Karma Kagyu

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Karma Kagyu (Tibetan: ཀ་རྨ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་; Wylie: Ka-rma Bka’-brgyud) is the largest transmission lineage within the Kagyu school, which in turn is one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu is the Gyalwa Karmapa. With more than 600 groups and centres the Karma Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism is by far the largest and fastest growing Buddhist School in the West.^{[citation needed]}

The Karma Kagyu are sometimes called the Black Hat in reference to the Black Crown worn by the Karmapa.

1 Origins
2 Teachings
3 Lamas
4 External links

[edit] Origins

The Karma Kagyu was founded by the first Karmapa, Je Dusum Khyenpa. It is headed by the Gyalwa Karmapa, a reincarnate lama. Followers believe that the Karmapa's appearance as the first historical tulku (consciously reincarnate teacher) was predicted by the Buddha in the Samadhiraja Sutra (lit: Discourse on the King of Meditative Concentration).

[edit] Teachings

The central teaching of the Karma Kagyu is the doctrine of Mahamudra also known as the "Great Seal". This doctrine focuses on four principal stages of meditative practice (the Four Yogas of Mahamudra), namely:

The development of single-pointedness of mind,
The transcendence of all conceptual elaboration,
The cultivation of the perspective that all phenomena are of a "single taste",
The fruition of the path, which is beyond any contrived acts of meditation.

It is through these four stages of development that the practitioner is said to attain the perfect realization of Mahamudra.

[edit] Lamas

Among the notable lamas of the Karma Kagyu are the Karmapa, who precides as lineage holder. Further more there are four lineage holders hierarchically listet as 1) Shamarpa, 2) the Tai Situpa, 3) Jamgön Kongtrül and 4) Gyaltsab Rinpoche. Also Nenang Pawo Rinpoche and the Danish lama Ole Nydahl are known lamas within the Karma Kagyu School.