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Düsum Khyenpa Biography
First KarmapaDüsum Khyenpa (1110–1193) was the 1st Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.
Düsum Khyenpa means "knower of the three times" (past, present and future). It was given to him to refer to the knowledge he gained at enlightenment, including the "timeless time" of enlightened awareness.
Düsum Khyenpa was born in Dreshö, Kham, Tibet, in the year 1110 CE, to a devout family of Buddhist practitioners. His mother was named Lhathok Zagang Jam and his father was Gompa Dorje Gönpo. They named him Gephel, meaning Virtue Increases.
Gephel was a gifted child who studied and practiced Buddhism intently from an early age. At the age of 11, he received initiation and instruction in the practice of Palden Lhamo from his father and Sherab Gön, a family relative.
A biography compiled by the Eighth Karmapa, Mikyö Dorje, accounts that as a teenager, Düsum Khyenpa fell in love with a girl who at some point was “stolen” by a rival man. Gripped by jealousy and anger he sought to revenge through killing his rival. Using black magic he managed to accomplish his aim, and his rival died.
Shortly thereafter, Düsum Khyenpa left the householder’s life behind once and for all, to take monastic ordination at the age of 16. He was ordained as a novice monk by Kadam monk Trewo Chokgi Lama (b. 1056), a 70-year old disciple of the great Tibetan translator Ngog Lotsāwa Loden Sherab (1059-1109).
He entered a two years of retreat at Treka Drak with other Kadam lamas, learning the Cakrasaṃvara and other tantric lineages of Atiśa from Yol Chowang, who was a disciple of Atiśa Dīpaṃkara, and Geshe Trarawa.
At age sixteen it is said he received a black hat that became an important symbol of the Karmapa. The crown signifies his power to benefit all sentient beings. Similar crowns in red are worn by the Shamarpa and the Tai Situpa, while Goshir Gyaltsab (a tulku in the Karma Kagyu lineage) wears an orange crown. 1.
In 1129, at the age of nineteen Düsum Khyenpa went to Tölung monastery in U-Tsang, where he received teachings on logic and the three Madhyamikas (Shantarakshita’s Ornament of the Middle Way, Yeshe Nyingpo’s Two Truths in the Middle Way, and Kamalashila’s Illumination of the Middle Way) from the illustrious a scholar Gyamarpa and also studied the Five Dharmas of Maitreya.
Then Düsum Khyenpa went to the Kadampa center of Phenyul. He was taught the six treatises of Nāgārjuna by Patsab Lotsāwa, the 12th century’s greatest proponent of Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka philosophy. He studied Kadampa texts under the Kadam master Geshe Sharawa. He further trained in tantra, receiving the set of six yogic practices associated with the Kālacakra Tantra, as well as the Kākamukha Mahākāla Tantra. During this period, Düsum Khyenpa took his bhikṣu ordination with Mel Dulwa Dzinpa.
At the age of thirty Düsum Khyenpa set out to meet Gampopa (1079-1153), the monk disciple of the great yogi Milarepa (1052-1135). On his way to Daglha Gampo he first met Gampopa’s nephew, Gomtsul (1116-1169) and Sharawa Yonten Drak (1070-1141), and received teachings from them.
Arriving at Daglha Gampo, Düsum Khyenpa was made to wait two months before Gampopa would receive him and when he was at last received, he was granted Lamrim teachings2 which Düsum Khyenpa had already studied for years under Kadampa masters.
After Gampopa granted him Vajrayana teachings, he entered solitary retreat for nine months, practicing Tummo3 and wearing only a single cotton cloth.
He trained with other teachers of the new Kagyu tradition, including Milarepa’s disciple Rechungpa (1085-1161) and others. He received full transmission of Gampopa’s teachings, Mahāmudrā, Cakrasaṃvara, Hevajra and The Six Yogas of Naropa (Naro Cho Druk).
He went to meditate in various sites across southern Tibet, ranging from Dagpo, Ölkha, into Tsang and down to a border region spanning an area now divided among Tibet, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh.
In 1153 Gampopa died, fourteen years after Düsum Khyenpa met him. In 1160, at age fifty, Düsum Khyenpa achieved enlightenment, while practicing dream yoga and from then onwards his teaching activity was intense.
In 1164 he founded a monastery at Kampo Nenang and later established an important seat at Karma Gön Monastery in Chamdo in Kham and, at the age of 74, another seat at Tsurphu Monastery in Ü-Tsang in the valley of the Tölung River.
Düsum 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 line. He died at the age of 84.
Among his main disciples were Taklung Thangpa Tashi Pal, founder of the Taklung Kagyu; Tsangpa Gyare, founder of the Drukpa Lineage now widespread in Bhutan; and the Nyingma master Katok Dampa Deshek, founder of Katok Monastery.
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 Drogön Rechen.
Düsum Khyenpa returned as Karma Pakshi, as he had predicted in the letter he left with his heart disciple, Drogön Rechen (1148-1218).
Sources
http://www.ktdpublications.com
https://dakinitranslations.com
https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies
https://en.wikipedia.org
Footnotes
1. Legend tells that in a previous eon, in a former life as an accomplished yogi, the Karmapa attained the eighth level or bhumi of the bodhisattvas and that dakinis (female buddhas) manifested their hair as a crown and offered it to the Karmapa as a symbol of his accomplishment.
Although the first time a Karmapa displayed the hat in a public setting was the 5th Karmapa, Dezhin Shekpa, paintings of the previous Karmapas, depict them wearing a black hat. He received the hat from the Chinese Ming Yongle Emperor. The 5th Karmapa started the tradition of the Black Crown Ceremony which has been performed by successive Karmapa incarnations up to and including the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje.
In other version of accounts, the Ming Emperor Chenghua (1464-1487) gave the first black hat to the Seventh Karmapa, Chodrak Gyatso.
In the early 1960s, the 16th Karmapa brought the Black Crown and other valuable relics of the Kagyu lineage to Rumtek monastery in Sikkim. They remained there in safekeeping until 1993 following the 16th Karmapa’s death. The ensuing split in his lineage caused a conflict at the monastery between supporters of the two rival claimants for the title of Karmapa. Since that time, it is said that many valuable items have disappeared from the cloister.
On July 5, 2004, the Indian Supreme Court delivered a final judgement to grant Rumtek monastery to the Karmapa Charitable Trust, principal supporters of Thaye Dorje, one of the rival candidates for the title of 17th Karmapa. Since then an inventory of valuables is being prepared. The location and integrity of the Black Crown is currently unknown.
2. Lamrim (Tibetan: "stages of the path") is a Tibetan Buddhist textual form for presenting the stages in the complete path to enlightenment as taught by Buddha. In Tibetan Buddhist history there have been many different versions of lamrim, presented by different teachers of the Nyingma, Kagyu and Gelug schools. However, all versions of the lamrim are elaborations of Atiśa's 11th-century root text A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment (Bodhipathapradīpa).
3. Tummo (Sanskrit: caṇḍālī) is the fierce goddess of heat and passion in Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Tummo is found in the Mahasiddha Krishnacarya and the Hevajra Tantra texts. As a breathing exercise, tummo is a part of tantric meditation cycles for yogic heat, developed around the concept of the female deity. It is found in the Six Dharmas of Naropa, Lamdre, Kalachakra and Anuyoga teachings of Tibetan Vajrayana. The purpose of tummo is to gain control over body processes during the completion stage of 'highest yoga tantra' (Anuttarayoga Tantra) or Anuyoga.
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