Traveling

[open_space]

I told JMG on Magic Monday how I felt confused about The Path and how it'd fit in my life from now on and got a beautiful quote in reply from Robert Browning's poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came

"For mark! no sooner was I fairly found
Pledged to the plain, after a pace or two,
Than, pausing to throw backward a last view
O'er the safe road, 'twas gone; gray plain all round:
Nothing but plain to the horizon's bound.
I might go on; naught else remained to do."

I have a thing for popular gurus and Osho is one I love, I also like his Tarot deck and thinking about the quote today I was reminded of this card...



...to which Osho says:

The tiny figure moving on the path through this beautiful landscape is not concerned about the goal. He or she knows that the journey is the goal, the pilgrimage itself is the sacred place. Each step on the path is important in itself. When this card appears in a reading, it indicates a time of movement and change. It may be a physical movement from one place to the next, or an inner movement from one way of being to another. But whatever the case, this card promises that the going will be easy and will bring a sense of adventure and growth; there is no need to struggle or plan too much. The Traveling card also reminds us to accept and embrace the new, just as when we travel to another country with a different culture and environment than the one we are accustomed to. This attitude of openness and acceptance invites new friends and experiences into our lives.

Life is a continuity always and always. There is no final destination it is going towards. Just the pilgrimage, just the journey in itself is life, not reaching to some point, no goal--just dancing and being in pilgrimage, moving joyously, without bothering about any destination. What will you do by getting to a destination? Nobody has asked this, because everybody is trying to have some destination in life. But the implications... If you really reach the destination of life, then what? Then you will look very embarrassed. Nowhere to go...you have reached to the final destination--and in the journey you have lost everything. You had to lose everything. So standing naked at the final destination, you will look all around like an idiot: what was the point? You were hurrying so hard, and you were worrying so hard, and this is the outcome.

I think he's got a really powerful point about travelling and understanding its purpose. I think this also relates to The Path, after all, enlightenment is not a goal; its a realization, a homecoming, because there was never anywhere to go. It is always here. So going and looking for it without in a journey is like travelling to get somewhere instead of for the sake of it. You are never going to find anything until you turn inwards and lose everything.

Comments

[mrdapplegray]

The Eydís Evensen music is really lovely -- thanks for sharing that link. I always struggle with the idea that it's about the journey, not the destination, no matter how much I like the concept. I feel a constant pull between bumper sticker adages: "Not all who wander are lost" and "If you aim at nothing, you hit nothing." The push-pull between these ideas is yet another duality that needs resolution in a triad, but I haven't quite figured out that resolution yet....

[open_space]

You are welcome! I've been listening to it for a few months now and I still like listening to it, so I'm glad you liked it.

If I may, I think that just because you enjoy the journey and look around doesn't mean you are lost in the bushes, you just have the sense to realize that you are a small figure in the distance and whatever you might come up with as a goal is, at best, as amusing and worthwhile as anything you encounter along the way. I agree with you however that without striking the balance between pursuing a goal and contemplating can be hard. I don't know the answer to it, but perhaps something along the lines of the midpoint between two vices is a virtue?

[jprussell]

Thank you for posting! Always a helpful reminder, and wow, what a pretty card.

Thinking about this post made me realize an insight I keep needing to re-learn with my daughter: we'll be playing a game or building a puzzle or something, and I get frustrated that she's doing it "inefficiently", and then (on better days), I remember "oh, right, the goal here is not building the puzzle as quickly as possible, it's having an excuse for her to learn how shapes go together, to problem solve, and to spend time with her dad".

In other words, to generalize, it is often helpful to have a goal/destination, but to recognize that it is not the purpose or what matters about the activity, it is merely the excuse for the activity to take place.

To get back to our metaphor, getting to the mountaintop shrine at the end of the path may not be the point, but the traveler wouldn't have met the people and seen the sights he did (which are the point) if he hadn't said "I think I better head for that shrine on top of the mountain".

Unsurprisingly, this is likely a fine theme for meditation :)

[open_space]

Nor if he had decided to get to the mountaintop shrine quickly and most efficiently ;-)

It's a never ending theme for meditation. I personally have been tying it with the figuration phenomenon JMG talks about on his other essay. Not only is the future unmanageable but everything is, not because you can't do a good job of predicting what will you see in the kitchen if you go grab a coffee, but because you are making it up and then claiming you could predict it after all.

