The Solitary Walker: Earth Pilgrim

Sunday 20 January 2008

Earth Pilgrim

Practise spirituality in everyday life. MAHATMA GANDHI

We must become the change we want to see in the world. MAHATMA GANDHI

I am an Earth Pilgrim. If I've learnt anything from my journey in life, it's come through wandering this wonderful world. SATISH KUMAR

Hope everyone caught today's Natural World programme on BBC2. The ecologist, writer, thinker, peace campaigner, former Jain monk and Gandhi disciple Satish Kumar gave a spiritual interpretation of Dartmoor in all its seasons. He defined Nature as what is born and what will die - of which we are all a part. Death and birth, winter and spring, are both to be welcomed, both to be celebrated. Both are essential aspects of life's continuum. The changeless cycle of death and re-birth - this is how he understands the meaning of eternal life. The universe is one poem, one verse, one song - a totally interdependent, self-organizing, self-healing system. (Have a look at James Lovelock's books on Gaia for a sympathetic "scientific" perspective on this.) Kumar comments, after walking through Dartmoor's ancient Wistman's Wood: Nowadays people don't get Enlightenment - because they don't sit under a tree.

3 qualities are necessary for a quality life, believes Kumar - CLARITY, SIMPLICITY and COMPASSION.

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QUOTES

I walk, therefore I am. PIERRE GASSENDI

Only that day dawns to which we are awake. HENRY DAVID THOREAU

We are here on the planet only once, and might as well get a feel for the place. ANNIE DILLARD

I can only meditate when I am walking. When I stop, I cease to think; my mind works only with my legs. JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. WALLACE STEVENS

The longest journey begins with a single step. LAO TZU

Good walking leaves no track behind it. LAO TZU

A good traveller has no fixed plan and is not intent on arriving. LAO TZU

One step at a time is good walking. CHINESE PROVERB

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. FRED ALLEN

If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking ... Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk. RAYMOND INMON

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. ANATOLE FRANCE

The longest journey a man must take is the eighteen inches from his head to his heart. ANON

Not all those who wander are lost. JRR TOLKIEN

It is solved by walking. ST AUGUSTINE

Walking, ideally, is a state in which the mind, the body, and the world are aligned, as though they were three characters finally in conversation together, three notes suddenly making a chord. REBECCA SOLNIT

The longest journey is the journey inward. DAG HAMMARSKJOLD

We carry within us the wonders we seek without us. SIR THOMAS BROWNE

I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. JOHN MUIR

In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. ALBERT CAMUS

The only thing I knew how to do / Was to keep on keepin' on like a bird that flew. BOB DYLAN

Ain't talkin', just walkin'. BOB DYLAN

Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. SØREN KIERKEGAARD

Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. MATSUO BASHŌ

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes. MARCEL PROUST

If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is: Infinite. WILLIAM BLAKE