Gampopa

Gampopa Sönam Rinchen (, 1079–1153) was the main student of Milarepa, and a Tibetan Buddhist master who codified his own master's ascetic teachings, which form the foundation of the Kagyu educational tradition. Gampopa was also a doctor and tantric master. He authored the first Lamrim text, Jewel Ornament of Liberation, and founded the Dagpo Kagyu school. He is also known as Dvagpopa, and by the titles Dakpo Lharjé "the physician from Dakpo" () and Daö Zhönnu, "Candraprabhakumara" (). Gampopa was born in the Nyal (or Nyel) district, Central Tibet and from an early age was a student of medicine in the Indian, Chinese and Tibetan medical traditions. Later in his life he moved to the region of Dakpo (dwags po) in southern Tibet and hence was also called Dakpopa (dwags po pa), the man from Dakpo. The region is also near Gampo Hills, hence his other name, Gampopa. In his youth Gampopa studied under the Nyingma lama Barey as well as under the Kadampa teacher Geshe Yontan Drag. He married a daughter of a man named Chim Jose Darma Wo (mchims jo sras dar ma 'od) and had a child, but they both died, causing him to renounce the householder's life. In 1104, at the age of twenty-five he took ordination, either in Dakpo or in Penyul, at Gyachak Ri monastery ('phan yul rgya lcags ri), receiving the name Sönam Rinchen (bsod nams rin chen)." After becoming a monk in the Kadampa lineage under Geshe Lodan Sherab and focused on studying the Kadampa teachings. In his 30s he sought out and became the foremost student of the yogi Milarepa. Milarepa instructed him in the practice of Vajravārahī, tummo (gtum mo) and Mahāmudrā. Gampopa's position in the transmission lineage of the Mahamudra teaching is as follows: Tilopa (988-1069), the Indian yogi who experienced the original transmission of the Mahamudra Naropa (1016–1100), who perfected the methods of accelerated enlightenment described in his Six Yogas of Naropa.