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FACE TO FACE | EASTERN HORIZON 37

On my way down from Vulture's Peak Vulture's peak

own eyes. Therefore, in other words, the teachings are might they consider Buddhism as: a religion, a spiritual
no longer just words to be rationalized. The teachings practice or something else? They answer based on
are felt and embodied. They later made the decision to their own interpretation of the words ‘religion’ and
carry out a pilgrimage again, but this time consciously ‘spirituality’, in addition to their personal experiences of
and intentionally. being and becoming Buddhist. This question or rather
their answers coalesce with their motivations to embark
As there are different Buddhist traditions, what on a pilgrimage. Although one of the motivating factors
might be similar or different between their that I identified as ‘prescriptive’ suggests the pilgrimage
pilgrimage programs? to be a devotional practice, my research findings also
suggests that the pilgrimage is being carried out in spite
I kept my research project non-tradition specific of ambivalence, or longing to seek for a connection, or
because I was hoping to discover what, if anything, testing the teachings, or because it’s deemed integral to
might be similar or different among the traditions. To one’s cultivation.
that end, from what I gathered, the participants place
more emphasis on their primary identification as Moreover, some participants essentialize the pilgrimage
‘Buddhist’, rather than a particular tradition or school. in that they necessitate travelling to physical sacred
If they do mention a tradition or school (only a handful destinations. Yet, I also learned that some participants
did), they did so without limiting their pilgrimage de-essentialise the need to travel by reimagining the
journey, practice and experience to the tradition or ways in which they could and would ‘do pilgrimage’,
school mentioned. that may or may not require separating from one’s
habitual routines and local environment. Again, this is
A pilgrimage is very devotional whereas the Buddha not exhaustive but they are distinct and indeed very
had always been very rational and logical, and creative and personal.
also focussed much of his teachings on meditation.
Do you see a contradiction when pilgrims said To put it differently, to go or not to go on a pilgrimage
pilgrimage is spiritual practice? is up to the Buddhist. Doing pilgrimage is as much an
essential duty as it is an essential practice. The heart of
Not at all. Based on my findings and analyses, the doing pilgrimage is the processes involved in waking
pilgrimage is a manifestation of one’s religiosity and/or up to and nurturing the Buddha within us. How do
spirituality. we wake up to or wake up the Buddha within? How
do we nurture it? There is a plethora of gateways to
One question I posed to all my participants is what enlightenment after all.