Pilgrimage as a Spiritual Journey
Photo Credit: Suzanne Lucas
Pilgrimage is a practice in which we turn our spiritual aspirations to the path of visiting sacred places, connecting with the energy there, praying, and meditating. We can either travel on transport or walk the whole way. Both are valuable. We can share joyful companionship, and rest in the amazing presence in temples, churches, and other places of worship, the wonder of nature, and the beauty of architecture, paintings, statues, and other art. Pilgrimage can also be a solo journey, and be equally meaningful and life changing. When we undertake a spiritual journey on our own or with others, we often meet lovely people along the way, with the potential for a few moments or days, where we share in friendliness and communion.
Everything on the journey is part of the spiritual path. Difficulties around circumstances or interpersonal relationships, stuff coming up inside of us, all of it we can turn to the path of liberation and awakening. We can understand all circumstances to be what we are working with in terms of developing loving kindness, compassion, patience, equanimity, and wisdom. In this way we turn our experience to the path. The practice is also to understand that what we perceive is both our own mind and its karmic display. As well, it is both awakened mind, and the awakened ones or the Divine teaching us. Self and other are not ultimately separate, and we can take responsibility for our experience, while opening to compassion and to the impermanent, illusory nature of it all. As we feel the awe, beauty, and spiritual presence we can recognize that we are tapping into our pure being simultaneously. When things are tough we can lighten up with our experience and see the humorous side of situations. When we work with our challenges and difficulties, they can be turned to the path of spiritually maturing and waking up. We can note our ego reactions, and process them without acting them out. This is spiritual practice as well. Can we process our own reactions so that they don’t spill out unto others? Then pilgrimage liberates karma and blessing can occur.
The energy of sacred places transmits to us peace, wisdom and other qualities of awakened or divine presence. It is up to us to open so that we may receive. By resting in this energy we are changed by it. We also can learn a tremendous amount by exposing ourselves to cultures that are different than our own.
When I was younger I had no idea that pilgrimage could be a profound spiritual practice. I thought that all happened in some form of formal practice. But after spending time in temples, caves, cathedrals, and other spiritual places, I realized how I had been significantly transformed through sacred journeys. I realized that the very cells of my body had been changed. As well, in between visiting sacred sites, we are often in nature. And, as many people have found, nature can be a profound teacher, and being in nature transmits to us if we quiet ourselves to experience it.
Whether within walls or without walls, pilgrimage can be nourishing on a deep level. As well as happening directly spiritually, this nourishment can come in many ways. Away from our regular lifestyles, as we slow down, we may find that we are more open in our interactions with others, and thereby find an deeper appreciation and connection happening. Our eating of a meal, perhaps a very different one than we are accustomed to, may nourish us in a new way. Walking in beautiful landscapes nourishes us.
At Sukhasiddhi Foundation I have focused on pilgrimage to Bhutan. Traveling to Bhutan can be very powerful, both for people who have been practicing in Buddhism and Vajrayana in particular, as well as for others. Bhutan still has an intact pervasive Vajrayana Buddhist culture, and to experience this is unique, and again, can be life changing. The temples have been undisturbed from whenever they were built up to 15 centuries ago when Buddhism was first brought to Bhutan. Thousands of people have prayed and meditated in these places for hundreds and hundreds of years without the disturbance of wars. Being together and doing prayers and meditation in some of the temples and sacred sites where Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava), Milarepa, Yeshe Tsogyal, Machig Lhadron, Longchenpa, and many, many others including my teacher Kalu Rinpoche, as well as the previous Dudjom Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse, have meditated, can be a way to receive their transmission.
Then there are the Bhutanese people. They are quite amazing. Being in a place where Vajrayana has been practiced for the last 15 + centuries, it is really interesting to see what kind of people this has produced. There is a purity and innocence in many of them. During much of this time there has been beneficent government and this has made an impact as well.
In short, pilgrimage is a profound spiritual practice that can bring life changing transformation, joy, and nourishment on many levels.
