The Buddha’s 4 Most Significant Sites Infused Me With Rare Wisdom

If you can’t go on such a journey, let mine take you on an inner one

Our pilgrimage group atop Vulture’s Peak, one of the Buddha’s favorite locations for giving teachings. (Source: Author’s photo).

“There are four places, Ananda, that a pious person should visit and look upon with feelings of reverence.”

— D.N. 16

In the Buddha’s last teaching before passing away (the ‘Great Discourse on the Total Unbinding’) these words of advice were given to the Buddha’s chief attendant.

When I first read them, my mind was set. Before I died, I’d visit the places where Buddha was born, got enlightened, first taught, and died.

My enthusiasm went past the point of no return when I read Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s excellent guidebook on pilgrimage. This trip, I realized, was a precious chance to build positive intentions which simply wouldn’t occur otherwise.

Now, after having been in some of the most historically revolutionary places in humanity’s contemplative history, Buddha Dharma has become more than a hobby to escape the dreariness of late capitalism.

It’s a window into the very purpose of human life: evolving within, because we’ve sufficiently (even dangerously) figured out the external aspects of…