Ajahn Dhammasiha recently spent at few days in Bodh Gaya, India, to visit and mediate at the Mahabodhi Temple.

This is the very spot where the Buddha attained supreme awakening. In fact, it is said that the 3 previous Buddha's in our aeon, also realized Sambodhi in this same spot.

Ajahn Dhammasiha talks about the amazing strength of the spiritual energy one can experience at the 'Vajirāsana' ('Diamond Throne'), the seat under the Bodhi tree where the Buddha defeated Māra and the defilements and released his heart from all attachment, craving and ignorance.

He explains that he can not recommend too highly the value of going on pilgrimage to this sacred site; the impact on one's Dhamma practice is often profound.

Ajahn also talks about the fetter of Sīlabbataparāmāsa ('clinging to rites and rituals' / 'believing in purification through external actions of body and speech'). Whether on pilgrimage, or in our regular meditation practice, it's not about the body and the movements, rituals and activities the body performs; instead it's about the impact these external activities have on our mind.

If we sit meditation, or perform puja at a sacred site, but the mind is actually developing unwholesome states of desire or aversion, we're wasting our time.

We always have to observe carefully what is the effect of any activity on our mind, does it really lead to a diminishing of unwholesome states, and an increase in wholesome states.

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