278 CHAPTER ELEVENbecame the first hierarch of the Sakya order, which was to become the domi-
nant political power in Tibet in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
As for Marpa (1012-96), he originally began studying with Drok-mi but
objected to Drok-mi's high initiation fees and so went to India to acquire
Tantric initiations on his own. He studied primarily with Nampa, who taught
him the Cakrasa1J1vara Tantra. On his return to Tibet, Marpa married and set
himself up as a householder, revealing his mastery of the Tantras only to a
chosen few. His main student was Milarepa (Mi-la ras-pa, Cotton-clad Mila;
1040-1123), who was to become one of the most beloved figures in Tibetan
history. Mila, as a youth, had learned magic in order to take revenge on a
wicked uncle who had dispossessed and maltreated Mila's widowed mother.
Seized with remorse after destroying his uncle, he sought first to expiate his
bad karma and then to attain liberation. At age 38 he became Marpa's disci-
ple. For six years the master subjected him to harsh ordeals (Strong EB, sec.
- before finally granting him the initiation he sought. Milarepa spent the
remainder of his life meditating in the caves and wandering on the slopes of
the high Himalayas. After a long period of solitude, he gradually attracted a
following, converted many disciples, and worked wonders for people's bene-
fit. A fictionalized "autobiography" of Milarepa, composed in the fifteenth
century, is one of the great classics of Tibetan literature.
Mila's primary student was Gampopa (Sgam-po-pa; 1079-1153), a monk
of the Kadam lineage. Mila taught Gampopa a version of the Mahamudra med-
itation, called Sutra Mahamudra, that would not violate the latter's vows of
celibacy. In the original Unexcelled Yoga teachings, Mahamudra was the state
of innate blank joy that the adept would attain at the climax of the sexual union.
Sutra Mahamudra was a technique by which a celibate meditator could attain
the same state through a union of the male and female "energy channels" in
the body. This method was originally denounced outside of Gampopa's fol-
lowing, but eventually became one of the dominant meditation methods in
Tibet. However, an entire book could be written on the various permutations
it underwent as it was passed down from master to master and school to school,
combining with Dzogchen and other methods. (See Strong EB, sec. 7.6, for a
version that closely parallels early Buddhist dhyana practices.)
Gampopa's combination ofKadam monastic discipline and Mahamudra
meditation formed the basis for a new school, the Kagyii (bKa' brgyud, the
Followers or the Transmitted Command). His disciples split into five sub-
schools, chief of which was the Karma school. Although monks ofboth the
Kagyii and Sakya schools were expected to follow the Mulasarvastivadin
Vinaya, because their lineages were ultimately derived from laymen, they were
somewhat more lax in their discipline than the Kadams.
Various other small schools and monastic orders formed as the Kadams
combined with other Tantric lineages newly arrived from India, but none of
them gained prominence. Quite a few of the older Tantric lineages, however,
refused to have anything to do with the new reform movement. These older
lineages were composed largely oflay practitioners whose traditions contained
~ot only authentic Buddhist texts but also apocryphal texts, doctrines, and
- before finally granting him the initiation he sought. Milarepa spent the