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In my experience,
any journey that transforms awareness can legitimately
be called a pilgrimage.
This definition could even include self-inquiry if it
changes inner insights.
 There
seems to be a predominant perception that pilgrimages
are sacred and must be long, challenging and arduous
or incredibly painful. However it occurs, a successful
pilgrimage results when one moves toward greater and
deeper awareness of a mysterious Source. This awareness
creates unity within and without. Pilgrimage can include
both an outer and an inner experience that opens the
door of opportunity for personal change.
A significant pilgrimage
experience seems to be the eighteen inch journey from
head to heart. In other words, we are capable of transforming
taught beliefs through innate knowing in order to conclude
what is true. I am suggesting that we operate more wholly
by engaging the innate divine intelligence that exists
within every aspect of creation. It seems clear that
keeping an open and fresh perspective allows us to harvest
the wealth of awareness in which we exist. With this
understanding I would like to encourage a perceptual
change around the arduous idea.
While pilgrimage
is indisputably a sacred and meaningful experience,
it need not be long, hard or painful. Transformation
can occur through joyfully experiencing the simple cosmic
kiss of a wondrous sunset as much as from the tragedy
of a cosmic 2 X 4. In other words, how we experience
our journeys is a choice determined by each individual.
In this era of planetary shifting, it seems imperative
that each of us make a clear personal choice to suspend
long held beliefs and to reach out in exploration of
our neighbors. In doing so we begin to understand that
we are all connected. Everything in our world literally
reflects aspects of our very selves. With this awareness,
we are challenged to attain a way of being in which
we cannot separate living from loving.
Our task in being
human is to integrate divineness and humanness to achieve
a balance of living. As one integrates the many aspects
of the human experience, it is easier to stop judging
others and to accept that each form is a reflection
of self. The integration includes balancing masculine
power and feminine feeling within. In this way we can
return to wholeness and flow in the many experiences
necessary to attain homeostasis- natural corrective
events. Thus we transform and transcend our small mindedness
in order to claim divinity through totally embracing
humanness.
For me, after experiencing a rather important transformation
that reversed a long held prejudice, I understand living
and loving as simultaneous. Pilgrimage can, but does
not necessitate, traveling to distant geographic locations.
Personal pilgrimage also happens through inward “travel”
and the natural emergence of a loving and essential
Self. Any effort toward this end allows a potential
opening for change of consciousness and personal transformation.
Allowing and inviting a change of consciousness makes
one available to experience “holy shifts”.
A
proposed new definition of pilgrimage:
The intentional decision to experience what is different
from one’s prior and current exposure; a return
to the Sacred Self; connectedness to Source; Spiritual
intimacy; willingness to engage in deep self-inquiry
for personal revelation and to be changed by subsequent
revelations via innate wisdom. Ultimately it may
be said that pilgrimage is a divine revelation through
personal experience that occurs between an individual
and God. It is noteworthy that transformation often
occurs through many unintentional ways.
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