The Realization of Life

"We can look upon a road from two different points of view. One regards it as dividing us from the object of our desire; in that case we count every step of our journey over it as something attained by force in the face of obstruction. The other sees it as the road which leads us to our destination; and as such it is part of our goal. It is already the beginning of our attainment, and by journeying over it we can only gain that which in itself it offers to us."

From, Sadhana: The Realisation of Life
Rabindranath Tagore

A beautiful description of the Henro trail. As you take those first steps through the niomon of Temple 1 and enter the compound, stop for a minute and examine your feelings. Not your thoughts, those are too easy to counterfeit, but the feelings laying deep in your heart.

As you begin the Henro, ask yourself what the object of your desire is. Ask yourself where your intended, hoped for, destination lays. Is it back here at Temple 1, where you are starting from? Or, is it nowhere, at a place that doesn't exist, where the henro trail doesn't exist, where you'll cry for reasons unknown when you come to understand that with each step further into that unknowing you get closer to home.

As you take those first steps through the niomon of Temple 1, commit yourself to looking for no less than what the Daishi came looking for when he dropped out of the university and walked into the mountains and coastal roads of the same island.

As the saying goes, only he/she who has the courage to go too far will ever find out how far they can go.