The 8 Schools of Tibetan Buddhism

8/12/2019 The 8 Schools of Tibetan Buddhism

1/17

The Eight Schools of TibetanBuddhism by

Chamgon Kenting Tai SitupaA lineage master of the Karma Kagyu tradition

of Tibetan Buddhism

Buddhism flourished in Tibet and many schools for

the lineages have developed. It is like a trunk of a

tree that has grown into many branches. There are

eight major branches in Tibetan Buddhism.

Everybody likes to say there are four schools in

Tibetan BuddhismNyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and

Gelugpabut that is a very simplistic and lazy

description. There are not four but eight schools,

eight major lineages: Nyingma, Kadampa, Sakya, Marpa, Shangpa, Zhijed, Jordrug,

and Dorje Nyendrub.

Nyingma Lineage

The first one is known as Nyingma. Until Atisha Dipamkara,

who was from Bangladesh, until he came, all of Tibetan

Buddhism is Nyingma, Nyingma means old. For example,

an old bag can be called nyingpa, So Nyingma is the oldest

school of Tibetan Buddhism, starting from Guru Rinpoche.

Before Guru Rinpoche there were many generations, there

was dharma, but from when Guru Rinpoche came to Tibetuntil Atisha Dipamkara came to Tibet, it is known as

Nyingma.

During the time of Guru Rinpoche it was known as

Nyingma Kama, Kamameans command, so Guru Rinpoches

teaching is known as Nyingma Kama. But after Guru Rinpoche left Tibet, all the

teachings that derived after that are known as Nyingma Terma, so Kama and Terma.

Guru Rinpoche and his disciples put certain texts into hiding for later rediscovery,

and they prophesized who was going to find what and when. According to thoseprophecies the texts were found and the lineage of transmission was received from

Guru Rinpoche by those people. Guru Rinpoche is immortal, so you can receive

transmission from him today, if you are prophesized and an enlightened person. So

these people received direct transmissions from Guru Rinpoche and discovered

hidden treasures, Termas. So Nyingma Terma means this, it means treasure.


2/17

Then the dharma is: dharmakaya is Kuntu Zangpoe and sambhogakaya is

Vajrasattva. From these two Guru Rinpoche received transmissions. From Guru

Rinpoche to all his disciples, such as Garab Dorje and others (there are twenty-five

enlightened masters), all these are the Nyingma lineage. There are many things, but

if you really look into it, it is summarised into two things. First is Dzogchen, which is

the final and most profound teaching of Nyingma. It is about the nature of mind andthe methods to realize the nature of mind. Dzogchen has many levels of practice.

The second thing is, there are eight aspects of deity practice: body, speech, mind,

knowledge, activity, wrathful, offering, and peaceful. The body is Manjushri-oriented,

speech is lotus-oriented, mind is Yandak-oriented, knowledge is amrita-oriented, and

activity is Vajrakilaya-oriented etc.These are eight aspects of the deity of the

Nyingma lineage. Dzogchen and that somehow cover most of the Nyingma practice.

But of course each of them have so many elaborated sub-practices.

Then there are six main seats for the Nyingmapas. In upper Tibet there are the

two monasteries of Dorje Drak and Mindroling. In middle Tibet there are the twomain monasteries of Shechen and Dzogchen. Then in lower Tibet the two main

monasteries are Katok and Palyul. The head of Dorje Drak is Dor Drak Rinchen

Chenpo, the head of Mindroling is Mindroling Trichen Rinpoche, the head of Shechen

is Shechen Rabjam, the head of Dzogchen is Dzogchen Pema Rinchen, the head of

Katok is Katok Shejong, and the head of Palyul is Palyul Urgyen. So these are the six

main masters of the Nyingma lineage. But out of all of them, the supreme head of all

of the Nyingma is His Holiness Minling Trichen Rinpoche (1931-2008), the hereditary

successor of Minling Terchen, and head of Mindroling monastery. This post as

hereditary is from father to son, he must marry and he must have a son and that

son becomes the head of the Nyingma lineage. So, that is the Nyingmapa, one of theoldest lineages.

Kadampa Lineage

The second of the eight lineages is the Kadampa. Ka is

command, dam means instruction. All the commands of

the Buddha are instructions for the liberation of sentient

beings. That is what Kadam means.

During the time of Mun Tsenpo, a son of TrisongDetsen, the Tibetan king who invited Guru Rinpoche to

Tibet, he made a very special policy for Tibet; that there

were to be no rich and no poor people, everybody was

equal. That was his mission; he did not want any rich or

poor people, everybody was to be equal. After Mun

Tsenpo the throne was later passed to his brother

Sadnaleg. He had a problem with his neck so he had a nick name, Jingn, crooked


3/17

neck. His other name was Tsite Chenpo. When he became king, during his time, he

built a very important temple called Kajung Gyalte. His son was Je Ralpacan (806-

841 A.D), who was a very devout king. When he invited monks to his palace he used

to undo his hair and put it on the ground and make all the monks walk on his hair;

he respected ordained sangha that much. He was also supposed to be an emanation

of Vajrapani and prophesized in the White Lotus Sutra.

