Gampopa

Gampopa (1079–1153) was a Tibetan Buddhist teacher who joined Kadampa monastic training with Mahamudra meditation and established the Dagpo Kagyu lineage.

Kadampa: A Tibetan Buddhist tradition founded by Dromtönpa, emphasizing the teachings of Atiśa and disciplined ethical practice. Gampopa’s training in this tradition supplied the monastic and ethical framework of his teaching.
Ngöndro: A set of preliminary Tibetan Buddhist practices that prepare practitioners for advanced meditation. Preparatory discipline complements the gradual training Gampopa brought alongside Mahamudra.
Dagpo Kagyu: A branch of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism traced to Gampopa and his disciples. This is the lineage Gampopa established through his teaching and students.
Kagyu lineage: A succession of Tibetan Buddhist teachers transmitting practices and teachings from master to disciple. Gampopa’s teaching helped make lineage transmission central to the Kagyu school.
Mahamudra: A Tibetan Buddhist meditation tradition that investigates mind’s nature through direct contemplative experience. Gampopa joined Mahamudra meditation to Kadampa discipline.
Lojong: Tibetan Buddhist mind training that develops compassion and transforms self-centered habits. Kadampa mind training helps explain the ethical and compassionate dimension of Gampopa’s synthesis.
Dakpo Tashi Namgyal: A sixteenth-century Tibetan Buddhist master of the Dagpo Kagyu tradition and author on Mahamudra. His later works show the continuing development of the Dagpo Kagyu teachings.
Karmapa: The title of the successive leaders of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Karmapa institution grew from a lineage founded by Gampopa’s disciple Düsum Khyenpa.
Milarepa: An eleventh-century Tibetan yogi and poet renowned as a lineage master of Kagyu Buddhism. Milarepa was Gampopa’s principal meditation teacher and transmitted the Kagyu teachings to him.
Shamatha: A meditation practice that cultivates stable, clear attention through sustained concentration. Concentration provides a basis for the direct insight emphasized in Mahamudra practice.

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Marpa LotsawaNarrower topic: His later synthesis helped turn Marpa’s transmission through Milarepa into an enduring monastic tradition.