The 1st Karmapa

(1110 - 1193)

DUSUM KHYENPA was born in the snow range of Tray Shu in Do Kham in the year of the Iron Tiger (1.110 C.E.). From his parents, who were themselves accomplished practitioners, Dusum Khyenpa received instruction in dharma. At the age of eleven he had a vision of Mahākāli, the feminine energy aspect of the dharmapāla, thus manifesting his natural spirituality.

Five years later Dusum Khyenpa entered the monastic community as a novice, and subsequently studied the Yogācāra mahāyāna texts of the great philosopher Asanga from Geshe Jamarwa Chapa Cho Kyi Senge. During this period Dusum Khyenpa also studied Nāgārjuna and Candrakirti's Madhyamaka texts from Lotsawa Patsap Nyima Drak. In addition he received the tantric teachings of the Kadampa lineage from Geshe Shawarapa. 

At the age of twenty Dusum Khyenpa was ordained as a monk by the abbot, Mal Duldzin. He remained with the abbot to study the vinaya texts. From the great Ga Lotsawa, Dusum Khyenpa received Kālacakra teachings and the "path and fruit" teachings of the Indian tantric saint, Virüpa.

Now thirty years old, Dusum Khyenpa traveled to Dak Lha Gampo to meet his teacher Gampopa, the holder of the Kagyupa lineage. When they met, Gampopa instructed him in the "graduated path" of the Kadampa tradition as preliminary practice. He told Dusum Khyenpa that he should practice it as he himself had done.  Following this basic training in the sütra approach, Gampopa empowered Dusum Khyenpa to perform the spiritual practice of Hevajra. During this empowerment Dusum Khyenpa saw that Gampopa became the body of light of Hevajra. 

A little later, Dusum Khyenpa went into a samatha meditation retreat for nine months on the advice of his teacher. Throughout this period he never unfolded his hands long enough for the perspiration on them to dry. Gampopa recognised him as his most gifted student and instructed him in vipasyanā ("insight") meditation. He practiced this for three years until his development of insight was comparable to the sun dispelling clouds. At this time Gampopa told him, "You have severed your bond with phenomenal existence. Now you will not return to samsāra." He gave Dusum Khyenpa the oral instructions of mahāmudrā and teachings on the symbolic deity, Vajrayogini. Gampopa told him to practice this at Kampo Gangra in Kham, and prophesied he would attain enlightenment at that place.

Dusum Khyenpa traveled first to Shau Tago, where he constructed a small retreat hut called “Drub Zhi Densa” ("square seat"), in which he practiced mahamudra. He attained the realization that samsāra and nirvāva are inseparably non-dual. Word reached him that his teacher had died, so he returned to Dak Lha Gampo monastery, where in a visionary experience he saw his teacher in the sky.

Dusum Khyenpa recalled his teacher's instructions for practice in the Kampo Gangra area. The mountain deity, Kampo Dorje Paltseg, symbolic embodiment of the area's elemental energy, invited him in a vision. Phagmo Drupa, another student of Gampopa, from whom came the eight minor lineages of the Dakpo Kagyu, entreated him not to go, saying, "If you go to Kham you will have to give many empowerments. This will shorten your life." Dusum Khyenpa said in reply, "Thank you for your kind advice, but regardless of what I do, I shall live until I am eighty-four."

At the age of fifty, he journeyed to Kampo Nenang where he immediately attained enlightenment through the practice of dream yoga. Dusum Khyenpa realized the essential sameness of day and night, dreams and the waking state, meditation and everyday life. His realization corresponded to the fourth level of mahāmudrā, which is known as "beyond meditation”.

Spiritually, the moment of his enlightenment was symbolized in the visionary offering by dakinis of a black vajra crown woven out of their hair. This crown is said to be symbolically present above the heads of all the Karmapa incarnations signifying their realization of the true nature of reality.

At this time, the nine-deity mandala of Hevajra and the fifteen-deity mandala of his wisdom consort, Nairātmyā, as well as many other yidams appeared in a vision to Dusum Khyenpa. Through his accomplishment of "dream yoga" he "traveled" to Ceylon, where the tantric saint, Vajraghanta empowered him in the spiritual practice of the symbolic deity, Chakrasamvara, and to Tushita, the spiritual environment of the future Buddha, Maitreya, who instructed him in bodhisattva vows.

Dusum Khyenpa remained in Kampo Nenang for eighteen years, during which time he built a monastery and a retreat center. The fame of his spiritual realization spread and he became known as "the knower of the three times—past, present and future", indicating his transcending of time through his understanding of the unborn nature of mind.

