Over the past couple of weeks, I have been experiencing a change in myself—or perhaps I should say that I am experiencing things differently. It’s a bit difficult to explain, at least for me. For most of my adult life, I’ve leaned heavily on logic and rational thinking, but during this pilgrimage, it seems a shift is taking place.

But first, let me list the facts regarding the “physical” progress I’ve made since leaving the Kumakogen region. The number of temples visited has increased drastically, so instead of describing each visit in detail, I’ll list which temples I visited on which dates:

Monday, April 13: Jyoruri-ji (46)

Tuesday, April 14: Yasaka-ji (47), Sairin-ji (48), Jōdo-ji (49), Hanta-ji (50), Ishite-ji (51)

Wednesday, April 15: Taisan-ji (52), Enmyō-ji (53)

Thursday, April 16: Enmei-ji (54), Nankōbō (55)

Friday, April 17: Taizan-ji (56), Eifuku-ji (57), Senyū-ji (58), Iyo Kokubun-ji (59)

Saturday, April 18: Kōon-ji (61), Hojū-ji (62), Kichijō-ji (63)

Sunday, April 19: Yokomine-ji (60), Maegami-ji (64)

If you’ve been counting, that makes a total of 19 temples in one week (that might be my record), adding another 140+ kilometers to the total distance of the pilgrimage. There have also been some funny experiences along the way worth mentioning—like a run-in with the local 6 o’clock news, where I became the focus of a segment at a hospitality salon and found myself slightly overwhelmed by the attention of four ladies feeding me mochi and oranges.

Another highlight was my visit to Dogo Onsen, one of the oldest and most famous hot springs in Japan, which partially inspired the bathhouse in that Oscar-winning Ghibli film “Spirited Away”. Things just seemed to happen as if they were meant to.

And on that note, let me return to the “metaphysical” experience I mentioned at the beginning. Someone I met during this pilgrimage introduced me to the Japanese term goen(ご縁) which can be loosely translated as invisible, fortuitous connections. To be honest I hadn’t heard of this term before, but after reading about it, it seems to describe what I’m experiencing. You could also call it faith, or kismet (qismah), but it ultimately comes down to a sense of predestination—of being exactly where and when you are meant to be.

This feeling carries through even in the simplest things: finding a nice spot to eat lunch at just the right moment, a toilet appearing exactly when you need it, or sleeping arrangements—which were a real hassle in the beginning—now almost organizing themselves in perfect alignment with my pace on the trail. One moment, I’m thinking it would be nice to see someone from earlier in the pilgrimage; a few hours later, I run into someone I last met more than a month ago. I’ve even started acting on these “connections”—when recognizing them—in ways I never would have in the past. Seeking out connections based on intuition was not something I would normally have done.

The best way I can explain it is as a state of flow—like first being closed off from something and then suddenly being inside it. As if I were once watching a river flow by, and now I am part of it. Maybe for others this is something familiar, but for me it’s a strange sensation. I’m not sure what I expected from this journey, but it is definitely taking me in unexpected directions, both physically and metaphysically.

A State of Flow

Above and Beyond