Four Views of the Sal Grove

The Sal Grove refers to a grove of sal trees located in the northern part of Kushinagara, India, where Shakyamuni died. It is said that different people will perceive the same grove of trees in different ways according to their state of life, and their different perceptions are described using the names of the four kinds of lands from the doctrine of the T'ien-t'ai school of Buddhism. Some consider the Sal Grove as the Land of Sages and Common Mortals, for some it is the Land of Transition, while others consider it as the Land of Actual Reward or as the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light.