Carpe Diem #76, Pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela or The Way of St. James

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today we are going on with our second stage in our Pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela ... in which we follow Paulo Coelho as he takes the Camino also know as The Way to St. James. In our first CD Special of this month we arrived at Saint Jean Pied de Port and registered as pilgrims of St. James. We met Mme Lourdes and got or first instruction given by her to find our guide.

Just a few kilometres outside Saint Jean Pied de Port we met our guide Petrus, a guide who also is a member of The Tradition, the nature religion (similar with Pagan and Wiccan), as Paulo is. Petrus will guide Paulo and us along The Way of St. James and will learn us to find back that what we have lost as what Paulo lost while he was initiated in the Order of RAM ... For Paulo his mistake was greed, but for any one else it can be something else. We all are on our Path to Enlightenment and everyone of us will sure have things to settle or seeking for. A pilgrimage can bring you great insight and that''s why we become pilgrims to get insight in our lives, hearts, minds and souls.

The Camino

As Petrus and Paulo are starting with their pilgrimage together Petrus learns Paulo one of the first exercises of The Order of RAM, that exercise is called The Seed. It''s an exercise to re-live the beginning of your life. In other words with that exercise you re-live your birth. It starts from a fetal position.

Kneel on the ground. Then seat yourself on your heels and bend forward so that your head touches your knees. Stretch your arms behind you. You are now in a fetal position. Relax, releasing all your tensions. Breathe calmly and deeply. Little by little you will perceive that you are a tiny seed, cradled in the comfort of the earth. Everything around you is warm and delicious. You are in a deep, restful sleep. Suddenly, a finger moves. The shoot no longer wants to be a seed; it wants to grow. Slowly you begin to move your arms, and then your body will begin to rise, straightening up until you are seated

on your heels. Now you begin to lift your body up, and slowly, slowly you will become erect, still kneeling on the ground. The moment has come to break completely through the earth. You begin to rise slowly, placing one foot on the ground, then the other, fighting against the disequilibrium just as a shoot battles to make its own space, until finally you are standing. Imagine the area about you, the sun, the water, the wind, and the birds. Now you are a shoot that is beginning to grow. Slowly raise your arms toward the sky. Then stretch yourself more and more, more and more, as if you want to grasp the enormous sun that shines above you. Your body begins to become more and more rigid, all of your muscles strain, and you feel yourself to be growing, growing, growing –you become huge. The tension increases more and more until it becomes painful, unbearable. When you can no longer stand it, scream and open your eyes. (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

With this exercise Paulo goes back to the time in which he discovered his connection with nature and finally with The Tradition. During the sven days after he learned this exercise he performs The Seed every day while enjoying the walk straight through the Pyrenees climbing and decending the mountains ... Paulo re-encountered the beauty of the Creation and he meets his Creator. 

The Camino

In a way we are all similar with Paulo ... try to look at the Creation created by Our Creator with the eyes of a child ... full of surprise because it sees e.g a flower bloom for the very first time. We all have to do that on regular base ... look at your surroundings, your environment as if you see it for the very first time ... enjoy what you see as a child, become a child again and than you will experience what LIFE really is ...

In haiku we do that also ... we are surprised by something what occurs in just an eye-blink, just a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. That''s what The Seed means. Of course these thoughts are the thoughts of myself, but maybe ... just maybe ... you, my dear haijin, visitor and traveler, see it in the same way. For this episode I will share an old haiku which I wrote several years ago, but which is right on it''s place here ...

the first cherry blossom
tears of joy roll over my cheeks
I dance in prayer

I dance in prayer
my Creator gave me joy again -

the first cherry blossom

(c) Chèvrefeuille

first cherry blossom of my Sakura

This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 9th 11.59 AM (CET). I will try to publishe our next episode, Kirihataji, later on today. For now ... have fun, be inspired and experience the Creation as if you see it for the very first time. By the way, I am behind with commenting I hope to catch up soon.