First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa
དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པ་
(1110-1193)
Introduction
The Collected Works (Sung Bum) of Dusum Khyenpa, the first Karmapa is quite rare. However, there are currently two online editions of the Collected works available now on BDRC[1]. One of them is published in a two volume textual section contained within the Garland of Karmapa Incarnations and I have based my English translation of the contents on that edition.
On 4th December 2025, the official online bulletin of the 17th Karmapa, Layjang also recently announced that a new edition of the First Karmapa’s Collected Works has been published in Tibet, with a more extensive and expanded two volumes. The Introduction states that:
“The general framework for the newly compiled works of Je First Karmapa is based on the catalogue of the collected works of the Omniscient [8th] Karmapa Mikyö Dorje, compiled by the Fifth Shamarpa Konchok Yenlak. The source texts for the collected works have been primarily based on the Palpung edition and various other handwritten and printed versions. This collection comprises [two volums] of 30 sections, covering a wide range of topics including biographies, songs, question-and-answer sessions and letters, a comprehensive commentary on the Damchö Ngöchik, a comprehensive commentary on the Damchö Dülwa, the upper and lower parts of the Treasury of Happiness and Ease, commentaries on the Ornament of Realization and the Introduction to the Middle Way, comprehensive commentaries on the Kriya and Charya Tantras and the Anuttarayoga Tantra, ritual texts, the Hundred Short Sermons, instructions and biographies, the upper and lower parts of the Introduction to the Three Bodies, various instructions on the Madhyamaka and Vajrayana, such as the Inseparable Wind and Mind, and various incomplete instructions, including the Essence of the Six-Limbed Yoga.
Additionally, it includes a comprehensive commentary on the grammar of Kalāpa, the Clear Meaning of the Text. Based on the Lord Karmapa’s writings, one can gain insight into the social conditions of that time, and in particular, the various common and uncommon aspects of Tibetan culture. This is a valuable resource for both avid readers and researchers in the field of cultural studies.”
I will update the website section with the titles from that new outline/edition, in due course.
For now, relying on the briefer published edition on BDRC, in summary, Dusum Khyenpa’s Collected Works comprise the following sections (see website for individual titles):
- Liberation stories,
- Dohas (Songs),
- the five sets of five-deities of Chakrasamvara, Vajravārahi, Hevajra, Hayagriva and Noble Tārā.
These are followed by sections on
- Four-faced Vajrayogini,
- Two-Faced Vajravārāhi,
- Questions and answers of Dusum Khyenpa,
- Nāropa’s Six Dharmas,
- Tummo (Inner Heat),
- Merging/Mixing Practice,
- Dream Yoga and Bardo practices,
- Purifying Obstacles rituals,
- Protector Practices and rituals of the Raven-faced one,
- Remati (Rangjung Lhamo), and
- “Invisibility Wand/Stick” rituals that protect from Demons and Gods.
- Texts on Mahamudra, such as a teaching called “Mahamudra, the Thunderbolt (or Lightning Flash)”.
I have completed translations of a few of these works already, such as those on Vajravarahi and Five-Deity Tārā and Hevajra. I have also recently translated the Introductory section of the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s new commentaries and sadhanas on the Five-deity Tārā, see section of website on First Karmapa, here.
For other original articles and resources on the First Karmapa, these are listed on the new website too.
May it be of benefit in preserving the Collected Works of the Karmapas, and the First Karmapa in the English language, as an online resource for the general public, practitioners, scholars and translators.
Endnotes
[1] Garland of Karmapa incarnations. Karma pa sku phreng rim byon gyi gsung ʼbum phyogs bsgrigs. dPal brtsegs bod yig dpe rnying zhib ʼjug khang, 2013. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW3PD1288.
Collected Works of 1st Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa. gSung ʼbum dus gsum mkhyen pa. Dzongsar Khyentse Labrang, 1980. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23651.
