The great founder of the lamrim teachings, the glorious Atisha was born in Bengal in eastern India in the tenth century. He was the son of the king of Sahor. At the age of ten, he studied the outer and inner sciences of grammar and logic. He renounced the kingdom and at the age of twenty-nine, he took ordination from Lama Dharmarakshita in the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodhgaya. He studied with thirty-four gurus, including Serlingpa, and became learned in the three collections of scriptures, gaining the renowned title of great pandit. He was enthroned as the abbot of Nalanda, Vikramashila, and Odantapuri. In Serling and other places, he mastered all the instructions on bodhicitta. In accordance with a prophecy made by the venerable Tara, he arrived in and for about fifteen years purified the teachings by extensively teaching and listening to the stages of the path.He was invited to Tibet by Lha Lama Jangchub Ö, a descendant of the Tibetan kings, and, in accordance with a prophecy from the goddessTārā. After arriving in Tibet in 1040, he carried out marvellous purifications of the teachings and extensive teachingfor about fifteen years and studied the stages of the path. Many holy beings endowed with both scholarship and accomplishment appeared in the land of China and Tibet, such as the three—Khutönkktön, and Dromtön—and NaktsoLotsāwaTsultrim Gyalwa. He wrote more than two hundredeses and sections of teachings, including the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, some sixty of which were also translated into Tibetan. He passed away in Nyethang, Tibet, at the age of seventy-three.