[jprussell]

Hmm, interesting - I hadn't made the connection between figuration and the journey/destination thing, but that certainly does seem fruitful to contemplate.

I'm about 1/3 into volume I of Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler, so my thoughts are likely shaped by that, but it seems there might be a Faustian rationale for the connection here. Faustian thought is ever-focused on the far-away, ultimate end (not just a destination, but THE destination), everything in between is just "space". The link I see with your comment about figuration is that I imagine the Faustian mind is especially prone to blow right past noticing the figuration phase in pursuit of the "destination" of comprehensible items in space ready to be put to whatever use will serve your aims.

Not fully baked yet, of course, it just came to me, but thank you for pointing me down a new avenue for exploring the journey/destination problem.

[open_space]

I think it is fruitful in the way that I personally, have a never ending chatter about looking for "truth" or something worthwhile or better to do with my life but forget that whatever we might conceive as that, is nothing but a figuration of a tiny nervous system fed with a specific context field, so as the essay explains, the human mind can know nothing but it's creations. So taking the ideas too seriously, and the things we consider true too seriously you only get a serious face based on your own creations instead of actually pursuing truth and missing life in the way. Just like what it would feel to go to the mountain top and ignoring everyone and everything along the way because your are pursuing the "higher goal" of the shrine.

I haven't read Spengler's book but I've heard the concept of Faustian culture in the ecosophian community. It's a massive tome I've heard! You really do have a huge appetite for literature. How do you find the time to have a full time work, be a parent, an occult student and read that much?

I think you are right, I hadn't seen that. There definitely is a Faustian rationale to it, but I don't think it goes past the figuration phase but rather the figuration phase is faustian so it sees a goal in the distance, a final destination where there is a goal to it, but if you change your aspect perception --that is, your perception of the same thing changes based on the other contexts of your mind-- you can also see that the mountain and climbing it is not only a way but a goal in and off itself. That's were I like what Sadhguru mentions about dancing, there is not purpose to it but doing it.

[jprussell]

I know what you mean about both getting so focused on some kind of transcendental meaning or purpose that you miss the meaningful stuff right in front of you and about getting overly serious about such big questions. That is one thing that I think Buddhism and other eastern traditions get right - the focus on being present in the moment and recognizing the interest and value of the here and now - all of life is made up of such moments, after all!

And yes, The Decline of the West is indeed massive. Two roughly 600-page books, and the style is not what you would call "approachable". Still, it's fascinating, and it's reinforcing what I keep trying to remind myself about classic, influential books - reading it for yourself offers a lot more than just reading summaries. I somehow keep being surprised by this.

As for how do I have time, I'd say that I never have as much time as I'd like, there's always stuff I wish I could be working on! That being said, I have a few things that help. For one, we're lucky enough to be able to afford daycare for my daughter. For two, my job is quite flexible and conducive to reading (I have a teaching-only position at a university).

Otherwise, I'd say it helps that I have spent some time thinking about how I want to use my time and how to do so effectively. I got very into self-help and productivity stuff for awhile when I was a consultant (these days "self-help" just seems like the shallowest parts of occultism without the deeper stuff that makes it worthwhile). So, I try to make sure to do the stuff that's most important to me first, and then fit the other stuff around it. Sometimes that means less-important stuff slips a bit, which is not great, but mostly it seems to work pretty well for me.

[open_space]

That is a good approach to things! Thank you.

Regarding Buddhism, yeah, I agree with that too and with their saying, which I've also found in western sources, that all of eternity is right here so that by being outside of it you are truly missing everything. It makes sense, even though I don't think I've even been truly present. It seems like there is always a gap in between two moments of awareness that takes quite the mental discipline to dissect but I believe trying to practice is daily can help with at least the everyday stuff like washing dishes with full awareness. That is one of my favorite activities.

[open_space]

Sadhguru has something wise to say about being goal oriented too:

https://youtu.be/s0WNhyT0nOI

[jprussell]

Good stuff - no concepts I hadn't heard before, but as I said, it's always a useful reminder, and perhaps in line with the lesson we're discussing, the manner of delivery is compelling as well!

[open_space]

That's one thing I like about popular gurus. They never really do say anything new and in particular Sadhguru doesn't his real value lies somewhere else, but the way they say it gives it new meaning and that changes your perception from being something you know to something you need to really understand in a different way. It's a good lesson! I really do need to spend some time with it as I do have a Faustian ultimate-truth mindset and forget to enjoy the ride.