During that time five Indian abbots, Acharya Jinamitra, Surandrabodhi, Shri

Dalandhabodhi, Danashila and Bodhimitra, and the Tibetan abbots Rinchen Sungwa

and Chsum Tsultrim (Skt. Dharmashila), along with four Tibetan translators,

Janasingha, Jnanarangshita, Manjushriwarma and Ratnashila, these main people

under the patronage of king Ralpacan, who made his hair as a doormat for sangha to

walk on, they translated most of the texts from Sanskrit into Tibetan. The old

translations, which were not very clear, they retranslated and made them clearer.

And the translations which were word for word translations and not clear, they made

meaning translations of them. For example, in English when you say how are you,that doesnt make any sense in Tibetan. It has to be translated into the Tibetan

equivalent of how are you rather than translating it exactly as how - are - you. In

previous translations many texts were left as word for word translations. So when

they were changed into meaning translations, what it meant in Sanskrit, the same

meaning, was conveyed into the Tibetan language. Also at that time many of the

texts that were very difficult to understand were made understandable.

At this time there were many problems between the neighbouring countries,

there were fights and disputes, but they were settled and many treaties were

written. Many of the treaties were written on stone pillars. The original greaterTibetan border is actually carved everywhere on stone. Orders were carved on stone,

but Im sure if the modern governments find them they will remove them, its very

easy! From north to south all the Tibetan borders were marked with stone carvings,

stone pillars and disputes were settled. Also many religious places were established.

Unfortunately one of the ministers killed king Ralpacan, then his son, the crown

prince, was expelled to the Tsang area. From the main capital to Tsang it is not very

far, but they expelled him to there.

At that time there was a very important minister called Palgyi Ynten. He

slandered about the queen and lamas being involved, so the lamas were killed andthe queen killed herself. These things happened when king Ralpacan was very

young, actually when his minister killed him he was only thrity-five years old.

Actually they held him and twisted his head, it is said that his face was twisted

backwards, they killed him that way.

Because the crown prince was expelled then the kings older brother, known as

Lang Darma (who was supposed to have had a horn growing on his head), became


4/17

the king. Lang Darma was very bad and a total non-believer, he destroyed most of

the monasteries and made monks and nuns disrobe. Quite a few very important

masters escaped to Eastern Tibet, to Kham, and the king lost that part of Tibet. They

resisted against him, they did not want to destroy the temples and go against the

dharma. In central Tibet, Lang Darma, as the king, wanted to destroy everything.

East Tibet was fighting with Central Tibet and these masters escaped to East Tibetwith lots of dharma texts.

King Lang Darma threw the Buddha statue into a cellar and also dumped many of

the Buddhist texts there. Nobody was allowed to read the texts and he also burned

many of them. At that time there was a great master who was born in Lhalung, his

name was Lhalung Palgyi Dorje. The king was reading stone carvings on a pillar in

Lhasa; he had made some alteration and was reading it. Lhalung Palgyi Dorje

wanted to kill him, because otherwise he would go on destroying everything. So

Lhalung Palgyi Dorjeas he was prophesized and told from higher sourcescreated

a big hat, which is called a black hat nowadays in lama-dances. Also he made agarment with very long sleeves, because one sleeve was to hide an arrow and the

other sleeve to hide a bow. So a bow and arrow were hidden in the sleeves and he

painted his horse totally black, and then he was dancing. The king was enjoying his

dance while he was reading the stone carving in the pillar and then, in the middle of

all of that, he shot the king in the head and killed him. Lhalung Palgyi Dorje then

jumped on his horse and rode through the river Tsangpo, which washed all the black

colour from his horse, so his horse became white. So he managed to escape on a

white horse because everyone was looking for a guy on a black horse. Lhalung Palgyi

Dorje was a great hero, even though he had to kill a person.

Lang Darma had a son called sung, Protected by Light. Because his father was

so paranoid he wanted to protect his son twenty-four hours a day. So the whole

night he wanted light to be in the room of his son with armed guards to protect him

in the light.

Buddhism was revived again in the 10th century under king Khorre of Ngari. He

developed an interest to re-establish the dharma in Tibet. He sent quite a few people

to India to invite enlightened masters, but they didnt really manage to find any.

Many of the people he sent died, and those that came back came back empty

handed. Finally one person, Dndrup Senge, met with Atisha Dipamkara.

After so many problems trying to find the right guru, finally one of the people he

sent managed to find Atisha Dipamkara. But Atisha Dipamkara did not accept the

invitation to come to Tibet. Then Lama Yeshe , who had given the throne to his

younger brother and became a monk, went to different parts of Tibet to find gold

and take this gold to India to invite great masters, such as Atisha Dipamkara. He

went to the Tibetan borders and on one of the borders, which was known as Kharlok,


5/17

somewhere on the south-western side of Tibet, one of the tribes there captured him.

They found out he was a Tibetan prince who had come to collect gold in order to go

to India to invite great masters. When they found that out, they did not kill him but

wrapped him in cloth and kept him like money. Then his brothers son, Jangchub ,

found out about this and returned with one hundred horsemen to save him. The

Kharloks king told them to give the weight of the person in gold in exchange. Theygave all the gold they had, but the weight of the head was lacking. Therefore they

did not let him go and killed him. So Lama Yeshe died searching for the dharma.

But before that he told his cousin, who was sent for him, Dont do anything for me,

there is nothing to do for me, take all this gold and invite Atisha Dipamkara to Tibet.

