Why Pilgrimage?
Walking the Ancient Path
For thousands of years, human beings have walked towards places that matter.
We walk to places of birth and death, to sacred mountains, ancient temples and holy springs. We walk because something in us knows that there are journeys which cannot be made simply by thinking about them. There are things that can only be understood by setting out and allowing ourselves to encounter the road.
Pilgrimage is one of the oldest expressions of religious life.
In Buddhism, pilgrimage has never been simply a journey to a destination. It is a practice of body, mind and heart. We leave behind the familiarity of ordinary life and place ourselves upon the road. We walk, often slowly and simply, allowing the landscape, the people we meet, the weather, tiredness, beauty and uncertainty to become part of our practice.
At Antei-ji, we believe that this ancient practice still has something important to say to the modern world.
So we walk.
The Antei-ji Abbey Way
The Antei-ji Abbey Way is a 50-mile pilgrimage through the rich and living contemplative heritage of Lancashire and Cumbria, following the shores and historic crossings of Morecambe Bay from Lancaster to Furness Abbey.
What is Buddhist Pilgrimage?
From the earliest centuries of Buddhism, practitioners have travelled to places associated with the Buddha, his disciples and the great teachers who came after them. The traditional pilgrimage places of India include the places associated with the Buddha’s life: his birth at Lumbini, his awakening at Bodh Gaya, his first teaching at Sarnath and his death at Kushinagar.
But pilgrimage in Buddhism did not remain confined to these places. As Buddhism travelled across Asia, pilgrimage became woven into the religious life of China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Sri Lanka and many other countries. Mountains became places of practice, temples became destinations, and sacred landscapes became part of Buddhist culture.
In Japan, pilgrimage developed into one of the great expressions of Buddhist practice. The henro of Shikoku walks between the eighty-eight temples associated with Kūkai, while the ancient pilgrimage of the Kumano Kodo passes through the mountains of the Kii Peninsula. Practitioners have climbed sacred mountains, walked between monasteries and travelled enormous distances on foot. And, of course, there is the great seven-year Kaihogyo pilgrimage of the Tendai tradition, in which practitioners walk thousands of miles through the mountains surrounding Mount Hiei.
The journey itself is the practice.
The Antei-ji Monastic Way
The Antei-ji Monastic Way is a 240-mile, two-week pilgrimage through the ancient and living contemplative landscape of the North of England. Walking from Lancaster over the Pennines to Lindisfarne.
Walking Slowly Enough To See
One of the many problems with modern life is that it encourages us to move quickly. We can travel enormous distances in a matter of hours and cross the country without noticing the villages between our starting point and our destination. We can communicate instantly with someone on the other side of the world while remaining almost completely unaware of the person standing beside us.
Pilgrimage reverses this.
We slow down and walk at the speed of the human body. At that speed, the world becomes visible again. A church tower appears above the trees. An old stone wall tells us something about the people who lived here centuries ago. A river follows the valley, a bird crosses the road, and the changing weather becomes something we experience rather than something we simply check on a screen.
Our feet hurt. We become tired and hungry. We become aware of the weight of the things we have chosen to carry. Yet, as we slow down, the world becomes more intimate and our own lives can begin to feel more immediate.
This is one of the gifts of pilgrimage.
The Antei-ji Great Pilgrim Way
The Antei-ji Great Pilgrim Way is a 520-mile pilgrimage across England and Scotland, ending on the sacred island of Iona. It is the longest and most demanding of the Antei-ji pilgrimages, but its length is part of its purpose.
This is not simply a long-distance walk. It is a journey deep into the contemplative memory of Britain.
Pilgrimage Is Not About Arriving
We live in a culture obsessed with destinations.
We measure journeys by how quickly we can complete them, and much of modern travel is designed to make the journey itself disappear. We want to get there as quickly and comfortably as possible.
Pilgrimage asks us to look differently.
The destination matters, but it is not the whole point. The walking matters because it is through the walking that the pilgrimage unfolds. The silence matters, as do the unexpected encounters. Even the tiredness matters, and the occasions when we get lost. There is no wasted part of a pilgrimage.
This is one of the great differences between pilgrimage and ordinary travel. A tourist generally wants to arrive. A pilgrim learns to inhabit the road.