In 2005 I made a journey to East Asia. It was a spiritual journey, a pilgrimage to visit temples and people that form the roots of our linage. In one sense such journeys are not necessary and in another sense they are. And I am very very glad I went and perhaps there will be an opportunity to go again.

While I was at the temple in Germany last week I talked to a small group about the actual significance of Dharma connections and about ways of honouring them. Basically we honour them by giving expression to, keeping alive, the heart connection that exists by going to the roots, or the source as it is sometimes put. Sometimes that is given physical expression by going somewhere, as I did. To visit a temple, a teacher or grave marker.

I have been thinking of ancient times, say in Tibet, when devotees actually walked to a pilgrimage site. A holy mountain or shrine. They used their legs to get them from A to B. Often this involved spreading out their entire body in a full prostration between every step. One step, bow. One step, bow. Huge act of devotion, growing faith and resolve along the way.

The devotional aspect of journeying is less obvious now with mechanical means to get from A to B. But as I prepare to fly to the US on Tuesday bound for Shasta Abbey, there is a sense of joyous anticipation. This trip has a strong element of giving expression to, showing my love and devotion for, my direct Dharmic connections. What does that mean? Yes I’ll offer incense and make bows at the Stupa that marks where my Master is buried. Yes, I will connect up with trainees lay and monastic and that will be wonderful. We will sit together, sing together, eat ice-cream together no doubt! What does that all actually mean though?

Well, again at the temple in Germany, it came to me that while it is essential to grow deep roots and a strong stem of faith if one fails to look up and see the magnificent blossom attached to the top of the stem – well one has missed the point completely. And sadly that happens.

Patiently we wait
When already
the lotus
blooms.
And smiles eternally.

That’s it! The smile in the heart is there, in every step. Pilgrimage? A journey without a destination. While holding aloft the smiling lotus.

Thanks to Tony for the photograph.

This post was slightly edited June 3rd.

We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and — in spite of True Romance magazines — we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely — at least, not all the time — but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.
Hunter S. Thompson

Thanks to Julius for this quote.

How true, how very very true. And humbling actually.

All descriptions of reality are limited expressions of the world of
emptiness. Yet we attach to the desciptions and think they are reality.
That is a mistake.

Susuki Roshi

So simple. So true. So human!

Thanks Nic for sending the quote.

I said it before
and I will say it again.

Oregon afternoon
eyes search/seeking for meaning in
sun? sky? tree? cloud? air? me?
and not for the first time either
of course.

What happened? What changed that day?

Black Forest morning walking
within
sun, sky, tree, cloud, air, me.
Not searching, nothing found
Well, OK then….

OK folks please do not run off with lots of ideas about what I have written here. Read at face value, let it go and get on with your day. Meaning comes and goes. Let it.

I have limited access to the Internet for the next couple of weeks, probably, so I am likely to post telegrams rather than letters.