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TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 15

had mystical experiences. However, the monastic tradition enabled the dharmic teachings and compare
his practice in this tradition did not the dharma to flourish for many them to our own experience,
completely satisfy him, so he sought centuries, into modern times. The we gain confidence in what is
out one of the greatest yogis of all monasteries provided institutional being said. The final result of
time, Milarepa. Under Milarepa’s continuity and training to large contemplation is that the dharma
guidance, Gampopa’s practice numbers of monks and nuns, while becomes part of us. It becomes how
matured into enlightenment and yogis and married lamas continued we view the world. We are now “one
he became Milarepa’s main lineage to ensure that the dharma did not with” the dharma.
holder and successor. lose touch with ordinary reality.
We could take the idea of karma,
Gampopa died in 1153, and later for instance, as an example of
his four main students spread his how we might become one with
teachings by means of what have the dharma. When we first hear
come to be known as the “four about karma, it sounds like another
great” schools of the Kagyu lineage. example of religious belief: cosmic
punishment of sin. We feel remote
Each line of the Four Dharmas of from the dharma. Becoming one
Gampopa begins with the phrase with the dharma has three stages.
“Grant your blessings …..” It isn’t The first is listening; the second
clear who is being asked to grant is contemplating; and the third is
their blessings, but a good rule of taking to heart, or becoming one
thumb in buddhadharma is that, with. At the first stage of listening,
even if there is a guru nearby, that we simply have to listen and
teacher’s mind is ultimately the same understand clearly the concept of
as yours in its basic buddha nature. karma, and disentangle it from our
The First Karmapa However, since we don’t experience previously existing ideas about
ourselves as buddhas, we seem to Judeo-Christian ideas of sin and
Gampopa’s previous training need to experience enlightened mind retribution. We have to understand
enabled him to temper the as though it is external to us. So that karma is just cause and effect.
spontaneous and relatively we supplicate enlightened mind as After listening, we go through an
unstructured yogic style of though it is outside. extended stage of contemplation,
his teacher (and the lineage where we compare the Buddhist
altogether up to that point) with ideas of karma with our experience.
the structure and steadiness of
his earlier monastic training. It We become more and more
fell to Gampopa’s student, the first conscious of actions and their
Karmapa, Tusum Kyenpa, to start results. We then enter the third
the tulku tradition. In this tradition, stage, taking to heart, automatically
the previous abbot of a monastery considering the karma inherent in
reincarnates, and is found and everything we do or say. We begin
trained to become the next abbot. to actually experience the world in
The first line also contains the terms of karmic cause and effect: we
This introduced an element of phrase “one with the dharma.” have become “one with.” Karma has
continuity into the transmission When we first hear the dharma, it become part of our natural view of
of the dharma from generation may seem remote. We do not feel the world.
to generation. The steadiness of “one with” it. As we contemplate