu. At a monastery beside the enormous Boudhanath stupa, a place of Tibetan pilgrimage since the year 600, our party took it in turns to be invited inside to be blessed by the monk. The stupa itself is said to radiate the energy of the Buddha's awakened mind. It certainly has a powerful presence. It may be wishful thinking, but I like to think that this particularly moving experience imparted some good luck. Shortly afterwards I had the opportunity to apply for 'voluntary redundancy' at work, on fairly favourable terms, leading to early retirement early in the following year and a profound change in lifestyle for the better.

The suggestion of causal connection does not require any superstition or belief in the supernatural. The growing field of Panpsychism potentially provides the conditions for such connections to occur naturally and inevitably, and certainly has parallels in Buddhist philosophy. The mechanism is unclear and unknown, other than the notion that all matter has a degree of undifferentiated consciousness, even timelessness. At the most fundamental level we may all be connected to each other and to everything else.

I felt the lure of both the East and the West, but with this comes the danger of falling into colonialist 'Orientalism' in either direction. The often idealised but patronising view of the East as old and unchanging could equally apply to romanticised or condescending views of Cymru too, as a land of mystery, mists and mountain spirits, and somewhere for retreat, revival or  holidays, particularly when guests can "...have the whole place to yourself: just you and your people!", according to the Vrbo advertisement, as if local people going about their lives don't exist. I hope my journeys have been more respectful, and that I've trod lightly.

Another lucky encounter with a monk took place in Bhutan in 2010. A part of our tour group were lost finding their way from the mountainside back to the bus. Finding a remote village, a passing monk offered to lead us back. After wading through thick knee-high mud along the path, it was apparent that the monk, wearing sandals, still had completely clean feet and legs. He had seemingly been able to tread very lightly over the mud, in meditation or levitation. Once we were safely aboard the bus he vanished from sight.

There is so much more to understand, or even just to appreciate. I rarely knowingly quote Shakespeare. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy".

LINKS

Welsh Government strategy to promote Wales to the World during 2022 FIFA World Cup hailed as success – report | GOV.WALES

A political football - The New European

Full article: Football and politics: the politics of football (tandfonline.com)

Khata - Wikipedia

Is Consciousness Part of the Fabric of the Universe? - Scientific American

Panpsychism: The Ancient Idea That Everything Has Consciousness (noemamag.com)

A “Devolved Minority”: Contemporary German and French Guidebook Perspectives of Wales - Modern Languages Open