Karmapa, 1st

Karmapa, 1st on the DRL

Classical Tibetan Authors

དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པ་

Wylie	dus gsum mkhyen pa
English Phonetics	First Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa

Himalayan Art Resources

Other names

• ཀརྨ་པ་གཅིག་པ་
• དཔལ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་
• གྲུབ་ཐོབ་ཁམས་པ་དབུ་སེ་

• karma pa gcig pa
• dpal chos kyi grags pa
• grub thob khams pa dbu se

Alternate names

• Karmapa, 1st

Dates

Birth:	1110
Death:	1193
Place of birth:	tre shod (khams)

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender	Male
Element	Iron
Animal	Tiger
Rab Jyung	2

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Religious Affiliation

Karma Kagyu

Has following emanations

Second Karmapa Karma Pakshi

Teachers

phywa pa chos kyi seng+ge · sgam po pa · ras chung pa · Byang chub grags

Students

'gro mgon ras chen · kaH thog dam pa bde gshegs

Other Biographical info:

• 1164 - Founds monastery-kam po gnas nang dgon (chab mdo)

• 1184 - Founds monastery - karma dgon

• 1185 - Founds monastery - karma lha steng dgon pa

• 1189 - Founds monastery - mtshur phu dgon (stod lung bde chen rdzong)

Links

BDRC Link

https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P1400

Treasury of Lives Link

https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/First-Karmapa-Dusum-Khyenpa/2683

Wiki Pages

• Karmapa, 1st on the DRL
• Karmapa, 1st on the LIB
• Karmapa, 1st on the BNW

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

A renowned Tibetan master recognized as the first in the lineage of Karma pa incarnations and early founder of the Karma bka' brgyud sect of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in the Tre shod region of eastern Tibet and at the age of sixteen was ordained by a monk of the Bka' gdams sect and received tantric instruction from a disciple of Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna. He went on to study Madhyamaka and the Kālacakratantra with some of the leading scholars of the day. At the age of thirty, Dus gsum mkhyen pa met his principal guru, Sgam po pa B sod nams rin chen, from whom he received many teachings, including so-called “heat yoga” (gtum mo; see candālī). He also studied with Mi la ras pa’s renowned disciple Ras chung pa. He devoted himself to the teachings that would become the hallmark of the Bka' brgyud, such as the six yogas of Nāropa and mahāmudra, but he also received teachings from a number of Bka' gdams and Sa skya masters. He went on to found three important Bka' brgyud monasteries: Kam po gnas nang in 1164, Karma dgon in 1184, both in eastern Tibet, and Mtshur phu northwest of Lha sa in 1187. The latter became a powerful central-Tibetan institution as the primary seat of the Karma pas up to 1959. It is said that at the age of sixteen Dus gsum mkhyen pa received a hat woven from the hair of one hundred thousand ḍākinīs. This hat has been passed down to subsequent Karma pas, and seen in the so-called “black hat ceremony” (zhwa nag). (Source: "Dus gsum mkhyen pa." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 274–5. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

Expand to see this person's philosophical positions on Buddha-nature.

Is Buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
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All beings have Buddha-nature
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If "Qualified", explain:
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Which Wheel Turning
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Yogācāra vs Madhyamaka
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Zhentong vs Rangtong
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Promotes how many vehicles?
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Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་) vs Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་པ་)
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Causal nature of the vajrapāda
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The Kagyu school traces its origin to the eleventh-century translator Marpa, who studied in India with Nāropa. Marpa's student Milarepa trained Gampopa, who founded the first monastery of the Kagyu order. As many as twelve subtraditions grew out from there, the best known being the Karma Kagyu, the Drikung, and the Drukpa.

The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases.

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true.

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena.

Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.