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I agree let every day happen no planning. Amazing how any issue on the path seems to clear away. I think life's struggles on the post Camino can be sorted out if you think back to what you learn from the walk simplify & utilize what the most important thing is you identified in your life. Seems to take away any stress.It occurs to me after doing two segments of the Camino, that if a person is open to new possibilities and experiences and tries not to decide ahead of time what the Camino experience will be like - amazing and unexpected things will arrive, some of which will seem almost magical. The flip side of this is that it can all be a bit overwhelming, exhausting, and perhaps even painful. How does a person remain open and curious without becoming too vulnerable, especially when the return to everyday life sometimes brings harsh challenges of a different sort?
A very good and important question, @Calimocho. But there's no cookie-cutter answer.How does a person remain open and curious without becoming too vulnerable, especially when the return to everyday life sometimes brings harsh challenges of a different sort?
I believe "open and curious" goes with being vulnerable. However, vulnerability is not a bad thing and doesn't mean one is weak. We made it a weakness because like you said, when one is open, one can be hurt by the experiences of the World. But if one is not vulnerable anymore (so, not open and curious), his-her heart and soul will be closed to the World; to what hurts, but also to all that is good and makes life worth it.How does a person remain open and curious without becoming too vulnerable, especially when the return to everyday life sometimes brings harsh challenges of a different sort?
The only harsh challenge I ever faced after finishing a Camino was the pain of ending a 30+ day walking holiday.
I mean, it can't be beat. Sleep, walk and eat....repeat. No bosses or supervisors or rank micromanaging your arse. If you just want to walk 10k that day or perhaps 35k, nobody tells you not to, or which is better. If you want to blow off waking up early and stay until just before the hospitaleros kick you out, no problem. Or the opposite. Wake up way earlier and sneak out in the dark. Nobody cares.
It's great, and you can feed your face with a 3-course, wine included for under 15 bucks. Shoot, I can't eat that cheap at home, ha ha.
What Rebekah just said. Absolutely.
The only way out is in--or rather, through--that darkness. The beautiful paradox is that when we directly face the darkness, it loses its power over us and becomes the doorway into light. And the vulnerability is essential--it opens the heart.
But it's hard sometimes. It's no coincidence that in his Inferno, Dante had to go to deepest of hell realms before emerging into a starlit dawn. Often on the way down, he'd ask his guide (Vergil)..."Uhhh, Vergil?...Are you sure there isn't another way??"
I can relate.
Of course the answer was always basically 'Uh-uh. Keep on walking...."
There are risks (physical, spiritual, personal and psychological) on the camino as well. It is naive and dangerous to think otherwise. The camino is certainly a special piece of the real world, where we can have special experiences, but it is not a protected place where we should abandon all our defenses.The Camino is like a bubble, a special and protected place where we have the opportunity to open ourselves completely and not be opened.
That's a great philosophy for life itself, not just the Camino.when you open your heart to the light, you also open it to the darkness. Any worthwhile enterprise has a bit of risk, and even pain, involved in it.
If you want to grow, you have to take risks. You have to become vulnerable, even though that hurts you sometimes. The more you risk, the more you let go-of, the less weight you carry on your back... the lighter your steps become, the easier it is to see negativity coming at you and the more nimble you are at getting out of its way.
I am a great believer in Providence. You step out in faith, and it's there to shield you from the worst. The more you risk, the more you win. And the more able you are to help others step out of their protective shells and try out life in the (risky, scary) light.
Thank you for pointing to this, as you are right. The Camino is part of the World and so with "risks". One should definitely keep a sense of that.There are risks (physical, spiritual, personal and psychological) on the camino as well. It is naive and dangerous to think otherwise. The Camino is certainly a special piece of the real world, where we can have special experiences, but it is not a protected place where we should abandon all our defenses.
I agree with you, it seems like a mystical experience and they are pretty rare.what you describe sounds like a mystical experience, one of those poignant moments of the soul. They don't happen often and they don't seem to happen to many. - what a gift. Thank you for sharing
I'm sure psychologists have many explanations but from my perspective.
@DavidOpen and vulnerable versus closed and protected? This is a misunderstanding of what it really is like. For a start there is no 'closed and protected' there is only 'closed' - there is no safety in being closed, no protection in being closed, quite the opposite; to be closed is to miss the actual experience of being alive. There is no 'open and vulnerable' - openness, awareness, is the true strength, it is stupidity that makes one vulnerable.
