The pilgrimage to Nothing in particular

What is life but a pilgrimage? Mans travel to exuberant vacation sites, to the emerald beaches, the the mountains, like in my case the Alps, all but journeys to produce relief. Relief from daily life, from agony of habitual excess and stress. Journeys to the sea, and across, to the moon or into space. All to try to discover the unknown. What was Moses trip to the mountain, Jesus to the desert, Budda’s to the forest and so forth but journeys outside society to find answers to questions whatever they might in reality have been? What are these all, but searches for new insight, though perhaps rarely encountered?

“A good traveler is one who does not know where he is going to, and a perfect traveler does not know where he came from.” Lin Yutang ( famous Chinese millionaire and philanthropist early 20th century)

The trouble of “breaking through” a spiritual barrier lies perhaps in not focusing on reality. Pragmatically and philosophically. It is not, that truth must be found outside the world, reality. Nor in the world of recognition and intellectual sense. Experience of truth or, is the meticulous search without any particular goal. In ancient Chinese the sign for truth is “jaded road” (meaning the road tiled with jade stones). In that it mirrors life: That the real goal (and truth) lies hidden in some odd fiction that first inscribes itself into intuition when we stop trying to fill the void of our selves with meaning. It’s a perspective shift of course, an introspective perception. Language disappears and individualism fades.

The fact that man produces a concept "I" besides the totality of his mental and emotional experiences or perceptions does not prove that there must be any specific existence behind such a concept. We are succumbing to illusions produced by our self-created language, without reaching a better understanding of anything. Most of so-called philosophy is due to this kind of fallacy. (Albert Einstein)
Out on the other side one first realises the true nature of ignorance. The meaning of “bliss in ignorance” suddenly inscribes itself into a greater perspective. How simple questions of the All can be reversed into complete nonsense, the idea of the individual being in contrast to the great whole.

Here from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. The Captain Ahab is chasing the great white whale (as a symbol of the divinity, the miracle of God’s creation). Ahab is apparently journeying towards death in the process almost fully intentional. This mad captain is but also God, or the conscious universe seeking a kind of self annihilation in a state of perpetuated madness.

Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand boy in heaven, nor a single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that breathing, does that thinking, does that living, and not I.

The humorous metaphor of course being the quest for lamp oil for artificial lighting produced from the oil of the chased whales. This is society’s meagre attempt to create technological and existential happiness, miserably failing. In the attempt to play God, even if we are God, we fail miserably. It’s the modern hubris: Failing (yet) to realise our true nature.

So are we watching Titanic from the rails? Perhaps it’s this question that almost all living (thinking) people face, but that few are able to feel empowered to face. Most of the world’s current problems arise from this rather banal equation.

Walking across Bayern one realises a few simple facts about human endeavour to survive: How wealth flows in and out of societies. In Bavaria all businesses of the most elementary needs seem to be locally circulated: Food & beer, clothing, carpentry and architecture (which basically is the same), even art. In effect, not unlike the Amish, the Bavarian country side is filled with old traditional houses, bakeries and rural fashion. It’s a perhaps even non-intended way to accumulate wealth: Circulating services inside a community, producing physical wealth that will endure for centuries. Unlike the so called western economy where goods are manufactured to self-destruct in short time when warranties are out. All to raise consumption, business profits and GDP’s. Lampoil!

Now there’s a particular story that connects to Bavaria, while being an excellent example of the demise of a ruling class and belief therein: the last Bavarian king, Ludwig II (1848-1885). Ludwig was declared unfitted to rule as his increasingly refused any worldly responsibility. Lesser known were his odd homosexual craving for sadism, punishing him self and others in effect while never realising his erotic dreams fully in the flesh. His retro rococo/Wagner theme interior decorating-escapades and real-estate adventure accelerated into a financial quagmire and madness, in effect ruining the Bavarian Royal house for the time after. His buildings however remain, interestingly, some of the world’s most popular tourist sites to this date. Effectively the most visited tourist attractions in Germany. The castle Neuschwanstein, Ludwigs last building remains the building in Europe apart perhaps from the Eifel Tower that attracts most Japanese tourists every year. It is additionally the castle that has stood model for other fantasy adventure castles as for example Disneyworld’s brand emblem and central architecture the “Cinderella Castle” of the “Magic Kingdom”. Now these odd fantasy architectures can seem unimportant, but they represent something much more mysterious and symbolic than any old church or temple: The erection of the universal Ego.

