Walking With The Buddha

© 2009, Rev. Bill Hamilton-Holway

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It was Friday afternoon, April 17th. Barbara and I were in Dharmasala, India, at the Tushita Institute. American Buddhist nun, Thubten Chadran, was leading meditation and giving a dharma talk, or teaching about Buddhism.

Thubten Chadran graduated from UCLA before she went to India and Nepal to study Buddhism. She is the founder of Sravasti Abbey, an hour’s drive north of Spokane, and has a wonderful way of applying the insights of Buddhism to life in the West.

I looked around at the people in the dharma hall. Most of us were on meditation mats on the floor. A few, with legs and backs that don’t appreciate such sitting, were on chairs. Some of us envied them.

Everyone looked familiar to me. Most were Western and, though many were dressed in Indian clothing, I could imagine them walking into a Unitarian Universalist church in the United States.

We Unitarian Universalists have been drawn to the wisdom of the East for a long time. Our beloved Transcendentalists, people like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller were drawn to Hindu and Buddhist scriptures for inspiration. For over 150 years we have affirmed, in the current language of our principles, “Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual lives.”¹

But, what would it mean to walk "In the Steps of the Buddha?"

Since my days in college, taking courses in World Religions, I have felt an affinity for the approach Buddhists have for living in this world.

Live simply. Live peacefully. Live compassionately.

Thubten Chadran’s message to us that afternoon was her conviction that we, in the West, need to change our minds – our way of thinking – so we know what we have, and who we are, is good enough.

Siddhartha Guatama was an amazing person, arising within what we now call Hindu culture about twenty-five centuries ago, to bring a life-saving message to those who would listen: You can learn to live your life so as to give up craving, and as you do so, spaciousness will replace your suffering. It was a message that spoke to those around him. It is a message that can transform our lives today.

Part of my hope in visiting India during the sabbatical this congregation so generously granted to Barbara and me was to experience the sites of the Buddha’s life, to follow his footsteps from birth to death, and to discover what new understandings would arise within me.

Pilgrimage to the sites of Buddha’s life,² is an important aspect of Buddhism, and everywhere we traveled we encountered pilgrims in the various reds, browns, oranges, and golden robes of their orders. The Dalai Lama encourages pilgrimages to the sites of Buddha’s life because, “it develops in us a strong sense of compassion. Ideally, [he says] one should be a better person when one returns, otherwise it is not useful, a waste of money and time.”³

To walk in the steps of the Buddha is a call to change your mind, to not waste your money or your time, to open your way of thinking, and your compassionate heart. To walk in the steps of the Buddha is to view his life as a mirror for your own, to see the meaning of events in your own life reflected in his.

Buddhist tradition celebrates four major events in Buddha’s life: his birth, his enlightenment, his teaching, and his death. I wondered, as we traced his footsteps, if these events mark the lives of all of us.

Visiting any cemetery, we notice gravestones that most often list birth and death dates, the bookends of every life. And, marking our births is an annual ritual for most of us. Do you feel a sense of loss if family members and friends forget your birthday? The stories of our births are precious. We are born, and given a name that declares who we are in the world.

Once upon a time, over twenty-five centuries ago, Kapilavastu, the capital of the Sakkyas was in a festive mood. Mahamaya, the chief queen of King Suddhodana, had a dream in which a magnificent white elephant with a lotus in his trunk appeared and entered her side. The sixty-four Brahman soothsayers who were invited to interpret the queen’s dream prophesied that she would give birth to an illustrious son who would either be a world conqueror or a world renouncer.⁴

Queen Mahamaya bore the child for ten months and one day expressed a desire to go to her maternal home. [On the way,] The royal entourage camped in the beautiful Lumbini grove…When the Queen reached out for a branch of a Sal tree the child miraculously came out of her right side.⁵

He was named Siddhartha Gautama (Siddhartha meaning one who has achieved his purpose, and Gautama being the name of his clan). ⁶

Excavations in Lumbini have revealed what is thought to be the exact location of Buddha’s birth.

Do you know where you were born? Have you visited the site of your beginning?

What stories were you told about your coming into this world? Did it seem like a miracle to your parents? Did you struggle through a long, hard labor, or did you just glide into life? How was your name chosen, and how have you felt about your name through the years?

Siddhartha Gautama was born into privilege. His parents protected him from experiencing or witnessing suffering. He grew up and married. But, as life would have it, one day while on a ride outside the palace gates, he witnessed first an old person, then a person crippled with disease, and then a corpse followed by weeping mourners. These troubling sights were balanced by seeing a saint, peaceful and calm.

This experience led to a challenging and creative time. Siddhartha left his wife and son, and the comforts of the palace, renouncing domestic life and the caste-ridden religion of the realm. He wanted to escape life’s suffering. He spent six years wandering as an ascetic, before stopping in Bodh Gaya.

