Phagmodrupa Dorje Gyalpo, one of the four main students of Gampopa and founder of the Phagdru Kagyü school, asked Gampopa, “Did the qualities emerge in your mind more likely through the practice of Inner Heat (tib.: Tummo) or through the practice of the Great Seal (skt.: Mahamudra)?”
Gampopa answered, “All the arisen qualities in me trace back to the meditations referring to these transmissions. But first of all, they appeared through the blessing of the development of devotion and the practice in accordance with everything that Milarepa had told me.”
Gampopa
1079 - 1153
Gampopa unified the stepwise path of the Kadampa tradition, with which he had grown up with the meditations focused on Mahamudra, which he had learned from Milarepa, from whom he received the full Kagyü transmission.
Also, the Ngöndro idea had its origin in Gampopa or rather in Milarepa, who showed his scarred behind to him in the moment of goodbye. Gampopa understood the information: “Meditate!” and increasingly instructed his students to practice on one of the meditations we now call Ngöndro. Both Gampopa’s students and he himself had long periods of time to practice in solitude.
In addition, as a monk, Gampopa rounded off the picture of the three types of practitioners at the beginning of the Karma Kagyü lineage: he was a monk, his teacher Milarepa a yogi and Marpa a layman.
Gampopa was born in Nyang Dam, south of Dagpo in Tibet. He was the son of a physician who became a medical doctor himself. He married in his early twenties and fathered two children. Several years later, an epidemic took both children. His wife fell sick of the same disease, and despite his medical capabilities he wasn’t able to cure her. When she died, she begged him not to marry again, but to become a monk.
“Consider everyone you meet as the Buddha and you will know 10,000 buddhas.”
So, after her death, Gampopa became a novice in the Kadampa tradition, following his father’s example. Working with many masters, he achieved a high degree of proficiency in theory and practice. Yet one day, he overheard a conversation about a yogi called Milarepa. Feeling a surge of devotion and understanding that this must be his true teacher, he set out on a difficult but ultimately successful search to find him.
“Do not follow after the past; do not go forward to meet the future. Instead, just rest the mind naturally in the present awareness.”
He not only became Milarepa’s disciple but was also entrusted with the complete Kagyü transmission. In Dagpo, in southeast Tibet he founded the hermitage of Daglha Gampo where he attracted many disciples from whom the four “major” Kagyü branches were to come into being. That was when he included the stepwise path from the Kadampa transmission into the Kagyü tradition. The branches spread Gampopa’s dharma system of the two streams of Mahamudra and Kadam throughout Tibet.
Gampopa had approximately 51,600 students but only 500 received the Mahamudra teachings and only five of them the complete transmission of the Diamond Way. Among the five, Düsum Khyenpa, the first Karmapa, was the founder of the Karma Kagyü school, one of the four major Kagyü branches. The others were Gampo Tsültrim Nyingpo (often called Gomtsul), Phakmo Trupa Dorje Gyalpo, Saltong Shogam (whose later incarnations became known as the Traleg Rinpoches) and Barom Dharma Wangchuk.
STORY
Development of Devotion
STORY
Gampopa, summarizing the four Mahamudra-stages (each of them is subdivided into ‘lesser, average and great attainment’)
“A lucid, unceasing, momentary awareness is the one-pointed stage of yoga.
Understanding the essential state of that awareness as non-arising [emptiness], which transcends conceptual modes of reality and unreality, is the non-discriminatory yoga [of simplicity].
Understanding diverse appearances as being one from the standpoint of their intrinsic nature is one-flavor yoga.
An unceasing realization of the union of appearance and its intrinsic emptiness is the great equipoise of the non-meditation yoga.”
STORY
Previous Lives of Gampopa
It is said that in previous lives Gampopa already was a bodhisattva – even before the third Buddha Dipankara. There his name was Lotus Guru. During the time of the third Buddha, he was called Beautiful Moon Flower. He also benefited beings during Buddha Shakyamuni’s times (with the name the New Moon Healer) because he was a gifted physician.
Once, when Buddha Shakyamuni was staying at Vulture’s peak near Rajgir, the New Moon Healer invited Buddha and his disciples to his home. He requested of Buddha to give a teaching. Thereupon Buddha gave the famous Samadhiraja Sutra where he – among others – also prophesized the Karmapas. At the end of the teaching, Buddha asked for volunteers who wanted to spread the Dharma “in difficult times in the snowlands (Tibet).” The New Moon Healer promised Buddha to do it in the snow country in the north.
When Gampopa was leaving his root lama, Milarepa, Gampopa received the deepest and most important teachings at the very end – he was asked to meditate a lot. Gampopa promised his teacher, seeing him for the last time in his life.
