2,500 years ago, the Buddha taught a system of self-examination and self-transformation, that all our experience — outward and inward — is determined by our minds. Further, he taught that by changing our minds, we can change our experience.
He taught that happiness arises (in our minds and experiences) as the result of cultivating the practices of virtue — altruism, love, compassion, generosity, patience, morality, diligence, meditation and wisdom. He taught that suffering arises because we practice the opposites of virtue — self-centered ignorance, hatred, abusive attachment, stinginess, anger, irresponsible behavior, laziness, denial, and bewilderment.
And he taught that because of the basic continuous nature of our minds, we experience these causes, actions and results (karma) not just in this lifetime, but in future lifetimes as well.
To take control of this process of karma and rebirth in the world of suffering (samsara), the Buddha taught the means for practicing virtue and avoiding non-virtue, and the practices of taming the mind, or meditation.
By learning the nature of virtue and non-virtue, we can intellectually take hold of virtue and begin to discard non-virtue. And by practicing self-awareness and mindfulness through meditation, we are able to gain control of our minds and actions and begin to build more constructive, more meaningful and more happy lives.
The practices given by the Buddha can eventually lead to the total spiritual transformation of the individual, resulting in the experience of the same transcendent state of spiritual awakening experienced by the Buddha.
The Buddha taught that all sentient beings share the potential for Buddhahood, because enlightenment is the basic nature of our minds.
When we first approach the buddhadharma, study helps us to understand the teachings and discover for ourselves whether they are true for us.Study also serves as an intellectual framework for the experience of meditation.
Study is important, but meditation is equally important –if not more so– because while study provides intellectual understanding, only with meditation practice can one have direct experience.
Marpa first trained as a translator under Drogmi Yeshe (993-1050), and then traveled three times to India and four times to Nepal in search of buddhist teachings. He is said to have studied with a hundred and eight masters and yogis, but his principal teachers were Naropa and Maitripa.
From Naropa, Marpa received the lineage of tantric teachings called the Four Special Transmissions (bK’a-babs-bzhi): the yogas of 1) illusory body and transference of consciousness, 2) dream, 3) luminosity, and 4) inner heat. Naropa obtained these teachings directly from Tilopa (988-1069), who in turn had received them from two original sources, called the direct and indirect lineage. The direct lineage and original source of the teachings was Buddha Vajradhara. The indirect lineage comes from four main teachers of Tilopa called the four special transmission lineages.” Both Tilopa and Naropa are some of the greatest panditas, scholars, and siddhas, accomplished saints, of Nalanda, the famous Buddhist university of ancient India.
Marpa brought these lineages to Tibet, passing them on to his primary disciple and lineage holder, Milarepa (1040-1123), the most renowned and accomplished of Tibet’s tantric yogis, who achieved enlightenment in one lifetime. Milarepa held the lineage and tradition of the Practice Lineage. Some of the other great students of Marpa were Ngog Choku Dorjey, Tsurton Wangey and Meton Chenpo, who held the Marpa’s tradition of the Teaching Lineage. This is how the two great systems of the practice lineage and the teaching lineage were founded in Kagyu lineage.
The great master Gampopa (1084-1161), also known as Dakpo Lhaje, and Rechungpa (1084-1161) were the principal students of Milarepa. Gampopa was prophesized in the sutras by Buddha. He pioneered in establishing the framework of the lineage by unifying Milarepa’s Mahamudra lineage with the stages of the path tradition of the Kadampa lineage. This lineage and tradition is known as the Dhakpo Kagyu.
Gampopa had three heart disciples: Düsum Khyenpa, Phakmo Drupa and Saltong Shogom. Düsum Khyenpa (1110-1193), also known as Khampa Usey (literally, the “white-haired Khampa”), became known as the First Karmapa, who established the Karma Kagyu lineage.
This information borrowed from www.kagyuoffice.org