We hired a car and driver to take us to nearby Rajgir and Nalanda
for a day of visiting significant sites in Buddhist history. We awoke to dense
fog, so the 2 hour drive to Rajgir was cold with little visibility. Somehow,
though, our driver was able to see well enough to navigate the sometimes
treacherous road. Our first stop was Vulture's Peak where the Buddha gave many
important teachings. We were eager to see the landscape and imagine what it
might have been like 2,500 years ago.
The Buddha's cousin and attendant for over 30 years, Ananda, reached
enlightenment in this cave. His enlightenment story is that after so much
effort to become enlightened, on the eve of an important meeting of all the
enlightened monks at that time, he gave up from exhaustion and decided to go to
sleep. At the moment before he lies down, he lets go and reaches his goal. There
was a monk meditating there when we looked in.
The altar at the top was crowded with pilgrims, and it was inspiring
to hear them chanting the Great Heart Sutra, Prajnaparamita, as this is where
the Buddha first gave this key teaching on the concept of emptiness. We
meditated at the peak for a while.
From Vulture's Peak we climbed up many steps to the Shanti Stupa,
one of 80 Peace Pillars built by Japan.
While walking around the stupa, we heard drumming and so we walked
in time and chanted "shanti, shanti" which was fun.
Then we went to the temple to check out the drumming. A lone monk
was pounding a huge taiko drum and chanting the Lotus Sutra, myoho-renge-kyo.
This school of Buddhism that built these peace temples was greatly influenced
by Gandhi's doctrine of non-violence. Pete made a recording, but we
weren't allowed to take photos. This beautiful carving was near the temple.
Next we went to the bamboo grove, Velu Van, where the Buddha and
thousands of monks spent several rainy seasons. We enjoyed walking around the
peaceful grounds and meditating there.
After visiting these sites in Rajgir, we headed 20 minutes down the
road to nearby Nalanda. Nalanda had a booming university and monastery for over
500 years. It was interesting to walk around the ruins of the eleven
monasteries where the monks/students had lived.
There were four temple ruins that we also explored. In the
background here is the temple that includes Shariputra's stupa. He lived at the
time of the Buddha and also reached enlightenment. Both the Tibetan and Thai
monks visiting the ruins chanted at this temple.
Some of the temples still have intricate stone carvings.
And all of them had impressive brick work.
Our last stop in Nalanda was the Xuan Zhang memorial. He was a
Chinese scholar who had an amazing life. He traveled to India and studied for
many years in Nalanda then taught in India before returning to China with 1,200
sutras (Buddhist teachings) on scrolls. He set up an organization in China and
oversaw the translations into Chinese. We also learned he translated the Tao Te
Ching into Sanskrit and sent it to India.