The season to venture forth to venerate places in India and Nepal rich in history and Buddhist relevance is ending. The cooler temperatures of Benares and Bihar make for the season for Buddhist pilgrimages to be from November through February. Four places of significance I listened recently to a YouTube presentation by Ajahn Brahmali retailing his experiences on pilgrimage in India.
That brought back vividly my own memories of three visits. I need to mention here that Ajahn Brahmali translated the sutta where the Buddha tells people to visit the four places of profound significance in his life. Ven Brahmali shared the usual interpretation of this statement to be the four places of significance in the Buddha’s life: Lumbini where he was born as Prince Siddhartha Gautama; Buddha Gaya where as an ascetic he attained enlightenment; Sarnath where he preached his first sermon as the Buddha; and Kusinara where he died – Parinibbana.
The Buddha always insisted he was just a human being, and deification and elevating him to supernatural states was wrong. But he wished people to visit places of significance in his life so they would be inspired and also draw closer to him. I heard Ajahn Brahm, mentor and teacher to Ajahn Brahmali, say that the four places the Buddha considered ought to be visited by his followers were the four jhanas reached when in very deep and absorbed meditation.
I really admire this interpretation of the ‘four places’ since it tallies with the Buddha’s e.