I was blessed last Wednesday to be able to view a remarkable documentary movie called “Pathways of Soul.” One of the Master Teachers of the spiritual community to which I belong urged us strongly to watch this movie with the one instruction…”don’t fall asleep.”
It’s a deceptively quiet film, with stunning impact for those who may be on the spiritual journey. It is presented in Chinese with subtitles, and very little dialog. It takes a little while to realize that these are not actors, but very real people on a pilgrimage, filmed over a period of three years.
This documentary is about a group of villagers in Tibet, who decide they will make a spiritual pilgrimage that will take them to the city of Lhasa. There is much to do to prepare, packing tents and the supporting framework of large logs, food, clothing, water, stove, firewood, sleeping gear, everything. They experience subsistence living, everything they have is for a purpose and has value to them. The members range from old uncle to an 8 year old girl, and a pregnant woman.
Part of this preparation involves the slaughter of a Yak, which I found upsetting. I get all the reasons why, but it hurt my heart a lot to see it. I do not eat meat myself, but I also know that I live in a place and time which makes that possible. These people do what they need to do to survive. The man who was the butcher understood the karmic implications and drank heavily to relieve his fear and anxiety about it. His fellow villagers pointed out that he was harming his family by drinking so much, but were remarkably kind and nonjudgmental, helping him up from the side of the road when he had fallen, guiding him to his home. He went on the pilgrimage too.
They set out with an ancient tractor pulling a sort of trailer with all their belongings. A word about the practice of kowtow. This word has gotten a negative connotation along the way, seeming to us to be some kind of subservience. In fact the first definitions I found spoke about it defined it as excessive subservience to some kind of authority. Here is what Wikipedia says, however.
“Kowtow, which is borrowed from kau tau in Cantonese (ketou in Mandarin Chinese), is the act of deep respect shown by prostration, that is, kneeling and bowing so low as to have one’s head touching the ground. In East Asian culture, the kowtow is the highest sign of reverence”
That is the intention of the people of this village, to travel 746 miles, in a practice of Kowtow. Once I grasped what this meant I truly was stunned. I’d heard of such a thing, but honestly had no idea of its scope and what was involved. The physical practice is that one takes 7 to 8 steps, then does a sliding bow down using wooden paddles for the hands, and leather apron for the front of the body. There is a hand movement also for every bowing, and the head must touch the ground. A person can be identified as one who has done this pilgrimage by the bump on their forehead. The intention also is that the practice be for the good of others, not oneself.
They do this, every 7 to 8 steps, for 746 miles.
These are beings of incredible physical and mental toughness, fortitude, and courage. They do everything together, no complaining, using humor and a high level of problem solving abilities along the way. This depiction is the absolute essence of the statement:
it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.
The geography through which they travel is Tibet, which is mostly high, dry and cold. There is very little vegetation, it’s windy and stark, with great vistas of open space and views of the high snow capped peaks. The road way is paved, and cars whiz by our hardy little band often as they make their slow, inexorable way.
If I understand correctly, the end point of this is actually a mountain called Mt. Kailash, in the Tibetan language known as Khang Rinpoche. This mountain is a holy pilgrimage site for both Hindus and Tibetans.
The villagers have many encounters with others on the road, one man who corrects them on their kowtow technique, to one man,
“You must not wear any red to kowtow properly!”
and to the little girl,
“You take too many steps between bows. And you must touch your head to the ground each time.”
Then he invites them to his home for dinner and shelter for the night, as his family is also gone on pilgrimage. Everyone along the way greeted each other and helped each other in the most generous and open-hearted way.
That girl, I tell you. I was deeply impressed by her commitment to see it through to the end. Cheerful, brave, strong.
At this point in the movie I felt an engagement, an affection even for these people, and when the pregnant woman wakes in the night with pain in her stomach and says to her relative,
“I’m in labor”
Everyone in the room gasped in dismay. They are all together in the giant tent with the stove in the middle, and a long way from anything. I was sure she was going to have the baby right there in the tent, but a car comes to their disposal, and they take her to the hospital. Every step is filmed, right up through the birth of the baby. I think up to that point I still hadn’t fully realized that this was a documentary and thought, “That’s a real baby! Oh, that’s HER real baby. That was real.”
She doesn’t rest much, a few days, and back to the kowtow road they go. The tractor would pull the trailer for a bit, then the bowing group would rest and the tractor driver would walk back to where they started and do his kowtow. None of them every missed a step or a kowtow, not once. It brings tears to my eyes still. The outlay of physical energy throughout was staggering.
It is not all slog and hardship, they take breaks to bathe, to wash clothing, to dance. They all chant together at night and various times of the day.
Then disaster, or what we would consider one. A speeding car goes out of control and hits the tractor, knocking it into the ditch and breaking the axle, rendering it useless. One of the occupants of the car is seriously injured and the still driveable car speeds off to find a hospital. No police, no insurance, no tow truck. Our friends are not hurt but shaken certainly, and in a tough spot. After some discussion, they rig straps and harnesses, and set about to pull the trailer themselves, taking turns. They sing and chant and pull and kowtow, mile after endless mile.
They meet a holy man, they run out of money and take jobs. I am not going to tell all of it, for anyone who takes my advice and watches this most precious film. I will tell you that they do lose one of their members, who dies in the night. No outward grieving, just setting about to do what needs to be done. That’s a marvelous story all by itself.
What my dear group took away from watching was that a committed group of people who help each other, who commit to a thing, who don’t complain can accomplish incredible tasks, overcome a mountain of obstacles. In our community this is called,
“Bao Yuan Shou Yi”.
In Chinese, it actually means holding a golden ball of light in your hands at the level of the abdomen, but for us it has come to mean the commitment of a group to support each other without judging or complaining, to achieve our tasks together with resilience and courage, to love and bless our teacher. For us this being is Dr. and Master Zhi Gang Sha. To hold ourselves, each other, and all sentient beings in the light. Develop true self-discipline.
This movie is a shining example of Bao Yuan Shou Yi. No one suggests we take that journey, but yes…we can surely embody and express those qualities on our own journey. May all your journeys be blessed!
Kristin Strachan compassionbuddha.net