As the COVID-19 era seems unlikely to end anytime soon, days continue with a heavy heart.
If you want to change your life in the shortest amount of time, go on a trip.
Indeed, nothing breathes new life into our hamster-wheel-like daily routine and fills us with happiness quite like travel.
But what should we do in a situation where traveling is not even a dream due to the coronavirus?

One of the travel alternatives in the COVID-19 era is a trip from home or a trip from the library.
Because pilgrimage through books is possible anytime, anywhere.
A book that is perfect for the COVID-19 era has been published and is receiving love from readers.


"Pilgrimage to India and Nepal" is the book that is the topic of conversation.
This book vividly depicts the journey of enlightenment and the pilgrimage to holy places in India and Nepal that the monk Gakjeon, who practices in the Seonbang, went on as an extension of his asceticism during the holiday season, along with his own photos.

As the subtitle of this book suggests, “Buddha’s Life, the Path to Finding My Nobility,” if you read this book and go on a pilgrimage to India and Nepal with a monk, you will be able to fundamentally change your life through this book, just as travel changes your life.

As we go through life after life, we are burdened with countless stains that settle on our minds and bodies and are not easily erased, with all sorts of mental shackles we create ourselves, and with various conflicts that arise from our relationships with all others, including sentient and insentient beings. Our lives are a series of long, arduous periods of time, punctuated by fleeting moments of pleasure.
Existence itself is immersed in foolishness, darkness, and suffering.
And soon there is the end called death.


To escape from here, to rise up to shake off all suffering, to be reborn as a practitioner, to finally achieve liberation, and to find and establish one's own inherent nobility—this is the first and foremost task of life, to awaken the mind to this.
Because we are inherently noble beings.
This is the truth that the Buddha proclaimed as soon as he came to this earth: “I am the only one who is honored in heaven and on earth.”
This is what the Buddha meant by urgency.
How could it not be desperate?
--- p.13

Travel seems to be a conversation.
Traveling is about unfamiliar environments, unfamiliar streets, unfamiliar times, and conversations with unfamiliar people! Unfamiliar beings take me to unfamiliar places, and before I know it, through these unfamiliar encounters, I, too, become a stranger.
So the journey is enjoyable and joyful.

Pilgrimage seems to further reinforce this character.
The ruins of the pilgrimage site itself, the traces of the ancient ancestors, the changes in color left by time, the taste and atmosphere of the air, and the impressions of the people I met there all speak to me.
I think I am thinking about something, but in reality, I think it is the words that the objects are telling me.

Travel is like a friend.
Every being that speaks to me becomes a new friend.
That friend takes me to unfamiliar places, opens up and broadens the horizons of my life.
There is no need to say more, as the new friends you will meet on your pilgrimage include the Buddha and his great disciples.
We retrace their footsteps and breathe the air they breathed.
From the big to the small, from the great to the trivial, we condense the flow of time, feel it again with our bodies and caress it with our hearts.

--- p.13~14

To breathe life into the stories that travel tells me, to give a new sense of presence to the clusters of stacked bricks, to make the hazy images of the past activities of the Buddha and his disciples come alive and breathe in the present, as if we had flown back in time to that era, and thus pour a waterfall of confidence into our faith, which is always shaken and needs to be re-established, and to multiply the driving force of our ceaseless advance on the path toward enlightenment – ​​these were the most important considerations in writing this book.

The breakthrough to solve this problem was the life story and birth stories of Buddha contained in the various murals and reliefs painted in the Ajanta-Ellora Caves and the Great Stupa at Sanchi.
The ancient colors of the murals and the exposed irregularities of the stone reliefs transcend the time span of 2,500 years ago, break the mold of the letters trapped in books, and make us feel the devotion and artistic spirit of the painters and artisans who left behind such works. They are grafted onto the hearts of our pilgrims who traveled far away, and the lives of the characters in the works intrude into our modern lives.

--- p.14~15

These stories begin at Sarnath, the first turning point of the Dharma Wheel, and as we continue our pilgrimage to the remaining holy sites, we visit the places where these stories took place and encounter the relics they left behind, deepening the density of the conversations that this pilgrimage offers.
In addition, by sufficiently quoting the travelogues of Monk Beophyeon from the early 5th century, Monk Hyeonjang from the mid-7th century, Monk Uijeong from the late 7th century, and Monk Hyecho from the early 8th century, we were able to empathize with the emotions of the monks who recorded the scenes from 1,600 to 1,300 years ago.
Moreover, the unexpected encounter in Kathmandu with the Shakya (Shakya) tribe, which had perished during the Buddha's lifetime, allowed the conversation, which began with stories of the Buddha's past lives and life, to reveal the profound meaning of the impermanence of all things.
A more magnificent finale to a journey is unlikely to be found easily.

