LAMA ATISHA AND THE LAM RIM

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Mandala Magazine all Updates   Lama Atisha and the Lam-rim Oct 07, 2014 12:38 pm Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the public talk at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, September 20, 2014. Photo by Kunchok Gyaltsen. When Lama Atisha went to Tibet, he was told about all the problems there, Lama Zopa Rinpoche recounted during the public teaching at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion on September 20, 2014. “Then Lama Atisha wrote a text integrating all Buddha’s teachings into a few pages,” Rinpoche said. “It is called Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment. The text was sent to India to be checked. The pandits were so surprised. At that time if a text had mistakes, they would tie it on the tail of a dog and it would be taken around the city. At that time they did like that, but they were so surprised that Lama Atisha had integrated all Buddha’s teachings in the three pages of the Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment, the graduated path to enlightenment — the name started from this text — so graduated path of lower capable being, graduated path of middle capable being, and graduated path of higher capable being. So all the Buddha’s teachings are in those three, embodied in the lam-rim, the graduated path to enlightenment. “The graduated path of lower capable being, oh, that one is to not harm others, that instruction goes: do not harm others. Then the graduated path of middle capable being, oh, that teaching is also to not harm others, mainly it is to not harm others. Now the teaching of graduated path of higher capable being is to benefit others. So lam-rim, what Lama Atisha wrote, all the Buddha’s teachings comes down to not harming others and benefiting others. The right view of Buddhism is dependent arising and the action is to not harm others. That is included in Lama Atisha’s teachings, everything is included there: to not harm others and to benefit others.” You can watch a video of this teaching on FPMT’s Livestream page. Quote taken from the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s public talk at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, September 20, 2014. Lightly edited by Mandala. More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.