Pilgrimage - a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. Typically, a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's faith, although sometimes it can be a metaphorical journey into someone's own beliefs.
I would suggest that our lives can be seen as a pilgrimage, certainly a journey, hopefully learning & developing a better understanding on the way to the inevitable end. At the beginning we are a "clean slate" at the end we are the sum total of our experiences & capacity for understanding. A lot depends on the effort we put in as to how " enlightened" we are at the end. Have our lives been significant and beneficial? Is our legacy worthwhile in some small way?
I have done actual pilgrimages to the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain & to the Holy Land. Both were really interesting experiences. (I have to be honest & say I only walked small parts of the Camino). I have also been away on several meditation retreats, which were an oasis of calm in a busy life.
This is not to say that I am "religious" in terms of any of the established churches. I'm definitely not. I have my own moral compass & spirituality though. I suppose Buddhism comes closest to my spiritual thinking.
Journeys have a beginning, a middle and an end. We are born, we live & we die. I believe in Karma - which means action, work or deed. It also refers to the spiritual principle of cause & effect, where the intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect).
Good intent and good deed contribute to good karma and future
happiness, while bad intent and bad deed contribute to bad karma and
future suffering.
Even if Karma isn't true I can't help feeling that if we all believed in it it might give us pause before we do something unworthy, unkind, thoughtless or downright cruel. I hope it is true because there seem to be a lot of people in the world today who deserve to reap the suffering of their actions or inactions.
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