Journey East: India (2008) Tracing the path of Xuanzang & Monkey King

From October 21st to 29th, 2008, I traveled with zen master Thich Nhat Hanh on a retreat in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, following in the footsteps of the Buddha. The moment the retreat was posted on the internet, I signed up. I wanted to be with my Buddhist teacher, who is not only a zen master but an author and poet; one of his beloved books is the biography of the Buddha Old Path White Clouds. Thich Nhat Hanh, who is known to his students as Thay (meaning peace and teacher) had not been back to India since 1988 and he had often spoken of the Bodhi tree, where Buddha became enlightened, as well as Vulture Peak.

A month after signing up for the retreat, the director of our documentary A Storyteller’s Story, Eli Rarey, suggested I consider filming the journey for the documentary that we are making for Journey to the West. The road that we would be following with Thay is the same road followed by the great zen priest, Xuanzang in 629 CE. Xuanzang’s journey was the inspiration for the fictional Journey to the West.

In accompanying Thay, I also wanted to experience the landscape and the people who live in this region. What made the journey so special was to be in the presence of an enlightened zen master, to meditate in the places where Buddha sat and taught, to listen to dharma talks every other day, to walk with a zen master, and especially to travel with a loving and caring sangha (a spiritual community). We were 250 lay people and 50 monastics. We traveled in 11 buses and formed groups based on our bus. Thich Nhat Hanh called the retreat Peace in Ourselves, Peace in the World, which is another way of interpreting Buddha’s message of bringing non-suffering to the world.

To read more about Diane’s journey and tracing the path of the Buddha, please see the galleries to the left.

Learn more about Thich Nhat Hanh, on his website

Buddha, Xuanzang, and Thich Nhat Hanh

Galleries & Stories