The Philosophy of Walking



Of course, there’s a fundamental difference in our philosophy of walking, W. says. The Jewish walker walks forward, W. says. A trivial point, but one too often lost on the Hindu. Because the Hindu walks in circles, W. says. The Hindu only ever walks round and round!

For the Jew, W. says, every walk is an exodus, a leaving behind of the house of bondage. For the Jew, every walk is a politica act, a determined effort to found a new community in leaving behind slavery, to journey together away from Egypt. For the Hindu, however, the walk is only ever cosmological, W. says. — 'You set out to come back again! You go forth only to return!'

It's like the wheel of rebirth, W. says. It's like the turning of the Four Ages. History, for the Jew, has only one direction, even if, in the end, it points beyond history. Only one direction — and so, for the Jewish walker, we are always walking towards Canaan.