The Classic Buddhist Pilgrimage

8th - 31st November



Sakyamuni and the early Sangha come to life. The Suttas you have read and the stories you have heard spring into three dimensions and burst into colour. The Bodhisattva, Mayadevi, Prajapati Gotami, and King Suddhodana, Yashodhara and Rahula, Chanda and Khantaka, The Buddha, Ananda and Anathapindika, Sariputta and Moggallana, Dhammadinna, and Maha Kassapa-they leave the halls of memory and walk beside us, sit with us, smile upon us – at least in our imagination.

We go back two thousand five hundred years, into the world of Siddhartha, the first Buddhist dawn, and the early Sangha. In imagination, we go back in time, but in our bodies, we walk, sit and reflect where those worthy-ones actually walked, sat and taught. At last, you can fill in the colours and populate your mind with images of the landscapes the Buddha lived in, and the peoples he lived amongst. At night, we hear the sounds the Buddha heard. By day, we see faces, fields, rivers, trees, and rocky hills pretty much as the Buddha saw them.



It’s a leisurely yet true pilgrimage,
through incredible India,
to places of real significance.

In Brief

Sravasti's Ancient Walls

When: Next - 8th November – 1st December 2007. 24 Days on pilgrimage in India

We offer this Sakyamuni Heartland pilgrimage twice a year – Usually in November and Jan/Feb.

Cost: The commercial value of the 24 day pilgrimage is high but our Pilgrims simply agree to cover the remarkably low costs (between 225 and 400 UK Pounds depending on the size of the group), and then make a donation towards Dharma and Social projects we sponsor.

Included: All accommodation transport food and site fees.

Not included: Airfares and Insurance.

Connections: Delhi is our start and end point. Everyone is met at Arrivals at the beginning of the pilgrimage, and accompanied to Departures at the conclusion.

Travel: 10 – 20 pilgrims, plus guide and team. Travel by spacious AC Coach. Bags are carried by our Team.

Accommodation and Food: We stay in simple, clean and atmospheric Pilgrims accommodation. Our own cooks ensure good safe food.

More Information: When you book we send you information sheets covering; Spiritual Preparation, Visas, Insurance, What to Take, What to Expect, Health and Safety, Recommended Reading, Detailed Itinerary, Character Notes, Literary Extracts and the Practice of Pilgrimage.

Pilgrimage Guide: Dharmachari Ratnaketu.


Ratnaketu

Booking: Contact us at justratna@yahoo.com

Getting There is Half the Journey

Say not so Ananda, say not so. It is the whole of the Journey.

Tea at the Yama Cafe - Kushinagar

At least we think so and take extra care to ensure that you go to bed relaxed and happy, and rise fresh to a new day of wonder and delight.

We meet everyone at Arrivals. Our Coaches are good; air-conditioned so we avoid most of the dust, with more seats than we need so we can spread out and move around. The roads between the holy sites are sometimes narrow and bumpy and we occasionally average as little as 15 -20 kms per hour. However, mostly we will be cruising at 40-50 kms per hour through a vast and fascinating countryside. You see the most amazing things at practically every glance and the misty mornings and hazy sunsets can be hauntingly beautiful.

We have a good amount of time at the holy sites and hope to arrive by the late afternoon. Most pilgrimage groups arrive in the late afternoon and leave first-thing the next morning – they travel every day and do the round in 7 or 8 days. If we get into the rhythm of the pilgrimage, and use our time well, we should be able to generate and maintain a solid pilgrimage atmosphere —and have a comfortable, spacious and inspiring Pilgrimage.

We stay in Buddhist Dharamsala’s – pilgrim’s accommodation within Monasteries, mostly in rooms of 4. At some places, we may be able to get a few double rooms.

In addition to our team of Indian and Nepalese helpers, we take our own cooking team, which means we eat well and save time.

Toby serenades aboard the Shiv Ganga Express

The Magic of Pilgrimage

Steve - Being There

Pilgrimage is a very powerful practice. One’s world is turned upside down. One’s imagination is stretched. Sometimes one sees, experiences, or participates in amazing things.

"A Pilgrimage is a journey into a world of myth. Events which have seemed to be shut away behind the closed doors along time's long corridor become as alive and as fresh as if they had happened yesterday. To the pilgrim, everyday reality and imagination are no longer separate: a shape, a noise, an unexpected meeting, can be charged with significance, becoming a symbol of something 'beyond us, yet ourselves'. One dwells more intensely on how one acts within one's environment, and on the effect of that environment upon oneself. Such intense concentration, coupled with reflection on the life of the Buddha and on the lives of the great sages who followed him, brings about a deep sense of faith which flowers as inspiration. The pilgrim gives himself to the pilgrimage with body, speech, and mind, and the fruits of his devotion manifest as virtue. He comes to feel blessed; in the traditional phrase, he feels, 'richly endowed'." From Suvajra’s 'The Wheel and the Diamond

Outwardly, we could say that pilgrimage is a journey through place to meaning. Be they caves, crags, rivers, woods, trees, lakes, springs, shrines, temples or gardens they are haloed places imbued with meaning, charged with significance, surrounded by aura upon aura.

