S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 5 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 9 5 5 Petr Pavlík Introduction The main aim of the romance The Way of Heavenly Knight is to illustrate the complete process of spiritual journey, much like Zen’s Ten Bulls [1], HinduRāmāyanam [2], Christian Interior Castle [3], or Buddha’s Shorter Discourse on Emptiness [4]. The storyline of this romance takes place in the Knight Age, but is easily transferable. The basic environment and some features of the narrative (“bring the adventure to an end”) are most reminiscent of the medieval The Quest of the Holy Grail [5]. However, the elements of Christian symbolism are not named here in order to open up space for the reader (e.g. to recognize who the Hermit and the White King are). The character of Astera already deviates from the Christian female archetype of an innocent virgin and is close to Judaism: as an object of the knight’s courtly and later also spiritual love, here a female embodiment of mature wisdom takes place. Some typically Zen scenes (e.g. what is “being at home” in the second act) as well as the kōans introducing each chapter can also resemble the samurai world. A partial parallel to the second act in which both heroes became stars can also be found in Gjellerup’s novel The Pilgrim Kamanita [6], based on the legends in the Pāli Canon. The Way of Heavenly Knight takes some form of a monomyth [7]. The main hero, the wandering knight, gradually passes through all the scenes until he comes back to where he came from. The difference is that he comes back transformed, poorer in what he had to leave and richer in his new spiritual experience. The original form of this romance was just a poem, consisting of kōan-like verses, which in themselves can serve as a test of how far the reader has progressed on his spiritual path. Like in Zen, an explanation to each verse in the form of one chapter of the story has been added. However, just as in Zen, who cannot understand the opening verse, he will not understand the story either. So does such an explanation make any sense? Is it worth to talk about something that everyone has to experience at his or her own? This romance offers a key: After the knight eventually takes the hermit’s advice and becomes a troubadour, he does not attempt to pass on his spiritual experience directly, but only promises: About the author Petr Pavlík, CSc., had been professionally specializing in neural networks and artificial intelligence research at the Czech Academy of Sciences; currently he develops forecasting methods. Since the late sixties, he had been one of the closest friends of spiritual teachers Míla, Eduard, and Miloš Tomáš. During his stay in Switzerland, he became acquainted with some spiritual practices of Hinduism and Buddhism. Afterwards, for two decades he had been giving series of lectures Mystical Evenings andBuddhist Evenings along with Miloš Tomáš and Vladimír Bláha. Petr Pavlík is the author of the books The Crystal Ball and The Talks on the Way There, as well as a number of spiritual essays, stories and fairy tales available at www.lampa.cz. His email contact is pp@lampa.cz. I’ll sing a romance about a no-one’s land where the sunshine disappears, so that the stars may come out in the night of love, about beautiful princesses and their hidden chambers, about brave knights fulfilling them their most secret wishes.
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