Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c22.s8.11

v1.c22.s8.11

Every act of the *sangha* was performed in this way. Without the formal announcement and sanction of the assembly, no ecclesiastical act could be performed or was regarded as valid. This discipline in working was strictly enforced and this was the secret of the great power which the *sangha* developed and by which it spread itself all over Asia. It was in and through an organization like this that scholars like Nāgārjuna and Asaṅga, Vasubandhu and Āryadeva, missionaries like Bodhidharma and Atīśa, disputants like Dharmakīrti and Diṅnāga, writers like Vimuktasena and Kamalaśīla, expositors like Subhūti and Kaccāyana, translators like Kumārajīva and Jinamitra radiated rays of light that dazed the whole world.