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Buddhist Pilgrimages
Buddhist
(more precisely stated, tathagata)
pilgrimage comes in three modes, namely the Holiday (or Tourist) Mode, the
Home Edition (or lay) Mode and the Professional Edition (or bhikkhu =
itinerant beggar-cum-wise-man/woman) Mode. The Holiday Mode: A great trip with and lots of fun mixed with more or less ordeal. It
serves to refocus attention on (i.e. as in remembering) one’s Buddhist
belief. Visiting a Buddhist ‘holy’ site, for instance the Temple of the fake
Buddha Tooth relic in Kandy, Sri Lanka or one of the designated sites (of remembrance)
in India named in the Buddhist Theravada Canon. Perfectly performed, this
pilgrimage can lead to a temporary nirvana
(= freedom from distress = the deathless, Pali: amata). The Home Edition Mode: This pilgrimage, namely reducing distress (Pali: dukkha),
is expediently and skilfully practiced during a brief sojourn in any one of
the many sectarian Buddhist retreat centres that teaches Vipassana, the
Brahma Viharas, the Jhanas and a long list of moral precepts. Here one digs a
little deeper into religious lore of late (now primarily Tibetan) Buddhist
mythology and firms up de-stressing practice. Perfectly performed, the Home
Edition mode can lead to temporary nirvana (= the deathless). The Professional Mode: This pilgrimage, namely the complete elimination
of distress (i.e. the complete ending of life and re-birth), emulates the
Tathagata’s (now generally misnamed the Buddha) goal attainment response mode.
Perfectly performed, the Professional Edition mode leads to both temporary
and final nirvana. The professional Buddhist pilgrimage (i.e. becoming a
bhikkhu or bhikkhuni, or a lama) is advised only for dropouts, i.e. for those
who have given up on life, seek to end it and never return, in the meantime
wandering about as wisdom buskers. This is the reduce response to nil (or
Zero = sunya) game. Perfecting the Professional Edition mode is
brutally tough. As with the other two modes, there is no guarantee of
success. Failure to achieve the supreme goal, namely, non-rebirth, is
experienced by the professional Buddhist pilgrim as defeat. It might be useful,
therefore, to acquire a clear understanding (i.e. with savitacco savicaro
samadhi) of the basics of pilgrimage prior to setting out on your personal Pilgrimage
to the Buddhist goal (read: sanctuary). Once
the basic function and purpose of pilgrimage as such are clearly grasped,
Buddhist pilgrimage (and which is merely a fractal elaboration of pilgrimage
as such) becomes a lot easier to perform and increases the probability of
achievement. Introduction
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not at hhome. Next
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