Inwardly, pilgrimage is a journey through meaning to awareness. It is a pilgrimage of mindful thought and reflection leading to moments –mysterious, precious, healing, liberating, inspiring, ungraspable moments.

Secretly, it is a journey through moments of awareness towards continuity of awareness; pure mind: the eternal empty light.


Anne finds herself at home.

Approaching the Holy Sites

Remembering Anathapindaka

Jack Kornfield wrote about a walk he did with Aborigines in Australia. As they approached their holy site, they first walked silent, then proceeded with an ever-deeper bow until they were crawling on hands and knees and finally wriggling along the ground...

The sites we visit are supremely haloed; traditionally credited with the power to heal and bless – even the blessing of Insight. As we draw near, leaving other thoughts aside we repeatedly bring to mind thoughts, images and feelings connected with the events in the life of the Buddha that occurred at that site. Usually we will wend our way in silence, straight to the most holy spot. Often we will stand and sometimes sit in silence. And in the silence really look, seeing the place for the first time with an uncluttered mind. Seeing too in imagination, perhaps as if for the first time, the events that occurred there.

So, we approach and stand or sit in silence. And from our silence perform our puja, sing our songs, dance our jigs, make our offerings salutations circumambulations and prostrations. Then we wander around visiting other important sites, taking in the scene, imagining what it was like when the Buddha was there, or Nagarjuna, or Padmasambhava. Other times we will return to meditate, reflect, make offerings and do puja.


Silaketu in Sariputta's Enlightenment Cave

Parayana - The Way Beyond

Parayana means Going Beyond

When we started the pilgrimage service in 2001, our aim was to create resources for men and women Sramanas – renunciants practicing in simplicity. Still dedicated to Sramanas, Parayana has unexpectedly become an important part of new initiatives taking our Movement into the Buddhist Heartland – the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Pilgrimage has become another sparkling facet of our Movement. We enable pilgrims to enter the spirit and path of pilgrimage, to gain experiences of India, of the holy places, and of the Refuges that would scarcely otherwise be imaginable. Parayana provides employment, community, and skills training for our team members, and ....


...brings the East and West of our Movement together.

Where The Money Goes

The Parayana Team

Yours is a true pilgrimage – something you co-create, not buy. The traditional method – which we follow – is for the participants to share the costs, and each individual to follow the dictates of the heart when they give.

Costs
Although the commercial value of the pilgrimage is high, the actual costs – aside from airfares, insurance and pre-travel purchases - are remarkably low. India is economical and our Team is likewise. The cost of all meals snacks and drinks, accommodation, transport, Team wages and offerings is likely to be between than 200 and 400 Pounds depending on the size of the group.

Dana
Our Team simply takes minimal wages that support life and provide something for their family. It’s not a business; we don’t seek to make an ordinary profit. We hope to enable you to experience the joy of giving – by keeping costs down; and by enticing you to support projects that we sponsor.

Dana

The Glasgow Buddhist Centre pilgrims gave this little girl a trip to the Hospital.

This year we have several major funding projects; the first is to find two thousand pounds for the young Dhardo Tulku; for rituals that are an important part of his Monastic education.

Then we want to find fifteen hundred pounds to help preserve the cottage on a high ridge above Kalimpong where Bhante received his first Tantric initiation; Green Tara from Chatral Rinpoche. That meeting and Rinpoche’s direct, spontaneous, simple and informal method of introducing and transmitting the Sadhana is the model of our Private Ordination especially the Initiation. Bhante gave Initiation in the same informal way as Chatral Rinpoche gave him Green Tara. Our Private Preceptors continue in the same spirit. The cottage signifies and very much anchors our connection with the ancient Vajrayana tradition of Tibet – especially the Nyingmas. It is in danger of demolition; the cottage. I have persuaded the owner to preserve it on the promise of a donation for substantial repairs.

And this year we are committed to starting a carbon sink; a wood where you actually plant the tree that makes your pilgrimage more eco-friendly.

Our focus however is the new Sramana Trust. Through Sramana, we aim to support men and women renunciants in various ways; chiefly through basic support and accommodation.

Sramana is getting underway in India and is closely associated with the new beginnings of our Movement in the middle land – around the Buddhist Holy places in Bihar and UP. The ancient Buddhist Heartland is now the most backward and poorest part of India. So far, our Movement has had very few activities in Bihar, and indeed, it appears that no other Buddhist organization is actively spreading the Dharma in Bihar – outside a few monastic enclaves.

But things are beginning to change. A team of Order members and Dhammamitras based in Buddhagaya are determined to establish the Movement in Bihar and take the Dharma to the poorest most neglected people in India – slowly slowly. We have started by assembling a team, making connections at the Holy places, sending people on retreat and seeking supporters. Shortly we begin building a base, on our land, in Buddha Gaya.


Sakyamuni's Cremation Stupa
Naryan Gopal distrubtes gifts from Glasgow.