Kagyudpa (Oral Transmission)

Name indicating one of the four major

traditions of Vajrayana and/or a member
of this lineage. The Kagyu (short for
Kagyudpa) tradition as a whole consists
of many subdivisions, each bearing a
different name depending on the
respective founders or a specific
monastery where a particular "brand" of
Kagyu teaching originated.
In the very beginning, there were only
two schools, the Shangpa Kagyud and the
Dagpo Kagyud, the latter of which
multiplied into at least 12
sub-divisions, each with slight changes
of emphasis on one or another teaching
and practice.
However, apart from these twelve,
Tibetan literature sometimes mentions
additional schools bearing the name
Kagyu; or as being closely related to
this tradition. These are the Surmang
Kagyu and the Orgyanpa (or Ugyen Nyendrup).
The Kagyudpa have, more than other
Tibetan schools outside the old
Nyingmapa, incorporated and transmitted
many of the teachings from Bön and
Indian Tantra; their teachings comprise
Mahamudra and Dzogchen, the
Naro-Chos-drug, rGyud bla-ma, Zab-mo
snang-don, and brTag-pa gnyis-pa.
Ultimately, as one can judge from any
list showing the Kagyud lineages, all
these teachings are based on two streams
of oral transmissions originating with
Tilopa and Naropa, one via Marpa to
Milarepa to Gampopa (founder of the
Dagpo Kagyud), the other via Niguma to
Khyungpo Naljor (founder of the Shangpa
Kagyud).
Similar to Milarepa's Mila Gnubum, most
of the important Kagyu-masters have
composed "teaching-songs", oral
transmissions that have meanwhile been
translted and published as the so-called
Vajra Songs.
The two principle yidams of the Kagyud
are the fierce Chakrasamvara and the
semi-fierce Vajrayogini.