I have just returned from walking part of the pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. I did not travel the road as a pilgrim, but because I wanted to hike by myself in relative safety in a beautiful place where I wouldn't have to rely on a tent to sleep in.
My favorite part of each day was the early morning when it was still dark and I would shoulder my pack and take off in either moon or flash light. I don't know why I liked this so much, except that it was very peaceful. It was especially nice when after a few km I would happen upon a cafe and enjoy a cafe con leche before traveling on. I was told that I would not be the same after walking this way, and of course I am not the same because as a Buddhist I know that I am instantaneously and continually not the same, but I can't say that I am radically different in any way from when I first stepped on the road at Sarria. This is probably because I did not spend days holed up in my tent in the high Pyrenees waiting for the rain and fog to clear as some people did.
There is a tradition of withdrawing to the wilderness in Buddhism and Christianity and probably other religions. People come out of the desert or from under the Bodhi tree blazing with insight. Are the thoughts that come to us when we are solitary and perhaps dehydrated or starving any more valuable than the thoughts that come to mind when driving to work or changing a diaper?
Or is it simply that people are more willing to listen to and respect the words of the strange ones?
Could it be that we modify our thoughts and even beliefs when we function in a crowd and intuitively feel that if we don't 'fit in' with the conventionality around us, we will be shunned, not respected?
And so we become obediant pilgrims, following the well marked road.