You dont have to save me. Take this gold and invite Atisha Dipamkara and let them

kill me, its okay. Then the Kharloks killed him. He died by being thrown into a pit

filled with insects. The Kharloks threw him there and the insects ate him alive, which

was their way of killing people. Before this happened he sent a message to Atisha

Dipamkara, he said, In my future life may I become your disciple. I died for it.

When the Tibetans went to see Atisha Dipamkara with the gold, they told him the

whole story. For inviting you our prince went to search for gold and then these

things happened and he died for it. Now please come to Tibet. Then Atisha

Dipamkara accepted and came to Tibet. He taught the view according to

Madhyamaka, the action according to Vinaya, and the instructions according to the

Bodhisattvas way. These teachings are known as Kadampa. Atisha had three main

disciples: Khu, Ngog, and Drom. Khu was the incarnation of Manjushri, Ngog the

incarnation of Vajrapani, and Drom the incarnation of Avalokiteshvara. Drom had

three main disciples: Putowa Rinchen Sal, Chengawa Tsultrim Bar and Phuchungwa

Shynnu Gyaltsen. These six great masters were responsible for continuing theKadam lineage, which was transmitted to Tibet by Atisha Dipamkara as the result of

all this: the prince who gave up his life, the one who went to save him but did not

manage to come back, and the king who then sent other messengers to bring Atisha

to Tibet.

After these great masters, then Tsongkhapa, an incarnation of Manjushri, was

born. When he was fifty-three years old he built Geden (Ganden) monastery, the

main seat of the Gelugpa. Gelugpa by definition is the tradition of Geden. Gemeans

Geden monastery, lukmeans tradition, lineage. So the lineage of Geden monastery

built by Tsongkhapa: Tsongkhapa, Dharma Rinchen, and Geleg Pelsang. In Gelugpamonasteries three masters sit there: the middle one is Tsongkhapa, the right one is

Dharma Rinchen and the left one is Geleg Pelsang.

There is also Manjushri Zangpa Seven Lineage: Gyaltsab Je, Khedrub Je, Shalu

Khepa Gyaltsen, Lodro Gyaltsen, Shogyi Gyaltsen, Shanpa Loden, Nyendrub Manang

Pal. These are known as great lineage holders of the Gelugpa lineage, known as

Manjushri Zangpa seven masters.


6/17

One of the direct disciples of Tsongkhapa, Jamyang Tashi Pelden, built Drepung

monastery eight years after the construction of Ganden monastery. Then another

disciple and great master, Jamchen Chje Shakya Yeshe, built Sera monastery

eleven years after the building of the previous monastery. Then the incarnation of

Dromtnpa Gyalwe Jungne, one of the six mentioned earlier and born beforeTsongkhapa, so Gendun Trup, built Tashi Lhunpo twenty-nine years after the

construction of Ganden monastery. All the Dalai Lamas are incarnations of Gendun

Trup.

Gendun Geleg Pelsangs incarnation Snam Tobje Langpo, his incarnations are

known as the Panchen Lamas. They head the Tashi Lhunpo monastery. Then there

are three other very great masters known as three incarnate masters of the Gelug

lineage. So from there up until now it continued and spread to many places.

The original birthplace of Tsongkhapa was in Amdo. There they built Phumpomonastery, a very special monastery. When a baby is born, there is the placenta,

which attaches the baby to the mother. When Tsongkhapa was born and this was cut

and thrown away, where it was thrown a tree grew. This tree is there in Amdo,

Phumpo monastery, and each one of the leaves of that tree has a Sanskrit or Tibetan

character: OM, AH, HUNGetc. The tree is still there and the characters are naturally

visible to anyone.

That is roughly about the Gelugpa lineage. Up until Tsongkhapa we call it

Kadampa and after Tsongkhapa built Ganden monastery at the age of fifty-three

then the Gelugpa started. But before that it was Kadampa and until that Tsongkhapawas a follower of Kadampa.

Lamdre/Sakyapa Lineage

The Sakyapa lineage was originally known as the Lamdre

lineage. Lammeans path, dremeans result. This starts with

the descendent from heaven. The fathers side we call

bone and the mothers side we call blood. A particular bone

descendent from heaven was known as Khn bone. He had

two brothers: one was Dorje and one was Rinchen. Thesetwo received direct transmission from Guru Padmasambhava

in a very special way. From there until Khn Sherab Tsultrim

there were ten generations: from father to son ten

generations went by. So during that time the Khns practiced

Nyingma teachings, because they received transmissions

from Guru Rinpoche.


7/17

All the generations had practiced the Nyingma lineage but Khn Sherab Tsultrim,

the tenth generation, his younger brother, Knchok Gyalpo, became a disciple of

Drogmi Lotsawa Shakya Yeshe. He became a great master of the later translations of

Nyingma, instead of the earlier translations. When he was forty years old he built the

Tsang Sakya monastery in the Tsang area. Sameans land and kyameans grey, so

the land is barren; there are no trees or grass, the land is like Ladakh. The nameSakya started because of the visual description of the land on which Knchok Gyalpo

(the first Sakya Trizin) built the monastery. This was also prophesized by Atisha

Dipamkara, who said that there will be seven incarnations of Manjushri and one

incarnation of Vajrapani born on this grey land area. The prophesy was thus fulfilled

when this happened.

