Four Dharmas of Gampopa, Session 1

Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche opens a teaching on Gampopa’s Four Dharmas, with a translator speaking the English. He congratulates the audience on entering the Kagyu path, then tells how the Samadhi Raja Sutra foretold Gampopa as the monk physician, through the Buddha’s story of the bodhisattva Beautiful Moon Flower.

He describes how Gampopa combined the teachings he received from Milarepa with those of Atisha’s lineage, and wrote the Jewel Ornament of Liberation, the Precious Garland and the Four Dharmas for students who would never meet him. He then argues that Mahamudra suits beginners and advanced practitioners alike, including those practising the Six Dharmas of Naropa or Dzogchen.