Kadam buddhism
Kadampa buddhism vs tibetan buddhism
History of buddhism in tibet...
The Kadam Tradition of Atisha*
The Kadam (Wylie: Bka’-gdams-pa) tradition was a Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist school. Dromtönpa, a Tibetan lay master and the foremost disciple of the great Indian Buddhist Master Atisha (982–1054), founded it and passed three lineages to his disciples.
The name kadam derives from “all the ka, or Buddha’s teachings, are dam, or instructions, for helping an indvidual to become enlightened” and shows “the style of teaching that Atisha established in Tibet.”¹ The pa refers to a person who follows this style of practice.
The Kadampas were quite famous and respected for their proper and earnest Dharma practice.
The most evident teachings of that tradition were the teachings on Bodhichitta (later these special presentations became known as Lojong[Blo-ljong]) and Lamrim (Stages of the Path) by Atisha. Atisha’s treatise the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment describes the stages of the Buddhist path for three types of individuals with di