A pilgrim in traditional attire looks up at a wooden pagoda

Pilgrimage in Japan?

Awareness of Buddhism outside communities of heritage practitioners has increased dramatically in the West over the last several decades. The influence of Zen and Theravada traditions have meant that heavy emphasis has been placed on the practice of seated meditation, an image which has been spread into the broader culture through the commodification of mindfulness practices to reduce stress and increase well-being in the service of productivity. The vast majority of written material on Buddhism in English concerns meditation. At the same time, scarcity of real teachers of Buddhism and their concentration in urban centers means that many who are interested in learning more have to rely on written material and online communities for guidance in Buddhist practice.

In Asia and in diaspora communities, however, the situation could hardly be more different. Meditation and textual study are usually considered to be topics best left to religious specialists like priests and monks. Devout lay people's practice generally consists of two aspects: generosity, often in the form of donations to temples, and prayer. When serious practitioners in the West have some free time, they will often undertake meditative retreats. In Japan and other parts of Asia, on the other hand, the classic approach to serious practice is Pilgrimage. Such sacred journeys have been a vital part of Buddhism since its earliest days, when people would visit the important sites of the historical Buddha's life in India.

Japanese pilgrimage routes, such as the Kumano Kodō, reflect the strong tradition of syncretism present since the earliest days of Buddhism's introduction to Japan; Kumano was likely revered as a place of numinous natural power before Buddhism's introduction from China, but was associated with the Buddhist deity Kannon from a very early date. Seiganto-ji, a religious complex which both enshrines Kannon and serves as a place of worship of the Nachi waterfall, is also Temple Number 1 of the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage.

Temples on the Chichibu Kannon Pilgrimage, too, are regularly built near or on places of natural power which in some cases show evidence of ritual interaction stretching back to deep prehistory. In the past, such pilgrimages were opened and facilitated by Shugenja, practitioners whose approach transcends sectarian divisions and focuses on direct interaction with the Buddhas and Deities (shinbutsu) who inhabit the landscapes of Japan and the landscapes of the human mind.

All of Japan's pilgrimages bear common features which, if approached correctly, can help us to become more like the beings of perfect compassion and skillful action enshrined at each of their sacred sites.

Physical movement: the distance from one pilgrimage site to another can vary from a few meters to hundreds of kilometers, and temples often lay at the top of long staircases. Traveling from one temple to the next gives us to make our body a friend in the process of awakening. Blisters, achey legs, and other challenges present opportunities to confront the nature of our suffering, arouses compassion for the suffering of others, and learn to navigate our own limits and make adjustments with wisdom and compassion.

Generosity and Gratitude: At each temple there is an offering box for donations. While donations are vital to the operations of temples, there is no "proper" amount for donation; the purpose of this box is to allow visitors an opportunity to practice generosity. The goal of generosity is to start the process of loosening the edges of what we normally call "me."

Particularly in today's day and age, we spend huge amounts of time, energy, and mental space on making money. It is completely natural that we would be guarded with our hard-earned belongings, but this defensive stance creates suspicion, isolation, and anxiety; in other words, our relationship to money and our possessions more broadly often causes us a lot of suffering. It is incredible how giving even the equivalent of a single dollar can cause our anxiety around money to kick in. Confronting this ingrained attitude repeatedly on pilgrimage begins the process of building a better habit, one in which we consider the needs of others and take responsibility for our role in helping them.

Some pilgrimages in Japan, particularly the Shikoku Henro, are associated with a strong tradition of osettai ("hospitality"). Osettai may take almost any form, from drinks, to snacks, to cash, to lodging or rides in a car. For myself and many from the U.S., our cultural emphasis on independence and lifting oneself up by the bootstraps makes it difficult for us to accept such generosity. This resistance reflects a similar kind of hard-edged defensiveness as in our relationship to our possessions. The antidote to this is gratitude. By accepting such gifts, and by giving thanks for the vast array of causes and conditions that lead to every bite of food, every warm bed, every cool drink, we begin to experience ourselves not as isolated individuals in an unfeeling universe, but as dependent members of an infinite array of mutually-arising phenomena.

Repeated Prayer: The main goal of pilgrimage in Japan is to have firsthand encounters with the Enlightened Beings and Deities enshrined at each sacred site. Since ancient times, this has been done by making offerings. These offerings often include incense and candle flame, but by far the most important offering is chanted prayer. The usual liturgical service follows a standard Buddhist formula:

acknowledging our unwholesome action.
taking responsibility for doing good.
reflecting on how fortunate we are to encounter Buddhist teaching,
chanting scriptures, most commonly the Heart Sutra.
chanting the shingon (mantra) of the Deity. Mantras are Sanskrit phrases which express the essence of a being or concept. By chanting them, we unite ourselves with the deity of the pilgrimage site.
recalling our reasons for undertaking the pilgrimage: these may be temporal, such as healing or family tranquility, or spiritual.
dedicating the benefits gained by our practice to all beings throughout the universe.

Pilgrimage presents us with often dozens of opportunities to repeat and absorb the meaning of these prayer offerings, which are brief expressions of the entire Buddhist path. For more more information and for a demonstration of these prayers, I invite you to watch this video.

Certainly the variety of pilgrimage routes and individual approaches to pilgrimage in Japan means there is plenty more to say about these incredible, transformative journeys. On the other hand, since these journeys are experiential, any amount of words will always fall short. One expression goes Jinsei soku Henro: "Life is a Pilgrimage." Pilgrimages present us with a focused, controlled environment in which to practice Buddhism in our actions, words, and thoughts, but the real work comes off the trail in our daily life. I hope that the articles about pilgrimage on this site will inspire your practice wherever your journey finds you.