The Chinese monk Xuanzang had a dream that convinced him to begin a seventeen-year journey to India to study in the cradle of Buddhism. He visited, studied and preached in monasteries along the Silk Road interacting with thousands of monks he met. He spent two years studying at the great university at Nalanda where he found a master who taught him Mahayana idealism (who also had a dream that Xuanzang was coming to see him).
Xuanzng returned to China with over six hundred Buddhist texts and translated them to Chinese. His translations preserved the Buddhist texts that were destroyed in subsequent conquests in India. With this self-directed journey, Xuanzang got the best education in Buddhism possible, interacting with monk scholars across the Buddhist world.
My own haphazard journey to study Buddhism has retraced some of the steps Xuanzang took including to Chang-an (now Xian), along the Silk Road, and through northern India and Lumbini, Nepal. For me, the most relevant places were the spots where Buddha taught. They were serene places that overlooked groves of trees or grass. For me, Buddhism is very much a study of the mind.
The Bodhi Tree is a descendant of the tree Buddha sat under. The original was destroyed and then a sap was brought from Sri Lanka where they had grown another tree from the original.
Nalanda was the great Buddhist university from which the Dalai Lama says is the lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. There were thousands of monk scholars in residence.
Xuanzang’s most famous translation is the Heart Sutra. I have been reading Tich Nacht Han’s translation for a couple of years and, although I get glimpses of what it means, the emptiness still alludes me.
Avalokiteshvara while practicing deeply with the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore, suddenly discovered that all of the five Skandhas are equally empty, and with this realisation he overcame all Ill-being. “Listen Sariputra, this Body itself is Emptiness and Emptiness itself is this Body. This Body is not other than Emptiness and Emptiness is not other than this Body. The same is true of Feelings, Perceptions, Mental Formations, and Consciousness. “Listen Sariputra, all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness; their true nature is the nature of no Birth no Death, no Being no Non-being, no Defilement no Purity, no Increasing no Decreasing. “That is why in Emptiness, Body, Feelings, Perceptions, Mental Formations and Consciousness are not separate self entities. The Eighteen Realms of Phenomena which are the six Sense Organs, the six Sense Objects, and the six Consciousnesses are also not separate self entities. The Twelve Links of Interdependent Arising and their Extinction are also not separate self entities. Ill-being, the Causes of Ill-being, the End of Ill-being, the Path, insight and attainment, are also not separate self entities. Whoever can see this no longer needs anything to attain. Bodhisattvas who practice the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore see no more obstacles in their mind, and because there are no more obstacles in their mind, they can overcome all fear, destroy all wrong perceptions and realize Perfect Nirvana. “All Buddhas in the past, present and future by practicing the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore are all capable of attaining Authentic and Perfect Enlightenment. “Therefore Sariputra, it should be known that the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore is a Great Mantra, the most illuminating mantra, the highest mantra, a mantra beyond compare, the True Wisdom that has the power to put an end to all kinds of suffering. Therefore let us proclaim a mantra to praise the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore. Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha! Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha! Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!”
“The Insight that Brings us to the Other Shore” translation by Thich Nhat Hanh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Interestingly, part of Xuanzang’s remains were taken by Japanese soldiers in the Rape of Nanking and enshrined in Yakushi-ji in Nara, Japan.