HH Karmapa 2021- Four Dharmas of Gampopa - Day 1

“The Four Dharmas of Gampopa is in the Kagyu tradition but is also mentioned in all Tibetan traditions. In the Collected Works of Gampopa, several texts talk about the four dharmas. The 4th Gyalwang Drugpa Kagyu master, Kunkhyen Pema Kharpo and other scholars, identified the text on The Three Individuals the Supreme Garland of the Stages of the Path of twelve and a half stanzas as being like the root text of the four Dharmas. In this root text it explicitly says: for each of the four Dharmas, practice it with the view, meditation & conduct. It mentions the four Dharmas but doesn’t identify them clearly, nor give much explanation.
In the Collected Works of Gampopa there is a text called the ‘Four Dharmas: An Excellent Summary’’ and some begin with the phrase ‘Namo Guru’. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be others that identify and name the four Dharmas clearly. We will discuss is the one entitled ‘The Four Dharmas: An Excellent Summary’. Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye also included that text in his Treasury of Precious Instructions and Je Gomtsul wrote a commentary on the text I with twelve and a half stanzas. Another direct disciple of Gampopa, Lho Layakpa, also wrote a root text and summary of the four Dharmas.
When Layakgpa met Gampopa, Gampopa said to him:” I am an old man like a dry meadow in the setting sun, but this Lhopa has a karmic connection with me like the one I had with the Jetsun .” Gampopa believed Layakpa was a reincarnation of one of his students who had died young. He took Layakpa into a closed retreat and gave him all the precepts. Chokyi Ngodrub spent no more than four years with Gampopa, but through his blessings, he met with the Mahāmudrā as if encountering an old friend.”
Texts from Gampopa's Collected Works and the Four Dharmas commentaries written by his students have some differences in wording. In later times, the first of the four dharmas was known as ‘may my mind become the Dharma’, but older texts say ‘may the Dharma go along with Dharma’. Karma Khenchen Rinchen Dhargye wrote a short commentary on the Four Dharmas and said that at the time of the 5th Karmapa, it changed to the latter. I haven't looked at all of his Collected Works, but there is a work by Mase Togden (student of Dezhin Shegpa) giving instructions on Mahamudra. So, it seems that Karmay Khenchen’s teachings may be correct with authentic sources.
When we talk about the Four Dharmas of Gampopa, or the ’4 striking the points’, it teaches all of the Stages of the Path of the 3 types of individuals of the Kadampa tradition and summarises the main points of the union of the Mahamudra and tantra traditions. So, includes the main points of the Sutra and Tantra traditions. Followers of Dagpo Gampopa should know what these 4 main points are.
We usually call ourselves Kagyupas, but what does it mean to be a Kagyupa? If we take a broader understanding. The first syllable is ‘Ka’ is ‘speech’, meaning words or speech of the Buddha. Gyu is lineage meaning lineage passed down uninterrupted from one master to the next. Thus, Kagyu means the transmission of the words of the Buddha contained in the Tripitaka and Tantra in an unbroken series. Thus, we could say everyone who upholds a Buddhist lineage is Kagyupa.
The Kadampas were sometimes called the Jowo Kagyu. And later those of the hearing lineage in the Gelugpa were called the Gedun Kagyu. There was also a lineage passed from the Bodong Panchen called the Bodong Kagyu. These days, when we talk about Kagyu, we generally understand it as a particular lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. The way the word is used, and understood has changed, but, in terms of meaning ‘the words of the Buddha lineage’ there is no difference.
Nowadays, Kagyu is understood to be the 4 transmissions and other teachings passed from Tilopa to Naropa and then Marpa, who brought them to Tibet and passed them to Milarepa and so on as an unbroken lineage. There are different ways we speak the oral transmissions which all originate from the Buddha Vajradhara. They are considered words of the Buddha. There is no contradiction between that and what I said before about the words of the Buddha.
The Drugpa Kagyu tradition, spell it as 'Kargyu', but in other Kagyu traditions the spelling 'Kagyu' is more common. The source of Kagyu came from India from Tilopa to Naropa. The founder of the Dagpo Kagyu lineage is Gampopa - the disciple ‘like the sun’. In terms of the foundation of the Kagyu teachings in Tibet, Marpa, Milarepa and Gampopa are called the three Kagyu forefathers, but when we talk about the Kagyupa, we mean the lineage of teachings spread by Gampopa. There was no tradition of calling it the Marpa or Mila Kagyu prior to Gampopa. Gampopa held the oral instructions of Marpa & Milarepa and also held the lineage of instructions from the Kadamapas. By combined instructons of Mahamudra and the three paths of the individuals in union, he had greater power to spread the teachings of the Kagyu tradition.