He meditated there for 49 days, sitting under a Bodhi tree, before realizing that the suffering he and all others experience can be overcome by releasing desire.

Bodh Gaya today is one of the most peaceful places I have been. People from all over the world come because this is where the Buddha attained enlightenment. There is a certain power about the place, its temples, stupas and shrines, with monks chanting and candles burning, with lotus and marigolds welcoming all into a deeper consciousness, a more generous presence. A descendent of the Bodhi tree that shaded the Buddha’s meditation now shades mine.

I cherish the opportunity I now have, in any moment, to revisit in memory this place of enlightenment. Breathing in, breathing out, letting go, a calming presence grows within me.

Isn’t it so for all of us?

Where are the places that took you to the depths of your being?

Are there mountain peaks or ocean beaches you can visit whenever you take the time?

Are there quiet spaces, rooms for meditation, this sanctuary, that have held you as you have struggled with the depths of who you are?

For most of us, enlightenment is not a bolt of lightening, but a growing understanding, over years, that in spite of all the pain and suffering within and around us, there is always beauty to behold. There is always the option for compassion, if only we can let go our anger and fear.

May the Bodh Gayas of your life be available always, whenever you need them, whenever you remember your breath.

The Buddha lived a long life, into his 80s. He went on from his experience of enlightenment to teach for 45 years. His teachings, as remembered by his disciples, and written down perhaps 300 years later, fill many volumes.

His first sermon was given at Sarnath, a deer park, near the ancient city of Varanasi. He met up there with old friends and shared with them his insights: The Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, and the Middle Way. His sermon is called the Turning of the Wheel of Law.

Over the rest of his life the Buddha roamed an area about 250 miles north to south and east to west. During rainy seasons he often gathered his followers for four months in Sravasti, the largest city at the time, on the Ganges Plain, and where a wealthy merchant created a park to house them.

Near Rajgir, the capital city of the powerful Magadhan kingdom, were five rocky hills where spiritual leaders of all kinds lived in caves and shared their wisdom. The Buddha won the hearts of the king and his advisers. The royal physician gave him a mango grove, where through the years a large monastery was created.

A rocky protrusion near Rajgir was called Vulture’s Peak. The Buddha preached many of his most important sermons here, including the Heart Sutra, which promised salvation for all beings. In this moment, colorful prayer flags flap in the breeze over Vulture’s Peak, sending waves of compassion into the atmosphere.

While teaching in Vaishali, after refusing them three times, the Buddha was persuaded to ordain 500 women into the community, shaking the foundations of his male-dominated culture.

This was the most creative period of the Buddha’s life, when he was able to offer to his followers the clarity of his vision of loving kindness, compassion and wisdom. Pilgrims visit these sites to walk in the steps of the Buddha and to hear and to heed their own call, from deep within, to offer the world the best they have.

Each of us has a calling. Each of us has gifts, which through our giving will make this world a better place. We may be able to offer consolation to those in grief or offer advice to those seeking direction. We may be able to write letters, send emails, draft policy, or organize meetings to transform our communities into places where all receive care and all share equally in human rights.

“Sudatta, a rich and pious merchant… heard the Buddha’s sermon and decided to become…[his] disciple. But he was caught in a dilemma and asked the…[Buddha] whether he could become a follower without forsaking worldly life… [Buddha] replied that it was enough that he follow his vocation in a righteous manner.”⁷

That is what he would say to each of us.

Follow your vocation in a righteous manner.

In 543 BC, as he neared the end of his life, the Buddha spoke about the impermanence of all things and said his own life on earth was soon to end. He asked the monks to spread the teachings in order to bring about the good and happiness of as many as possible.

He died near Kushinagar under two Sal trees on the banks of a river. His last words to his disciples were: “All things must pass. Work out your own salvation with diligence.”

The temple marking the spot is in a large, open space and houses a beautiful, reclining golden Buddha, six meters long. It is the destination of pilgrims from around the world, who sit and meditate, recognizing the impermanence of all things, and praying that their lives may become ever more fully expressions of compassion.

This journey of life, step after step, in each precious moment, offers us the gift of ourselves and the opportunity to change our minds – our way of thinking – so we know what we have, and who we are, is good enough.

¹ The Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association appear in the hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition, Beacon Press: Boston, following the Preface.

² Pilgrimage to the sites of Buddha’s life is called Dharma Yatra.

³Walking With the Buddha, New Delhi: Eicher Goodearth, Ltd., 2004, p. 156.

⁴ Ibid. p. 7.

⁵ Ibid. p. 68.

⁶ Ibid. p. 8.

⁷Walking with the Buddha, ibid. p 122.