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The risks & dangers of
pilgrimage
True
Pilgrimage, indeed every pilgrimage, is an expedition into the unknown. The
pilgrim wants, in fact is driven to become other than what she is at present
(and whose whole affect is unpredictable). Initially (i.e.
at birth) the pilgrim has no actual (read: local) destination (save death and
taxes). To survive, she needs (indeed is forced, i.e. pressured) to accept an
actual destination, such as an education, then a trade or profession (i.e. as
path to a particular goal (i.e. home, sanctuary)). Later on, and provided she
remains natural (read: authentic) rather than becoming an over-cultured
zombie, she can invent a destination, i.e. an ‘as if’ goal (or target, i.e.
an end) and bend the accepted (indeed, enforced) destinations as means to her
(‘own’, unique, authentic, hence natural) end (read: self). An
expedition (i.e. pilgrimage) into the unknown, forced or voluntary (indeed
leaving home, i.e. the safety of a sanctuary, is always forced/pressured), is
difficult to undertake, onerous and very dangerous. That’s because the world
outside is a nutrient soup, to wit, ‘All Life is Food’ (that’s what’s claimed
in the Veda), i.e. everything eats everything (and from which can be derived
the true purpose of pilgrimage, namely to become a delicious, therefore
irresistible snack). However, all pilgrims arrive somewhere, (i.e. become something), though
only a rare few to so at a chosen (i.e. invented) destination. Some
pilgrims, i.e. the ones without a goal, get lost (i.e. they become ‘poor’
quality fodder). But most pilgrims allow themselves to be guided to false
(read: accepted from or enforced by others) destinations – seduced by
promises of earthly or heaven delights – and where they are either enslaved
(and their energy and identity used in the interest of another, usually a
priest or politician) or fattened and spiced up to high quality fodder and
eaten (i.e. stripped of their energy and identity). Because
pilgrimage, i.e. the process of attaining one’s own true self (see: anatta, to wit, ‘not own self’, and
the Buddha’s problem with ‘not own self’) is so difficult and dangerous,
individuals (e.g. gurus, teachers priests and so on) and groups (e.g.
religious and political and educational sects or cults) emerge to guide her
to goals which they have achieved - and experienced as wholeness (i.e. holy
or good), therefore happiness generating. Accepting (enslaving one’s self to)
such ‘help’ comes at a high price. Undertaking
a pilgrimage to a goal (read: self) provided by an ‘other’ is the easy but
untrue (because unnatural) way to relative wholeness (i.e. holiness) and
happiness. Following a leader (i.e. a guru, teacher or priest), or taking an
object or place (claimed to be holy) as a goal, though easy at first,
eventually blocks advance towards the true goal, that is to say, to the
pilgrim’s very own true self. To put it bluntly, the bright light of the
beacon that guides across the dark waters, i.e. the guru, teacher or priest,
is not the goal. The true goal is the unseen (indeed, unknown) shore hidden
by the light (i.e. by the energy released (for instance, as charisma) by a
successful pilgrim). The shore, i.e. the one hidden behind someone else’s
light, must be of the pilgrim’s own making and actually reached (i.e.
touched).
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