Clearly the Bavarian castles erected by Ludwig II are some of Germany’s most astonishing buildings, be it for their bad taste of eclectically selecting past architectural themes (late rococo, “ritterburg” e.g. Middle-ages knight-castles etc). They are surely the best example of manmade architecture in southern Germany that displays the Ego’s crave for escape outside material being taking refugee in a dream world. What is the castle symbol of but a symbol of wealth and power, protecting the individual from the rest of the world preferably lying high in the skies, inaccessible for foreign armies or the common man? The higher the towers, the more elevated and perverted the ego.

Japanese animator Miyazaki’s “Howl’s Moving Castle”(2004), is an animated film where a magic castle is inhabited by a young magician, the flying monster Howl, who’s also known for eating female souls. The magic castle is walking around what seems to be the German alps. As a bewitched girls Sophie, enters the castle as an old cleaning lady, the castle shakes off its heavy parts: another inhabitant, the fire daemon Calcius, is diminishing in strength. The castle, being the magician Howl’s alter ego, is freed of the fire daemon that had occupied his heart and finally the prince is united with Sophie. The self taking refuge in love.

There seem to be some present confusion about what a pilgrimage is and I would like to address this subject. The German bestseller “Ich bin mal weg” (2006) is about a Jakobsweg-pilgrimage to Spanish Santiago de Compostela. The book sold over 3 mio copies making it the best selling book ever in Germany.It’s written by the German Hape Kerkeling:, a homosexual entertainer and a self declared buddist with a catholic “roof”. At that time in existential crises. Kerkeling describes his choice of route as the classical Christian journey and speculates over the lack of faith in society. Following the release, the number of pilgrims on the roads towards Santiago doubled. Kerkeling was criticised in the German press (e.g. Die Zeit, FAZ) for plain speculations on the spiritual journey and various destinies of other travellers.

The idea of pilgrimage have in most religions been to “seek out holy places” where famous persons have been buried or achieved miracles etc. Outside official religion even it’s said in the past that the grave of Lenin for example was a notorious place of pilgrimage for believing communists. In the time following the death of Christ, christian pilgrimage was often to Jerusalem or later along the Middle-age to the pope. The most know religion today openly practising pilgrimage as a part of faith is of course Islam with the journey to Mohammad’s Mecca and the holy stone.

What most of these religions fail to communicate what the oriental mystics used to refer to as the way, i.e. the personal (“egoless”) route towards enlightenment. To truth. The central choice of ones own journey towards a state of higher being outside any form of doctrine. One of the failures of christianity has been to seek out the road the spiritual endeavour through icons, and notably material substance as proof of God. Through history catholic Europe have been trading fake artefacts as e.g. Jesus’ death robe, splinters from the cross etc. In the middle-ages there is to have been a major European industry manufacturing and promoting such iconic wonders. Churches happily paid high prices with its substantial means to have physical drawing power from the masses. The Santiago de Compostela refugee rest, very likely, on such a story, being supposedly the resting place of the famous pilgrim saint Jakob who travelled afterwords his acknowledged pilrimmage to Jerusalem (44 AC) by ship to Spain where he died. The remains were said to have been found in 400 AC. But there is naturally no evidence that the scattered bones in the grave belong to him. Despite, people still flush to the place, perhaps due to the beauty of the Basque landscape. But is this, not a proof that the journeys more serves as trips to a “sacred place” more than personal quest for freedom of material life, a refugee in a more “pure” state of being?

R.T.Hansen, Berlin, Sep 2008