Benjamin Brose

Benjamin Brose

BENJAMIN BROSE is an associate professor of Chinese Buddhism at the University of Michigan. His work on the history of religion in China, with a particular focus on Buddhism, has centered on two transformational historical eras--the late ninth through the early eleventh centuries and the twentieth century—in an attempt to better understand the relationships between social, cultural, and political change and the development of religious doctrines and practices. He is the author of Patrons and Patriarchs: Regional Rulers and Chan Monks during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and numerous scholarly articles.

Benjamin Brose

BENJAMIN BROSE is an associate professor of Chinese Buddhism at the University of Michigan. His work on the history of religion in China, with a particular focus on Buddhism, has centered on two transformational historical eras--the late ninth through the early eleventh centuries and the twentieth century—in an attempt to better understand the relationships between social, cultural, and political change and the development of religious doctrines and practices. He is the author of Patrons and Patriarchs: Regional Rulers and Chan Monks during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and numerous scholarly articles.

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Lives of the Masters Series

Lives of the Masters Series

Kurtis Schaeffer, Lives of the Masters series editor, introduces the series with this note:

"Buddhist traditions are heir to some of the most creative thinkers in world history. The Lives of the Masters series offers lively and reliable introductions to the lives, works, and legacies of key Buddhist teachers, philosophers, contemplatives, and writers. Each volume in the Lives series tells the story of an innovator who embodied the ideals of Buddhism, crafted a dynamic living tradition during his or her lifetime, and bequeathed a vibrant legacy of knowledge and practice to future generations.

Lives books rely on primary sources in the original languages to describe the extraordinary achievements of Buddhist thinkers and illuminate these achievements by vividly setting them within their historical contexts. Each volume offers a concise yet comprehensive summary of the master’s life and an account of how they came to hold a central place in Buddhist traditions. Each contribution also contains a broad selection of the master’s writings.

This series makes it possible for all readers to imagine Buddhist masters as deeply creative and inspired people whose work was animated by the rich complexity of their time and place and how these inspiring figures continue to engage our quest for knowledge and understanding today."

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Xuanzang

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Tsongkhapa

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Maitripa

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Gendun Chopel

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Atisa Dipamkara

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S. N. Goenka

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About the Books

Tsongkhapa: A Buddha in the Land of Snows

By Thubten Jinpa

H. H. The Dalai Lama introduces this monumental and definitive biography authored by his long-time translator Thubten Jinpa, and released 600 years following Tsongkhapa's parinirvana:

"An important part of Tsongkhapa’s legacy is the emphasis he placed on critical analysis as essential to the attainment of enlightenment. He revitalized the approach, typical of the Nalanda tradition, that takes reasoned philosophical scrutiny as essential to understanding the nature of reality. . . .

Tsongkhapa had a far-reaching impact on Tibetan tradition. In terms of the three higher trainings in ethics, concentration, and wisdom, he wrote, “Those who wish to discipline others have first to discipline themselves.” His strict adherence to the culture and practice of vinaya, or monastic discipline, set a widely admired standard. His thorough and illuminating writings about Madhyamaka philosophy profoundly enriched Tibetan understanding of Nāgārjuna’s school of thought, stimulating critical thinking about the deeper implications of the view of emptiness. Moreover, his systematic exploration of Buddhist tantra, especially the highest yoga systems of Guhyasamāja and Cakrasaṃvara, has ensured not only that their practice has flourished but also that they have been more clearly understood."

See more about Tsongkhapa in our Reader's Guide to his life and works.

Here is Thubten Jinpa sharing his experience composing this biography:

Atiśa Dīpaṃkara: Illuminator of the Awakened Mind

By James B. Apple

Atiśa perhaps had the greatest impact on Buddhism in Tibet of all the Indian masters who visited there. A founder of the Kadam school, the origin of the Geluk tradition of the Dalai Lamas, Atiśa was a brilliant synthesizer whose contributions to Madhyamaka, Tantra, Mind Training (lojong), and the lamrim tradition have continued to be fundamental for practitioners and scholars of Tantra and the Mahāyāna.

Enjoy an excerpt from the preface to the book:

"Atiśa’s life and teachings are a Tibetan story, and what an amazing story it is. Atiśa’s life is guided by dreams, visions, and predictions from buddhas and bodhisattvas, including the savioress Tārā. In the story of Atiśa’s life, we enter a world of gold, sailing ships, palm-leaf manuscripts, and mantras, rather than credit cards, automobiles, social media, and cell phones. The story involves transactions in over two million dollars’ worth of gold and travels throughout maritime Buddhist Asia. The Tibetans have faithfully preserved what is known of Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna, the vicissitudes of his life, the struggles in his travels, and the spirit and meaning of his teachings."

Gendun Chopel: Tibet's Modern Visionary

By Donald S. Lopez Jr.

