Atisha

Category: Patriarchs of Early Buddhism

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

• Bangla :  অতীশ দীপঙ্কর শ্রীজ্ঞান

Atiśa Dipamkara Shrijnana (982 - 1054 CE) was a Buddhist teacher who reintroduced Buddhism into Tibet after King Langdharma had nearly destroyed it. He studied and mastered all of the traditions of Buddhism in India. After different trials to invite him to Tibet, he finally accepted the invitation and came to Tibet for the rest of his life. Some Tibetan sources say he was also abbot of Vikramshila University at one point, one of the great centers of Buddhist learning after Nalanda University.

Early life

He was born in the village Vajrayogini in the Bikrampur region of Bengal, currently in Bangladesh, in 982 CE. His childhood name was Chandragarbha. From a very young age he showed an extraordinary aptitude for Dharma and studied sincerely under more than 100 teachers. He received, practiced, and mastered the instructions on the Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana schools of Buddhism and was regarded highly by all the traditions of Buddhism in India at the time.

Preaching in Sumatra and Tibet

In 1011, Atisha, along with more than 100 disciples, went to Srivijaya in what is now Indonesia and became a disciple of Dharmarakshita, known in Tibetan as Serlingpa, to receive instructions on Bodhicitta. Atisha stayed with Serlingpa for 12 years. He then returned to Magadha where he met great Buddhist scholars who all acknowledged his superior knowledge and scholarship.

In the 11th century, the king byang-chub 'Od invited Atiśa to come from Bengal to Tibet. In Tibet the King Langdarma had destroyed Buddhism on a big scale. The teachings of the Vinaya and Sutra had deteriorated and it is said the Vajrayana was practiced in a distorted way. Atisha came to Tibet 1042, revived the teachings of Buddhism and purified them from misunderstandings. It was there that Atisha composed his famous Buddhist text Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment (Sanskrit: Bodhi Pradipa, Tib: byang chhub lam gi rdon mey). It is a short text on Lamrim, the stages of the path to enlightenment.

Dromtonpa, the principal disciple of Atiśa kept the complete legacy of Atisha and this became later known as the Kadampa tradition of Buddhism. This was later revived by the Tibetan teacher Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug tradition. Since that time the Kadampa school of Atiśa is named Old Kadampa and Tsongkhapa's Gelug school is named New Kadampa. However, the teachings of the Kadampas have come to be held by all four modern sects of Tibetan Buddhism.

Firstly the tradition on the instructions on Bodhicitta were kept very secret. In Tibet Atiśa passed it only to his main disciple, Dromtonpa. Later the instructions became known in Tibet as Training the Mind (Tib. lojong) and were integrated and emphasised in all four Tibetan Buddhist schools.

Swarnadvipa (ser ling) is generally taken to mean insular Southeast Asia. In Atiśa's time the area was dominated by the great empire of Srivijaya which was known as a seat of Buddhist learning.

Writings

Atisha wrote, translated and edited more than two hundred books, which helped spread Buddhism in Tibet. He discovered several Sanskrit manuscripts in Tibet and copied them himself. He translated many books from Sanskrit to Tibetan. He also wrote several books on Buddhist scriptures, medical science and technical science in Tibetan. Dipankara wrote several books in Sanskrit, but only their Tibetan translations are extant now. 79 of his compositions have been preserved in Tibetan translation in the Tenjur (bstan-sgyur). Following are his most notable books-

• Bodhi-patha-pradipa,
• Charya-sanggraha-pradipa
• Satya-dvayavatara
• Bodhi-sattva-manyavali
• Madhyamaka-ratna-pradipa
• Mahayana-patha-sadhana-sanggraha
• Shiksa-samuchchaya Abhisamya
• Prajna-paramita-pindartha-pradipa
• Ekavira-sadhana
• Vimala-ratna-lekha

Vimalaratnalekha is a Sanskrit letter to Nayapala, king of Magadha. Charyasamgrahapradipa contains some kirtan verses composed by Atisha.

Death

After staying for thirteen years in Tibet, Atisha died in 1054 CE in a village called Lethan, near Lhasa. The site of his last rites at Lethan has turned into a shrine. His ashes were brought to Dhaka, Bangladesh on 28 June, 1978 and placed in Dharmarajika Bauddha Vihara.