Steven Harper - Exploring Pilgrimage

Exploring Pilgrimage

Draft
by Steven Harper

Near the beginning of our daylong retreat I gave a short talk about what pilgrimage has been and is for many cultures and wisdom traditions. I was asked by a few in our group to share in written word some of what I spoke about on Saturday morning. The following is loosely drawn from my notes. Please know this is very much a draft and will probably take this page down after you all have had a chance to read this. Perhaps one day I will publish a longer article.

I have a long standing fascinated about practices and rituals that occur in many cultures. When practices occur across culture boundaries they perhaps speak to the larger human condition and are greater than the culture or tradition itself. It is interesting to me that most wisdom traditions have some form(s) of pilgrimage.

As a general statement, we contemporary westerners living in the United States don’t have a great deal of meaningful pilgrimages that emphasize our relationship to our spiritual journey. This opens the question of how we might create and participate in the practice of pilgrimage in a manner that is both skillful and has meaning. Most forms of pilgrimage that I have studied share these intentions, characteristics, and outcomes:

A physical journey through time and space
An element of challenge (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual challenge to be met)
Leaving home and/or leaving what is known
An individual practice and a communitarian practice at the same time
Simple lifestyle during pilgrimage: e.g. simple clothes are worn that do not reflect status, simple diet, simple lodging, etc.
Special rituals and/or prayers that marks significant milestones; before, along, and after the journey
Circumambulation: moving around a sacred temple, object, mountain, and the like
Food, water, often shelter is shared
Pilgrims return with objects (water, statues, talismans) and/or special knowledge from a sacred site
Pilgrims return with something for the community, family, as well as self
Often a dedication of the merit for others, sometimes dedicated for “all beings” or “all my relations”
Emphasize the journey itself as much as or equal to the goal (how is held equal to what)
Emphasize the merging of inner and outer (e.g. climbing the Mt Fuji inside as I am climbing the physical Mt. Fuji)
Encourage a relationship to and deep knowing of a geographical place that may occur over repeated pilgrimages and across many generations.
Timed with the seasons, sun and moon cycles, or some other natural rhythm

Pilgrimage, of course, is never just one of these things, but a constellation of many things and experiences woven together to create the pilgrimage. With this background knowledge it is now important that we drop our ideas and concepts about what pilgrimage is, or might be, as we step on the path of pilgrimage. In each step we have the opportunity to discover what pilgrimage is now.Here is a version of the Zen story that Layla told in the zendo from the Book of Serenity

Zen Teacher Earth Treasury asked the monk Dharma Eye as he was leaving the monastery, "Where are you going?"
Dharma Eye said, "I am going on pilgrimage."
Earth Treasury said, "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?"
Dharma Eye said, "I don't know.” Earth Treasury said, "Not knowing is most intimate."
Dharma Eye was greatly awakened at these words.

My hope and intention of offering this retreat was and is to explore what meaningful contemporary pilgrimage might be, to build community, and deepen our connection to self and place. I have been quite surprised and excited by what has occurred in these pilgrimage retreats over the years.

Now, I invite you to pause for a moment... and for the next three breaths... I invite you to open your awareness and attend to whatever arises. May we all live "most intimately" in the pilgrimage of this unfolding life.