Drogmi Lotsawa Shakya Yeshe was the master of Vinaya, Prajnaparamita and

some of the tantras, which he received from great masters such as Shantipa and

Viravajra. He received tantric teachings, Lam Khor Guwe call it, the Sakyapas main

practice of tantra; nine main paths. The first one is Lamdre. Then in the second one,the main tantra is the Hevajra tantra, but there is visualisation which has nine stages

and completion which has one stage, like subtle energy. The third is also based on

tantra, but it is about the practice of bodhichitta. The fourth one is the same Hevajra

tantra, but is about spontaneously arising visualisation practice. The fifth is about

mudra yoga, which is based on one tantra called Yeshe Tigle.The sixth one is the

tantra of great union. The seventh is the practice of Chakrasamvara. This has all

aspects of outer, inner and secret practices. The eighth is based on Guyhasamaja,

which originally does not have any written instructions. It is from master to disciple,

from mouth to ear lineage. I dont know how it is these days, but originally it was

never written down. It is about Guyhasamaja Mahamudra. The ninth one is aboutmother tantra, the essence of mother tantra. This is known as One that straightens

which is not straight. It is about nadis and bindus, to make straight that which is not

straight, opening of the chakras etc. The great Indian mahasiddha from whom the

Tibetan Lotsawas received these teachings came to Tibet three times, and the

Sakyapa master Drogmi Lotsawa received it.

There is a simple way to describe these nine teachings. The first one is a simple

way described as early Lamdre and all the other eight are later Lamdre, but it is

actually the same thing; it is like preliminary Lamdre and the actual Lamdre or the

preliminary Lamdre and later Lamdre. Lamdre means path and result.

One of the main masters of the Sakya lineage was Knchk Gyalpos son, Sachen

Kunga Nyingpo, an incarnation of Vajrapani, who received transmissions from Bari

Lotsawa, his main guru. He encountered Lord Manjushri in person and received

direct transmissions from him. Also he attained high realization through receiving

transmission from the great Indian master Virupa and himself became a great

master. Of the five main figures of the Sakyapa lineage, three were not bhikkus and


8/17

two were. Sachen Kunga Nyingpo had four sons: Kungabar, Sonam Tsemo, Jetsun

Dakpa Gyaltsen and Palchen Wopa (the father of Sakya Pandita). Sonam Tsemo,

Jetsun Dakpa Gyaltsen and Palchen Wopa remained as tantric practitioners, tantric

yogis, they were not monks. Of course monks can also be tantric yogis. Anyway,

Sachen Kunga Nyingpo and two of his sons, Sonam Tsemo and Jetsun Dakpa

Gyaltsen, are known as The Three White Ones. Then The Two Red Ones, SakyaPandita Kunga Gyaltsen and Drogn Chgyal Phagpa, the nephew of Sakya Pandita,

means the two who became bhikkus, monks. All five of them make the five main

figures of the Sakya lineage. The descendents of the Khn throne are the heads of

the Sakya. Right now His Holiness Sakya Trizin is the descendent of the Khn. That

is the Sakya lineage, briefly.

There is a lot more but time is flying and I dont want to go into history

tomorrow. I want to finish this history today! The Sakyapa actually has a few more

branches: Sakya, Ngorpa and Tsarpa.The head of the Sakya is Sakya Trizin.

Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo founded the Ngor school, and established Ngor E-Vam

monastery which was continued by the great master Muchen Sempa. This monastery

has four main abbots known as Thartse, Luding, Khangsar and Phende. So this is

known as Ngorpa. The Tsar school was founded by Tsarchen Losel Gyatso. His two

foremost disciples were Khyentse Wangchug and Lhundrub Gyatso.

So the Sakya has three main lineages just like the Nyingma have six main

monasteries and the Gelugpa have three main monasteries: Sera, Drepung and

Ganden.This way I think Sakya is roughly covered.

Kagyu Lineage

Kameans command, gyumeans lineage, The lineage of the

command of the Buddha. There are two lineages which hold

the name Kagyu: one is the Shangpa Kagyu and the other is

Marpa Kagyu. When we say eight lineages of Tibetan

Buddhism it is: Nyingma, Kadam, Lamdre, Marpa Kagyu,

Shangpa Kagyu, Zhijed, Jordrug, and Dorje Nyendrub.

Now I will talk about Marpa Kagyu. The great master

Tilopa was a very important mahapandita and he finally

achieved all the realizations as a mahapandita. Then he

went into the stage of tantric transformation. In tantric

practice he received four main transmissions of lineage from


9/17

Sariapa, Nagarjuna Lvabapa, Sukhasiddhi, Indrabhuti and Matangi who were his

main masters. All the transmissions that he received from them are the four streams

of transmission; we call it Ka gi gyupa.7 This involves, Illusory Body, Clear Light,

Guru Yoga, Bardo (intermediate state), Transferring of Consciousness, Tummo

(practice of the bindu, heat), wisdom practice, the tantric transformation of negative

samsaric duality into positive enlightenment, non-duality. Then drong jugwhich isanother form of Phowa, which is to transfer consciousness from one state to another.

