Lecture No. 0218
Global Lamrim II
Lecture No. 0218
Date: 2020-04-30 ~ 2020-05-03
Topic: Genesis of the construction of Nalanda Monastery (Four Interwoven Annotations)
English Lamrim Volume 1, page 34
In this section, we can talk a bit more on the Nalanda Monastery. Rinpoche continued by asking us if we have been to the Nalanda Monastery. Now, the Nalanda Monastery is in ruins and no longer exists. There are only the remains of a stupa, which was said to be the stupa of Venerable Sariputra; not sure if it is true. In 1193 CE, Baktiyar Khalji, a Turkic military general, along with his troop, destroyed this majestic monastery, including the scripture repository. Scores of monastics fled to other places, and that marked the decline of the monastery. The Nalanda Monastery slowly fell into ruins. As Rinpoche put it, “[the Monastery] is in ruins”. In 1861, a British archaeologist, Alexander Cunningham, began to excavate the remains of the monastery, and gradually presented its present vestige, which we would otherwise not be able to even see it. 01:03
Back then, there were five hundred Mahayana masters and Tuo-zun brothers residing in the Nalanda Monastery. The elder brother was Tuo-zun the Achiever, [also known as Udbhatasiddhisvamin]; the younger brother was Tuo-zun, the Master Residing-in-Peacefulness [also known as Shamkarapati]. The younger brother composed a very famous hymn, the Praise of the Buddha’s Superiority over the Gods, [Devatavimarsastuti or Devatisayastotra in Sanskrit,] which was collected in the Tengyur [Tibetan collection of commentaries]. Both brothers were Pandita [learned masters] in India. The initial construction of Nalanda Monastery began from Emperor Ashoka. Later on, the Sage Nagarjuna, or Bodhisattva Nagarjuna, who was fully endowed with good qualities, expanded it and made it the primary monastery for giving Buddhism teaching and learning in India. ‘The Monastery was expanded massively to advocate the education and learning of the Mahayana teaching,’ and became ‘the most supreme one among all its contemporary Sangha communities in India.’” 01:55
I'd like to talk more about the Nalanda Monastery. Nalanda Monastery was the most prominent Buddhist academy in ancient India. Translated in Sanskrit, it means “being generous tirelessly”, also termed “nà làn tuó” (那爛陀). “Being generous tirelessly” means being steadfast in applying generosity. Legend has it that there was a dragon named Nalanda living in the pond south of the monastery. Later on, as the monastery was built near the pond, it was named after the dragon. In terms of the literal meaning of Nalanda, before Shakyamuni attained Buddhahood while he was engaging in Bodhisattva deeds, he manifested as a great king and built the kingdom’s capital here. He took great delight in doing virtuous deeds and was very generous in giving, so he earned the honorable title of “being generous tirelessly”; hence the place was thus named. This monastery was located in the north of the Magadha kingdom in ancient India, which is now about 11 kilometers north of Rajgir, translated as Rajagaha in the old days. There were quite a few different accounts as to why Nalanda was constructed. In the Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions, it says: the king of Gupta Dynasty, Sakraditya, built it for the monk, Rajavajsa, and the kings in successive generations continued to expand it. It eventually developed into a grand monastery with majestic external appearance and furnished with superb and profound teachings within. 03:10
