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Forward by Roshi Joan Halifax: on Pilgrimage and the Buddha

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Forward by Roshi Joan Halifax: on Pilgrimage and the Buddha Forward by Roshi Joan Halifax: On Pilgrimage and the Buddha “Even though I am already here, millions of footsteps separate me from this place - footsteps I’m still not sure how many I will be able to take.” Maarten Olthof “The Buddha probably traveled no less than Xuanzang on foot. He must have known fully well what a cathartic, meditative effect walking can have. And so my journey is a timeless one.” Says Maarten Olthof. “Taking it on foot, I want to follow the instruction of the Buddha and discover why he recommended visiting these four places in particular. I want to taste the atmosphere and find the source: the source of Buddhist pilgrimage, the source of Buddhist philosophy and the source of Buddhist scripture. Somewhere deep within I feel the urge to roam, the call of homelessness. After all, it is not just the destination but the journey itself that involves us. Moreover, in making my journey, I’m hoping to contribute to the revival of a once-busy pilgrimage route that, for over seventeen centuries, was to Buddhist Asia what the trek to Santiago de Compostela in Spain had been to Christian Europe for the past ten centuries.” Maarten Olthof The practice of pilgrimage is a rite of passage, a way to mark deep change within the human heart. It is a practice that is as old as humankind, for moving from place to place ritually brings us into the deep sense of the truth of impermanence, the power and beauty of change. The mythologist Joseph Campbell wrote that pilgrimage takes us to our burning point, the place where we can awaken in the fire of groundlessness, as we make our way across landscapes that are holy and fraught. For the author of this marvelous book, Maarten Olfhof, this pilgrimage offers a life-changing, mind-altering experience that is about embodiment, the heart, and being a student to the moment. Few if any humans have recently followed the footsteps of the Buddha on foot! But our Dutch author and wanderer takes on this practice with such dedication that the reader is able to meet the Buddha and his great teachings through the marvelous dedication of the author, who has the fortitude and courage to be thoroughly grounded on the dusty roads of the great Gangetic plains, and to meet the life there courageously and vividly. Pilgrimage frequently takes us to where others have trod, a path that is shared by seekers who seek to awaken. Buddhism was established during the sixth century BCE. In the course of his dying, the Buddha encouraged his followers to go to the places associated with his life: the place of his birth, awakening, first teaching, and dying. By visiting such places, as pilgrims, we can touch into those experiences in our own life, which somehow mirror or are in contrast to the Buddha’s life. Pilgrimage is also about entering into a liminal state, betwixt and between the past and the future, between your life and the life of the great teacher, between the brightness of day and the darkness of night. It is not just one step but many steps into the unknown and into “not knowing.” And it opens the threshold between worlds in a powerful way, so that on the ground, we discover essential groundlessness. It is also a time of bearing witness giving rise to compassionate action. I believe that Maarten has lived in this pilgrimage what are called “The Three Tenets of the Peacemaker Order”, the tenets of Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, Compassionate Action. He has been taken into the heart of the tenets through this extraordinary practice. I recall a koan from Case 20 of the “Book of Serenity”. In China, there was a great teacher named Dizang. In his early monastic years, he studied and faithfully followed the vinaya or precepts. As time when on, he felt that adhering strictly to the precepts and studying them was not serving him, so he left his precept teacher and began his study and practice of Zen. Although he was to receive dharma transmission, Dizang did not seem interested in being a “high ranking” Buddhist. In spite of this, he was becoming well known and people began to gather around him. Soon he was asked to become the abbot of a monastery named Dizang, Earth Store Bodhisattva, which is how he got his name The other person in the koan I am to share is Fayan, who also had studied with a vinaya master, and earlier he had studied the Confucian classics. Both Fayan and Dizang were literate in a time when that was not so common. Fayan was dressed in his traveling clothes, with straw sandals, staff, and a backpack. At this time in China, monks