Where is YOUR Favourite Pilgrimage Place?

In one sense we are all seekers.  One of the main chapters in any ‘seekers manual’ would likely be entitled Pilgrimage Places.  Making any kind of pilgrimage to a place near or far will be either an occasional or a frequent highlight in any seekers life.  And so it is, within all our lives, that we often give our seeking both direction and focus and as we set off on our pilgrimages.

For some it’s an annual spiritual or religious pilgrimage to a sacred but very public location – places in India and Saudi Arabia spring to mind.  For others it’s a journey with a smaller more intimate group, perhaps to a once in a lifetime location that has a mystical heritage – Perú and the Himalayas are favourites.  And for some it’s a more solitary journey to a place to which one feels drawn, sometimes for no apparent reason, by a mysterious energetic attraction! It’s usually a place that is isolated and insulated from the world that allows for a deep and reflective introspection – from monasteries to ashrams, from cabins to caves, there is an unlimited choice.

However, pilgrimages are not always made with overtly spiritual intentions or out of some religious duty.  They happen, for many, almost every week.  The journey to the ‘football stadium’ or the ‘shopping mall’ are also significant places which are seen as a kind of ritual pilgrimage, while the ‘music festival’ attracts thousands of their own kind of ‘pilgrims’.  And for others, perhaps not too many, going to work every day is a form of daily pilgrimage.   Although the location, length and frequency of a pilgrimage may differ for each of us the motivation will be almost the same.  Each is ultimately ‘seeking’ the same experience.  Each travels ‘outwards’ somewhere to find or feel or see something significant ‘inwards’ i.e. within their heart and mind. 

In the spiritual/religious context the pilgrims journey is to a place that is historically perceived as holy or sacred.  It is there that they may repent for their sins, relieve the burden of their conscience, and thereby restore contentment to their heart and happiness to their life.  Some travel to worship their idols so that they may have bestowed upon them the blessings of their God or Deity, thus invoking success and prosperity to their endeavours, with the promise of restoring contentment to their heart and happiness in their life. The more solitary pilgrims will travel to more isolated places, to sit in silence, perhaps live in ultra-simple ways, in order to attain some form of enlightenment…why?  So that they may ‘see through’ and dispel the ‘stress making’  illusions, delusions and confusions that they have absorbed since childhood from other people and the world around them, thereby restoring contentment to their heart and happiness to their life.

The most popular annual pilgrimage would ‘seem’ to be a little less spiritual in its purpose.  What we call our annual ‘vacation’ has it’s roots in the pilgrimage to some benevolent location, a far off beach or snow covered mountain, and once there to spend some ‘holy days’ in relaxation with the aim of …restoring contentment to the heart and happiness to ones life!  Annual holidays are the mass pilgrimages of the industrial era.

The weekly ‘religious pilgrimage’ of millions is of course to stand before the alter or the lectern of the church or temple or mosque.  Once there both songs and prayers are offered with the desire to be forgiven and/or raised up in spirit, or to request that the desires of the heart be fulfilled.  All moved by the hope for a renewed contentment of the heart and happiness in life…for another week at least!
And if it’s not to the church/temple/mosque then it’s off to the modern day equivalents namely the stadium, the shopping mall or the concert.  It is there that the ‘team’ or the ‘music’ or the ‘new shoes’ are given responsibility to restore contentment to the heart and happiness to our life…for a few hours at least.

Whether the motive appears to be spiritual or material, whether the pilgrim’s (our) journey  is long or short, daily or annual the underlying movement is to go ‘somewhere’ in search of ‘something’ that will restore our contentment and happiness.   Until, that is, we notice that the achievement of any contentment and the feeling of such happiness is always a temporary one, an ever fleeting gift, a transient stimulation that cannot be sustained and always passes.
If the seeker seeks earnestly and consistently for this inner restoration then eventually a moment comes, often out of the sheer frustration, when there is the realisation that the contentment and the happiness that we seek through almost everything that we do and everywhere we go cannot come from outside one’s self.  The ‘belief’ that it is possible to find our peace and contentment ‘in the world itself’ collapses in the light of a simple truth.  The human spirit cannot be ‘made’ truly content and authentically happy by anything physical or mental o emotional.  All pilgrimages and their rituals, all pilgrimage places and their apparent sources of deep and wise insight, only become another stimulation and therefore another dependency or attachment.  And all forms of dependency, regardless of their physical or mental form, are by definition, saboteurs of contentment and happiness.

Sooner or later even the modern day prilgrims that we know as the shopping traveller on their way to the mall, the sports fan to the big game and the music fan on their way to the concert realises deep down that their pilgrimage is being made to satisfy an addiction that signals the presence of a dependency that will render a true and lasting contentment and happiness impossible. 

And so it is with some inevitability that all seekers eventually awaken to realise all seeking is futile.  For contentment and happiness are always there in the only place where they always were!  Always there in the only place where we seldom look.  In the heart of the seeker.  A moment of enlightenment occurs with the realisation that to seek is to avoid.  To go, travel, look ‘out there’ towards anywhere, anyone or anything in the hope of finding one’s inner peace, one’s true contentment, one’s authentic happiness is to attempt to avoid what is already present. 

Perhaps that is why an ancient sage once said:  “Seek not for the contentment of your heart but know that you are that contentment.  Seek not for any ‘thing’ other than your self and you will come to know that the self cannot be sought.  And when you realise that the seeker cannot be found separately from the sought then you will know the seeker and the sought are one.  And there, in the ending of your seeking, is the contentment of your heart because there YOU are. ”
At the very least perhaps such wisdom has the power to help us trim our travel expenses!

What would you say was the nature of your pilgrimage?

Reflect on why can real contentment of the heart and happiness in life not be sourced or found in the world out there?

Do find three people this week and ask them the following questions “What do you think makes you happy?”  Then ask, “Why do you think that your happiness is fleeting?” Then ask, “How do you think contentment and happiness can be sustained in daily life?” Allow the ‘flowering’ of the conversation and smell the roses as they emerge!

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Ross Galán
NLP Spiritual Life Coach
Spiritual Life Coaching School