Gampopa Sonam Rinchen

He is also known as Dvagpopa, and by the titles Dakpo Lharjé "the physician from Dakpo" and Daö Zhönnu, "Candraprabhakumara".

Training under Potowa Rinchen Sel, Zang Kar Lotsawa Pakpa Sherab and Sharawa Yönten Dragpa is recorded. Sal Tön Sho Gom, Barompa Darma Wangchuk and Gompo Tsultrim Nyingpo are recorded as having studied under Gampopa Sonam Rinchen. The field of work recorded is alternative medicine. Works named in the authority record are The Jewel Ornament of Liberation.

• Name — Gampopa Sönam Rinchen སྒམ་པོ་པ་བསོད་ནམས་རིན་ཆེན། • Born — c. 1079 CE • Birthplace — Budnyi Chedrak Serlung, Nyel valley, Gyaza dzong and Lung dzong, Tibet • Died — c. 1153 CE • Known for — Founder of the Dagpo Kagyu school and Daklha Gampo monastery, teacher of sutra Mahamudra. • Occupation — Buddhist teacher, monk and philosopher • Illustration — Gampopa in the American Museum of Natural History, New York City

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 thirties 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. • Marpa (1012–1097), the first Tibetan in the lineage, who translated the Vajrayana and Mahamudra texts into Old Tibetan • Milarepa (1040–1123), poet and master who overcame Marpa's reluctance to teach but nonetheless attained enlightenment in a single lifetime • Gampopa, Milarepa's most important student, who integrated Atiśa's Kadam teachings and Tilopa's Mahamudra teaching to establish the Kagyü lineage This lineage sequence, taken together, is called the "Five Founding Masters" by the Kagyu school. After his studies with Milarepa, Gampopa founded Daklha Gampo Monastery (Dwags lha sgam po) in 1121 CE. He had many great students who were accomplished tantric practitioners, both monks and laymen. Gampopa's teaching joined the Lamrim teachings of the Kadampa school with the Mahamudra and tantric teachings of the Kagyu school. According to Tony Duff, he taught Mahamudra in two approaches, "one is a gradual approach called the Four Yogas of Mahamudra, the other is a sudden approach called Essence Mahamudra."

Gampopa taught extensively, and attracted many students. He is the source of the major surviving Kagyu sub-schools, all known as the Dagpo Kagyu. Following Gampopa, there evolved the so-called "Four Major and Eight Minor" lineages of the Dagpo (sometimes rendered "Tagpo" or "Dakpo") Kagyu School. This phrase is descriptive of the generation or order in which the schools were founded, not of their importance. The four "major" Kagyu schools were those of: • Barom Kagyu founded by Barompa Darma Wangchug (1127-1194?) • Phagdru Kagyu founded by Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo (1110-1170) • Karma Kagyu, founded by Düsum Khyenpa, 1st Karmapa Lama (1110-1193) • Tsalpa Kagyu founded by Zhang Yudragpa Tsondru Drag (1123-1193) The succession of Gampopa's own monastery passed to his nephew, Dakgom Tsültrim Nyingpo (1116-1169).

Gampopa's collected works (known as the Dags po'i Bka' 'bum) were published in Dvag Lha Gampo monastery, but that edition has been lost. There are three main editions extant today: • An edition made in Hemis Monastery, Ladhak, in the nineteenth century; • A copy of the above, published in February 1982, in India; • The Derge wood block edition. Gampopa's The Jewel Ornament of Liberation is one of his most important works, it has been translated into English, first by Herbert Guenther in 1959 and again by Khenpo Konchok Gyeltsen in 1998.