Atiśa

The greatest achievement is selflessness.
The greatest worth is self-mastery.
The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
The greatest precept is continual awareness.
The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways.
The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
The greatest patience is humility.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.
The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.
― Atiśa

Atiśa Dīpankara Śrījñāna (Bengali: অতীশ দীপংকর শ্রীজ্ঞান, romanized: ôtiś dīpôṅkôr śrigyen; 982–1054) was a Buddhist religious leader and master.^[2] He is generally associated with his work carried out at the Vikramashila monastery in Bihar.^[3] He was one of the major figures in the spread of 11th-century Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism in Asia and inspired Buddhist thought from Tibet to Sumatra. He is recognised as one of the greatest figures of medieval Buddhism. Atiśa's chief disciple, Dromtön, was the founder of the Kadam school,^[4] one of the New Translation schools of Tibetan Buddhism, later supplanted by the Gelug tradition in the 14th century which adopted its teachings and absorbed its monasteries.^[5]

In 2004, Atiśa was ranked 18th in the BBC's poll of the greatest Bengalis of all time.^[6]