--- p.15

India is, above all, the country where Buddha lived.
This alone makes India a romantic destination for Buddhists.
As a disciple of Buddha, going on a pilgrimage to the Buddha's holy sites is, in a way, a natural thing to do and something I most want to experience.
No matter how much you read in books and hear from others, how can it replace direct experience?

The pilgrimage to the four major holy sites has been passed down through the long history of Buddhism since the Buddha himself spoke of it.
In the 4th century, the Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian wrote in his pilgrimage book, “Records of Buddhist Countries,” “Even after the Buddha entered nirvana, the locations of the four great pagodas were passed down without interruption.
The Four Great Pagodas are the places where the Tathagata was born, where he attained enlightenment, where he turned the wheel of the law, and where he entered nirvana.”

--- p.31~32

The total number of caves in India is over 1,200, and about 75% of them are Buddhist caves.
BCE
1st century CE
Electric caves excavated in the 2nd century CE
It is largely divided into the later caves excavated in the 5th to 8th centuries. The former caves are closely related to the Satavahana dynasty and are mostly Buddhist caves, while the later caves are from the Gupta dynasty and the period thereafter, and in addition to Buddhist caves, there are many Hindu caves.
Jain caves are few in number but exist from both periods.


There are over 1,000 caves, most of which are concentrated in Maharashtra, the southwestern tip of the Deccan Plateau that runs east to west through the middle of the Indian subcontinent.
It exists only partially in Bihar, Orissa on the east coast, and Andhra Pradesh.
The Deccan cave temples can be said to be the center of Buddhist architecture.
Among them, the Ajanta Caves are the first and largest of the later Buddhist caves to be excavated, and are the pinnacle of ancient Indian culture and art, apart from Buddhism.

--- p.56

Today's pilgrimage site, the Ellora Caves, are 34 caves dug across a 2km stretch on the eastern slope of a long rocky mountain 34km northwest of Aurangabad.
They are numbered sequentially from the south, and caves 1 to 12 are Buddhist caves excavated between the 6th and 8th centuries.
Caves 13 to 29, which follow here, are Hindu caves, excavated mainly between the 6th and 8th centuries, with some dating back as late as the 10th century.
The five northernmost caves (Caves 30-34) are Jain caves built between the late 8th and 10th centuries.
Ellora Caves 10, 16, 29, and 32 are considered excellent.
Cave 10 is a Buddhist cave, caves 16 and 29 are Hindu caves, and cave 32 is a Jain cave.
It is generally believed that Buddhist caves 1 to 5 were built first, but some say that cave 6 was the first.
--- p.159

Historically, Hinduism has evolved by absorbing many different ideas.
Not only did it absorb indigenous beliefs of non-Aryan origins such as phallic worship, Yaksha, and Yakshi, but it also exerted its enormous power of attraction, absorbing the great ideas of Buddhism and CE.
In the 5th century, the Six Schools of Philosophy emerged, establishing a sophisticated and high-level theoretical system and confirming various Hindu scriptures.
This gained further strength when Hinduism was recognized as the state religion by the newly emerged Gupta emperors.
Hinduism did not stop at this ideological absorption, but attempted to absorb and dissolve the Buddhist order itself by naming Sakyamuni Buddha as the ninth incarnation of Vishnu.
At this time, the Islamic army took advantage of this and destroyed Buddhist temples, and Buddhism was wiped out in India.
--- p.179

Looking at the auxiliary reliefs by theme, the Bodhi tree, the pagoda, and the wheel of the law symbolize Buddha, the heavenly realm and Yaksha symbolize the protection and universality of Buddhism, the animals symbolize the majesty of Buddhism and the followers, the Yeouido vine and flower patterns symbolize vitality, and the Yakshi bathing pattern symbolizes abundance.


If you count the number of symbols of Buddha, such as the Bodhi tree, the pagoda, the Dharma wheel, and the Vajra throne, it is a large number exceeding 120 points (since there are 66 in the symbol map and 61 in the content map, and each point has at least one Buddha symbol).
These numbers can be seen as a condensation of the desire to express the Buddha, even though it was an era without statues of the Buddha, when the Buddha was not represented in human form.
In fact, the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, which can be said to be the Myanmar version of the Sanchi Great Stupa and the world's largest Buddhist stupa, also has a shrine-type hall in the four cardinal directions of the Sanchi Great Stupa and houses many Buddhist statues. In addition, the numerous Buddhist statues are enshrined in the many halls formed around the corridor-style front yard surrounding the pagoda, which can be said to be a historical development of this strong desire to express Buddhist statues.

