The journey to the center of it all.

That journey that you are on, how far does it go? How do you know when you have reached the end? Is there an end?

A pilgrimage is an interesting journey to set out on. You set out with intention, and then you traverse the journey to its destination. You might set out on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, circuit Mount Kailash in Tibet, or travel St. Kevin's Way in Ireland. Each charts its own course through a living story full of meaning.

Each and every step of the pilgrimage is a call to presence. Our days are considered holy when we traverse the path with presence, bearing witness to those who have gone before us and in whose footsteps we now travel. We are waking up to the fact that the journey we are on is not about my awakening, but our awakening. We encounter a cohort of travelers on a path that looks much like our own. 

But a pilgrimage is not a destination. That would be site seeing. A pilgrimage requires a journey, a circuitous route through barren landscapes and difficult passes. The twists and turns of the journey unravel our old habits and perceptions and weave together a new story about who we are and our place in the world.

When we reach the end of the pilgrimage, we are faced with the difficult choice of how to move back into the world. We acknowledge the fundamental change that we have experienced, and are faced with the difficult choice of how to take that next step forward.

Stupas and the farmer.

In 2008 I was on pilgrimage in Nepal and India with my teacher Younge Khachab Rinpoche.  During that trip we visited many Buddhist holy sites and practiced meditation at many of the sites.  When you are in Nepal and India, one of the first things you notice is that spirituality and its symbols pervades the culture and people's daily lives.  In the early morning, people make offerings and prayers at shrines and do circumambulations around stupas such as Boudhanath and Swayambhunath.  Prayer wheels and miniature stupas are found throughout the city, elderly can often be found sitting together reciting mantras and meditation is regularly seen and engaged in by monks and lay persons alike.

One of the sites that we visited was Pharping, a small town just south of Kathmandu, Nepal.  Pharping is famous as being the location where Padmasambhava gained enlightenment before traveling to Tibet to spread the Buddha's teachings across the Tibetan plateau.  We spent the day meditating in the Tara temple at the base of the mountain and then in the Asura cave which is where Padmasambhava carried out his practice.

As we were walking down, there was a smaller sized stupa on the right towards the bottom of the hill, and off in the distance was a much larger stupa on the top of the hill.  It was a really beautiful.  The open countryside with a mountainous backdrop, stupas dotting the landscape signifying places of practice and the awakened mind.

I asked Rinpoche, "Rinpoche, do you think it is important to build more stupas in the U.S. so people can be inspired by places of practice like they are here?"  At that time, there was a farmer plowing his field just across the road.  Rinpoche responded, "I think we need more people like that farmer who are trying to make good, healthy food". 

I still often contemplate this.