Jon Poland’s Pilgrimage

Hi everyone. Jon Poland here.

As most of you know by now, I have decided to go on pilgrimage. This will by my second pilgrimage in two years, but really I look at it as a continuation of my first pilgrimage since I didn’t really feel like I completed that.

There are four locations that the Buddha recommended visiting and circumambulating to renew spiritual strength and purify karma: Lumbini, Bodhgaya, Sarnath and Kushinara (called Kushinagar today). I only made it to two of those locations (plus a number of minor spots). Missing Kushinara and Lumbini had to do with my serendipitous approach to pilgrimage and the fact that those locations are a little tricky to get to (especially last time I was there when India had leave/return customs restrictions that have recently been lifted).

Since I returned to America, I’ve been feeling a bit directionless and maybe the reason why is because of my unfinished pilgrimage. So I few months ago I bought a travel bag that would be ideal for living out of a suitcase as a way of setting an intention. Then over Labor Day weekend, Jet Airways (one of the Indian Airlines) offered a special and I jumped on it. Getting ready in such a short period of time has been a bit chaotic, but all the pieces seem to be falling into place. I left yesterday for a conference in Las Vegas and will be visiting friends and family until November 14, when I will take a flight from Newark to Delhi.

My still somewhat serendipitous plan is to fly to Varanasi, take a taxi to Sarnath, where I will meet up with a group doing Ngondro (vajrayana preliminary practices) lead by Acharaya Yeshe Fuchs. From there I’ll take a train to Gorakhpur, which is a taxi ride from Kushinagar, and do some ngondro/circumambulating/exploring there. How I get to Lumbini from Kushinagar is not yet clear, but people go to Lumbini from there all the time, so I will ask around. I’ve also signed up for a Kagyu Monlam, led by the 17th Karmapa, in Bodhgaya starting the beginning of 2014. That covers the four majors. The rest is gravy.

My intention is to hit a number of minor pilgrimage spots near Lumbini/Kushinigar, possibly head down to Sanchi and the caves of Ellora and Ajanta, head over to Thailand/Burma, then finish off the Asia trip with a month or so in/around Kathmandu. Then I head to Europe for a couple of months where there’s a chance I’ll film a short movie from a screenplay I’ve written…or I’ll just explore Europe; I’ve never been there outside of England. After that, I head back to America and will touch down in Seattle on May 23rd.

If you want to follow my progress or learn about my previous pilgrimage, you can check out my travel blog.