The Kashmiri pandita, SākyaSri, who had been invited to Tibet to establish a new ordination lineage for the monastic community, declared Dusum Khyenpa was the "one of buddha-activity" or Karmapa, prophesied by Sākyamuni Buddha in the Samādhirājasütra. Lama Zhang, founder of the Tsalpa Kagyu, lineage confirmed this. The two teachers further said that Dusum Khyenpa embodied the principle of awakened compassion (Skt.: Avalokitesvara) and that following the age of Buddha Maitreya, the Karmapa Lama would be reborn as the Buddha Simha.

At the age of seventy-four Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa journeyed to the Drelong area of Kham, which was troubled by disputes. He pacified factional feuding and brought a time of peace. Moreover, he worked extensively for the sick, curing many diseases including blindness and paralysis. The healing power of his compassion was extremely potent. He also established monasteries at Mar Kham and Karma Gön, where he met Drogön Rechen, his principal student and holder of the lineage.

Toward the end of his life, Dusum Khyenpa returned to Dak Lha Gampo as he had been instructed to do by Gampopa. He made offerings to the monastery, repaired some of the buildings, and gave many teachings to the community there. Subsequently Karmapa established his principal monastic seat at Tsurphu, which remained the seat of the Karmapas until 1959. The abbot of Bodhgayā monastery in India sent a conch-shell horn to Tsurphu as a gift and as an acknowledgement of Dusum Khyenpa's powerful expression of dharma.

While he was at Tsurphu, Dusum Khyenpa brought to an end the disputes which Lama Zhang of the Tsala Kagyu lineage was engaged in. Lama Zhang was a great siddha and the ruler of the kingdom of Tsalpa, but had a rather aggressive nature, which Karmapa alone was able to pacify. One night while he was practicing dream yoga, Dusum Khyenpa received the spiritual practice of the four-faced twelve-armed Vajrayogini from the tantric saint Indrabhüti.Subsequently, during another visionary  experience he received teachings from Vajrayogini. Karmapa instructed his own students in these teachings, but a little while later he dreamt that five girls dressed in red and adorned with jewels appeared to him and said, "Do not give secret vajrayāna teachings to everybody who asks for them." A few days later Dusum Khyenpa again gave the teachings and that very night the five girls appeared to him again in his dreams saying, "We are of Princess Laksninkarā. Do not give secret vajrayāna teachings to everybody who asks for them." Three days later Karmapa gave the teachings to Lama Khampa Kungba, and that night in his dreams the girls appeared in the sky riding white clouds saying, "We told you not to give this secret vajrayāna teaching to everyone who asked for it, but you did not listen."

In the three months before Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa's death there were an unusually large number of rainbows, slight earth tremors and rumbling noises which people said were the drums of the dākinis. The play of the elements seemed to be heralding some momentous event. At the age of eighty-four, on the first day of the year of the Water Ox (1194 C.E.) Dusum Khyenpa placed Tsurphu monastery, together with his books and relics, in the care of his principal student, Drogon Rechen. He also entrusted him with the letter in which he had predicted the circumstances into which the next Karmapa would be born. He distributed all his other possessions among the Kagyu communities.

In the morning of the third day of the new year, Dusum Khyenpa instructed his students in dharma for the last time. Then, sitting up, he gazed into the sky and entered into meditation. At noon he passed away.

During his death rites a week later many people had visionary experiences; some seeing his body in the smoke that rose from the funeral pyre, others seeing many suns in the sky and dākas and dākinis dancing among them.

When the flames of the pyre died away, Dusum Khyenpa's heart, signifying his love, and his tongue, symbolizing his teaching, were found intact among the ashes. His students also recovered some of his bones, which appeared to have seed-syllables (Skt.: bija) marked on them and other symbolic relics.

Karmapa's ashes were enshrined in a stupa modelled after the one of Dhnyakataka in southern India, where Sākyamuni Buddha had given the teachings of Kālacakra. This stüpa was desposited at Tsurphu monastery.  Dusum Khyenpa had many accomplished students through whom  influence penetrated into other traditions as well as his own Kamtshang  Kagyu. The holder of his lineage was Drogon Rechen, who subsequently  passed it to Pomdrakpa, who in turn gave it to the second Karmapa Lama.

Four important founders of other lineages who received some teaching  from Dusum Khyenpa were Taglung Thangpa, founder of the Taglung messengers - Kagyu; Lingje Repa, the great mahāmudrā practitioner and spiritual ancestor of the Drukpa Kagyu; Tsangpa Gyare, the actual founder of  Drukpa Kagyu; and Lama Kadampa Desheg, who founded the Katok  Nyingma lineage. In addition, there were five students who had developed special powers. They were Dechung Sangyay in the area of telepathic ability; Dagden Batsa in the area of performing miracles; Tawa Kadampa in the area of special bodhisattva powers; Drogon Rechen in the area of blessing and Ge Chutsun in the area of profound realization.

Reproduced with permission of the Very Venerable Karma Thrinley Rinpoche