Tilopa received all of these teachings and practiced twelve years in a very small

place. He chained himself there so that he would not do anything else but practice.

He was chained for twelve years and practiced all these sacred transmissions that he

had received. Finally he attained realization and then received transmission directly

from Buddha Vajradhara. There is a very long storyI wrote a whole book on this

which is about how he went through all the stages and finally attained realization.

These transmissions he transmitted to many disciples, but one of his main

disciples was Naropa. Naropa, after many hardships, finally received thetransmission and then he practiced and attained enlightenment equal to that of

Tilopa. For example, Tilopa was practicing while as a servant for a lady who was

selling wine and also involved in prostitution. She was a dakini, but externally she

was involved in this. Tilopa was pounding sesame seeds to make oil for her. In the

evening she sent her customers to him to take home and to bring new customers to

her. He was doing all this as his practice, and finally, one day he attained realization.

The next morning Tilopa was in the sky at a height seven times that of a tree known

as tala in India, a date palm. He was singing songs to all the cityhe was the

servant of this woman, and the whole city attained realization. They all got

enlightened because of his teaching from a height seven times that of a tala. It issaid that if the head of a tala is cut it will never grow. Many Tibetans mistake a tala

for a banana tree. But banana trees they always cut and they still grow. So it is not

that, it is a date palm.

Naropa followed Tilopa and went through twelve main tests and hardships before

Tilopa finally decided to teach him, and he then attained enlightenment. Then the

Tibetan master Marpa Lotsawa went to India three times and spent twenty-one years

in India, out of which exactly sixteen years and seven months he spent with Naropa

and Maitripa, who were his main gurus. He had 108 gurus but his main gurus were

Naropa and Maitripa. He spent time with them and received transmissions offourteen main tantras, now known as the fourteen main tantras of the Marpa

lineage, such as Hevajra, Guhyasamaja, Vajravarahi, Yamantaka, Mahamaya,

Chakrasamvara etc. These tantras were received by Marpa, who practiced them, and

finally brought them back to Tibet.

Marpas main disciple was Milarepa. Milarepa wanted to see Marpa, so he went all

the way to Marpas village. When he got to the village there was a middle-aged man,


10/17

a big man, ploughing the ground with oxen. Milarepa asked him, Do you know

Marpa? He said, Yes. Do you want to see him? Milarepa said, Yes. So the man

told him, Wait here. He had a container of wine and said, Drink this, and I will go

and call Marpa. So Milarepa sat there and drank the wine. He finished it and was

still sitting there, but no Marpa showed up. Finally Marpas wife came and took

Milarepa in and the person who he had met on the hill, [who was actually Marpa],was sitting on the throne. That is how Milarepa met Marpa for the first time. Then

Marpa gave him a very hard time; he purified all his bad karma, demolished his ego,

and finally transmitted to him the lineage he had received from Naropa, Maitripa etc.

Another disciple of Marpa was Ngokton Chje Dorje. Most of Marpas

transmissions about practice were transmitted to Milarepa, and most about the

intellectual teachings were transmitted to Ngokpa. So shepaand drupa; two lineages

were transmitted to these two disciples. Of course Marpa had many other disciples

also.

Milarepas main disciple was Gampopa, who was a monk. How he became a

monk is interesting. He was a young and very handsome layperson with a very

beautiful wife, but she got sick and was dying. She was in agony for days and

months and she said to Gampopa, I dont want you to marry anybody else. Finally

he promised her that he would not marry again. Then she died and Gampopa got

ordained and became a monk. He went to Milarepa and the first thing Milarepa did

was he had a kapala(skull-cup) with alcohol and he told Gampopa to drink it, in

front of all the people. Gampopa was a monk and now he had to drink a kapala full

of wine, so he felt a little bit strange. Then he thought, It is my gurus word. So he

drank it and not even a drop was left. Milarepa then decided, This disciple canreceive all the transmissions that I have. It was a very auspicious sign that

Gampopa was a worthy disciple for Milarepa. So Milarepa transmitted all his

transmissions to Gampopa. Then finally Milarepa prophesized that Gampopa should

build a temple in a certain place and described the shape of the mountain and all of

that.

Milarepa had many disciples, such as Rechungpa, many men and women

disciples, but the top, the most enlightened disciples of Milarepa were three men and

four women and eight repas.

Two of the main disciples, whom Milarepa described as the son and moon, were

Gampopa and Rechung Dorje Drakpa (Rechungpa). Gampopa was like the sun

because his lineage was involved with great propagation and he was also an

ordained bhikshu. Rechungpa was like the moon because his lineage was very

precious and profound, but not that glorious like Gampopas, it went from mouth to

ear. That way it did not spread like Gampopas lineage. So they were the two main

disciples of Milarepa.


11/17

Gampopa had four main disciples from whom came what is known as the four

greater Kagyu lineages, one of which is the Karma Kagyu, starting with the first

Karmapa, who was born in the Tesh part of Kham in east Tibet, which was a small

kingdom right next to the kingdom of Derge. He was born there and became a

disciple of Gampopa. He received all the transmissions and as it was prophesized heestablished Tsurphu monastery. First there were small buildings in groups of five,

which still stand, and later it became the seat of the Karmapas. All the followers of

that lineage are known as Karma Kagyu. The other three greater lineages are the

Phagmo Kagyu from Phagmo Drupa; the Barom Kagyu from Barom Darma

Wangchuk, and; from Zhang Tsalpa Tsondu Dakpa, a student of one of Gampopas

main disciples Ongom Tsultrim Nyingpo, the Tsalpa Kagyu. These four lineages are

known as the greater Kagyu because they are from the direct disciples of Gampopa.

