July 9, 2013: Bodhgaya is a place that exudes peace and quiet. Most visitors to this sacred place are pilgrims and tourists, treading the Buddha Path. Yet, the hallowed destination has been victim of serial bombings this week. It brings back memories of a visit five years ago, when an international group undertook a peace pilgrimage along with Thich Nhat Hanh, facilitated by Dharmacharya Shantum Seth

Why would hundreds sit atop Vulture’s Peak in Rajgir, Bihar, from sunrise to sunset, braving the scorching sun, experiencing Noble Silence with the visiting 85 year-old Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh when he visited India five years ago, in 2008? Known as Thay, the monk is leading a 300-odd strong international sangha or group of seekers on the Buddha trail, transmitting the experience of Sidhartha’s journey from angst-ridden prince and spiritual seeker to the enlightened and profound Gautama Buddha. Addressing the sangha at Sarnath, Bodhgaya, Rajgir and Nalanda – and on the Buddha path between – Thay’s talks and silences enrich the quality of the unique peace pilgrimage from Delhi to Buddha land and back, a journey more of spirit than body. 

Seated cross-legged on the highest rock on Vulture’s Peak, Thay says this is where the Buddha spent weeks meditating, before and post-enlightenment, drawing energy from within and without. For some of us, the absolute calm and peace on the isolated peak may be no different an experience from that experienced on the banks of the River Ganga in Varanasi, despite noisy crowds of devotees, tourists, animals and beggars. Or from the sounds of silence at the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodhgaya where a steady stream of white-robed pilgrims from Sri Lanka circumambulate the sanctum sanctorum and Bodhi Tree -- where the Buddha saw the Light -- tracing his footsteps on the Cankamana. Or the oneness experienced in the silent but magnificent ruins of the ancient Nalanda University, hushed with the millennia-old intellectual pursuit of scholars expanding their horizons. 

Bobbing up and down the turgid Ganga in Varanasi, the wizened old boatman answers my question on the polluted waters: “This is Ganga maiya, we drink her waters straight, scooped in the palm of our hands, as millions have done for years before us. If we drank `purified’ bottled water like you do, we would take ill.”  Uh-huh. Faith might not literally move mountains, but to the boatman, it has certainly provided immunity!

Pilgrimages are by their very nature cathartic; they take you to those very spots where sages and seers meditated over millennia, and the collective energy of their endeavour seems to suffuse the region with kinetics that recharge you with hope, leaving you feeling closer, and at peace, with the cosmos.

At Vulture’s Peak, Thay tells us we are lucky to sit where the Buddha sat, watching the same sun, rise and set. “We spend the whole day here,” he says, “in mindful breathing, mindful walking and in noble silence to receive the energy of the Buddha, Sariputra and others.”

Revival of interest in Buddhism – apart from movements like those of Ambedkar’s – rides on the simplification of Buddhist precepts in layman’s language that appeals both to the intellect and to the need to adapt insights to daily life. “Happiness is here and now, / I have dropped my worries. / Nowhere to go, nothing to do/ No longer in a hurry… Somewhere to go, / Something to do, / But I don’t need to hurry.” The songs of Thay are sung several times along the journey, a reaffirmation of the importance of practice in the here and now. “Watch your breath,” says Thay. “Breathe in and breathe out mindfully, for you are alive.” The other overriding theme is to be free where you are as we all inter-are. “…I am in you and you/ are in me.”

Can you distinguish the body from the mind? Can the Buddha-mind and Buddha-body exist independent of each other? Is it possible to make observations independent of the object of perception? Could the Buddha have breathed and walked without the body? Thay’s discourse on the Buddha-mind and Buddha-body at Nalanda touched on the obstacles posed by what he calls “double-grasping”: When the Buddha is peaceful; he is so not only in spirit but also in body.

“Modern science believes there is consciousness in us trying to engage with the consciousness out there. Some believe that what is in can exist without what is out there and this is a stumbling block,” says Thay. In biology and quantum physics, it is important to overcome double grasping. Science is beginning to touch that reality – because when you see the object of reality you see your mind in it. The electron is first a notion, it is a concept, and it is your perception. To perceive is always to perceive something; to see is always to see something; to hear is always to hear something. You cannot have the perceiver without the perceived for the two manifest together. Consciousness manifests itself into subject and object of consciousness – like the left and right that manifest together at exactly the same time.

The Buddha said, “This is, because that is; this is not, because that is not.” So, says Thay, if you want society to change, you have to change yourself. We tend to blame our parents or others for our suffering. But don’t forget that the other person is like that because you are like this; you are co-responsible, whether it is the Israel-Palestine, Hindu-Muslim, Catholic-Protestant, American-Arab situations of conflict or any other inter-personal misunderstanding you are facing.

The moment we see the other side -- suffer like we do, things begin to change. Looking and listening deeply helps clear misconceptions and create the understanding that makes you compassionate and peaceful. We ‘inter-are’. You don’t need to indulge in complicated philosophy to awaken the Buddha Nature within. And find peace.  

Source: The Times of India, DT. July 9, 2013.