--- p.300

A general term for tea beverages made in India.
So, if you ask for chai in an Indian hotel, they will give you black tea or black tea with milk.
It is a simple milk tea that does not contain masala spices and does not boil the milk properly.
If you want to drink masala chai, you have to ask the hotel staff for it separately.
Of course it's free.
If you go to a street chai shop in India and ask for chai, they will give you masala chai.
Masala chai is a drink made by boiling black tea, milk, and Indian spices together.
Those Indian spices are called masala.
Masala is a term for a mixture of spices used in Indian cooking, with the four basic ingredients being turmeric, ginger, kalapeno, and coriander, and seems to have virtually the same meaning as curry.
Masala chai, a street food of the common people of India, was introduced to Korea, and when we say chai, we mean masala chai.
--- p.325

Arriving at the Dashashwamedh Ghat on the banks of the Ganges, we see sadhus with long hair and colorful horizontal lines drawn all over their foreheads, people receiving blessings from Brahmins with long hair, people with their hair shaved except for a few strands at the crown of their heads, people bathing, beggars, etc…
The appearance of the gate is no different from two years ago.


Regarding their appearance, the “Great Tang Records of the Western Regions” states, “Most of them believe in the Great Taoist Heaven and practice asceticism, hoping to escape the cycle of life and death.
Some believers cut their hair, some grow it very long, and some practice it with difficulty, naked and with ashes on their bodies,” it said.
When the monk Hyecho arrived in Varanasi, he wrote that those who served Shiva did not wear clothes and applied ashes to their bodies.
They look the same now as they did 1,300 years ago.

--- p.364

Bodh Gaya (B?hgay?) is located 11km away from Gaya city. It belongs to Gaya, but it is called Bodh Gaya in honor of the saint Buddha.
In ancient times, Bodh Gaya was known as Uruvilv?Pali: Uruvel?, and in the Middle Ages it was popularly known by the name Mahabodhi.
The name Mahabodhi appears in inscriptions and records of Buddhist monks from the 7th to 9th centuries.
The 2nd century Bodhisattva Mahāmī called the Vajra Seat of Mahabodhi the navel of the world, the only place where one can endure the profound meditation of 'achieving enlightenment'.

--- p.371

Magadha (BCE)
684~BCE
Rajgir (R?ag?ha, 王舍城), the capital of 321), is currently a rural village with a population of about 42,000 (2011).
BCE
Although it is an old city, with pottery dating back to the 10th century being discovered, historical records date back to BCE in Buddhist scriptures.
During the 6th to 5th centuries BCE, Bimbisara (reigned
543~BCE
494) King and his son Ajatashatru (reigned BCE)
494~BCE
461) and the remains of the old castle (40km of outer wall and 7km of inner wall) and the new castle that they each built were discovered.*
The old castle (Old Palace) built by King Bimbisara is the oldest castle in India, and due to lack of water for irrigation, it was destroyed by King Udayabhadra, son of King Ajatashatru (reigned BCE)
461~BCE
444) Rajgir appears to have declined with the transfer of its capital to Patna.

--- p.409

Vaishali is located on the banks of the Gandak River, which flows into the Ganges River from Patna in the south, in the present-day Basarh and Kolhua regions.* It is said that during the time of the Buddha, it was the capital of the Vajji kingdom, a bustling city with abundant food and a very prosperous city.
It had 7,707 playgrounds and a matching number of lotus ponds, and it was a place where the courtesan Amrapali was famous for her beauty.
Vaishali is also the hometown of Mahavira (Nigantha Natapudda), the founder of Jainism.
Regarding Vaishali, the Great Tang Records of the Western Regions states as follows:

--- p.470

As the sun set, painting the sky crimson, and the trees used for paint were left bare, their branches cut off, silhouetted against the dark blue sky, we were greeted by the bright lights of the Pokhara Grand Hotel at around 7:30 PM on a pitch-black Himalayan night.
Pokhara is a resort city with an estimated population of approximately 520,000 (as of 2020) and is located at an altitude of 827 meters above sea level.
After finishing the evening meal, at 10 p.m., some of the group and I called a bongo taxi for 100 rupees per person one way and stopped by a cafe in Pokhara to enjoy the romance of this world-class resort by candlelight.

--- p.597