Out of the four main disciples Phagmo Drupa had eight main disciples, from

which came those known as the eight lesser Kagyus, not because they are lesser,but because they are the disciples of the disciple of Gampopa. So from Phagmo

Drupa came the Drikhung Kagyu, Lingre Kagyu, Taklung Kagyu, Yasang Kagyu,

Trophu Kagyu, Shuksep Kagyu, Yelpa Kagyu and Martsang Kagyu schools. The Lingre

Kagyu is now known as the Drukpa Kagyu; originally it was Lingre Kagyu but now it

is called Drukpa Kagyu. These are the eight sub lineages of the Kagyupa and under

the Karma Kagyu there are Surmang Kagyu, Nyendo Kagyu and Gyaltn Kagyu,

three sub lineages which have developed further. All these lineages that developed,

like a tree into branches, they are not something that got split because people did

not get along. It was according to the prophesy of the master: the disciples spread

the lineage and it has its own identity.

Then there were three main seats for the Karma Kagyu, but over the years these

three main seats were all interrupted because of Ghenghis Khan, Kublai Khan and all

those episodes. Then the Karma Kagyu lineage had two seats: Tsurphu and Palpung.

Tsurphu is like Ganden monastery for the Gelugpa, where the regent of Tsongkhapa

is the Ganden Tripa, the head of the Gelugpa is the Ganden Tripa, not the Dalai

Lama. Many people have this strange misconception that His Holiness Dalai Lama is

the head of the Gelugpa, which is not true. His Holiness Dalai Lama is the temporal

and spiritual head of Tibet and all of greater Tibet. But the head of the Gelugpa is the

Ganden Tripa, which is by graduation, not incarnation. He starts as an ordinary monkand goes all the way; he goes through all the stages and finally becomes the Ganden

Tripa. The present Ganden Tripa is the 101st or 102nd Ganden Tripa. So it is by

graduation.

The Karmapa is the head of the Karma Kagyuactually the Karmapa in Tibet is

respected by all the schools as well as the head of all of the Kagyu, because out of

the four schools (Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Gelugpa) which we have right now,


12/17

the Karmapa is the only one who is by incarnation. The Nyingma and Sakya are by

heritage and Gelug is by graduation, but Kagyu is by incarnation. The Karmapa

leaves a written instruction and according to that the next Karmapa is found.

Although in Tibetan Buddhism we believe everybody dies and is born life after life,

the master dies and re-incarnates and has the same name and continues the activity

started from the first Karmapa. Until the first Karmapa prophesized his incarnationand the second Karmapa was found there was no such thing as a reincarnate lama.

But later, the reincarnated masters traced back their sources. For example, Tai

Situpa, the first Tai Situ title started in 1407, but the previous incarnations in Tibet

trace back until Lord Marpa. From there it traces back to India as Dombi Heruka, one

of the eighty-four mahasiddhas, then from there to Guru Padmasambhava and to

Lord Maitreya etc.

Many of the reincarnations in Tibet count all of that, so they say they are the

twenty-sixth incarnation, the thirtieth incarnation, the fortieth incarnation, but

actually, truly, the counting should be from when the first incarnation is recognisedas an incarnation of somebody, is enthroned and takes the seat of the predecessor.

It should start from there. That way, I myself am the twelfth Tai Situ. Otherwise I

can call myself the fiftieth Tai Situ, but thats not correct.

Anyway, the Karma Kagyu has two main seats: Tsurphu, the Karmapas seat, like

Ganden monastery and Palpung, which is like Sera, Drepung and all the others.

Palpung, is my seat. In Tibet Palpung monastery had 13 monastic estates and 180

monastic branches all over greater Tibet. That is what I am, and all the things that I

have been doing since I was eighteen months old until now is to try to catch up and

uphold all the things that the previous Tai Situs have done. Whether somebodyunderstands it or not, misunderstands it or not, likes it or not, agrees with it or not,

there is nothing I can do. If they dont like me doing my job then theyd better shoot

me. Really, there is no other way to stop it. So that is the Karma Kagyu Lineage.

Shangpa Kagyu Lineage

During the time of Marpa there was another master known as

Khyungpo Naljor from a place in Tibet called Shang-Shung. In

the beginning he was a Bnpo, not a Buddhist, but a Buddhist

type of Bnpo, which we have in Simhla, that type of Bnpo.It is very much Buddhist. Then he became Nyingma, but

finally he went to India and he met with the sister of Naropa,

Niguma, a great enlightened mahasiddha. Then he met

another great enlightened lady master called Sukhasiddhi.

From these two enlightened mahasiddha women, another

thirteen great masters, four root masters and 150

enlightened and learned masters, he received transmissions.


13/17

Mainly he received five tantric transmissions. Marpa received fourteen. The five

Khungpo Naljor received were: Hevajra, Chakrasamvara, Guyhasamaja, Mahamaya

and Yamataka. These five are the main tantras and all the practices are similar to

the Marpa Kagyu, which are the Six Yogas, but all are based on these five tantras.

