Pilgrimage—The Sacred Art

Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook

Description

Explore the many dimensions of the pilgrimage experience and change your orientation to the world.

"Pilgrimage is an opportunity for pilgrims to cultivate their inner life (or inner voice) in a way that leads to a greater sense of peace and compassion—a sense that pervades all of life."

—From Chapter 6, “Preparing to Practice”

Pilgrimage is a spiritual practice of nearly every major religion of the world. If you are a Christian you may travel to sites associated with the life of Jesus; Jews might visit the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem and other sacred places in the Holy Land of Israel; Muslims participate in the Hajj, the journey to Mecca; Buddhists visit the sacred sites related to the life of Buddha. Even if you practice no religion at all you will still find that you most likely participate in this practice—the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC, and Lenin's tomb in Moscow are considered national pilgrimage sites. As a spiritual practice, pilgrimage transcends religious, national, cultural and linguistic boundaries.

This fascinating look at the sacred art of pilgrimage integrates spirituality, practice, spiritual formation, psychology, world religions and historical resources. It examines how the world’s religious pilgrimages evolved as central spiritual practices and the relationship between pilgrimage and transformation. It explains what makes a place holy, and why and how some sites are so compelling that they attract thousands, even millions of pilgrims each year.

Chapter 1

Journeys Across Traditions and Cultures 1
Pilgrimage Across Cultures and Religions 7
The Hindu Tradition 9
The Buddhist Tradition 11
The Greek and Roman Traditions 12
The Abrahamic Traditions 14
Secular Pilgrimage 33
Virtual Pilgrimage 37

Chapter 2

The Way of the Heart 40
Pilgrim Narratives 45
Jung and Images of Pilgrimage 53
The Stages of Pilgrimage 58
Spirituality of the Heart 64

Chapter 3

Holy Places, Sacred Spaces 75
Sacred Landscapes 78
Memory Places 84
Quiet Places 90
Divine Activity Places 95
Commercialization and Environmental Impact 99

Chapter 4

Walking the Labyrinth 106
A Single Path 111
Origins of the Labyrinth 115
The Labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral 119
Walking as Spiritual Practice 125

Chapter 5

The Journey Home 135
The Need to Belong 142
Home and Pilgrimage 149
Stories of the Journey Home 156

Chapter 6

Preparing to Practice 168
Beginning Spiritual Practice 169
The Practice of Prayer and Meditation 175
Spiritual Practices in Preparing for Pilgrimage 184
Practical Advice for Planning a Pilgrimage 185
Guidelines for Visiting Holy Places
and Sacred Spaces 188
The Benefits of Group Pilgrimages 193
Keeping a Record of Your Pilgrimage 196
Walking the Labyrinth 198
Returning Home 201

Acknowledgments 204
Notes 205
Suggestions for Further Reading 217

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Spirituality
• Religion
• Pilgrimage

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 10 juin 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781594735400
• Langue: English

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With all my heart-for Paul and Rachel- companions on the pilgrimage of life
Contents
Chapter 1 Journeys Across Traditions and Cultures
Pilgrimage Across Cultures and Religions
The Hindu Tradition
The Buddhist Tradition
The Greek and Roman Traditions
The Abrahamic Traditions
Secular Pilgrimage
Virtual Pilgrimage
Chapter 2 The Way of the Heart
Pilgrim Narratives
Jung and Images of Pilgrimage
The Stages of Pilgrimage
Spirituality of the Heart
Chapter 3 Holy Places, Sacred Spaces
Sacred Landscapes
Memory Places
Quiet Places
Divine Activity Places
Commercialization and Environmental Impact
Chapter 4 Walking the Labyrinth
A Single Path
Origins of the Labyrinth
The Labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral
Walking as Spiritual Practice
Chapter 5 The Journey Home
The Need to Belong
Home and Pilgrimage
Stories of the Journey Home
Chapter 6 Preparing to Practice
Beginning Spiritual Practice
The Practice of Prayer and Meditation
Spiritual Practices in Preparing for Pilgrimage
Practical Advice for Planning a Pilgrimage
Guidelines for Visiting Holy Places and Sacred Spaces
The Benefits of Group Pilgrimages
Keeping a Record of Your Pilgrimage
Walking the Labyrinth
Returning Home
Acknowledgments
Notes
Suggestions for Further Reading