Look, the universe manifests exactly the same whether you are open or closed. The same things rise up in front of you.
"Before enlightenment - get up, wash, light fire, eat breakfast.
After enlightenment - get up, wash, light fire, eat breakfast"
There is an awful lot of nonsense thought about what and where we are and what we should be - for instance, there is no place named Nirvana that we 'go to' - there is no path, no destination, no salvation, there is only 'this'. There is no 'getting better every day', 'life is a school', 'God is testing me' - none of that, there is only 'this' - and to live in this properly all one has to do is to wake up to the nature of reality, then you will see that most people are sleepwalking in a weird dream.
So, be open, always be open; be open to all that manifests - there isn't good and bad, there is only what manifests. Sure, some of it hurts but I can tell you that it hurts less if you are open rather than closed. R D Laing once said that "the only pain you cannot avoid is the pain you feel when you try to avoid pain" - and this is true.
Most emotional pain is simply that you have created a picture in your head of how you want reality to be and actual reality is different to that invention.
So be open, always be open .. don't write scripts in your head and then try to make reality conform to that ... just go with what is actually going on, without resistance.
But I am not talking about being stupid - being stupid has its own reward - one has to be wise - "as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves" - so yes, be open, and being open one is aware and when one is aware one can see and move freely within all this .. .. - and it isn't exhausting, it isn't tiring, it isn't difficult if one keeps grounded - being grounded and also not fighting actual reality.
As for the experience you felt in the middle of the night ... I do wonder how many Spanish coffees you have each day- but the opening you had, one can indeed be troubled and it is necessary to stay grounded .. being 'open' isn't to do with allowing the mind to go off on a crazy tangent, it is merely to do with seeing things as they are and being calm and centred .... stay grounded - Buen Camino!
Open and vulnerable versus closed and protected? This is a misunderstanding of what it really is like. For a start there is no 'closed and protected' there is only 'closed' - there is no safety in being closed, no protection in being closed, quite the opposite; to be closed is to miss the actual experience of being alive. There is no 'open and vulnerable' - openness, awareness, is the true strength, it is stupidity that makes one vulnerable.
Look, the universe manifests exactly the same whether you are open or closed. The same things rise up in front of you.
"Before enlightenment - get up, wash, light fire, eat breakfast.
After enlightenment - get up, wash, light fire, eat breakfast"
There is an awful lot of nonsense thought about what and where we are and what we should be - for instance, there is no place named Nirvana that we 'go to' - there is no path, no destination, no salvation, there is only 'this'. There is no 'getting better every day', 'life is a school', 'God is testing me' - none of that, there is only 'this' - and to live in this properly all one has to do is to wake up to the nature of reality, then you will see that most people are sleepwalking in a weird dream.
So, be open, always be open; be open to all that manifests - there isn't good and bad, there is only what manifests. Sure, some of it hurts but I can tell you that it hurts less if you are open rather than closed. R D Laing once said that "the only pain you cannot avoid is the pain you feel when you try to avoid pain" - and this is true.
Most emotional pain is simply that you have created a picture in your head of how you want reality to be and actual reality is different to that invention.
So be open, always be open .. don't write scripts in your head and then try to make reality conform to that ... just go with what is actually going on, without resistance.
But I am not talking about being stupid - being stupid has its own reward - one has to be wise - "as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves" - so yes, be open, and being open one is aware and when one is aware one can see and move freely within all this .. .. - and it isn't exhausting, it isn't tiring, it isn't difficult if one keeps grounded - being grounded and also not fighting actual reality.
As for the experience you felt in the middle of the night ... I do wonder how many Spanish coffees you have each day- but the opening you had, one can indeed be troubled and it is necessary to stay grounded .. being 'open' isn't to do with allowing the mind to go off on a crazy tangent, it is merely to do with seeing things as they are and being calm and centred .... stay grounded - Buen Camino!
It occurs to me after doing two segments of the Camino, that if a person is open to new possibilities and experiences and tries not to decide ahead of time what the Camino experience will be like - amazing and unexpected things will arrive, some of which will seem almost magical. The flip side of this is that it can all be a bit overwhelming, exhausting, and perhaps even painful.
I have to agree with falcon. Is it possible to over think the Camino? An open mind with diligence suits most of my needs and fulfills most of what I have expected.I don't think about it much. Good instinct and some social graces usually lead to good outcomes. Occasionally I get an uncomfortable feeling; I have found it is best to just keep walking or walk away.
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