Atisha
A biography of the renowned Buddhist sage
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Translated by Thubten Kelsang Rinpoche and Ngodrub
Paljor, with John Blofeld. First published by the Social
Science Association Press of Thailand, Bangkok, in 1974.
Reprinted by Mahayana Publications, Tushita Mahayana
Meditation Centre, New Delhi, 1983, 1984. ISBN 0 86171
015 0.
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Contents
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Translators’ Preface
This volume consists of a complete translation from the
Tibetan of The Biography of Atisha by Gurugana Dharmakaranama,
together with extracts from The Spread of Buddhism in Tibet
compiled by the Tibetan Teachers' Training College at Dharamsala,
India, which have been added to make the story complete by
giving an account of Atisha's visit to Tibet.
Atisha, an Indian monk of royal birth, who was born in 980
A.D., entered Tibet in the year 1038 and died near Lhasa in
1052 A.D. The author of a great number of learned works and
founder of the Kadampa sect from which the present-day Gelugpa
sect is derived, he is so profoundly reverenced for his wisdom
that Tibetans regard him as an incarnation of Manjushri Bodhisattva.
Above all he is honored for purifying Tibetan Buddhism of
certain doubtful tendencies and restoring the great Mahayana
doctrine in its pristine purity.
Part of the charm and interest of this book lies in its
being an authentic example of Tibetan historical writings.
The reverential approach tends to poetic truth rather than
to historical accuracy, but it would be wrong to treat the
more fabulous incidents as having no foundation in fact. For
example, the picturesque passage in which Atisha's companion,
Bhumisara, is depicted as destroying the palace of a heretical
goddess and gravely injuring Maheshvara, King of Heretics,
besides obliterating the black tent of the Bonpo King of the
Shangshung by hurling thunderbolts upon them from the ocean
where his ship was becalmed, is not intended to be taken literally,
but to represent the prowess of Atisha and his companions
in rooting out false teachings that obscured the light of
the Dharma. For the rest, the book contains many passages
of great beauty, some edifying discourses in the Dharma and
some delightful poetry of which much of the excellence has
been lost in the process of translation.
The method used to render the work into English resembles,
in a very humble way, that of the great translators who translated
the Mahayana Canon from Sanskrit into Tibetan. That is to
say, it is the work of a team consisting of people with different
sets of qualifications. One of us has a scholarly knowledge
of Tibetan and a fair command of English; another is an English
writer with a knowledge of Buddhism and some acquaintance
with the Tibetan background; the third possesses an adequate
knowledge of both languages. First a very literal translation
was made, then the English was refined, after which the resulting
text was compared very carefully with the original and all
the obvious errors eliminated. Our purpose has been to make
the English rendering as faithful as possible to the Tibetan
within the limits imposed by the very different nature of
the two languages. Here and there, the order of words has
been changed slightly to accord with the demands of English
style and syntax, but changes of this sort have been kept
to a bare minimum.
We have undertaken this work to pay honor to a great Buddhist
sage whose work has been of incalculable benefit to the Tibetan
people. We are very conscious of our own shortcomings and
crave forgiveness for whatever errors and inadequacies there
may be. May the Buddha Dharma flourish and may the name of
the great Atisha be long remembered in this world!
Bangkok, summer 1973
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