Why Bodhgaya is so important?

by Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche

H.E. Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche would always emphasise that Bodhgaya is the holiest place in the whole world. The reason is that this is the location where all one thousand Buddhas of the present aeon would come and attain enlightenment. And it is universally accepted by all Buddhist faiths, regardless of Theravadin, Mahayana and Vajrayana.

Q：Why Bodhgaya is so important?

Rinpoche says the whole appearance of the universe is nothing but the projection of our mind. The favourable elements and objects in the universe are the result of our positive karma and unfavourable objects of this universe are the result of our negative Karma. But all of them comes from the negative emotion and obscurations that beings posse in terms of their root.

Just as there is the Buddha-nature, as an essence of our mind, in the midst of our delusions and obscurations, we have Bodhgaya at the centre of the whole universe. So to speak, Bodhgaya represents the Buddha-nature as a conventional form of the ultimate reality. Therefore, when a practitioner removes his or her obscurations, he or she would internally reveal the Buddha nature and externally reveal Bodhgaya in the fundamental sense and then they become Buddha.

The real Bodhgaya is not the temple that we can visit with eye organ and take pictures but a crossed Vajra that exist underneath the Bodhi tree. It is indestructible and free from any physical effect. It may not be visible to the eyes of normal beings like us. But its power and blessing can affect us.

Q: If all Buddhas attain enlightenment in Bodhgaya, does it mean that great practitioners like Milarepa would also have to arrive at Bodhgaya in order to complete their path?

Rinpoche says there are two types of Buddhas. External Buddha and internal Buddha. The external Buddhas are like Buddha Shakyamuni who is a Buddha and performs the activities of enlightenment like Buddha's twelve major activities. But the internal Buddhas are like Milarepa who have attained enlightenment inside but remain as ordinary being in the presence of disciples and does not necessarily perform the activities of a Buddha in public.

The external Buddhas, all without exception, would physically come to Bodhgaya and they would attain enlightenment while sitting under the Bodhi tree. However, not all internal Buddhas would come to Bodhgaya for enlightenment. Most of them would reveal their own ultimate Bodhgaya which is their Buddha-nature in their mind and thereby they would attain enlightenment. For such internal Buddhas, Buddha-nature is the Bodhgaya and the Bodhi tree is the central channel for them.

However whether we are destined to be external Buddha or internal Buddha, to come to this holy place like Bodhgaya and receive the blessing of it, practice dharma and do meditation here, the merits would be multiplied compared to doing these in any other places on this earth. Therefore, we should not waste our opportunity to practice diligently while we are here in Bodhgaya.

And also because of the limitless blessing of this holy place, if you come here with a very good motivation of practising dharma and visit your Gurus, any act that you commit during your journey to here such as booking for flight, boarding, landing, renting a taxi, checking in a hotel and so on, all these actions would become virtuous actions and you would achieve inconceivable merits.

Q: What is the best thing we can do here in this holy place? And what is the best prayer we can make when we are in Bodhgaya?

Rinpoche says the best thing is to practice meditation rather than reciting or reading something without any sense of meditation in the mind. Therefore, you should emphasise meditations. You can meditate on anything like calm-abiding or penetrative insight. Emptiness or Mahamudra. Or very basic but profound teachings like taking refuge and bodhicitta. All these meditations would become very effective.

Generally speaking, any prayers are good. Prayers for world peace, well being of the beings and the long life of the Gurus. But the best prayer you can make here is a prayer for attaining enlightenment. Enlightenment for yourself and enlightenment for all other beings. That would be the best. Because the purpose of our dharma practice is to attain enlightenment and Bodhgaya is the place where we will attain enlightenment in the future.