Lama Zopa Rinpoche

When Jangchub Ö reported this to his uncle, the Dharma king said, “I will die in prison for
the sentient beings in Tibet and to spread pure Buddhism, so don’t give him even a handful
of gold. Take all the gold to India, offer it to Lama Atisha and invite him here.” The king
sent Atisha a message that he would meet him in his next life. Then the translator Nagtso
Lotsawa went to India carrying the gold. He offered it to Lama Atisha and explained all the
problems and misunderstandings prevalent in Tibet.
So Lama Atisha asked Tara, the female embodiment of all the numberless buddhas’ holy
actions, whether he should go to Tibet to spread the pure Buddhadharma. He often prayed
with great devotion to Tara for success, as did many great yogis, lamas, pandits, Sangha and
lay practitioners, because Tara had manifested specifically in order to fulfill the hopes and
wishes of sentient beings. Tara said, “Your time in Tibet will be highly beneficial but your
life will be shortened by seven years.” Lama Atisha replied, “I don’t mind if my life becomes
shorter, as long as it’s beneficial for Tibet.”
He then pretended he was going to Nepal on pilgrimage, not telling the monastery or the
Indian people that he was going to Tibet, because they would not have let him undertake
such a long journey. In that way he went to Tibet via Nepal.
When Lama Atisha arrived in Tibet, Jangchub Ö explained the situation fully to him, telling
him, “We Tibetans are very ignorant, so please explain refuge to us.” Jangchub Ö didn’t
request initiations or teachings on shunyata or other high teachings. This is what he requested
of Lama Atisha. Lama Atisha was extremely pleased, so he wrote a short text, the Lamp for
the Path to Enlightenment, in which he integrated all the teachings of Buddha into what has
become known as the graduated path to enlightenment. 17
He was able to condense the essence of the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha—all the
Hinayana teachings, the Mahayana sutra teachings and the Mahayana tantra teachings, the
three levels the Buddha taught—into a few pages. He made how to practice very clear,
without any contradiction between sutra and tantra practice, so people could practice both.
Those who practiced tantra could also practice sutra and those who practiced sutra could
also practice tantra. That helped so much.
In those days, before newly written works could be published they had to be checked by a
group of pandits. If a text was found to be correct it would be approved for publication but
if it had mistakes it would be tied to the tail of a dog, which would then be chased around
the city by people proclaiming the name of the disgraced author. So before making his text
available Atisha sent it to his monastery for review. The pandits there were extremely
surprised by the quality of Lama Atisha’s writing and praised him highly for writing it. 18
After that, many other great meditator lamas wrote commentaries on that first lam-rim
teaching according to the experiences they had had by reading, reflecting and meditating on
it. Lama Tsongkhapa, who was one of these, wrote the most elaborate commentary (the
Lamrim Chenmo, The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment), the Middle Length
Lam-rim, a short one called Songs of Spiritual Experience and, finally, the very short Three
Principal Aspects of the Path to Enlightenment. The term “lam-rim” comes from Lama Atisha’s
Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment.
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