The transmission
Gampopa Sonam Rinchen (1079-1153) was a Tibetan master regarded as the patriarch of the Dagpo Kagyu lineage. He first trained as a physician, earning the epithet “the Physician of Dagpo,” and entered the dharma after the death of his wife, studying the graduated-path teachings of the Kadam school founded in Atisa’s tradition.
He then became the foremost disciple of the great yogi Milarepa, from whom he received the direct, experiential transmission of Mahamudra, the “great seal” pointing to the nature of mind itself. Gampopa’s lasting achievement was to unite these two streams.
His treatise The Jewel Ornament of Liberation combines the systematic, stage-by-stage Kadam path with the immediacy of Mahamudra realization, so that students first ground themselves in the graduated cultivation of the mind and only then are introduced to the direct recognition of mind’s nature.
For the mind-power lineage, Gampopa models a crucial integration: the patient, methodical training of mental qualities joined to the sudden, direct seeing into awareness itself. From his teaching descended all the Dagpo Kagyu schools, including the Karma Kagyu and its Karmapa lineage.
What they gave
Synthesis of paths: United the graduated Kadam mind-training with the direct realization of Mahamudra.
- Jewel Ornament of Liberation: Authored the foundational Kagyu treatise mapping the full path to awakening.
- Mahamudra transmission: Carried Milarepa’s direct pointing to the nature of mind into an institutional teaching lineage.
- Lineage founder: Became the source of the Dagpo Kagyu schools and the Karmapa line.
In their words
The mind is the sovereign, and the body and speech are the servants.
Generally speaking, virtue and nonvirtue depend entirely on one’s mental motivation.
Therefore, this mind is the foundation for training.
When can this confusion be transformed into primordial wisdom? When one attains unsurpassable enlightenment.
Therefore, from today onward, you should make as much effort as possible to achieve unsurpassable enlightenment.
Therefore, one should practice loving-kindness and compassion.
Awareness of the impermanence of all composite phenomena leads one to release attachment to this life.
The line they stand in
Influenced by: Milarepa, from whom he received Mahamudra; the Kadam school in Atisa’s lineage; the Indian Mahamudra transmission via Marpa and Naropa.
- Influenced: The Dagpo Kagyu schools (Karma Kagyu, Drikung, Drukpa); the Karmapa lineage; Tibetan Mahamudra teaching; the lasting model of staged training joined to direct realization.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- The Jewel Ornament of Liberationc.1120