Khedrup Khungpo Naljor brought these from India to Tibet and established his seatin the Shang area, called Shang-Shung, and therefore his lineage became known as

the Shangpa Kagyu. He lived until a very old age, 150 years old. In the history of

Tibetan Buddhism he is one of the masters who lived the oldest.

This lineage is very rich actually; it has so many great masters and many

branches, it really flourished. But a few hundred years ago everything fell apart and

the Shangpa Kagyu was almost finished. But then, at that time, the ninth Tai Situ

discovered a young boy who was serving as a secretary to one of the head ministers

of the king of Derge. He told this minister, I want to bring your secretary up, he is a

great person, he is not just a young boy. So he took him and gave himtransmissions and named him Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye.

Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye became one of the most important renaissance

masters of Tibetan Buddhism. His seat was Palpung monastery, my monastery,

which has Jamgon Kongtrul, Jamyang Khyentse, and a few of the ntruls as the

main Rinpoches. Then later quite a few other Rinpoches also resided at Palpung

monastery, such as Thutop Tulku, Gungri Tulku etc. Originally Tai Situ, then later

Jamgon Kongtrul, Jamyang Khyentse and others also resided there.

During the time of Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye he revived the Shangpa Kagyulineage. Otherwise it would have been gone. In Palpung monastery there were three

main retreats: the upper retreat, which was the residence of Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro

Thaye, that is the Shangpa Kagyu retreat; the middle retreat, which was my summer

home, in summer I stayed there, that is the Marpa Kagyu lineage, the Six Yogas of

Naropa etc.; then the lower retreat, which was Jamyang Khyentse Wangpos. They

practiced many other practices there, and also did short retreats, like one year and

six month retreats etc.

The main administration of the Palpung Labrang was established by the eighth

Tai Situ. Up until the time of the eighth Tai Situ the seat of the Tai Situs was inKarma Gn, which is very close to Chamdo, in central Tibet. When the eighth Situ

was born, around that time Gyalwa Kelsang Gyatso, the seventh Dalai Lama, was

born and Kelsang Gyatso had some difficulties residing in Lhasa, so he resided in

Kham and during that time the king of Derge and the eighth Tai Situpa served him. I

have it written in brocade in very big letters: From the beginning until now, the

unchanged descendent of the king of Derge and his guru served me well when I was

young, and this should never be forgotten. His seal, Kelsang Gyatsos, is there.


14/17

Anyway, during that time the king of Derge did not want the eighth Tai Situ to go

and reside in Karma Gn. He said, This is a precious jewel born in my country, I

want to offer him half my kingdom, half of the sky and earth. I want him to settle in

my kingdom. So that is how Palpung monastery was established. All the branches of

Palpung monastery developed from there, including the Karma Gn monastery and

its branches, which were originally there.

Karma Kagyu and Shangpa Kagyu right now are almost one. The Shangpa

Kagyus lineage masters were Kalu Rinpoche and Bokar Rinpoche. The previous Kalu

Rinpoche did three-year retreats at Palpung monastery in both Shangpa Kagyu as

well as Marpa Kagyu. The eleventh Tai Situ then appointed him as the retreat master

of both the Shangpa Kagyu and Marpa Kagyu retreat centres. When we lost our

country and when we all became refugees, Kalu Rinpoche was at a very good age, so

he was able to establish a three-year retreat in Rewalsar, in Dalhousie, Sonada, in

Darjeeling, then in Europe and America, Canada, in many places. Now there are

more than a thousand people in Europe and America, more than a thousandEuropeans and Americans, who have completed a three-year-retreat. The credit for

this very much goes to Kalu Rinpoche. In the west there are dharma establishments

started by Kalu Rinpoche, Chgyam Trungpa and Akong Rinpoche. These three

established the dharma there and many others followed afterwards, but before that

there was very little Vajrayana Buddhism there, maybe only in universities, some

curriculum. Then Madame Blavatsky from the Theosophical Society had some things

about Vajrayana Buddhism, but you know, I would not dance with her, she is great

but I think very scary! She is like Queen Victoria, if Queen Victoria ever had that

energy.

Anyway, thats the Shangpa Kagyu lineage and now that is the Kagyu.

Zhijed Lineage

Zhimeans pacifying,jedis a grammatical word (it means

do): the pacifier, zhiwarjepar, pacifier. Everybody knows

Zhijed from Chd practice. This is based on

Prajnaparamita. So what does it do? The practice of the

paramitas will pacify all the defilements, the suffering of

samsara. This comes from the great master Kamalashila,who received transmission from many great masters but

especially fifty-four great enlightened masters and put the

practice of this altogether. This lineage went to Tibet five

times as well as to China. Kamalashila, known in Tibet as

Padampa Sangye, is known in China as Dhamo. He is

depicted with bushy hair, bushy eyebrows, and big eyes.

Some also call him Bodhidharma. He was a great Indian


15/17

prince, a highly enlightened master, a practitioner of the Prajnaparamita practice,

but everybody called him Padampa Sangye and Bodhidharma.

