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<P>Dear Sally, </P>
<P>Thanks for your thoughtful and kind reply to my posting. It is always gratifying when others understand what we mean and where we are coming from. I agree with you regarding the *new age* crowd. A bit too shallow, superficial and rather materialistic. However, they are on our camp. I believe there are gradations, each individual at his own level of spiritual evolution or development. I have outgrown my new age phase by coming in contact with the Vedas, the acient scriptures from India. Yet, I understand also that not everybody has my *luck.* Perhaps a matter of karma, being ready for the thing to happen. There are no coincidences, right?</P>
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<P>Paulo Coelho comes from a different tradition, different path. I believe he is a theosophist (I am not sure this is the right spelling or form). But, again, all paths lead to the same source -for the source and the goal are one and the same. The absolute has no beginning nor end. You know, Sally, I always suffer when I go into these *sacred walkings* of mine. In India they are called <EM>parikrama</EM>. Everybody walks together, as in a procession, from begining to end. In Brazil they call it <EM>romaria</EM>. It is done individually. In Fátima, as in Spain, it is <EM>peregrinação/pilgrimage</EM>. It is the same kind of souls that attend these events, those that are looking for the same things.</P>
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<P>What I do is, I follow my body but always stretching, never allowing it to get comfortable on its own terms. I believe our bodies need care, not comfort. Respect, not indulgence. Love, not being spoiled. I must be the master of my body and my mind (I, the soul the spirit, talking). And not surprisingly, my body always raises to the occasion and does my wishes, even if complaining, aching, swelling, blistering, even bleeding (on the feet, sometimes). However, although I am a male and will never be able to be a mother, I believe it is like giving birth: the pain is welcome, not rejected, not avoided, because necessary for the outcome at hand. The same happens with athletes training for the Olympic games. Their pain is actually a pleasure, the ticket to a gold medal. Do you know what I mean? Our gold medal here is of a different sort, much more valuable even than a child (of course it is!). </P>
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<P>I am talking about faith, the faith you are not sure of having. Funny that almost every saint complains about the same thing. Mother Theresa used to talk about how doubtful she felt. And great saints in India, true mystics in communion with the divine, lamenting of how far removed they feel from the object of their love (God). I read the autobiography os Santa Teresa of Child Jesus (French). She died at 23, an extremely elevated mystic, also lamenting of her lack of faith and how she doubted her Love, her Lover (Jesus). </P>
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<P>I, for one, have faith in my best friend: God. He has proven it to me, and that is enough, I dont have to prove it to anybody else. I was born alone and will die alone. My spiritual journey is also alone -if not lonely. It is self-service-like. And my faith is that, no matter how low I really am, how sinful and attached to material concerns, still I will make it because I want, I need to evolve, to become all I can be in spiritual terms. I do not belong in this planet and the proof is that I was born in order to die. Therefore, the real thing is after the death of this material body I carry around. Yes, I aspire to be a saint because for me to approach that whom I call God, I must be sanctified, purified, imaculate, back to innocence, divested of all defects, impurities, vices and so forth. In other words, I must develop virtues, right? Not kindness, not politeness, not good manners, but virtues, God-qualities. Like the iron that in contact w!
ith fire transforms into fire, loses itself to fire. Am I making sense? I write as it flows. </P>
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<P>Anyway, my dear, thanks for asking. I love when someone provokes me to enter these subjects. Because the more I talk or write about it, the more it solidifies inside my intelligence, my conviction, my mind, my consciousness. For the whole thing is no more no less than <EM>Changing Consciousness</EM>. We must change our consciousness. What separates us from a little ant is not body but consciousness. What separates me from Saint Francis is my consciousness. We must strive to achieve God consciousness, the ultimate. The term God is generic. I refer to that supreme, absolute, original entity, the source and final destination of all that is, the Absoute Truth. I call Him Krishna and love it. Well, I stop here. I hope you dont get too confused with my unorthodox belief system. I am who I am and I am OK with that. All the best to you. Give me some feedback please. Tchau.</P>
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<DIV><STRONG><EM>Antonio Carlos da Silva Rosa </EM></STRONG></DIV><STRONG><EM>Lisboa-Portugal</EM></STRONG>
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<DIV><A href="mailto:antonio_silva1ahotmail.com"><STRONG>antonio_silva1ahotmail.com</STRONG></A></DIV>
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<DIV></DIV>>From: Sally Haden <HADENSE1948aHOTMAIL.COM>
<DIV></DIV>>Reply-To: Road to Santiago Pilgrimage <GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU>
<DIV></DIV>>To: GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU
<DIV></DIV>>Subject: Hello everyone, I'm new
<DIV></DIV>>Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 09:56:34 +0100
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>Hello everyone
<DIV></DIV>>I joined this message board a couple of days ago and I am reading
<DIV></DIV>>your
<DIV></DIV>>messages. Not sure if I am ready to join in but I thought I might
<DIV></DIV>>try to
<DIV></DIV>>describe myself and what I hope to learn - at least initially!
