Düsum Khyenpa (1110–1193) was the 1st Gyalwa Karmapa

Karmapa

The Karmapa is the head of the Karma Kagyu, the largest sub-school of the Kagyupa , itself one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism....

, head of the Karma Kagyu

Karma Kagyu

Karma Kagyu , or Kamtsang Kagyu, is probably the largest and certainly the most widely practiced lineage within the Kagyu school, one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The lineage has long-standing monasteries in Tibet, China, Russia, Mongolia, India, Nepal, and Bhutan, and current...

 (ka rma bka’ brgyud) school of Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...

.

Düsum Khyenpa literally means "Knower of the Three times" (or past, present and future). It was given to him to refer to knowledge of the three forms of time he gained at enlightenment including the "timeless time" of enlightened awareness.

He was born to a devout family of Buddhist practitioners in Teshö in eastern Tibet and was called Gephel as a child. He first studied with his father and then continued training with other Buddhist teachers in the region.

He was a gifted child who studied and practiced Dharma

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 intently from an early age. Already quite learned by the age of twenty, he became a monk and studied the sutras and tantra intensively for a further ten years. At thirty, he went to Daklha Gampo -- Gampopa

Gampopa

Gampopa Sonam Rinchen "Sonam Rinchen from Gampo" — who was equally well known in Tibet as Dagpo Lhaje , Nyamed Dakpo Rinpoche , and Da'od Zhonnu , — establishedthe Kagyu school, one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism today, as an...

's monastery—to receive teachings from him. Although this was a historic meeting of two great Buddhist bodhisattva

Bodhisattva

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...

s emanating on Earth with a profound purpose, Gampopa nevertheless first made Dusum Khyenpa train formally in the foundation practices of the Kadampa

Kadampa

The Kadampa tradition was a Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist school. Dromtönpa, a Tibetan lay master and the foremost disciple of the great Indian Buddhist Master Atisha , founded it and passed three lineages to his disciples. The Kadampa were quite famous and respected for their proper and earnest...

 tradition and, following that, in the general philosophy of the sutras.

This set a fine example for all future Kagyu followers and showed the need for the correct basis of knowledge even when—especially when—one does the most powerful of Vajrayana practices.

The first Karmapa received empowerments and instruction in the Hevajra tantra and spent four years in strict retreat, training in the peaceful stability (shamatha) and profound insight (vipaśyanā

Vipassana

Vipassanā or vipaśyanā in the Buddhist tradition means insight into the true nature of reality. A regular practitioner of Vipassana is known as a Vipassi . Vipassana is one of the world's most ancient techniques of meditation, the inception of which is attributed to Gautama Buddha...

) aspects of meditation. He then received the full transmission of the inner instructions of the Kagyu

Kagyu

The Kagyu, Kagyupa, or Kagyud school, also known as the "Oral Lineage" or Whispered Transmission school, is today regarded as one of six main schools of Himalayan or Tibetan Buddhism, the other five being the Nyingma, Sakya, Jonang, Bon and Gelug...

 tradition. In nine days he absorbed what Naropa

Naropa

thumb|right|NaropaNāropā was an Indian Buddhist yogi, mystic and monk. He was the disciple of Tilopa and brother, or some sources say partner and pupil, of Niguma. Naropa was the main teacher of Marpa, the founder of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism...

 had received over 12 years from Tilopa

Tilopa

Tilopa was born in either Chativavo , Bengal or Jagora, Bengal in India. He was a tantric practitioner and mahasiddha. He developed the mahamudra method, a set of spiritual practices that greatly accelerates the process of attaining bodhi...

. Rechungpa, the 'moon-like' disciple of Milarepa

Milarepa

Jetsun Milarepa , is generally considered one of Tibet's most famous yogis and poets. He was a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a major figure in the history of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.- Life :...

, also instructed him, principally in the Six Yogas of Naropa

Six Yogas of Naropa

The Six Yogas of Nāropa , also called the six dharmas of Naropa and Naro's six doctrines , are a set of advanced Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tantric practices and a meditation sādhana compiled in and around the...

. His attainment in one of these -- tummo

Tummo

Tummo is one of the methods of the Kagyu Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism used to recognize the ultimate nature of reality...

, inner-heat—was particularly boosted by his own natural compassion and produced rapid results. Following his teacher's instruction he then went away to meditate.

