Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

PrefaceWhat follows is the narrative of a pilgrimage around the Buddhist holyplaces of India and Nepal made in the winter 1990–91. We made the pilgrimageon foot over six months, but recording it has taken more thanten years. While our journey took us to all the main pilgrimage sites, itwas also a pilgrimage through the sacred and profane of two very differentmen’s lives and the lessons learned from making this pilgrimagetogether.We wrote this account to honour the people—many of them humbleIndian and Nepali villagers—who supported us in the pilgrimage.We also wished to communicate some of the grittier realities of practisingthe Buddhist spiritual life on the road—with the understandingthat this is where, in the time of the Buddha, it all began. Thus this pilgrimageis also a down-to-earth analogy for spiritual practise as weunderstand it. The living thing is both tougher and more wonderful.Early in the writing we realised that both our voices needed to beheard. Alternating authors fit better the Buddhist understanding thatrealities depend on perspective. It also freed us to be really honest withour thoughts about each other. The completed account we called WhereAre You Going? something we were asked over and again as we walkedthrough India. We present here the account of the first three months,and although this is just half our journey, it retains all the difficulties andcomedy of the pilgrimage plus a climax and a resolution.Sources and references for works quoted in this book are containedX V