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A Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
-Lao Tzu, The Way of Lao Tzu (ca. 500 BCE)
The journey is essential to the dream.
-Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)
Follow the Yellow Brick Road.
-The Wizard of Oz (1939)
One of the great pilgrimage films of all time is the classic The Wizard of Oz , with Judy Garland in the starring role as Dorothy. I grew up in the days where one of the biggest television events of the year was the broadcast of The Wizard of Oz , usually on a Sunday night, the event publicized well in advance. Beginning in 1956, the telecast of this movie was considered one of the blockbuster television events of the year, and entire families, from small children to elders, gathered at home to watch it. It is one of the first films I remember ever watching in its entirety. To this day I wait for the transformation of the black and white images of Kansas as the landscape turns into Technicolor Oz, although I will also admit that the grumpy trees and the flying monkeys are still pretty frightening!
The film centers on the pilgrimage of Dorothy and her little dog Toto, a journey that begins in the midst of a fierce Kansas tornado. Dorothy is beginning to feel confined and unhappy on the farm in Kansas. When Toto is threatened by the nasty neighbor whom he has bitten, Dorothy sees no option but to finally leave home in an effort to save her dog from the local sheriff.
On the way out of town Dorothy encounters a traveling fortune-teller, who sends her home, but before she makes it back a fierce tornado starts brewing on the Kansas plains, and she misses her chance to enter the family shelter. Remaining inside the house, Dorothy gets hit on the head as the house is caught up in a whirlwind that transports her and Toto over the rainbow and into Oz.
Dorothy has never experienced as strange and beautiful a place as Oz, and she begins to wonder almost immediately what is happening to her and how she is ever going to make it home. Toto, I ve a feeling we re not in Kansas anymore, she famously says. Upon landing in Oz, Dorothy s house had fallen upon and killed the Wicked Witch of the East, much to the delight of the resident Munchkins, but incurring the wrath of her sister, the Wicked Witch of the West. Then Glinda, the good witch, points Dorothy and Toto down the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City, home to a great wizard who will undoubtedly answer her questions and help her to return home. Off she goes down the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City with her beloved Toto, wearing ruby slippers to protect her from the wicked witch.
Along the way, Dorothy meets numerous companions. She encounters a scarecrow who is looking for a brain, a tin man looking for a heart, and a cowardly lion looking for courage-all hope that this journey will transform them and bring them their heart s desire. As they travel they talk, share stories, share the dangers of the road, and become companions who would risk their lives for each other. After many stops and starts they finally reach Oz, where they have to face the reality that the Wizard cannot change their lives. What they do learn is that the answer to their deepest longings cannot be given to them by someone else-their desired meaning, heart, courage, and home has lived within them all along.
As it turns out, Scarecrow never really lacked a brain; he has all sorts of questions and ideas within him. Tin Man s kindness and dedication are surely signs of the heart that beats within him. Lion has certainly experienced fear, but it never stopped him from moving ahead or protecting those most important to him. As for Dorothy, on the journey she learns that she did not have to leave home to find her heart s desire, and the choice of returning is hers alone.
In one of the last scenes in the film, Dorothy realizes that it is time for her to go home as a changed person, but with the wrenching awareness that her new friends are not meant to return with her. They have their own homes, and the journey they shared together cannot be repeated. Chanting There s no place like home, Dorothy returns with a newfound sense of peace and gratitude, determined that her relationships will be different because she herself is a different person. Back in Kansas, Dorothy s family and friends are overjoyed to see her again and relieved she wasn t hurt, but since they were not with her every step of the way on her journey of discovery, they are also quite amazed-and perhaps a little confused-at how much she has changed.
The sacred art of pilgrimage is deeply inscribed in the human heart. For many, going on pilgrimage will mean physical travel. This year alone, millions of Hindus and Buddhists will journey to the banks of the river Ganges at Varanasi, India, in the hope of healing and spiritual rebirth. In the West, five million Christians will go to the shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France, also hoping for healing and spiritual renewal. In Europe alone, more than six thousand sacred sites will receive between seventy and one hundred million pilgrims. 1 Each year two million Muslims will make the journey to Mecca, the most holy city of the faith, to fulfill their religious obligation to visit once in their lifetime. 2 Furthermore, every year over four million people will travel to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York City to remember the tragedy that occurred there in 2001.
When lived with intention, all of life can be seen as a sacred journey. We think of a pilgrimage as a journey of great spiritual and moral significance-yet our whole life s course can be seen as a pilgrimage, writes Amy Benedict. A simple walk from your home and back can become a ritual to enact these sacred quests. 3
There are many ways to describe pilgrimage. The word itself derives from the Latin peregrinus , meaning stranger or foreigner. On pilgrimage the traveler is a foreigner in several ways: a stranger to the companions she meets along the way, a stranger to places visited, and a stranger to the inward journey of meaning and transformation. On some level, pilgrimage always connotes a life-changing journey. For some, pilgrimage means to journey to a place where holiness is apparent or where some kind of divine and human encounter took place. Some describe the experience as a search for spiritual depth or moral significance. Others are on a search for a path toward freedom or peace. Some pilgrims are directed toward specific destinations-such as a dwelling place of a saint, or a holy place that evokes prayer and reflection, or the site of a significant life event. For others, the passage is symbolic of the journey of a soul to God and primarily an inward experience of alternative sacred geography. Still others describe pilgrimage as a threshold experience that points to a new reality or a process of inner transformation. So common is the practice to human experience, moreover, that pilgrimage has been proposed by psychologists as a Jungian archetype.
One of the most important academic sources on the study of pilgrimage was published by anthropologists Victor and Edith Turner in 1978. Titled Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture , the book frames pilgrimage through the concepts of liminality and communitas . 4 Coming from the Latin limen, liminality refers to the experience of being in between worlds. The pilgrim separates from her previous way of life but is in a transitional phase and has not yet reach