He came to Tibet the first time through Tsari, which is in Aruna Tsa Pradesh. He

then came to Kham . The second time he came from Kashmir through Northern

Tibet, the Kailash area. The third time he came through Nepal and went into Tsang.The fourth time he came through Shoutago to Central Tibet. The fifth time was from

China, where he had taught dharma for twelve years. The Shaolin temple and

Shaolin kung-fu tradition all are descendent of the lineage of his teaching. That is

based on Prajnaparamita and Chd.

In Chd practice we make very strong PHETsounds, in kung-fu they say ahhu! It

is very similar, just different countries and cultures which somehow transform this

into all kinds of ways. But definitely there is force, and to implement force you have

to be forceful. The bigger the cannon the louder the noise and the further the

ammunition goes, so we have lots of cannons, generals and admirals and brigadeshere, you all know this, it has to make noise, really shout it. Chd is based on this,

and the lineage in Tibet is actually there are so many great masters but the two

main masters are Padampa Sangye and Machik Lapkyi Dronma, who was a Tibetan

lady from the Lap area, an enlightened Tibetan master of the Chd lineage.

From Padampa Sangyes last visit to Tibet, the third transmission lineage, during

that time he had many accomplished disciples, but there were forty-nine special

enlightened disciples and twenty-four enlightened female disciples. Through these

disciples the great transmissions continue today, which are sometimes known as the

Four Yogis of the Four Directions. The twenty-five male masters are described as,whose illusions fell apart. They have no more illusions. One was called Chokro

Nyunpa, Crazy Chokro. Chokrowas his family name and nyunpameans crazy. He is

described as crazy because if you have no more illusion, you dont care. Then other

people who do care so much will call you crazy. So including him, there were

twenty-five of them. Then Tsomo Sangye was one of the twenty-four enlightened

female masters of the Chd lineage. Chd is practiced now by everybody so today

there is no one organisation or one denomination known as the Zhijed. It is in

everything, we practice Chd, and so many people practice it. So the Zhijed lineage

is alive but it doesnt have its own organised religious

structure.

Jonangpa/Jordrug Lineage

Jonangpa is also known as Jordrug, six aspects of

implementation (Jorwa means something like

implementation or application, and drug means six). The

Jordrug lineage is actually the practice of Kalachakra, it is


16/17

based on the Kalachakra tantra, which was transmitted by Buddha to the king of

Shambhala. Kalachakra and all its related lineages are protected in Shambhala

because this world is going to be occupied by barbarians in the next 300 years.

There are two different calculations: one has one zero less and one has one zero

more. So in 30 or 300 years this whole world will be occupied by barbarians. That

means this world will have no place or anybody except them. Whoever thosebarbarians are, they are going to dominate this world. It is not the end of the world,

but this idea, this religion, this philosophy, this way of life, will be imposed on every

human being on this planet Earth. So there is no room for anybody else.

And these barbarians will succeed, they will manage that. If one of the

predictions is right then it will be in 30 years, or if the other one is right it will be in

300 years. The world will be totally influenced by them. When that happens, then the

last, the twenty-fifth king of Shambhala, who will be ninety-nine years old, will

conquer the Earth and bring the Kalachakra teachings to Earth, and he will make this

Earth a heaven on Earth. That unification and positiveness will remain for 500 yearsand this 500 years will be the renaissance period for humanity on Earth. After 500

years then again everything will change and go back to something like what we have

now.

This lineage, known as Jordrug, is sometimes known as Jonangpa because one of

the Tibetan masters who transmitted this lineage in Tibet was called Jonangpa

Taranatha. This lineage is now dissolved into everything. His Holiness Dalai Lama

gives Kalachakra initiation from this lineage and we also practice the Kalachakra

from this lineage, the Jordrug.

Now the Jonangpa lineage is trying to revive its identity, by itself. This is under

the instruction of His Holiness Dalai Lama; that the Jonangpa lineage is trying to

revive itself. It wouldnt take very much, because all the teachings are there and all

the lineage is there. So they have to receive it and practice it and pull themselves

together, and pull their acts together. Then they will have an identity.

Dorje Nyendrub

Now Dorje Sumgyi Nyendrub, which means the practice of

the three vajras: the body vajra, speech vajra, and mindvajra. Actually one of the great masters, Druptop Orgyenpa,

during the time of the third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje, about

800 or 900 years ago, the lineage which was continued by

him is known as Orgyen Nyendrub. Orgyenpa was his name

and Nyendrub is the practice. This is very much based on the

practice of yoga. It involves breathing (pranayama), physical

exercises, visualisation, all kinds of tantric yoga practices


17/17

and exercises. This lineage is also somehow dissolved into everyone. There are four

main masters in this lineage: Rinchen Pal, Shangtn, Kuntn Nyendowa and Bota

Snm ser, but this lineage does not stand on its own as another organized

lineage. It is mixed with everyone.

So these are the eight major lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. This definitely does notcomplete the Tibetan Buddhist history, but I hope it is somewhat informative so that

you now know a little bit more than you knew before.

With thanks to Ani Sherab for transcribing and editing.

This teaching by Kenting Tai Situpa is from the April 2009 issue of Thar Lam, thetri-annual journal available from Palpung Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Publications:

http://www.greatliberation.org/shop/tharlam.html

Copyright Palpung Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Publications

Documents

The 8 Schools of Tibetan Buddhism