Gampopa eventually died and Dusum Khyenpa returned to Daklha Gampo to honor his remains. He had a powerful vision of his teacher and knew that it was time to implement one of his final instructions: to go to the place where he would achieve enlightenment—Kampo Kangra—and there to practice mahamudra

Mahamudra

Mahāmudrā literally means "great seal" or "great symbol." It "is a multivalent term of great importance in later Indian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism" which "also occurs occasionally in Hindu and East Asian Buddhist esotericism."The name refers to the way one who...

. He promised that he would live until the age of 84, in order to benefit the Dharma

Dharma

Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...

. He achieved enlightenment at the age of fifty, while practicing dream yoga

Dream yoga

Dream Yoga or Milam — the Yoga of the Dream State are a suite of advanced tantric sadhana of the entwined Mantrayana lineages of Dzogchen...

. He had a vision at that time of the celestial beings (dakini

Dakini

A dakini is a tantric deity described as a female embodiment of enlightened energy. In the Tibetan language, dakini is rendered khandroma which means 'she who traverses the sky' or 'she who moves in space'. Sometimes the term is translated poetically as 'sky dancer' or 'sky walker'. The dakini, in...

s) offering him a vajra

Vajra

Vajra is a Sanskrit word meaning both thunderbolt and diamond...

 crown woven from their hair. His name—Dusum Khyenpa—means 'Knower of the Past, Present and Future', referring to the total lucidity

Lucidity

Lucidity may refer to:*In common usage, intelligibility, brightness or sanity*Awareness of the dream stage; see Lucid dreaming*Lucidity , a 2006 album by Delain...

 he attained at enlightenment, giving him knowledge of the three modes of time, and the 'timeless time' of enlightened awareness.

From then onwards his teaching activity was intense. At the age of 58 he founded a monastery at Kampo Nenang. He later established an important seat at Karma Gon

Karma Gon

Karma Gon Monastery, the original monastery of the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, was founded in the 12th century by Düsum Khyenpa, the 1st Karmapa Lama in eastern Tibet at the age of 76....

 in eastern Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

 and, at the age of 74, another seat at Tsurphu in central Tibet, in the valley of the Tolung, which feeds into the Brahmaputra. It is interesting to note, in the light of the 16th Karmapa's prediction letter, that the abbot of the Buddhist monastery at Bodh Gaya, in India, the place of the Buddha's enlightenment, sent a conch shell to Dusum Khyenpa at Tsurphu, as a token of the latter's significance for buddhadharma. This conch shell symbolism is found in many stories of the sixteen Karmapas.

The first Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa, made predictions about future Karmapas. In particular, he was the first Karmapa to present a prediction letter detailing his future incarnation. He gave it to his main disciple, Drogon Rechen, predecessor of the Tai Situpa

Tai Situpa

In Tibetan Buddhism the Tai Situpa is one of the oldest lineages of tulkus in the Kagyu school. According to tradition, the Tai Situpa is an emanation of the bodhisattva Maitreya, who will become the next Buddha, and who has been incarnated as numerous Indian and Tibetan yogins since the time of...

 line (they were only called Tai Situ after this title was conferred by the Chinese emperor in the early 15th century). He died at the age of 84, as predicted. His heart was found intact in the funeral pyre and some of his remaining bones bore self manifesting symbols or simulacra of Buddhas. (The similarities with the passing of the 16th Karmapa are remarkable.) Among his other main disciples were Tak-lungpa, founder of the Ta-lung Kagyu, Tsangpa Gyare

Tsangpa Gyare

The great ascetic Drogon Tsangpa Gyare was the main disciple of Lingchen Repa Pema Dorj and the founder of the Drukpa Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism the main or central branch of which was, until the 17th Century, transmitted by his hereditary family lineage at Ralung in the Tsang region of western...

, founder of the Drukpa Kagyu (now widespread in Bhutan

Bhutan

Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...

) and Lama Khadampa Deshek, founder of the Katok Nyingma lineage.

The forefathers in the Kagyu lineage are known as the "Golden Rosary." The lineage of the Kagyu emphasizes the continuity of oral instructions passed on from master to student. The principal student who held the lineage of the Golden Rosary from the First Karmapa was Drogon Rechen.

An ink and gouache

Gouache

Gouache[p], also spelled guache, the name of which derives from the Italian guazzo, water paint, splash or bodycolor is a type of paint consisting of pigment suspended in water. A binding agent, usually gum arabic, is also present, just as in watercolor...

 drawing of Düsum Khyenpa http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/secrets-of-the-seated-buddha/ was found in a statue of the Buddha and is in the Victoria and Albert Museum

Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...

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External links

• The First Karmapa Düsum Khyenpa (1110 - 1193) kagyuoffice