Vesak or Wesak, the most sacred occasion of the Buddhist year, is a lunar festival. Its name is derived from the ancient Indian month of Vesākha (Pali) Vaiśākha (Sanskrit) – corresponding to May in the Julian calendar.

It celebrates the birth of the Buddha in Lumbini (in modern Nepal), his enlightenment in Bodhgaya and his passing in Kushinagar (both in India). These are three of the four key Buddhist pilgrimage sites, the other being Sarnath in the outskirts of the holy city of Varanasi, where the Buddha started his public teaching. I have been blessed to visit all four sites, an experience that I will treasure for ever and carry deep inside me.

Vesak is marked in different ways in different countries and according to different local customs. In Malaysia, for example, where about one fifth of the population is Buddhist, people take part in a grand parade that starts from the Brickfields Mahavihara, the main Theravada temple in Kuala Lumpur. Giant floats are adorned with statues of Buddhas, and garlanded with flowers of every colour. Atop them, Buddhist monks bless onlookers with water as they pass. Hundreds of people walk behind these floats, as they weave through the city centre then slowly return to the temple, a round trip lasting nearly three hours. It is beautiful to see all the people walking alongside the floats, smiling as they go, some carrying candles, some holiding flowers, while onlookers take photographs from the pavements – not just Buddhists, but also Muslims and Hindus, people of all faiths and none.

No matter what form the festival of Vesak takes, what is important is the spirit in which it is celebrated. Particularly on this day there should be no room for greed, hate, or ignorance, the three poisons that seem to prevail in this world right now. With the Middle East in flames and so-called ‘leaders’ encouraging the insanity, never was such a reminder so urgently needed.

This year the first full moon of the month falls on the 1st of May. So – if you decide to celebrate on this date, you could have the possibility of a rich trinity: the traditional Springtime festival known in the European Pagan tradition at Beltane; International Workers’ Day for the more secularly inclined; and Vesak when, as Buddhists, we once more get to admire the night sky and reflect on our very own three in one.

Paolo Coluzzi

Summer’s here! The season of sunshine, swimming, blue skies and meals outdoors: in a word holidays. This, at least, is what comes to my mind when I think of the summers I used to enjoy as a child growing up in Italy. I still look forward to the longer, warmer months and to my pilgrimages abroad, but somehow it feels as if the coming summer won’t be as bright and joyful as it was back then. Too many sad things are happening on this planet at the moment. Perhaps it has always been like this; but as a young baby-boomer with no internet and no mobile phone, life somehow felt freer, less troubled, more hopeful.

I’m thinking in particular of that fabulous summer fifty-seven years ago in San Francisco, California, the time that came to be known as ‘the Summer of Love’. It was 1967, I was only seven years old, an ordinary little boy with no idea of the events playing out on the other side of the world. I still remember the songs that featured on our radio: Italian ‘beat’ music (as it was called) and covers of hits from the UK or US. I didn’t know it then, but a mini-revolution was happening that summer as thousands of young people headed for the West Coast of America. Hippies! Their look and their flower-power ethos would soon spread throughout the Western world, including my home town of Milan in Italy.

The hippy sensibility seemed to derive in part, or at least find sympathy with, eastern spirituality. Buddhism had already attracted some members of the Beat generation in the 1950s – most notably the poet Allen Ginsberg. But it was the hippies who made Buddhism more accessible, blending it with Hinduism and ideas taken from the Tao Te Ching (the hippies were nothing if not eclectic in their borrowings.) The quasi-‘philosophy’ which emerged became popular with many young people, disillusioned by the rigidity and apparent hypocrisy of their parents’ religions and looking for something that felt deeper and truer to them. Their quest was to feel more connected with life on this planet and with the universe, something that would make them better and happier as people. Some used psychedelic drugs to ‘expand’ their minds. Others chose meditation; the TM movement grew rapidly at this time. Some were drawn to devotional practices like those offered by the Hare Krishna sect and the teachings of Sai Baba. The Beatles went to Rishikesh in Northern India to visit the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi …

As for Buddhism, the first schools to become widely popular in the West were Japanese, particularly Zen. It is interesting to see pictures of the famous Zen master Shunryu Suzuki Roshi enjoying the Human Be-in organized by the hippies in San Francisco, or Allen Ginsberg chanting Buddhist mantras at the same event. Then came interest in Vajrayana, followed by Theravada. In the 1970s, several members of the hippy intelligentsia, notably Jack Kornfield and Ajahn Amaro (born JCJ Horner), went to Thailand to become monks under Ajahn Chah.