Artist, poet, iconoclast, philosopher, adventurer, master of the arts of love, tantric yogin, Buddhist saint, world traveler—these are but a few of the descriptions of one of Tibet's most famous modern visionaries, now presented in a single, definitive volume. Having written six books on Gendun Chopel, Donald Lopez takes the culmination of his intimate study and six published works on this figure to present in a comprehensive way his achievements, legacy, and journey—from his recognition as a tulku, to his travels throughout Tibet, India, and Sri Lanka, to his controversial imprisonment in Lhasa and death following the communist invasion of Tibet.

In the introduction Donald Lopez Jr. presents Chopel alongside the politically charged atmosphere that shaped the life, travels, and writing of Tibet's modern visionary,

"Indeed, unlike other important figures in Tibetan history, he was a man who made his name abroad, his life beginning and end­ing with the two most consequential foreign invasions in Tibetan history. He was born in August 1903, four months before British troops, under the command of Colonel Francis Younghusband, crossed the border into Tibet. He died in October 1951. On September 9, he was lifted from his deathbed to watch the troops of the People’s Liberation Army march into Lhasa.

. . . Near the end of his life, one of the few disciples who remained loyal after he was released from prison asked him, in the traditional Tibetan way, to compose his autobiography. Rather than do so with a lengthy work characteristic of the genre, he responded spontaneously, with a four-line poem:

A virtuous family, the lineage of monks, the way of a layman,
A time of abundance, a time of poverty,
The best of monks, the worst of laymen,
My body has changed so much in one lifetime."

The most wide-ranging work available on this extraordinary figure, this inaugural book of the Lives of the Masters series is an instant classic.

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Nalanda and Its Legacy

The Nalanda Tradition

This entry to the Great Masters series kicks off a series within a series that looks at the great Buddhist center of learning at Nalanda in India and what are known as the Seventeen Panditas of Nalanda, a grouping conceived by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as they are the core group of masters whose works further articulate the teachings of the Buddha and which form the basis of Buddhist philosophy we have today. This group begins with Nagarjuna and ends with Atisha.

This article will frame the stories of these masters by briefly giving a history of Nalanda and why it was so important. The next article will briefly sketch each of the seventeen, and subsequent ones will go into more depth on each of them, with a focus on their works that have been handed down to us.

The Brief History of Nalanda

Book cover

 

Our knowledge about many aspects of Nalanda is fragmented, as much was lost to the sands of time as well as to the fire and sword of the Mughal invaders in the 12th century. However, there are several primary and secondary sources on Nalanda that together form the composite that is our understanding today. Some of what we know is surmised from what the sources do not say as much as from what they do say.

 


There were many intrepid travelers who came by land and sea from China and Korea to Nalanda in search of the Buddhist teachings.

The earliest firsthand account still extant was by the Chinese monk and pilgrim Faxian (337 - c. 422 CE). Another primary source is the extensive and fascinating account of the monk Xuanzang (c. 602-664), who spent 16 years traveling through China, Central Asia, present day Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. Later pilgrims include Itsing (Yijing) (635-713), who left for India from China in 671 and spent 10 years at Nalanda. There are very dated translations of these in English, though a new one of Xuanzang is forthcoming.

Buton’s History of Buddhism in India and Its Spread to Tibet A Treasury of Priceless Scripture By Buton Rinchen Drup Translated by Ngawang Zangpo and Lisa SteinOf the Tibetan accounts, in Butön's History of Buddhism in India and Its Spread to Tibet, Butön Rinchen Drup (1290-1364) briefly discusses the impact of twelve of the Seventeen Panditas. Much of his telling is based on accounts by Tibetan pilgrims and scholars as well as Indians who arrived in Tibet after fleeing the Mughal onslaught that more or less wiped Buddhism from the map of India.

 

Another important account is that recorded by Taranatha (1575-1634), the Tibetan master of the Jonang tradition, in his History of Buddhism in India. He received his information from one of the later Indian siddhas who came

to Tibet, Buddhaguptanatha. This fascinating figure, who before becoming Buddhist was one of the wandering Nath Sadhus, traveled by foot from India to Iran and through Central Asia, as well as by boat to Indonesia and possibly Thailand and Madagascar. He related to Taranatha much of what appears in his oft quoted history.

ruby rosary

Ruby Rosary goes into significant detail about Nalanda and its masters who were there.

Nalanda has a long history in Buddhism.

It is said that in a previous life while still a Bodhisattva, the future Buddha was a charitable king who made his capital at the site of the future Nalanda. Shariputra, the Buddha's first disciple, was born there, attained the level of arhat there (along with many others), and died there as well. The remains of Shariputra's stupa may still be seen at Nalanda today.

There are several sutras that recount how the Buddha paused there on his numerous trips in the area - Rajgir and Vulture Peak are about 10 miles away on foot. Xuanzang tells of how 500 merchants bought a plot of land there and offered it to the Buddha.

