As a child, I was an explorer of the natural world around me. I would venture into my back garden and in a state of both anticipation and contentedness, examine the interior of hedgerows for bird's nests or explore the grooves in paving stones and follow any scurrying lines of ants. I would uncurl leaves to see what insects might be lurking and poke about inside tightly coiled flower buds to get a glimpse of a bloom that would follow.
The way that a child sees the world is as I realise now, a precious gift which is put to one side as we advance in years and are moved through an education system which seems to value lifeless nuggets and of what is held within the mind, rather than the way in which it interacts with or comprehends the world.
As a young adult, I followed an urge to travel. When I was not working, most of my free time was spent hopping onto buses and trains and venturing out to nearby towns and cities ~ always wanting to see more and more of the world. If I had had enough money to do so, or perhaps more self-belief and determination that I had, I would have been able to travel abroad and spend time living within differing communities of people.
As a middle aged adult, the circumstances of my life had converged and moved me to focus upon and to explore my spiritual nature. I could no longer explore an outer landscape of life to the same extent that I could plummet the depths of an interior.
These milestones are important, in that they help me to recognise an urge that has always resided within me to explore and encounter the world anew. I had perhaps never appreciated until now the continuity of a link that could exist between being an explorer, a traveller, a spiritual seeker and a pilgrim. All being familiar with an innate restlessness and curiosity about the world and about life and needing to experience it intimately, with perhaps the only difference between them being one of clarity of focus of intent and of the choice of territory being explored.
It is valid to look at whether one's motivation is that of wanting to possess more knowledge of the world and to enhance one's experience of it in some way and/or whether the motivation is to be changed by what is found, so as to discard what has previously been obscuring vision, that we might embrace and participate in life more fully.
We are often regaled from childhood, with myths and stories of heroes and this still has a theme throughout many of our popular movies. We are familiar with the story line of an average person being called towards some quest, thrust into adventure and compelled to battle some larger and frightening adversary. Is there any necessity though, and if there is, why should this be so, to subject the body and/or mind to physical hardship and adversity? Or is it just that there is a necessity to abandon that which is familiar, including those beliefs and values that have not been previously questioned? Must we lose sight of ourselves in order to rediscover ourselves anew?
Could a pilgrimage equally be a metaphor, a symbolism, a ritual and recognition of a transformation being undertaken? Surely an element of willingness, of choice or intent underlies so much of the nature of what is being experienced as adversity and/or suffering? In other words, do we undertaken a pilgrimage kicking and screaming all the way, or with focus and quiet contemplation as our guides?
In some cultures, respect and space is given for certain passageways and turning points of life and so it is that a young person is encouraged and able to pay attention to what is unfolding within their experience and to grow without seeing an essence of life as adversarial. In a culture however, which values an escalation of wealth and of status, life is viewed as something to be mastered and contained and confusion or unwillingness in the face of this, is denoted as weakness or failure and a person along with their contribution is valued accordingly.
It follows that there is likely to be a great difference of perspective being held across the cultures of the world as to any purpose underlying a spiritual quest or pilgrimage or even as to the validity of what has has often been deemed as a 'dark night of the soul'.
But essentially, what it is that I am exploring throughout this passageway has to do with purpose, meaning, participation and value and ultimately is about a conscious choice of turning towards or away from life and its inner fire.
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