Peace and Love were the watchwords. Hippies really did believe they could change the world. But first, as John Lennon reminded us, the revolution had to start inside. Right here. Right now. We needed to ‘think global, act local’. Of course, even then, terrible things were happening in the world, the war in Vietnam being a prime example. But there was also a feeling of hope. Nowadays, there are still wars, but voices of dissent and voices of peace and love are not as loud or widespread as they were back in the 60s. Too many people seem to believe that sending more and more weapons can be a solution. Does anybody these days sing songs like ‘All you need is love’ or ‘Give peace a chance’?

The Dhammapada clearly states:

In this world
Hate never yet dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate.
This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible.

Hippiedom is no longer a mass movement, but its ethos and philosophy are still with us – with some of us at least, whether young or not-so-young. There are many who still believe in peace, love, compassion for all living beings, and care for our precious planet. The attraction to Asian spirituality and Buddhism is still strong. Perhaps not as strong as I wish it were, but still a compelling alternative to materialism, hedonism, cynicism and the corrosive feeling of helplessness. So – let’s enjoy the holidays. And let’s not be too embarrassed to dream of another summer of love.

Paolo Coluzzi

Travelling is my life – and Buddhism is my compass.

My very first expedition took place when I was only twelve months old: a journey by train from my birthplace in Milan to Aalborg in northern Denmark (my mother and grandmother are both Danish). From the age of three onwards every holiday would alternate: one summer in Denmark with its windswept, green flatlands and wide skies; the following summer far to the south in the remote heartland of Basilicata, with its chirping cicadas and sleepy ancient villages perched on the top of steep hills. Most of the time we would travel in my father’s small car – three full days to reach Denmark, another three days to get to Accettura, his native village …

At the age of 16 I took my first solo trip abroad – to Norfolk to work in an international Summer Camp. It was a momentous experience. For the first time in my life I felt I was a citizen of the world, surrounded by young people like me from all over Europe, Asia and Africa.

Shortly afterwards, I discovered Buddhism through a book I came across by chance in the small library of my secondary school; but it was a further ten years before I started practising meditation.

Aged 27 I left a teaching job in Italy and spent several years studying and working in the UK, Spain and the Netherlands. I continued to take every opportunity to travel: to Japan where I managed to see the giant Buddhas in Kamakura and Nara, to North Africa (Morocco in particular), to the Middle East and to Cuba.

It was when I got a university post in Brunei on the Island of Borneo that my fascination with Buddhism really took off. I had maintained an interest in Eastern spirituality through reading and meditating twice a day, but it was travelling through Buddhist countries that brought up the urge to write and document my various encounters.

After leaving Brunei and before starting my present teaching and research activity here in Malaysia, I embarked on another epic journey: a five-month backpacking tour of Southeast Asia and China. Many other travels followed (including the sites described in this book). All the time I was immersing myself in the world of Buddhism, thanks to the many Dharma talks and retreats I attended in this wonderful multi-ethnic and multicultural country of Malaysia, where the presence of Buddhism is so strong.

Travelling and living in so many countries has been not just a discovery of places, languages and cultures; it has given me a deep sense of connection with the planet and the people living on it. Whenever I have found myself in a different Buddhist country, it has made me appreciate Buddhism’s social, spiritual and artistic achievements even more.

At some point it occurred to me that I could combine travel writing and my interest in Buddhism: hence Buddhism and Pilgrimage. My hope is that readers will feel at least part of what I’ve experienced during my pilgrimage in India and Nepal to the four key Buddhist sites – Lumbini, Bodhgaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar. It is a pilgrimage that the Buddha himself recommended:

‘Ananda, there are four places the sight of which should arise emotion in the faithful. Which are they?

“Here the Tathagata was born” is the first.

“Here the Tathagata attained supreme enlightenment” is the second.

“Here the Tathagata set in motion the Wheel of Dhamma” is the third.

“Here the Tathagata attained the Nibbana-element without remainder” is the fourth.’

Bon Voyage!           

PAOLO COLUZZI