Lama Zopa Rinpoche

contained in the Tengyur, a collection of more than two hundred volumes. This is what
came from India to Tibet. In that way, there is a vast and pure lineage within Tibetan
Buddhism that can be referenced back to the Buddha himself. It’s not like some black magic
made up by Tibetan lamas.
Before Buddhism came to Tibet there was the Bön religion. There were the black Bönpos,
which I think was a form of shamanism, and the white Bönpos, whose teachings seem
similar in subject to dzog-chen but using different language. The founder of the Bönpo was
Yungdrung Tonpa. I don’t know if the white Bönpos take refuge in him but he is not a
buddha. It’s like in Hinduism there are Shiva and Maheshwara and other deities who are not
buddhas. 16
The teachings of most of the lineage lamas of the four Tibetan traditions can be traced back
to Nalanda, so we can say that Buddhadharma in Tibet, both sutra and tantra, came from
Nalanda and, therefore, the Buddha.
After Padmasambhava subdued all the spirits in the different important places of Tibet and
they became Dharma protectors, Buddhadharma spread, mainly in the monasteries, where
there was extensive study, as deep and wide as the Pacific Ocean. From the commentaries by
the Nalanda pandits, the great Tibetan teachers wrote their own commentaries. The many
enlightened beings from all of the four traditions, such as Lama Tsongkhapa, all studied
extensively, listening, reflecting, meditating and then actualizing the path. After that, they
wrote commentaries based on their own experiences and taught others the path that they
themselves had practiced and actualized.
At that time there were a great many lay practitioners and ordained Sangha living in caves.
There were so many caves that the mountains were like ants’ nests. Now so much has been
destroyed or has become old and ruined. I didn’t see the whole of Tibet when I went there,
only that which was on the way to Lhasa, but in the early times it must have been amazing.
These great lamas actualized the whole path to enlightenment, the extensive study, the
middle study and the heart study. The Kadampa geshes started with Lama Atisha, the great
pandit who in the eleventh century was invited from India to Tibet to make Buddhism pure
again when its practice in Tibet had degenerated and there was much misunderstanding of
tantra. People felt that if they practiced sutra they could not practice tantra and vice versa.
There was much confusion.
Seeing this, the Dharma king of Tibet, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö, collected gold to offer to Lama
Atisha in order to invite him to Tibet. He first sent the translator Gyatsoen Senge to India
but he could not meet Lama Atisha and was therefore unable to invite him.
The second time, while Lha Lama Yeshe Ö was looking for more gold to offer Atisha, he
was captured by an irreligious king and put into prison. In order to free his uncle, his
nephew, Jangchub Ö, offered the gold meant for Lama Atisha but the irreligious king said
that there wasn’t enough, that gold the size of the king’s head was still missing and that to
free the king he had to be offered gold the size of the king’s body plus his head.
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