Despite his promise, Gampopa faced a difficult situation: He had approximately 51,600 students altogether. Among them were around 900 yogis and yoginis and he had to take care of them. So it seemed that he hardly had time to meditate. But he recalled the Kadampa teachings he had received from his late father – the stepwise path; he also remembered the four individual meditations which were much later called Ngöndro: Besides Shinay and Yidam meditations, he gave to many of his students a single meditation of the four. Since they could practice these four meditations alone without a teacher being around all the time, Gampopa was able to retreat to the mountains in solitude for short periods of time to meditate and thus keep the promise that he had given Milarepa.
“The Six Perfections (= Six Liberating Actions) are not distinct from each other; each one is within all the others. They are the union of method and wisdom. Know that the action of giving and its karmic result are like dreams and illusions. Know that all Six Perfections are like dreams and illusions. When performing the perfection of generosity, for instance, do so without objectifying even the perfection of generosity itself. For it has been stated in the Buddha’s teachings that: The path is to be practiced in an objectless manner”.
Key Transmissions
Received Transmissions (an excerpt)
Mahamudra
Six Teachings of Naropa (including Father, Mother and Non-Dual Tantras)
Additional Given Transmissions (an excerpt)
among others, he taught his students to practice one of the four meditations we now call Ngöndro
He combined the Kadam monastic and scholastic traditions with Indian Mahasiddha practices brought to Tibet by Marpa
Gampopa combined absolute Bodhicitta practice with Mahamudra
Due to his Kadampa transmission, he introduced the stepwise path into the Karma Kagyü lineage combining Kadampa Lamrim teachings with the Mahamudra teachings he had received from Milarepa
The Jewel Ornament of Liberation
The Four Dharmas of Gampopa
See The Collected Works of Je Gampopa: ‚Raw‘ Instructions (Mar Tri), Dharma Gatherings (Tshog Cho), Mahamudra, Vajrayogini, Jewel Ornaments and Pearl Garlands [Compilation of extant editions and translated; English outline of Gampopa’s collected works])
Additional Special Abilities
medicine
- Key-instructions how to conquer death
- Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way (Mūlamādhyamakakārikā or Madhyamaka)
- Mahamudra-Transmission in meditation/in a vision from Ratnamati in Southern India (where Ratnamati had lived)
- Tripitaka-texts (Triple Basket)
- Seventy Verses on Emptiness (Shunyatasapati)
- Two Truths Doctrine - about relative and absolute level (= level with delusion and level without delusion)“
- Six Collections on Reasoning (text)
- Root Verses on the Middle Way, called "Discriminating Awareness"
- Precious Garland
- Refutation of Objections
- Seventy Verses on Emptiness
- Sutra Called “Finely Woven”
- Sixty Verses of Reasoning
- Collections of Praises (text)
- Praise to the Sphere of Reality
- Praise to the Deepest Truth
- Praise to the Supramundane (Buddha)
- Collections of Didactic Explanations (text)
- A Commentary on (the Two) Bodhichittas
- Selected text-collection of Sutras
- Letter to a Friend
- all Mahakali and Mahakala-Tantras
- Guyhasamaja-Tantras
- Della Santina, Peter: Causality and Emptiness: The Wisdom of Nāgārjuna, Singapore: Buddha Dharma Education Association, 2002
- Garfield, Jay L. (1995), The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way.Oxford: Oxford University Press
- Garfield, Jay L. and Graham Priest (2003), “Nāgārjuna and the Limits of Thought”, Philosophy East and West 53 (January 2003): 1-21
- Hopkins, Jeffrey: Buddhist Advice for Living and Liberation: Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland, Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 199
- Jones, Richard H. (2014): Nagarjuna: Buddhism's Most Important Philosopher, 2nd ed. New York: Jackson Square Books
- Kalupahana, David J. (1986): The Philosophy of the Middle Way. Albany: SUNY Press
- Lindtner, Christian (1982): Nagarjuniana: Studies in the Writings and Philosophy of Nāgārjuna Akademisk forlag
- Murty, K. Satchidananda (1971), Nagarjuna. National Book Trust, New Delhi. 2nd edition: 1978
- Ruegg, D. Seyfort (1981): The literature of the Madhyamaka school of philosophy in India (A History of Indian literature), Harrassowitz
- Siderits, Mark and Shōryū Katsura, 2013: Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way. Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Boston: Wisdom Publications
- Tuck, Andrew P. (1990), Comparative Philosophy and the Philosophy of Scholarship: on the Western Interpretation of Nāgārjuna, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- Walser, Joseph (2005), Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture. New York: Columbia University Press
- Westerhoff, Jan (2009), Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka. A Philosophical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Historical events at this time
Foundation of the Kadampa Tradition (1042-1054)
Teaching activities of the great Indian scholar Atisha Dipankara (982-1054) in Tibet. He and his foremost tibetan disciple Dromtönpa (Dromtön Gyelwé Jungné, 1005–1064) where the main founders of the Kadampa tradition, which subsequently influenced all schools of Tibetan Buddhism (e.g. the idea of a so-called ‚stepwise path‘ came into the Kagyü tradition via Atisha, Gampopa’s father and Gampopa). It especially emphasized compassion, discipline and study. More specific Tantric transmissions Atisha passed on only to a few selected students. More than 350 years later, the new Gelugpa School emerged from the Kadampa transmission.
