Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Pilgrimage

I ran across this beautiful quote from Macrina Wiederkehr's book Behold Your Life while online this evening.

A pilgrimage is a ritual journey with a hallowed purpose. Every step along the way has meaning. The pilgrim knows that life giving challenges will emerge. A pilgrimage is not a vacation; it is a transformational journey during which significant change takes place. New insights are given. Deeper understanding is attained. New and old places in the heart are visited. Blessings are received and healing takes place. On return from the pilgrimage, life is seen with different eyes. Nothing will ever be quite the same again.


From what i can see in the book's preview on Amazon, it looks like i'm going to have to check this out at the library and spend a few weeks with it on my zafu. Granted it is firmly grounded in Christianity, but judging by this quote and the preview it should be quite thought provoking.

There is so much about this paragraph that i like. From the very beginning she makes it clear, "Each step along the way has meaning." Notice that she didn't say "each stop" along the way. Especially as this applies to Shikoku, what meaning and significance there is to be discovered in a henro's life on the trail will not be found at the temples you stop at but between the temples; along the streets and roads walked throughout the day, day in and day out, week in and week out, month after month. Each step of the way has the potential to open your eyes, to open your mind, to open your heart a little more than the previous step.

Will challenges occur along the way? Absolutely. Blisters, sun burn, hunger, fatigue, anger, self doubt, pride, and disappointment (with yourself and others) are just a few of the obstacles that will try and block your progress along the henro trail. As Marcina says, this is not a vacation. If it is, then it is not a pilgrimage. And if it is a pilgrimage, your accomplishments will be measured by the strength you bring to bear against these challenges, by the determination and perseverance you bring to the trail, and by the amount you grow as one by one they are set aside and you walk past them.

"New and old places in the heart are visited." I find this interesting because she clearly says that it is those previously unseen and/or forgotten corners of the heart and not the mind where insights and understanding will occur. All true henro know that it is when the mind is quieted and the heart is listened to that the real stories are heard.

And she's right, there are uncountable old, dark, and dank places in all our hearts that we prefer not to visit because we know what we will find there. When walked well, the henro trail helps air those corners out, letting the ghosts and goblins free and letting the sun and fresh air in. At the same time other doors will be opened, those that we've seen but didn't have the courage to open before, or simply wouldn't make the time to open before, and those that were completely unseen and unknown, or that we may have read about but didn't know they existed in our hearts.

Another reason i like this sentence, though, is because it so closely ties into the significance of the Heart Sutra on the henro trail. New and old places of the heart [sutra] are visited. As i have mentioned earlier, i think several weeks of a henro's walk, if not the entire walk, could be spent contemplating the meaning of just these few phrases of the sutra:


Mu ku chū metsu do; Mu chi yaku mu toku; I mu sho tokko.

There is no suffering, origin of suffering, cessation of suffering, or path leading to the cessation of suffering; There is no wisdom or attainment; For there is nothing to attain.


If there is nothing to attain, why strive? Why sit? Why walk the trail? Why bother? But as you walk, the "Why?" is constantly being explained if you truly, quietly, and non-judgmentally listen. Birds singing, gentle rain falling, sun shining, waves washing the beach, settai being offered, settai being accepted, another demand for ¥300 at the Nōkyōjo, the sound of the Heart Sutra being chanted, a dog barking, an old grandmother trying to tell you where you missed a turn, the Walk/Do Not Walk sign playing music telling you that it is OK to cross the street, the sunrise, a shouted "Irasshaimase" as you enter the convenience store, the noisy traffic keeping you awake as you're trying to sleep in a henro hut, ...

As i posted earlier today, "Transcend discrimination of opposites, discover total reality, and achieve detachment. This is complete freedom." These opposites, contradictions, and dichotomies in our lives are all hidden in those old, dark, corners of our hearts and the explanations we hear all day show us where those hiding places are so we can set them free.

Blessings are indeed received on the henro trail, many in the form of settai received from perfect strangers; people who offer you gifts with no expectation of anything in return, with no thought of exchange, with no thought of who you are other than a passing henro. But please understand, the blessing is not in the gift, but in the reciprocal acts of giving and receiving. They give and you receive at the exact same time as you give and they receive. Can you see the dual exchange? No, not dual, that's wrong, it is all one simultaneous exchange passing in both directions. Do you see?

Can a simple walk change your life forever? Absolutely — if you have the guts to let it. As T.S. Eliot said, and i never, ever, get tired of repeating, "Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go."

Do you have the guts to take the risk?

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