#EightPlacesAssociatedWithBuddha
70 km north of Bodhgaya is the town of Rajgir. It literally means “King’s House” and probably refers to King Bimbisara who had this place as the capital of his ancient kingdom of Magadha. King Bimbisara, and his son Ajatasatru were the first patrons of Gautama Buddha.

Rajgir is mentioned in Buddhist texts and stories as the place where the Buddha gave certain sermons such as the Heart Sutra, and the Lotus Sutra. In particular, the sacred site mentioned is the Vulture Peak, nicknamed since the rocks look like a vulture.

Of the various teachings, the Heart Sutra (Dzo: Sherub Nyingpo) is of prime importance to us – the Mahayana and the Vajrayana schools because it introduces the concept of Emptiness. The text is included within the larger volume of Prajnaparamita sutras (bum in Dzongkha).

The most famous line from the short scripture is:
Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form (གཟུགས་སྟོང་པའོ། །སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་གཟུགས་སོ།)

My experience.

It would be an understatement to say that it was a feeling of extreme satisfaction, reverence and a sense of fulfilment that I could sit and read the sacred texts of Heart Sutra, which I commissioned in gold script and subsequently got it blessed and thumbprinted by my lama Dorje Phagmo Rimpoche.

While Bodhgaya is the site of Buddha’s enlightenment, Rajgir is the site of Buddha’s activities. To visit the Bamboo Groove (Venuvana Park), which was the venue of Buddha’s first Sangha, felt emotional. To be standing and walking on the same soil as the Buddha and Sariputra (he was born here and attained enlightenment as per some sources) was a great feeling of being fortunate.

I also sat and said a few mantras at Saptaparni Cave, where the First Buddhist Council was held after Buddha’s paranirvana. I dedicated my prayers for all sentient beings to find peace and happiness and free from suffering.

I recited the mantra:
Tadyatha Om Gatey Gatey Paragatey Parasamgatey Bodhi Svaha (ཏདྱ་ཐཱ། ཨོཾ་ག་ཏེ་ག་ཏེ་པཱ་ར་ག་ཏེ་པཱ་ར་སཾ་ག་ཏེ་བོ་དྷི་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།).

It is translated as:
Oṃ, Gone, Gone, Gone Beyond, Gone Altogether Beyond, Awakening, So Be It”
✌️✌️✌️