ALL TIBETAN SOURCES agree that the origin of lojong, the Tibetan mind training teaching, lies in the life and work of the Indian Bengali teacher Atiśa (982–1054), especially during his twelve-year career in Tibet that began in 1042. Atiśa’s name came to be celebrated throughout the Tibetan plateau, for he is credited, to a large extent, with the revival of Buddhism in Tibet after its decline in the tenth century. Associated primarily with the famed Indian monastic university of Vikramalaśīla, Atiśa was a well-known scholar and teacher, a paṇḍita. Due to his fame, Atiśa came to be targeted by the rulers of the western kingdom of Ngari for invitation to teach in Tibet.
The story of the personal sacrifices, including a huge amount of gold as well the life of Lha Yeshé Ö, made by the Ngari rulers to bring Atiśa to Tibet, the skillful approaches of the Tibetan translators in cultivating Atiśa while at his Indian monastery, and how he came not only to western Tibet but central Tibet as well on the urging of his spiritual heir Dromtönpa are all well known and remain to this day a source of inspiration to many Tibetans. Atiśa’s contribution to the systematic revival of Buddhism in Tibet, both in terms of study and meditative instructions, remains unmatched. From collaboration in translating major Indian Buddhist works into Tibetan to teaching the key Indian classics, from composition and exposition of his Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment to works on philosophy and Vajrayana, and from teaching extensively to establishing a dedicated community of monks and laity, what Atiśa accomplished in his twelve years in Tibet was truly remarkable. Over time, Atiśa came to be referred to by his Tibetan followers as Jowo Jé, “sovereign lord,” as Lhachik, “the sole god,” or simply as Jowo, “the lord.”
The first of the two short works by Atiśa featured in our present anthology is his Bodhisattva’s Jewel Garland. This is a short work of twenty-six stanzas, composed ostensibly as a general instructional text for spiritual aspirants. Interestingly, almost all the verses of this work are found in another text by Atiśa, an epistle he wrote to the Indian king Nayapāla, a ruler of the Pallava dynasty of his time. That epistle, entitled Garland of Unblemished Precious Gems, is thought to have been composed when Atiśa was in Nepal, before his arrival in western Tibet. It appears that Atiśa prepared Bodhisattva’s Jewel Garland by drawing from his epistle to the king but tailoring it for his new Tibetan followers.
The central subject of this text is how to cultivate the way of life of a bodhisattva, both the appropriate outlook and attitude as well as the specifics of actual everyday practice. Those familiar with two seminal works of Indian Mahayana, Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland and Śantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, will recognize clear resonances of these two important texts in Atiśa’s short work. An overarching theme employed by Atiśa is the idea of seeking the “seven riches of the noble ones,” as opposed to mundane riches, to fulfill our ultimate aspiration for happiness. In evoking this notion of seven riches of the noble ones, Atiśa is drawing from canonical sources attributed to the Buddha, especially those in the Vinaya, or monastic discipline, collection. The seven are faith, ethical discipline, giving, learning, regard for others, self-respect, and insight.
Bodhisattva’s Jewel Garland does not speak of the key practice of “equalizing and exchanging of self and others” and the tonglen (giving and taking) practice based on that, and indeed Atiśa’s Jewel Garland does not at first appear to have been explicitly associated with the mind training genre. Only when Mind Training: The Great Collection was compiled in the fifteenth century did this short work of Atiśa become part of the mind training literature. Prior to this, Atiśa’s Jewel Garland was associated more with what came to be referred to as the “Kadam lineage of pith instructions,” an esoteric set of oral teachings that was transmitted by Atiśa through to Dromtönpa, who then passed it on to Phuchungwa, one the three Kadam brothers.
In this particular set of teachings, this short work of Atiśa became the root text of an entire system of teaching and pracitce that eventually came to be enshrined in a two-volume collection known as the Book of Kadam.17 On this reading, each of the stanzas of Atiśa’s text came to be the basis, more specifically a springboard, to an entire series of dialogues between Master Atiśa and Dromtönpa, all of which came to be compiled as the “Jewel Garland of Dialogues.” Furthermore, these stanzas also came to be used as an inspiration to delve into the narratives of Dromtönpa’s past lives—analogous to the Jātaka Tales that present the previous lives of the Buddha—during which he is said to have engaged in the relevant practices presented in these stanzas. This second set of teachings, Dromtönpa’s birth stories, came to be known as the Son Teachings of the Book of Kadam, while the first set of teachings is characterized as the Father Teachings.
The second of the two texts by Atiśa in our anthology is known simply as Root Lines of Mahayana Mind Training, which was discussed in the introduction. This is a collection of pithy sayings, each attributed to Master Atiśa, that later came to be compiled together with no particular structure. Unlike his Bodhisattva’s Jewel Garland, this work is directly connected with the emergence of lojong, the Tibetan mind training teaching, and is undeniably the basis for Chekawa’s famed Seven-Point Mind Training.
One of the beautiful things about Atiśa’s two seminal texts is that, like many of world’s great spiritual works, the sentiments, values, and contemplative practices presented in them have universal relevance and appeal, despite their origin in a very specific context of Mahayana Buddhism. Except for some specific elements, such as the pursuit of enlightenment as defined in a very particular way, not only can the key teachings be adopted by spiritual aspirants of different religious faiths, they can also be easily embraced and put into practice by people of no particular faith. In essence, the central message of these texts has a certain timeless quality.