did angya, pilgrimage, from temple to temple. Dizang asked him, "Where are you going?" Fayan replied, "Around on pilgrimage." Dizang said, "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?" Fayan said, "I don't know." Dizang said, "Not knowing is most intimate." (Not knowing is nearest) On hearing Dizang’s words, Fayan awakened. What is Fayan's "not knowing"? It is an example to us to be open to and really interested in what is happening. It is being careful, and about becoming fully human by being dust on the road. Fayan obviously is not caught in automata. I remember words of Shunryu Suzuki: “wisdom is a ready mind.” This is one of the great gifts of pilgrimage, a quality of mind that the author of this book grew day by day as he walked in the footsteps of the Buddha; he walked like Fayan, quality of mind that one would call “not knowing” and most intimate. Maarten Olthof begins his journey with a heartwarming visit with Tatsuma, a Japanese Tendai monk who has walked thousands of miles of pilgrimage himself. Armed with advice from him to “Go without fear,” Maarten heads out in the footsteps of Faxian and Xuanzang, two Chinese monks of the fifth and seventh centuries respectively, whose accounts of their own pilgrimages are shared. In Maarten’s courageous account, one gets the sense of how the act of pilgrimage is about cultivating great faith and courage. Whether 1500 years ago or today, the need to nourish endurance, to overcome physical, mental and spiritual obstacles, to touch into the truth of suffering, and yes, even exaltation and wonder is the very heart and ground of pilgrimage. And in the midst of all this to be guided by humility, recognizing that the outer journey takes us to sites of profound practice, reminding us of who we really are. The outer journey is about cherishing geographies. The inner journey takes us around the human heart, around our own heart and heartbreak. Finally, there is a secret journey when we discover that all of life is a holy journey, a pilgrimage that takes us deeper and deeper into “not knowing” so every step is a threshold, is new, takes us to our edge. Maarten describes his time in Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, using the place to tell the story of Ashoka, the “butcher turned buddhist saint”, who spread Buddhism throughout India in the 3rd century BCE. In Lumbini, where Maya gave birth to Siddhartha, who would become the Buddha, Maarten also recalls his mother, her own painful labor, and the gratitude he owes to her, and we all owe to our mothers. Between Lumbini and Kapilavastu, where the Buddha grew up, Maarten introduces the anapanasati sutta, or the sutra on mindfulness of breathing, which has become one of the most important Buddhist texts in modern times, practiced by thousands and used as the initial practice of meditation by many people. The sense that breath by breath, the thread of the breath is also a pilgrimage across the landscape of time, and is conveyed in Maarten’s text, as he moves across the landscape of Buddha’s life, breath by breath, step by step. Since the early 1980’s, I’ve traveled on medical pilgrimage in the Himalayas of Tibet and Nepal. Pilgrimage for me has always been an essential part of my practice, a way of getting back in touch with my deepest intentions, and re-awakening the spiritual heart of our vow to alleviate suffering for all beings. While the Nomads Clinic (as we call our annual medical expedition) is externally about bringing medical aid to remote parts of the Himalayas, it is also about bringing healing and awakening to the hearts of those who take the journey. As we walk over long stretches of trail between the medical camps we offer, we visit monasteries, hermitages, and sacred places that have been essential to the spiritual life of the traditional peoples for centuries. We pray and chant in shrine rooms, meditate in caves, and lay our minds to rest under the vast expanse of sky and stars. The many people we meet along the way in pilgrimage become our teachers, as well as our fellow travelers with whom we share the experience. With our intention to walk safely for ourselves and others, each moment of the journey becomes a lesson in interdependence and trust. We put our lives in the hands of our support community and each other, while also lending our own support to those we serve, As with all pilgrimage, particularly Maarten’s, we walk with a mission, a place on the map to which we are heading, as well as the villages along the way that we will serve and people we will treat. However, as Maarten Olthof reveals time and again on his journey, it is the experiences along the way that he does not plan for that are the most meaningful.
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