The Karma Kagyu Lineage

The Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism traces its origins to Shakyamuni Buddha through Marpa the Great Translator, who traveled to India to bring back authentic Buddhist teachings to Tibet. Marpa’s teacher, Naropa, received the lineage transmission from Tilopa and so on, back to the Buddha himself.

Marpa’s most famous student was the greatest yogi in all of Tibet, the renowned Jetsun Milarepa, who passed the teachings on to Gampopa, who in turn transmitted the teachings to the First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa. Since then, the Kagyu Lineage has been headed by a succession of reincarnations of the Gyalwang Karmapa.

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The Karmapas

During his lifetime, Shakyamuni Buddha predicted there would come into being a fully realized teacher who would reappear over and over again as the Karmapa. This Karmapa would continue his enlightened activity on behalf of all beings until the Buddhist teachings were no longer needed in this world. The name Karmapa refers literally to 'the one who performs the activity of a Buddha.'

The Karmapas have incarnated in this form of nirmanakaya, or manifestation body, for seventeen lifetimes, as of the present, and all have played a most important role in preserving and promulgating the Buddhist teachings of Tibet. Yet, before these seventeen manifestations, the arrival of a master who would be known as the Karmapa was prophesied by the historical Buddha Shakyamuni and the great Indian tantric master, Guru Padmasambhava. Throughout the centuries, the Karmapas have been central to the continuation of the vajrayana lineage in general and the Kagyu lineage in particular, and have played a very important role in the preservation of the study and practice lineages of Buddhism.