CONCEPT NOTE
For an international seminar and exhibition on
The Path of Atīśa Dīpaïkara Śrījñāna (982 - 1054 CE)
(Borderless Prajñā and Compassion)
(Prof. Dr. Shashibala)
Atīśa Dīpaïkara Śrījñāna, a great saint-philosopher of the 10th-11th century, almost
forgotten in India over the past centuries, has been venerated for nearly 1000 years as an
outstanding personality in Asian countries and regions, especially north of the Himalayas. He
is a shining symbol of peace, compassion, humanism, self sacrifice, harmony and amity who
devoted his energies to the dissemination of Dhamma to Odantapurī, Vikramaśilā, Sompurī,
Nālandā and other universities and monastic complexes. He played a singular role in infusing
wisdom and resurgence of Buddhism, laying a foundation of pure Buddhism. His preaching
electrified the monks as well as the common people with a new concept of moral purity, self
sacrifice, nobility of character, idealism, revolutionized the social, religious and cultural lives
of the people. The people and the kings of Tibet made sacrifices to invite him to reform and
reinvigorate the lax, corrupt and decaying conditions.
He was born in the village Vajrayoginī in Bikrampur region of Bengal,
currently in Bangladesh, in 982 CE. Accounts of the spiritual teacher’s life are found
in 44 Tibetan texts— biographies, doctrinal works, catalogues and hymns written in
praise. His birth in the year AD 980/982 also saw a major power shift in Bengali
politics as the resurgent Pala dynasty seized control of the region, disposing of the
incumbent Kamboja rulers. His childhood name was Chandragarbha. From a very
young age he showed an extraordinary aptitude for spirituality and studied sincerely
under more than 100 teachers. He received, practiced, and mastered the instructions
on Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana schools of Buddhism and was regarded
highly by all the traditions of Buddhism in India at the time
Atīśa had studied sixty-four kinds of arts including music and logic, and
accomplished them by the age of twenty-two. According to the Tibetan sources, Atīśa
was ordained into the Mahāsāmghika lineage at the age of twenty-eight by the Abbot
Śīlarakśita and studied almost all Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools of his time,
including teachings of Vaiùõavism, Śaivism and Tantrism. He studied, practiced and
transmitted the three main lineages of Buddhism.
At the age of thirty-one, Atīśa with 100 disciples set off for a perilous journey,
traveling for thirteen months to Sumatra in order to study under the reputable
Suvarõadvīpī Dharmakīrti, sometimes called Dharmarakśita and known in Tibetan as
Serlingpa (Wylie:Gser-gling-pa), a supposed master of bodhichitta. Goddess Tārā was his
guiding spirit and continued to be so untill the end of his life. Under the guidance of
Dharmarakshita, Atīśa remained there for twelve years. Finally, after over a decade of
intensive training, Dharmaraksita advised him to "go to the north, to the Land of
Snows." From his Master, Dharmaraksita, Atīśa learnt one meditation that became
one of the Tibetans fundamental meditation techniques, i.e. Tongleng Meditation that
aims to recycle supposedly negative energy into loving and healing energy.
He then returned to Magadha where he met great Buddhist scholars who all
acknowledged his superior knowledge and scholarship. Soon enough he was
appointed to the position of steward, or abbot, at the venerable Buddhist university
Vikramasila, established by the King Dharmapala of Bengal. Atisha's rise to
prominence coincided with a flourishing of Buddhist culture and the practice of
Dharma, and in many ways Atīśa's influence contributed to these developments.
Goddess Tara continued to be with him as a guiding spirit until the end of his life.
In the 11th century, the Tibetan king byang-chub 'Od invited Atiśa. He entered
Tibet in an age when monastic Buddhist tradition of Tibet had been nearly wiped out
after King Langdarma's intolerant reign. He has been an important figure for last ten
centuries in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition because he revived, refined, systematized,
and compiled an innovative and thorough approach to bodhichitta known as "mind
training" (Tib. lojong), in such texts as A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, and
established its primacy to the Mahayana tradition in Tibet. Atisha's closest disciple,
Dromtönpa, is considered the founder of the Kadam school, which later evolved into
Gelug, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
Atiśa wrote, translated and edited more than two hundred books from
Sanskrit into Tibetan to spread Buddhism. He also wrote several books on Buddhist
scriptures, medical science and technical science in Tibetan. Several books written by
him in Sanskrit are extant only in Tibetan translations now. 79 of his compositions
have been preserved in Tibetan translation in the Tanjur (bstan-sgyur). Some of them
are Bodhi-patha-pradīpa, Charyā-saïggraha-pradīpa, Satya-dvayāvatāra, Bodhi-sattva-
mānyāvalī, Mādhyamaka-ratna-pradīpa, Mahāyāna-patha-sādhana-saïgraha, Śikśā-
samuchchaya Abhisamaya, Prajñā-pāramitā-piõóārtha-pradīpa, Ekavīra-sādhana and
Vimala-ratna-lekhā.
In Tibet after staying at Ngari, he went to Samye where he discovered the
store of Sanskrit texts at Pekar Kordzoling, the library. The degree to which the
Vajrayana had spread in Tibet was unparalleled, even in India. Dromtönpa, the
principal disciple of Atiśa kept the complete legacy of Atiśa and this became later
known as the Kadampa (Bka'-gdams-pa) tradition of Buddhism. This was later
revived by the Tibetan teacher Tsongkhapa (Btsong-ka-pa), the founder of the Gelug
(Dge-lugs) tradition. Since that time the Kadampa school of Atiśa is named Old
Kadampa and Tsongkhapa's Gelug School is named New Kadampa.
As Atīśa grew old, he moved to explore Central Tibet. Atiśa spent nine years in
Nyetang, a town near Lhasa, where he discovered Tibetan libraries with impressive
collections written in both Sanskrit and Tibetan. The venerable monk moved around
the region for another five years before passing away in 1052 at the prophesied age of
seventy-two in a village called Lethan, near Lhasa. He was enshrined near his last
permanent home in the town of Nyetang. His ashes were brought to Dhaka,
Bangladesh on 28 June 1978 and placed in Dharmarājika Bauddha Vihāra.
An international seminar and exhibition on the “Atīśa Dīpaïkara Śrījñāna” aims
at investigation into his life, vision, mission, activities, works, pervasiveness of his
teachings, contributions to the world, legacy, relevance of the essence of his teachings
today, and related historical events, available in the primary and the secondary sources
in Tibetan and traditional accounts.
Research papers will be invited from academia all over the world, on the
following sub–themes:
1. Biographies of Atīśa
2. His voyage to Sumatra/Suvarnadvipa
3. Challenges, vision and mission of Atīśa
4. Major activities and legacy of Atīśa
5. Contemporaries of Atīśa in India and Tibet
6. Atīśa as seen through visual arts
7. Relevance of the teachings of Atīśa today
RELEVANCE OF THE EVENT
The world today is suffering from ecological disaster, over advancement of
technology, fuelling greed hunger and violence. Values and social conventions are losing
ground. The man centered ideologies of conquest cannot save the suffering humanity.
Traditional spiritual beliefs and practices, along with socio political systems are a need of
the day as the world today needs technology and spirituality both, for a balance between
techno- and bio-spheres for harmony in life. The universe has to be conditioned by nobler
systems of the unison of the cosmic and the human for establishing peace in the world.
The essence of the teachings of Atīśa played a valuable role both for the monastic and
lay societies a millennium ago. Reminding and reviving them seems equally essential for
enhancing systems of our times. An international conference will bring the scholars from
world academia together in a sharing of minds to explore the ways for searching alternative
value systems.
