I had a very interesting three minutes at Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, the Buddhist holy site at which Siddhartha Gautama is said to have awakened. In Bodh Gaya, there are thousands upon thousands of Buddhist making pilgrimage to Mahabodhi Temple at which place there is a sacred Bodhi tree which supposedly is a descendant of the tree under which Siddhartha became enlightened some 2,600 years ago. And in Bodh Gaya, it’s as unusual to see people not wearing a robe as it is unusual to see people wearing robes here in the United States. People come from all around the world. At the Mahabodhi Temple I witnessed hundreds of people practicing their devotion–some were doing full, flat out prostrations, taking another step and doing another prostration. This would continue around the entire circumference of the temple. Some set up a mat on the grass and would meditate and/or bow all throughout the day. Some were chanting endlessly. Some would hold a prayer wheel and spin it as they walked the periphery. The devotion was palpable. The devotion was awe inspiring. And here I was, in full tourist mode, taking pictures left and right. I thought is was awfully cool to be near the place where Siddhartha awakened, and now when I read about Bodh Gaya, I can visualize it, which is also pretty cool. But I was not experiencing the same religious, deep, profound devotion that I witnessed all around me. I felt like I was missing out on something, that somehow my practice was deficient, and it was a sad feeling. This lasted about a minute.
This feeling of inadequacy quickly transitioned to thoughts that perhaps I am more awakened than all these people. All these temples, statues, robes, mala beads, stupas–all this Buddhist bling–are not important; they are all fingers pointing to the moon, but they are not the moon itself. Maybe I had transcended this devotion to the physical things that serve us as great reminders of the Buddha’s teachings. This feeling of superiority also lasted about a minute.
After bouncing from a brief feeling of inadequacy to a brief feeling of superiority, I realized I was happy with my practice, just as it is. And I took comfort in that and looked back on this brief rush of feelings and had to laugh a bit.
It was clear that every person is on their own pilgrimage, and that every person has their own relationship with the Mahabodhi Temple. In fact, they have their own relationship with the dharma, the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha. I remembered that even His Holiness, the Dalai Lama said that if we have eight billion people on earth, that perhaps we need eight billion different religions. What a testament to the individuality of all religious practice. So who am I to compare my practice with anyone else’s? Again, pondering this, I had to laugh a bit.
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