Footsteps of the Buddha (excerpt)

The first time I visited India was in 1968. I had been in Tokyo before that, and while there, I learned that the peace negotiations for Vietnam were starting in Paris. So I left for Paris to help set up a Buddhist delegation that could be present at the peace talks. On my way, I stopped in India, hoping to have an opportunity to visit the place where the Buddha reached enlightenment. From New Delhi I took a plane to go to Patna, north of the Ganges River. From Patna I could go to Bodhgaya where the Buddha was enlightened. That plane followed the footsteps of the Buddha along the Ganges River.

The Buddha didn’t travel by car, by airplane, or by train. He just walked. He walked to many cities. Once he even walked as far as Delhi. He visited over fifteen kingdoms on foot. Knowing that, as I was looking down on the Ganges, I could see his footsteps everywhere. The Buddha’s footsteps continue to bring his solidity, freedom, peace, joy, and happiness everywhere.

It was very nice to have fifteen minutes to visualize the Buddha down there, walking and sharing his happiness, his enlightenment, his peace and joy with the Earth and with the human beings who inhabited that region of the Earth. I was moved to tears, looking down as I sat on the plane, seeing the presence of the Buddha in the here and the now. Looking down, I vowed that I would practice walking meditation in order to bring the steps of the Buddha to other parts of the world. We can walk in Europe, in the Americas, in Australia, in Africa, and we can continue the Buddha, bringing peace and joy, solidity and freedom to many parts of the world.

I have been all over the world. I have shared the practice of walking meditation with so many people. I have many friends, both monastic and lay, who have been walking like that on all five continents. So the Buddha is now everywhere, and not just in the delta of the Ganges River.

Visiting India that time, I had an opportunity to climb the Gridhrakuta Mountain. The Buddha used to like staying there, in the vicinity of Rajagraha, the capital of Magadha, the country where King Bimbisara reigned.

A group of friends—monks, nuns, and laypeople—climbed the Gridhrakuta Mountain with me. There was a monk with us whose name was Mahagosananda. He was still young at the time. Later on he became the patriarch of Cambodia. We climbed the Gridhrakuta Mountain slowly and mindfully. When we arrived at the top, close to the place where the Buddha used to sit, we all sat down and we were able to see the same beautiful sunset that the Buddha used to see. We sat and we practiced mindful breathing and contemplated the beauty of the sunset. We were using the eyes of the Buddha to admire and enjoy the beautiful sunset.

King Bimbisara had a stone path built from the foot of the mountain to the top so that the Buddha could climb up and down more easily. That stone path is still there. If you go there you can also enjoy climbing the mountain, using the same stone path, and you may visualize that the Buddha has stepped on those very same stones.

Excerpted from Thich Nhat Hanh “At Home in the World: Stories & Essential Teachings from a Monk’s Life” (2015)