Go Forth. . .

To travel (càrikà or sa¤caraõa) is to go from one place to another, usually over a long distance. The Buddha is thought of as being primarily a teacher and this impression is correct. But he was not a teacher like Plato who taught in an academy, or like Aquinas who lectured in a university. All his teaching was done at roadside stops, in mango groves on the outskirts of villages, at wayside shrines and in city parks. The Buddha was concerned that as many people as possible should have the opportunity to hear his Dhamma, and to accomplish this he spent much of his life traveling. The Buddha once said to his monks: `Go forth for the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the welfare, the good and the happiness of gods and humans. Teach the Dhamma which is beautiful in the beginning, beautiful in the middle and beautiful in the end. Explain both the letter and the spirit of the holy life, completely fulfilled and perfectly pure’. In saying this, the Buddha was expressing his own reason for undertaking the many long and arduous journeys he did, out of compassion for the world.