Journeying Toward the Self

At last, you find yourself on the Camino de Santiago. For years, you have dreamed of this, certain that it holds an essential quest. And you are right. The physical challenges, fatigue, harsh weather, and cold will take you beyond your wildest dreams.

The Camino, day after day, so arduous, its goal so distant, gradually anchors you in the here and now—in the present, or better yet, in Presence, step by step. In your everyday life, you are constantly driven by intentions, goals, objectives, and constraints. But here, on this path, without even realizing it, you shed that constant projection into the future. You begin, at last, to savor the present in its rawness and its unsuspected dimensions.

In the silence within, the quiet observation that settles in after a few days, you finally encounter yourself. Intimately. But not the social, outward-facing, nameable self. No, a self that belongs more to spiritual verticality. Beyond all religions and at the heart of each. Without words, without labels, without rituals. Simply *being*. You may have heard that humility is the gateway to spirituality. On this challenging, rugged path, where encounters are so enriching, connections so close and unguarded, you discover yourself as a stranger to yourself—stripped of the shackles of self-images and protections, and open to others as never before.

This humility—the emptiness of cultural, intellectual, and social baggage—brings you back to the heart of the Self. You have become a true pilgrim. Intimate with yourself, in communion with others. In non-duality with what-is.