As an aficionado of history and academia, sitting under an Ashoka tree among the ruins of Nalanda is an awe-inspiring, and humbling experience. To think that this place gave rise to all the knowledge, understanding and elaboration of Buddhist thoughts and teachings sent a moving feeling of reverence, admiration and gratitude. I hope the place is restored to its former glory.

At its peak, Nalanda hosted 10,000 students and teachers. Between the 4th and the 10th century, supported by Dharma Raja like Ashoka and Harsha, Nalanda was perhaps the world’s first university where extensive Buddhist studies, logic, medicine (Ayurveda), mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and literature were taught.

Every thinkable master and scholar taught or studied here. Guru Padmasambhava, Nagarjuna, Shantarakshita, Asanga, Vasubandu, Chadrakirti, Shantideva among other mahasiddhas. Their subsequent contributions not only kept the words of Buddha alive, but gave new meaning and relevance to everyday life. Their works dispersed into all the eight directions of the universe and created several schools and traditions that are all practiced and lived to this day.

Of all the teachings the Way of Bodhisattva (Choenjuk in Dzongkha) is an 8th-century by Shantideva stands out for me. It is a comprehensive guide to cultivating compassion, wisdom, and the altruistic mind of enlightenment (bodhichitta) through logic and rationalism.

Coming to Shantideva, a paragraph from him inspired me all my life. It goes:

For as long as space endures
And for as long as living beings remain,
Until then may I too abide
To dispel the misery of the world.

(Shantideva)