<DIV></DIV>>I have been vaguely interested in going to the shrine of Santiago
<DIV></DIV>>for some
<DIV></DIV>>years since my brother began to make it his annual 'pilgrimage'
<DIV></DIV>>after the
<DIV></DIV>>accidental death of his son. He always says how beautiful it is to
<DIV></DIV>>go there
<DIV></DIV>>(though he doesn't do the Camino).
<DIV></DIV>>But about eighteen months ago when I was unwell, I got interested in
<DIV></DIV>>learning Spanish, just for fun, and this brought the idea into
<DIV></DIV>>greater
<DIV></DIV>>focus. Recently I decided I needed to get fit (I am 55, not terribly
<DIV></DIV>>unfit
<DIV></DIV>>but not exactly aspiring to be a "power walker"! and also I was not
<DIV></DIV>>at all
<DIV></DIV>>well last year) then suddenly it all fell into place, that I should
<DIV></DIV>>actually
<DIV></DIV>>go to Santiago via the Camino! So I have added reading books on the
<DIV></DIV>>Camino
<DIV></DIV>>to my physical training and my Spanish. Maybe, I am thinking, by the
<DIV></DIV>>autumn
<DIV></DIV>>I might be in shape to do the required 100km for that certificate...
<DIV></DIV>>Maybe....! My questions for the moment are around anything about a
<DIV></DIV>>single,
<DIV></DIV>>(English), not very strong, woman of 55 doing her first bit of the
<DIV></DIV>>Camino.
<DIV></DIV>>In time I would like to build up to the whole thing from the French
<DIV></DIV>>border,
<DIV></DIV>>but that is definitely not on the agenda yet.
<DIV></DIV>>My worries are about heat because that really weakens my stomach,
<DIV></DIV>>and sun
<DIV></DIV>>because I am prone to mild skin cancer. Also, not finding enough
<DIV></DIV>>quiet time
<DIV></DIV>>on the Camino - I have read how expotentially the numbers are
<DIV></DIV>>increasing,
<DIV></DIV>>especially next year I suppose.
<DIV></DIV>>Today I read Kathy and Antonio's mail with interest because I wonder
<DIV></DIV>>what
<DIV></DIV>>pilgrimage means. I have often created my own personal journeys and
<DIV></DIV>>experiences as spiritual quests, inner and outer, but I have never
<DIV></DIV>>put them
<DIV></DIV>>into the formula of putting one foot in front of the other for
<DIV></DIV>>several
<DIV></DIV>>miles. I suspect/hope it will be a very good thing to do. And like
<DIV></DIV>>Kathy and
<DIV></DIV>>Antonio I have experienced different belief systems close-up, TM,
<DIV></DIV>>Catholicism, various forms of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, but in
<DIV></DIV>>conclusion I feel that spirituality or faith is USUALLY like looking
<DIV></DIV>>into a
<DIV></DIV>>mirror that you KNOW is there in front of you yet you can see
<DIV></DIV>>nothing in it.
<DIV></DIV>> USUALLY it is a horrible blank, even though ocassionally you can
<DIV></DIV>>find
<DIV></DIV>>flashes of great truth.
<DIV></DIV>>Okay, so any positive comments, encouragement or inspiration of any
<DIV></DIV>>sort
<DIV></DIV>>will be welcome!
<DIV></DIV>>Yasmin1691
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