Atisha

Jowo Jé Glorious Atisha

Atisha Dipamkara Shrijñana (Skt. Atīśa Dīpaṅkara Śrijñāna; Tib. ཨ་ཏི་ཤ་མར་མེད་མཛད་དཔལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་, Atisha Marmedzé Pal Yeshé; Wyl. a ti sha mar med mdzad dpal ye shes) or Jowo Jé Palden Atisha (ཇོ་བོ་རྗེ་དཔལ་ལྡན་ཨ་ཏི་ཤ་, jo bo rje dpal ldan a ti sha) (982-1054) was a great Indian master and scholar, and author of many texts including the Lamp for the Path of Awakening. One of the main teachers at the famous university of Vikramashila, he was also a strict follower of the monastic rule and was widely acclaimed for the purity of his teaching. He spent the last ten years of his life in Tibet, teaching and translating texts, and was instrumental in reinvigorating Buddhism there after a period of persecution. His disciples founded the Kadampa school.

Writings

• Lamp for the Path of Awakening
• The Jewel Rosary of the Bodhisattvas

Main Disciples

Chief among Atisha's Tibetan disciples were the three known as "Khu, Ngok, and Drom," who were renowned as emanations of the three main bodhisattvas—Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri, and Vajrapani: Khutön Tsöndru Yungdrung, Ngok Lekpé Sherab and Dromtön Gyalwé Jungné.

Further Reading

• Chattopadhyaya, Alaka. Atisha and Tibet. Calcutta: Indian Studies Past and Present, 1967.
• Decleer, Hubert. 'Atisha's Journey to Sumatra', in Buddhism in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr., Princeton University Press, 1995
• Decleer, Hubert. 'Atisha's Journey to Tibet', in Religions of Tibet in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr., Princeton University Press, 1997
• Eimer, Helmut. 'The Development of the Biographical Tradition concerning Atisa (Dipamkarasrijnana)' in The Journal of the Tibet Society, Vol. 2 (1982), pp. 41-51
• Seyfort Ruegg, David. The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1981, pp. 110-113
• Sherburne, Richard, trans. The Complete Works of Atiśa Śrī Dīpaṃkara Jñāna. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2000.

Internal Links

• Ka khol ma, The Pillar Testament.
• Quotations from Atīśa's works.

External Links

• The Bodhisattva’s Garland of Jewels by Atisha
• TBRC Profile