“The spiritual journey, the human journey, is as natural as this. We begin at home, we leave home, we return home. Even when it looks like we’re going far afield, we’re always on our way back. We have what we need, and we are where we are going; the spiritual journey is a journey of return. And because this journey takes us in the end back to the beginning, back home where we started from, it is an odd journey, a heartfelt journey, a sentimental journey, a journey of deja vu.”Â
Some years ago, poet, author, and Zen priest Norman Fischer struggled to come up with ways to teach his meditation students about the true meaning of the Buddhist path. It was around that same time that Fischer picked up a copy of Homer’s Odyssey. As Fischer read about the Greek hero’s perilous ten-year journey home to his loved ones, he realized that this book was the education tool he had been looking for. Odysseus and Buddha’s paths became strikingly similar and Fischer began using excerpts from Homer’s Odyssey in his spiritual teachings. The response was staggering: students viscerally reacted to the metaphor of leaving and returning home. It became clear that Homer’s Odyssey was hardly just a literary classic.
Although the war at Troy had ended, Odysseus’s treacherous journey had just started. Filled with just as many difficulties, if not more, it took love, courage, and determination for Odysseus to finally return home. In Norman Fischer’s book, Sailing Home, he uses the wisdom of a classic we thought we knew to navigate life’s perils and pitfalls. By tying spiritual teachings and literary excellence together, Fischer sheds light on the purpose of our own perilous journeys home to our loved ones and most importantly, to ourselves.
“Homer’s tales were also spiritual teachings, metaphors of the inner life. It occurred to me that since these tales are so encoded in the Western mind, they might be clearer, more personal and straightforward for us than Buddha’s story. Th Odyssey has remained alive for us these thousands of years because its metaphors are so astonishingly true to real life. We are Odysseus.” – From the Book
What classics have had a significant impact on your life? Share with us in the comments box below.
