Buddha Nature
Copyright T.C. McLuhan

In an interview in 1984, the venerable Tara Tulku, Rinpoche, one of the last monks to receive a complete Buddhist training in his native Tibet before the catastrophic 1959 Chinese invasion, commented on the intrinsic nature of sacredness and its relationship to place. How ground becomes holy is considered within the context of Sakyamuni Buddha’s own metamorphosis at Bodhgaya, the immovable Spot near Gaya on the floodplain of the Ganges in northeast India.

The place itself under the Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya, was transformed as well. It became a place of diamond, a vajra place, a place of extreme sacredness. Why was it sacred? Because Buddha’s transformative experience of unexcelled perfect enlightenment blessed it in a special way.

Some people even believe that if you reach and stand on that  place and take the Bodhisattva vow or make prayers to achieve Buddhahood for the benefit of all beings, then just because of the power of that place, you will never be reborn in the lower states. And if you meditate there, recite prayers, and study the place has a special power for the mind to come to realization.It is a place of light and bliss.

This is the place where Sakyamuni achieved the special Buddha body; a place which has only bliss and happiness and never suffers.

It doesn’t matter what religion people hold, if they are going with an open mind, if they are seeking truth. In this case, it is extremely meritorious to go to the holy sites of any religion.

Namaste, Barbara