Kagyu

The Kagyu lineages trace themselves back to the 11th century Indian Mahasiddhas Naropa, Maitripa and the yogini Niguma, via their student Marpa Lotsawa (1012–1097), who brought their teachings to Tibet.

This complex is what is normally known, inaccuratly, as the Bka' brgyud pa. Thu'u kwan Blo bzang chos kyi nyi ma sums up the matter: "In some later 'Brug pa texts the written form 'Dkar brgyud' indeed appears, because Mar pa, Mi la, Gling ras, and others wore only white cotton cloth.

Together Marpa, Milarepa and Gampopa are known as "Mar-Mi-Dag Sum" (Wylie: mar mi dwags gsum) and together these three are considered the founders of the Kagyu school of Buddhism in Tibet.

From his own teachers Tilopa received the Four Lineages of Instructions (Wylie: bka' babs bzhi),[a] which he passed on to Nāropa who codified them into what became known as the Six Doctrines or Six Dharmas of Naropa.

nāḍi, Wylie: rtsa) and energy-drops of the subtle vajra-body in order to achieve the four types of bliss, the clear-light mind and realize the state of Mahāmudrā.

The "distant lineage" of Mahāmudrā is said to have come from the Buddha in the form of Vajradara through incarnations of the bodhisattvas Avalokiteśvara and Mañjuśrī to Saraha, then from him through Nagarjuna, Shavaripa, and Maitripada to Marpa.

This was in sharp contrast to the tradition of Marpa and Milarepa which mainly consisted of non-monastic householder or hermit yogis practicing in solitary locations or hermitages.

Gampopa on the other hand, founded Daklha Gampo Monastery (Dwags lha sgam po) and thus allowed the Kagyu teachings to have established training centers and study curricula in a structured monastic setting which was well suited to the preservation of tradition.

Following Gampopa's teachings, there evolved the so-called "Four Major and Eight Minor" lineages of the Dagpo (sometimes rendered "Tagpo" or "Dakpo") Kagyu School.

[13] Rangjung Dorje, 3rd Karmapa Lama, was an important figure because he received and preserved Dzogchen teachings from Rigdzin Kumaradza and taught this along with Kagyu Mahamudra.

The Karma Kagyu school itself has three sub-schools in addition to the main branch:[16] The Barom Kagyu was founded by Gampopa's disciple Barompa Darma Wangchuk (Wylie: 'ba' rom pa dar ma dbang phyug, 1127–1199–1200), who established the Nak River Barom Riwoche Monastery (Wylie: nag chu 'ba' rom ri bo che) in 1160.

This school was popular in the Principality of Nangchen in Kham (modern Nangqên County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, southern Qinghai) where it has survived in one or two pockets to the present day.

[17] Lama Zhang was a disciple of Gampopa's nephew Dagpo Gomtsul Tsultim Nyingpo (Wylie: dwags sgom tshul khrims snying po, 1116–1169).

The Phagmo Drupa Kagyu (Tibetan: ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད, Wylie: phag mo gru pa bka' brgyud) or Phagdru Kagyu (ཕག་གྲུ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད) was founded by Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo (Tibetan: ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྒྱལ་པོ, Wylie: phag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po, 1110–1170) who was the elder brother of the famous Nyingma lama Ka Dampa Deshek (1122–1192) founder of Katok Monastery.

Before meeting Gampopa, Dorje Gyalpo studied with Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (sa chen kun dga' snying po) (1092–1158) from whom he received lamdre transmission.

[19] From 1435 to 1481 the power of the Phagmodrupa declined and they were eclipsed by the Rinpungpa (Wylie: rin spungs pa) of Tsang, who patronized the Karma Kagyu.

Since the 15th century the Drikung Kagyupa received influence from the "northern terma" (Wylie: byang gter) teachings of the Nyingma tradition.

Lingre Kagyu refers to the lineages founded by Lingrepa Pema Dorje (Wylie: gling ras pa padma rdo rje) [1128-1188][21] also known as Nephupa after Nephu monastery (sna phu dgon) he founded near Dorje Drak (rdo rje brag) in Central Tibet (dbus).

Later, Tsangpa Gyare went to a place called Nam Phu where, legend has it, nine roaring dragons rose from the ground and soared into the sky.

[22] The Shuksep Kagyu emphasized the Mahamudra teachings of the dohas, spiritual songs of realization by Indian masters such as Saraha, Shavaripa, Tilopa, Naropa and Maitripa.

The tradition was developed by their nephew, Thropu Lotsawa, who invited Pandit Shakyasri of Kashmir, Buddhasri and Mitrayogin to Tibet.

[25] Other notable teachers of this tradition include Chegompa Sherab Dorje (1130?-1200)[26] The Yazang Kagyu (Wylie: g.ya' bzang bka' brgyud) founded by Sharawa Kalden Yeshe Sengge (d. 1207).

The Dagpo school and its branches primarily came from the lineage of the Indian siddhas Tilopa and Naropa transmitted in Tibet through Marpa, Milarepa, Gampopa and their successors.

In contrast, the Shangpa lineage descended from two female siddhas, Naropa's consort Niguma[29] and Virupa's disciple Sukhasiddhi, transmitted in Tibet in the 11th century through Khyungpo Nenjor.

[31] In Shentong, this absolute reality (i.e. Buddha nature) is the "ground or substratum" which is "uncreated and indestructible, noncomposite and beyond the chain of dependent origination.

[34] In his Chariot of the Takpo Kagyü Siddhas, Mikyö Dorje attacks the shentong view of Dolpopa as being against the sutras of ultimate meaning which state that all phenomena are emptiness as well as being against the treatises of the Indian masters.

This doctrine focuses on four principal stages (the Four Yogas of Mahamudra), namely: The central tantric deities of the Kagyu schools are Cakrasaṃvara and his consort Vajravārāhī.