It was an important place for other reasons as well - during the time of the Buddha, the founder of Jainism, Mahavira, spent 40 rainy seasons there.

Treasury of Knowledge, Jamgön Kongtrül presents a complete account, thought and practice, Tibetan Buddhism

In the third century BCE, the great Buddhist Emperor Ashoka is said to have visited Nalanda and made offerings at Shariputra's stupa and erected a vihara there, the first on the site. It is likely that there may not have been a continuous presence of monks there from this point, as Faxian did not mention anything other than a stupa when he passed through 650 years later.

The first record of Nalanda becoming a repository of texts and teachings seems to be in the second century when King Lakshasva, based in western India, funded a set of monasteries and collection of Mahayana sutras totaling 100,000,000 verses (shloka) on Mount Abu on the Gujarat/Rajasthan border. Taranatha records that these texts were brought to Nalanda. He, and later Jamgön Kongtrul in his Treasury of Knowledge, talk about two Brahmin brothers, Udbhatasiddhisvamin and Shamkarapati, who built eight temples there to house all the sutras.

Around the same time, Rahulabhadra, said by some to be the mahasiddha Saraha as well as the teacher of Nagarjuna, also did a lot to establish the doctrine at Nalanda. Chronology, names, and relationships vary quite a bit across accounts here and the details of the early history of Nalanda are few.

Xuanzang describes the main gate opening up on the great college as well as eight other halls with towers and turrets rising high above the morning mist. He depicts the complex as surrounded by ponds and flowers, courtyards and multi-level residence halls with long eaves, bright red columns, highly ornamented balustrades, and tiled roofs reflecting the light in an incredible manner.

Xuanzang

Xuanzang's time at Nalanda is detailed in his biography by Ben Brose in the Lives of the Masters series.

One of the more interesting aspects of Xuanzang's account is that there were monks from both the Shravakayana and Mahayana all living and practicing together. Good food for thought in these days where even subsects of subsects can take issue with each other. Tantric Buddhism was prevalent there for much of its history as well. Some accounts talk about it from the time of Nagarjuna onwards, other accounts relate how it became visible, at least in the physical record as evaluated by modern day archaeologists, only in the 8th century.

It was most active between the sixth and tweflth centuries and at its peak had over 10,000 monks and 1,500 teachers, from all over the Buddhist world. There was for example, a separate vihara just for Tibetans. The library, housed in a nine-story building, had hundreds of thousands of manuscripts.

There appear to have been multiple study programs which makes sense given the heterogeneous makeup of the population-teachings from Sarvastivada, Abhidharma, Yogacara, Madhyamaka, Tantra, and presumably Dzogchen and Mahamudra traditions were all taught there. These of course were in addition to the "outer sciences" like grammar, medicine, astrology, math, logic, etc. And given the multiplicity of religious views, there was also training in the philosophies of the hindu thinkers, many of which were often challenging the views of the Buddhists.

In 1192, Nalanda was sacked by Bakhtiyar Khilji during which the library was burned. For the next two centuries, there were a few efforts to rebuild and repopulate it, but by 1400 it was gone.

It should be mentioned that there were other important and at times larger centers of Buddhist learning and monasticism in India between which texts, teachings, and scholars would flow. The great Buddhist center at Taxila - whose sprawling remains outside of Islamabad are still incredible to visit - was more exposed to invaders and had already been in decline as Nalanda rose in prominence.

Vikramshila was founded in the late 8th century and, being located about 150 miles east of Nalanda, had frequent interaction and also became the model later for Tibetan monasteries. At its height in the 10th century, it had over 10,000 monks. Atisha was one of the many great scholars there.

A few miles away from Nalanda lay Odantapuri, founded by the first Pala king in the late 7th century and at its height in 8th century had up to 12,000 monks.

In Bengal, present day Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, there were two important centers. Sompura was founded by the Pala kings in the 9th century and while smaller, was another important hub in this network of Buddhism. It was also visited by Atisha. Jagaddala was founded in the 10th century and its remoteness allowed it to last well after the sacking of Nalanda, Vikramashila, and Odantapuri.

http://jerrydodrill.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.htmlToday visitors to the sprawling Nalanda site can come and walk through the ruins and imagine what it might have been like. I once had a tour guide point out (with great if unwarranted confidence) a certain monastic cell which he said was the one Xuanzang had resided. Archaeological work, which began in the 19th century and continues today, has uncovered and revealed a lot of what went on there. Comparing what is visible now to Xuanzang's description, only a small part of what was there has been excavated thus far. So we can look forward to more discoveries that can fill in the gaps of our knowledge about this incredible time of the blossoming of humanity's potential for spiritual evolution and liberation.

Nearby to Nalanda, the Indian government in cooperation with several other governments and organizations has funded the creation of Nalanda University. The aspirations are high for this and while Buddhist Studies are a planned program of study, that curriculum was not be part of the first wave of classes that began in September of 2014.

Read an article on the Seventeen Panditas here

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