According to the Dungkar Tibetological Great Dictionary, the Nalanda Monastery was established at the birthplace of Venerable Sariputra. In order to commemorate the kindness and good qualities of this sage, five kings in eastern, western, southern, northern, and central India united in a concerted effort to construct the peerless Buddhist academy. Master Taranatha stated that this monastery was not only the birthplace of Venerable Sariputra, but also the place where Venerable Sariputra’s 80,000 arhat disciples passed into their Nirvana. Emperor Asoka used to make generous offerings to the Stupa of Sariputra and constructed a Buddhist Monastery here. 03:44
Later on, the first 500 Mahayana masters had a discussion, “If the Mahayana teaching is expounded at the place where Sariputra used to reside, this would enable the Mahayana teaching to promulgate to all ten directions.” Thus, the Tuo-zun brothers began constructing the monastery. They built 8 prayer halls to store the Mahayana scriptures at that time. It is hard to imagine that all Mahayana scriptures were kept in this monastery. 04:13
This Monastery was the most representative of India's Buddhist institution in the 7th century. How many books did it house? You may take a guess and try to imagine; there were 9 million scrolls! The monastery was where the great scholars and outstanding adepts across several generations came to study, namely, Nagarjuna Bodhisattva, Aryadeva Bodhisattva, commentator Silabhadra [Master’s Xuan-zang’s Indian Teacher at Nalanda], commentator Haribhadra, commentator Chandrakirti, etc. Besides, do you all know where Master Xuanzang pursued his advanced study? How about Master Yi-jing? Both of them and other eminent monks travelled from China to study and to translate the scriptures in Nalanda. Back then, multitudes of monastics came and studied in this monastery, and how many people were there? There were as many as ten thousand of them; it is a grand monastery, accommodating ten thousand monastics! Can you imagine the scene of teeming monastics sitting in the morning and evening sessions! The scene must be very spectacular! How many sessions of teaching were there each day? There were over 100 sessions of teaching, and thereafter, this monastery also became the learning center of Tantrayana teaching. This was the grandeur of the legendary Nalanda Monastery. 05:22
[*Here are some rough historical periods for your reference: Nalanda Monastery: about 5th century to 1200 CE Venerable Atisha: 982~1054 CE
Vikramalasila Monastery: about 8th century to 1193 CE]
【全球广论 II 讲次: 0218】
讲次 0218
标题 那兰陀寺建寺缘起（四家注）
日期 2020-04-30 ~ 2020-05-03
广论段落 P2-L6 ~ P2-L8 此中传有二派释仪……应如后释。
入门段落 第1册 P82-L1 ~ P82-LL1“释仪”，接着是说明……“印度诸僧团中最殊胜者”。
备注 四家合注《白话校注集》 第1册 P95-注释①~P96-注释①完 那兰陀 古印度佛教最高学府……逐步呈现此寺遗迹。
在这一段，我们可以再讲一下“那兰陀寺”。仁波切接着说：你们去过那兰陀寺吗？现在的那兰陀寺已成为废墟了，不复存在。只是有个塔的遗迹，传说是舍利弗尊者的塔，不知道是不是真的。在公元 1193 年，突厥人叫巴克赫提亚尔‧卡尔积，带兵破坏了这座伟大的寺院，藏经阁也被破坏了。大批的僧众只能逃往他处，从此衰落，慢慢地变成废墟──就仁波切讲的：“就是废墟了。”在 1861 年，英国考古学家亚历山大‧康宁汉开始挖掘这座寺院的遗物，逐步呈现这座寺院的遗迹，不然连遗迹可能都看不到了。 01:03
在当时的那兰陀寺，有“五百大乘阿闍黎”和“陀尊兄弟”俩，哥哥是陀尊成就尊，弟弟是陀尊安乐主。陀尊安乐主是《胜天赞》的作者，这本书非常有名，在《丹珠尔》中有收录。这两位都是印度班智达。那兰陀寺大概是阿育王时开始有雏型，之后具德怙主圣者龙树──就是龙树菩萨把它扩建了，成为印度的内道教徒讲闻、学习的主要寺院。 “以讲闻大乘法之门”，透由讲说、听闻大乘教法的方式来兴盛扩建寺院，而成为“印度诸僧团中最殊胜者”。 01:55
关于那兰陀寺，我想给大家再多讲一点点。那兰陀寺就是古印度佛教的最高学府，梵语义译过来就是“施无厌”，又作“那烂陀”。施无厌就是布施没有厌足的意思。相传这座寺院南边的池潭中有个龙，名字叫那烂陀，然后寺就建在那个池子的旁边，所以就取了这样一个称号。如果从实际的意义来说，因为过去如来修菩萨行的时候，为大国王，建都此地，乐善布施，德号施无厌，故称其名。这座寺院在古印度摩羯陀国北方，就是今天的拉查基尔──旧译王舍城──的北方约十一公里的这个地方。建寺由来有很多种，众说不一。在《大唐西域记》里边有这样一个记载：笈多王朝的帝日王为了曷罗社盘社比丘建的，然后历代国王屡加扩建，最后形成了外观宏伟、内学精湛的一座大寺院。 03:10
而《东噶辞典》中提到：这座寺院落成的地方，就是舍利弗尊者的出生地，为了纪念圣者的恩德，中印度及四方五位国王齐心合建出当时无有能与之媲美的佛学院。多罗那他大师则说：这座寺院位于舍利弗尊者的出生地，又是舍利弗的八万阿罗汉弟子的涅槃处，阿育王曾对舍利弗塔广兴供养，并且创建了一座佛寺在这个地方。 03:44
之后大乘部最初的五百阿闍黎共同讨论，说：“如果在舍利弗曾经的住处宣说大乘法，当令大乘法普传十方。”于是就有陀尊阿闍黎兄弟开始创建寺院，他们兴建了八间佛殿，收藏着当时所有的大乘经函。这是很难想像的！就是把大乘教典全部收在这座寺院里。 04:13
这座寺院在七世纪的时候是印度最具代表性的佛教学府，其中藏书有多少呢？大家猜猜看，可以想像一下──九百万卷！历代学者大德辈出，像龙树菩萨、圣天菩萨、戒贤论师、狮子贤论师、月称论师等这么多的大论师。另外大家知不知道玄奘大师是去哪里学习的呢？还有义净大师？玄奘大师和义净大师，还有其他高僧，也从中国来到那兰陀寺学习、翻译。当时这座寺院里的僧众云集，僧众多达多少人呢？高达万人，是万人的大寺喔！可以想见那上早晚课的时候，僧伽海会喔！非常地壮观！每天有多少个讲坛呢？有一百多个讲坛，之后也成为金刚乘的修学中心。这就是我们传说中的那兰陀寺曾经的盛况。 05:22