Foundation of the Sakya Lineage (1073)
After many years of studies in India (e.g. with the mahasiddha Virupa) Drogmi Shakya Yeshe (992-1072/74) returned to Tibet and started to teach. 1073 one of his students was Khön Khönchok Gyalpo (1034-1102), who is known as the founder of the Sakya-lineage,
founded the Sakya-monastery in Southern Tibet. The Name „Sakya“ means "pale earth“. It derives from the distinctive grey landscape of the Ponpori Hills where the Monastery is located. The Sakya school is particularly known for the Lamdré ("Path with Its Fruit") teaching, a system of meditation instructions associated with the Hevajra Tantra, which was received from the Indian master Virupa. The tradition emphasizes both study and practice.
Foundation of the Tsurphu monastery (1189)
The 1st Karmapa gave the order to build the main seat for all future Karmapas around ten years before passing away.
Invasion of Turkic Muslims in Northeast India (1197-1206)
The Invasion of Turkic Muslims 1197 in Northeast India by Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalj led to the destruction of the famous Nalanda and other Buddhist universities. Persecution and systematic killing of monks in the area. De facto the end of Buddhism in India, besides a few isolated communities in Southern India and Kashmir.
Around 1200 Buddhism was wiped out at a large extent in India
After a couple of Muslim-invasions it was not possible anymore to travel to India for Buddhist studies, the Tibetan Buddhism started to develop independently. The full transmission within the Karma Kagyü Lineage still existed.
13th century
In our tradition the principle of succession through reincarnation was evolved. The 2nd Karmapa revealed himself as the rebirth of Düsum Khyenpa in the early 13th century (the lineage-holder Pomdrakpa had found the prediction-letter, which was in the hands of the Tsurphu abbott (who has forgotten about it); Shamar Tulku became a second lineage of rebirths during the 14th century. The tulku system in all other traditions appeared later.
1292 Marco Polo visited India around 1292-1294 during his return journey from China to Europe.
The Mongols under Genghis Khan appear on the borders of Tibet
The Tibetan princes decide to pay tribute to the Mongols in order to secure peace (for 20 years) .
Mongols conquered Tibet
1240: Mongol ruler Godan Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan invaded and conquered Tibet with 30.000 troops, looting monasteries and caused many victims.
1244 Godan Khan considered religion a tool to control people. He wrote a letter to Sakya Pandita dema nding him to travel to Mongolia. The lama understood he could not decline the “offer” and traveled to the curt of the Khan in Lanzhou (Gansu), where he arrived in 1247. He was accompanied by Phagpa Lama, his nephew. Godan obviously was personally impressed by the Sakya Pandita and became his student. The Khan died shortly after the Sakya Pandita. His cousin Kublai Khan followed him on the throne. Thus a special relationship is installed which secured the supremacy of the Sakya-School in Tibet, the troops returned and annexed Kha m and Amdo.
1247 Godan Khan bestows Sakya Pandita with the right to rule over the 13 Myriarchies (districts) of Tibet: reconstruction of (more or less) centralized rule over major parts of the country.
1254 Kublai Khan became a student of Chogyal Phagpa Rinpoche (1235 – 1280), the nephew of Sakya Pandita. Kublai made Phagpa the ruler or regent, ‘Desi’, of Tibet.
1281 Mongols controlled China completely under the Yuan Dynasty (1281-1368)
1287 A revolt of the Drikung Kagyüs with the support of Duwa Khan ended in 1290 when the Sakyas and Eastern Mongols burned down Drikung monastery and killed many people.
Further Information
Gampopa: "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation – The Wish-Fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings", Snow Lion Publications Ithaka/New York 1998
Gampopa: "Gems Of Dharma – Jewels Of Freedom", Altea Publishing 1996
Duff, Tony: "Gampopa Teaches Essence Mahamudra I – Interviews With His Heart Disciples", Düsum Khyenpa And Others, Kindle Edition 2014
Duff, Toni: "Gampopa’s Mahamudra – The Five Part Mahamudra Of The Kagyüs", Padma Karpa Translation 2003
Jampa Mackenzie Stewart: "The Life Of Gampopa", Snow Lion 2004
Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche: "The Four Dharmas Of Gampopa", Kindle Edition 2013
