“Making such invocations with an unflinchingly pure mind
To these exceedingly fine scholars, who are ornaments for the world
And the source of stupendous, elegant teachings,
May I be blessed that I may mature my mind stream and achieve liberation.”

- His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama recollecting and praising the immeasurable kindness of the great adepts from Nalanda University in illuminating the Buddha’s profound and vast teachings in his text ‘Illuminating the Threefold Path: An Invocation of the Seventeen Great Scholarly Adepts of Glorious Nalanda’

There could be no higher praise in homage to the seventeen great pandits from Nalanda – foremost amongst the numerous spiritual luminaries that the great University of Nalanda produced. What draws such tribute and appreciation from a luminary no lesser than His Holiness – himself an object of an equal praise and utmost veneration? What are these stupendous and elegant teachings expounded by these pandits that His Holiness rhapsodizes over with such delight? What precious treasure did these ornaments of the world embellish and emblazon? Answers to these questions point to a legacy, a tradition, represented by these great adepts in particular and Nalanda University in general; a legacy that is a most precise and profound expression of the Buddha’s teachings; a legacy that even His Holiness thinks is worthy enough of being relied upon for maturing one’s mind stream and for achieving liberation. It is a legacy that captures a spiritual endeavour spanning several centuries during which time evolved an ethos that distilled the Buddha’s doctrine in the light of the Prajna Paramita (Perfection of Wisdom) Sutra. It is a tradition called the Prajna Paramita tradition.

The hallowed grounds of the great university of Nalanda in India was the site for this spiritual endeavour that furthered elucidation of the Buddha’s heritage through the medium of the great Nalanda pandits many of whom served as Abbots of the University. These great pandits sustained over many centuries an intense investigation of the Buddhist heritage in the light of the Prajna Paramita teachings that the Buddha had expounded during the second and the third turnings of the wheel of the Dharma. What followed through this process of investigation was the emergence of two systems of tenets – Madhyamaka (the Middle-way school) and Yogacara (the school of Yogic Practitioners). Through Madhyamaka and Yogacara shined forth the summit of the evolutionary glories attainable to all sentient beings as highlighted by the Buddha through his Prajna Paramita teachings. In this way, Nalanda iconified a tradition that represented the philosophical peak of the Buddha Dharma in the light of Prajna Paramita. This tradition – the Prajna Paramita tradition - blossomed in an atmosphere of both spiritual and material prosperity and intellectual freedom unparalleled in Indian history since the times of King Asoka [1].

Through the prism of the Prajna Paramita shined forth the more subtle hues of the Buddha’s doctrine. It clarified the more esoteric aspects of the Buddha Dharma and illumined the path that has as its destination the supreme glory of Buddhahood – a state of absolute omniscience. The Prajna Paramita tradition – through its manifested expressions of Sunyavada of the Madhyamika (proponent of the Middle-way school) and Vijnanavada of the Yogacarin (Yogic Practitioners) – explained the meaning of Buddha’s universal wisdom, that is a complete and correct awareness of both absolute and relative realities. Followers of the Prajna Paramita tradition embrace the Bodhisatva ideal of pursuing the attainment of Buddhahood – a supreme state of absolute wisdom and bliss - to help them lead all other sentient beings to the very same state of absolute wisdom and bliss. Followers of the Bodhisatva-yana (Bodhisatva vehicle) espouse the spiritual objective of omniscience in contrast to the spiritual objective of individual liberation espoused by the followers of the Sravaka-yana (Hearers’ vehicle). Using the same aids to meditation as Sravakas (Hearers), but broadening their understanding by practice of Bodhicitta (the mind of awakening), Maha-karuna (great altruism) and the Paramitas (Perfections), Bodhisatvas attain to objectless meditation, revealing to them the true nature of reality as being identical with emptiness (empty of an inherently existent self).

Followers of the Bodhisatva-yana, inspired by the Bodhisatva ideal of universal altruism, through accumulation of merit by engaging in virtuous deeds based on an ever-deepening knowledge of the emptiness nature of reality, progressively distil their discriminating awareness. They apply this enhanced discriminating awareness to ascertain that objects do not exist as normally conceived (as inherently existing independent entities) and penetratingly understand the falseness of inherent existence. This refined discriminating awareness helps the practitioners of this vehicle to loosen their deficient engagement with Samsara gradually – an engagement that is deficient with respect to the happiness it yields as it is done from a self-cherishing frame of reference based upon a hitherto flawed understanding of the true nature of phenomenon as being truly and inherently existent. This refined discriminating awareness helps the practitioners to progressively enhance their engagement with Samsara – an engagement that is now exalted and yields joy and happiness as it is done from an others-cherishing frame of reference based upon correctly conceiving phenomena as empty of inherent existence. This discriminating awareness when refined to its ultimate potential – the potential of Buddhahood that is present without any discrimination in all sentient beings – leads the practitioners to a supremely exalted state of being wherein their engagement with Samsara – to fulfil their Bodhisatva aspiration – is done from an unparalleled blissful existence in non-abiding Nirvana.

The Bodhisatva-yana promises to guide sentient beings to an unimaginably beautiful and magnificent experience of wisdom, love and bliss. The wise would never forsake a path like this – a path whose different aspects have been illumined by successive exponents of the Prajna Paramita tradition through many centuries. Nagarjuna and Arya Asanga pioneered the two manifest expressions of this tradition, Madhyamaka and Yogacara, respectively. The Madhyamaka system was elucidated further by an impressive lineage of yogi scholars like Aryadeva, Buddhapalita, Bhavaviveka, Candrakirti, Santideva, Santarakshita, Kamalasila and Atisa. The Yogacara system was developed further through the works of yogi scholars like Vasubandhu, Dignaga and Dharmakirti. It is to these Noble beings amongst others from the Nalanda University that His Holiness expresses his gratitude for their prodigality in clarifying the Buddha Dharma.