Düsum Khyenpa, 1st Karmapa Lama

Who was Düsum Khyenpa, 1st Karmapa Lama?

Düsum Khyenpa was the 1st Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Düsum Khyenpa literally means "Knower of the Three times". It was given to him to refer to knowledge of the three forms of time he gained at enlightenment including the "timeless time" of enlightened awareness.

He was born to a devout family of Buddhist practitioners in Teshö in eastern Tibet and was called Gephel as a child. He first studied with his father and then continued training with other Buddhist teachers in the region.

He was a gifted child who studied and practiced Dharma intently from an early age. Already quite learned by the age of twenty, he became a monk and studied the sutras and tantra intensively for a further ten years. At thirty, he went to Daklha Gampo -- Gampopa's monastery—to receive teachings from him. Although this was a historic meeting of two great Buddhist bodhisattvas emanating on Earth with a profound purpose, Gampopa nevertheless first made Dusum Khyenpa train formally in the foundation practices of the Kadampa tradition and, following that, in the general philosophy of the sutras.