The German Buddhist
When I first arrived in Prague, a friend jested that “Emma in Prague” was the legal edition of Emily in Paris, a tv series about an American girl who relocated to Paris to provide an American point of view at a Parisian marketing firm. Although the title is tempting, the people I’ve met are too special to fit into a written Netflix spinoff. Now in the middle of my legal internship, I want to share a favourite story amoungst my family, friends, and colleagues.
After a weekend at a friend’s house in Cannes, my delayed plane missed its connection in Munich. Sailing through German airspace, an unapologetic steward informed me that I would be rebooked on another flight. A few rows before me, I heard them break the same news to a darling, petite, blonde woman in an oversized plaid blazer. As we waited to deplane, I made a defining decision: I struck up a conversation with her. Caty’s warmth radiated; a bystander would think we were chatting about our upcoming holidays rather than being stranded for two nights in Munich. Although we’d spoken for all of three minutes, she brought me to the Lufthansa counter with her. She used her gold membership status to ensure we were booked on the first flight the next day, at the seats of our choosing, and supplied with sleep tee-shirts and other essentials for the esteemed stranded traveler. Her immense kindness overpowered the immediate sensations of stress, panic, and frustration about the situation. I can’t explain it, but it felt like I was supposed to be there. Exiting the terminal, we struggled to find the airport transport for the hotel. Partially because I was captivated by the thoughts of the serene stranger I had just met and partly because Caty didn’t mind wandering around on poorly given directions. She’s a fascinating person who spent most of her life traveling the world, building the international network of her Buddhist teacher, Lama Ole Nydahl, and staying in different temples and churches. In thirty-five years, she cultivated over six hundred meditation centers worldwide, including the Europe Center, which can hold over 7,000 people for summer retreats. Now she’s pursued a new passion: helping people pursue conscious change and human development.
It was quite a coincidence. I spent the weekend with a Swiss friend who believes in energy. The day before, he introduced me to the idea of humanity connected through our inner power, and now I was stranded with a perfect expert. Caty listened closely when I explained our elementary discussions, quickly bringing the conversation to new heights. She said that everyone gives off energy, not the superficial enthusiasm Americans are known for, but the type that comes from your relationship with yourself and the world. You possess good energy when you’re aware and connected to the unseen, non-societal layer of life. I didn’t doubt her for a second. Since we first spoke, her calm, conscious warmth had filled me. I saw it radiate over the Lufthansa counter and tickle the attendant and embrace the cashier at the snack store.
We stopped to ask a man if he could point us to the bus station. He looked at our smiling faces, briskly said no, and scurried away. Caty turned to me and continued, “Energy attracts energy.” People are drawn to it, even if they don’t have it, and may not know why. As we started on a different route in Munich’s airport maze, the same man ran up to us and said, “I just remembered where the hotel transport station is…” It was like she’d planned it. Perhaps he’d felt our energy, spurring him to come back and help us. Maybe he was just a good Samaritan. All I know is that we got to the bus station seconds before our transport departed, arrived at a beautiful hotel, enjoyed complimentary delicious dinners not included in Lufthansa’s deal with the hotel, and arrived seamlessly in Prague the next day. Maybe we weren’t attracting all our good fortunes. But if it weren’t for Caty, I wouldn’t have noticed them at all.
It's worth mentioning a frequent problem Caty sees in my generation: the ego-driven commitment to set high goals and fulfil them with brute will and sheer determination. “You need to leave room for energy.” She gave me an example from her own life, and how she spent three years looking for the right flat in a certain neighborhood in Prague. After dozens of hours of combing listings and countless deals falling through, Caty gave up. She succumbed to the competitive rental market and told her friends at dinner later that week. One of them leaned forward and said, “That’s very interesting. I just bought a house in the neighborhood, and I’m planning on renting it.” She signed a multi-year lease a few days later without ever seeing the flat, but when she walked in it was exactly what she had envisioned when she began her search years ago. Her blue eyes stared into me as she said in her soft German accent, “How beautiful is it that as soon as I stopped looking for something, it came to me?”
My view on life after 24 hours with the beautiful Buddhist German is this. Ambition, dreams, and working tirelessly to achieve them are essential to live meaningfully. But there’s another layer of the human experience at work. It’s what put me in Munich on a Sunday night with Caty. It’s completely out of one’s control, and the people who choose not to believe in it have a hard life ahead. But if you’re at peace with yourself, radiate warmth, and recognize the beauty out of your control, you’ll discover that the world will love you. Good things will begin to happen to you. And you’ll start noticing and appreciating them. But what happens to you in the world reflects what you feel internally. Good energy starts with you, and your relationship with yourself, then it radiates to others. Caty is a master of that. Only then when you’re channeling real positivity do you begin to attract it. And trust me, when you do, it’s the most beautiful and meaningful discovery in the world. The smallest coincidences in life will bring you joy, obstacles and stressful problems become opportunities, and seeing your good energy effect other people is like seeing your inner spirit around you. I also believe that if anyone speaks to Caty about energy it will change their life.
After meeting Caty, I began to meditate every morning, forced myself into freezing showers to change my grumpy mindset, and began to notice the attractions of energy in my life. We chat often, and plan to meet for walks and tea when she’s not in one of the dozens of countries she frequents on the weekend. As we hugged goodbye at the airport and prepared to return to our separate lives, I told Caty how much special she was and how much I admired her. She asked me what I respect the most about her. Surprised by the ego-fluffing follow-up question, I described her kindness, love for humanity, and ability remain conscious despite the distractions of everyday life. She replied, “Everything you mentioned is within yourself, I’m simply a mirror. What you’re seeing in me is a reflection of those parts within you.” With that final line, the German Buddhist turned with a flourish of her pink dress and disappeared into the back of a Czech taxi.