ATISHA

Atisha (982–1054) was born to the ruler of a minor kingdom in Northeast India. He studied under the best Buddhist teachers of his time, including Jetāri (whose name is also written Jitāri) and Bodhibhadra. After some years of married life he entered the Buddhist order, where he was given the name Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (Light of Wisdom). Atisha, the name by which he is better known, is an apabhraṃśa (proto-Bengali) form of the common Buddhist Sanskrit term atiśaya, which means "surpassing intention or kindness." In Tibet, Atisha is more commonly known as Jo bo rje (pronounced Jowojay), which conveys the idea of holiness and leadership.

According to later hagiographical accounts, after becoming a monk, Atisha studied in the four great monastic universities of the Pāla dynasty (eighth to twelfth centuries): Nālandā, Otantapuri, Vikramaśīla, and Somapūri. He then traveled to Suvarṇadvīpa (perhaps Sumatra in present-day Indonesia), where he met his most important teacher, Dharmakīrtiśrī, a Cittamātra (Mind Only) philosopher who taught Atisha MahĀyĀna altruism (bodhicitta). Atisha returned to India when he was middle-aged, and the Pāla king Nayapāla appointed him abbot of Vikramaśīla, where he launched a program of monastic renewal.

At the end of the tenth century, the king of Mnga' ris (Ngari) in far western Tibet, Ye shes 'od (Yeshay ö), sent a group of twenty-one Tibetans to India, among them the great translator Rin chen bzang po (958–1055). Ye shes 'od was a descendant of the original Tibetan royal line that had ended in central Tibet in about 840, a date that marks the end of the first spread of Buddhism (snga dar) in Tibet. Rin chen bzang po's return to Mnga' ris after his travels in India is the traditional date for the beginning of the second spread (sphyi dar) of Buddhism.

According to hagiographical accounts, late in his life Ye shes 'od told his son Byang chub 'od (Changchub ö, 984–1078) to invite Atisha, then the foremost Indian Buddhist scholar, to help further the spread of Buddhism in Tibet. Atisha accepted the invitation and arrived in Mnga' ris in 1042. He never returned to India, traveling and teaching extensively before his death in central Tibet in 1054. In western Tibet Atisha collaborated with Rin chen bzang po on Tibetan translations of prajÑĀpĀramitĀ literature. Atisha later collaborated in central Tibet with Nag mtsho tshul khrims rgyal ba (Nagtso Tsultrim gyalwa) on Tibetan translations of many fundamental texts of the Madhayamaka (Middle Way). Of his many Tibetan disciples the most important is 'Brom ston rgyal ba'i byung gnas (Dromtön Chökyi jungnay, 1008–1064), who founded Rva sgreng (Reting), the first monastery of the Bka' gdams (Kadam) sect. The Bka' gdams, which evolved into the Dge lug (Geluk) or Yellow Hat sect, is the Tibetan sect with which the name of Atisha is most closely associated.

Among Atisha's best known works is his Byang chub sgron me (Lamp for the Path), taught soon after arriving in Tibet. In it he classifies practitioners of Buddhism into three types (those of lesser, middling, and superior capacities), and he stresses the importance of a qualified guru, the need for a solid foundation of morality, the central place of Mahāyāna altruism, and an understanding of ultimate reality. He also sets forth the practice of tantra as a powerful technique for quickly reaching enlightenment. Atisha's works influenced all the later Tibetan Buddhist sects (Bka' brgyud, Sa skya, and Dge lugs). Some later Dge lugs writers, influenced by Tsong kha pa's Lam rim chen mo (Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, written in 1403) projected onto the historical Atisha a mythical perfect guru who became for them the symbol of their exclusive form of monasticism and scholastic learning.

See also:Tibet

Bibliography

Chattopadhyaya, Alaka. Atiśa and Tibet. Calcutta: Indian Studies Past and Present, 1967.

Eimer, Helmut. Rnam thar rgyas pa: Materialien zu eine Biographie der Atiśa (Dīpaṁkaraśrījñāna). Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1979.

Sherburne, Richard, trans. The Complete Works of Atiśa Śrī Dīpaṁkara Jñāna. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2000.

Gareth Sparham