"The Holy Places of the Buddha" is a thoroughly researched and richly illustrated guide to the eight traditional holy places associated with the Buddha. Inspired by the ancient practice of pilgrimage, this volume follows the spread of the Dharma from India along pilgrimage routes throughout South Asia and Afghanistan. From the chapter "The University of Nalanda": About 400 years after the Parinirvana of the Buddha, when 500 Mahayana teachers decided to build a center for the propagation of the Mahayana, Nalanda was chosen as the place from which the Mahayana would spread most widely. The 500 masters…brought with them the Mahayana Sutras that had recently been committed to writing, and additional Sutras were brought as they came to light…Nalanda's library supported the growth of a strong tradition of study, practice, and scholarship…and became the central repository of Mahayana texts. From the outset, the monastery of Nalanda produced a lineage of outstanding masters who set standards of excellence for those who followed…The most famous of these masters was Nagarjuna. According to Buston, astrologers had told Nagarjuna's parents that their son would live only seven years. Unable to bear their son's impending death, the parents sent the child away from their home in care of a servant. Nagarjuna came to Nalanda's gate, where he met the master Saraha. Following Saraha's instructions, Nagarjuna overcame the prediction of an early death and entered the Sangha at Nalanda. Centuries before Nalanda attracted the generosity of royal patrons, Nagarjuna worked tirelessly to support its teachers and establish its educational standards… He penetrated the deep meanings of the Mahayana Sutras and developed a skillful dialectic to convey the Madhyamika, or Middle Way, that avoided the extremes of eternalism and nihilism. Challenging all doctrines of reality current in his day and demonstrating their fallacies, he extended the powers of reason to their limits, pointing beyond concepts to the immediate experience of reality.
