Toward Ultimate Things

Toward Ultimate Things

Andrew Schelling - 'Meeting the Buddha'

Edited by Molly Emma Aitken

Only the walker who sets out toward ultimate things is a pilgrim. In it lies the terrible difference between the tourist and pilgrim. The tourist travels just as far, sometimes with great zeal and courage, gathering up acquisitions (a string of adventures, a wondrous tale or two) and returns the same person as the one who departed. There is something inexpressibly sad in the clutter of belongings the tourist unpacks at home. The pilgrim is different. The pilgrim resolves that the one who returns home will not be the same person as the one who set out. Pilgrimage is a passage for the reckless and subtle. The pilgrim - and the metaphor comes to us from distant times - must be prepared to shed the husk of personality or even the body like a worn out coat. 
A Buddhist dictum has it that 'The Way exists but not the traveler on it.' For the pilgrim the road is home; reaching your destination seems nearly inconsequential.

Poem: "Beannacht"

Beannacht

("Blessing")

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

~ John O'Donohue ~

(Echoes of Memory)

Amongst White Clouds.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5902279151658995270#

Amongst White Clouds

1:26:26 - 2 years ago

Documentary about buddhist hermit traditions in the chinese woods.