Volume: 1
Liberation-Stories
1. Catalogue of the Collected Works of Master Düsum Khyenpa
གསུང་འབུམ་ཀ་པའི་དཀར་ཆག་དང་འགྲོ་མགོན་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྣམ་ཐར་སྐྱེས་རབས། gsung ʼbum ka paʼi dkar chag dang ʼgro mgon rin po cheʼi rnam thar skyes rabs/2. The Liberation-story and Previous Lives of the Master, the Protector of Beings, the Precious One – The Middle(-length) Garland of Precious Jewels
གྲོ་མགོན་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྣམ་ཐར་སྐྱེས་རབས་དང་བཅས་པ་རིན་ཆེ་ཕྲེང་བ་འབྲིང་པོ། gro mgon rin po cheʼi rnam thar skyes rabs dang bcas pa rin che phreng ba ʼbring po/
3. Two Spiritual Biographies of Master Düsum Khyenpa. Compiled by the 2nd Karma Trinlepa Palkhang Lotsawa.
དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པའི་རྣམ་ཐར། dus gsum mkhyen paʼi rnam thar
4. The Liberation-story of the Precious One Written in Verse
རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྣམ་ཐར་ཚིགས་བཅད་མ། rin po cheʼi rnam thar tshigs bcad ma
5. A Liberation-story – A Chronological Table with 108 Entries
རྣམ་ཐར་རེའུ་མིག་བརྒྱ་རྩ་བརྒྱད་པ། rNam thar reʼu mig brgya rtsa brgyad pa/
6. The Precious Dharma Master Dusum Khyenpa’s Liberation-story – The Origin of All Purposes and Wishes
དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པའི་རྣམ་ཐར་པ་དགོས་འདོད་ཀུན་འབྱུང། dus gsum mkhyen paʼi rnam thar pa dgos ʼdod kun ʼbyung/
Other Teachings and Songs
7. Dusum Khyenpa’s Final Testament.
དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པའི་ཞལ་ཆེམས། dus gsum mkhyen paʼi zhal chems/
8. Garland of Pearls Composed by Master Dusum Khyenpa. Public Teachings of Master Düsum Khyenpa. དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པས་མཛད་པའི་མུ་ཏིག་ཕྲེང་བ། dus gsum mkhyen pas mdzad paʼi mu tig phreng ba/
9. Collected Spiritual Songs of Master Dusum Khyenpa.
མགུར་འབུམ། mgur ʼbum/
Five-Deity Chakrasamvara from the First Karmapa’s Five Sets of Five.
10. Indian Root Text of Chakrasamvara From the Section on the Five-deity Chakrasamvara from Master Düsum Khyenpa’s Five Sets of Five.བདེ་མཆོག་རྒྱ་གཞུང། bde mchog rgya gzhung
11. Five-deity Chakrasamvara Direct Realisation
བདེ་མཆོག་ལྷ་ལྔའི་མངོན་རྟོགས། bde mchog lha lngaʼi mngon rtogs/
12. Chakrasamvara Torma Ritual
དེ་མཆོག་གི་གཏོར་མའི་མངོན་རྟོགས། bde mchog gi gtor maʼi mngon rtogs/
13. Indian Root Text of the Chakrasamvara Fire Offering
བདེ་མཆོག་ཞི་བའི་སྦྱིན་སྲེག། bde mchog zhi baʼi sbyin sreg/
14. Inner Offerings of Chakrasamvara
བདེ་མཆོག་གི་ནང་གི་མཆོད་པ། bde mchog gi nang gi mchod pa/
15. Pacifying Burnt/Fire Offering for Chakrasamvara
བདེ་མཆོག་ཞི་བའི་སྦྱིན་སྲེག། bde mchog zhi baʼi sbyin sreg/
16. Five-deity Chakrasamvara Empowerment Ritual – The Garland of Jewels
བདེ་མཆོག་ལྷ་ལྔའི་དབང་གི་ཆོ་ག་ནོར་བའི་ཕྲེང་བ། bde mchog lha lngaʼi dbang gi cho ga nor baʼi phreng ba/
Five-deity Vajravārahi from the 1st Karmapa’s Five Sets of Five
17. Indian Root Text of the Exalted Lady from the Section on the Five-deity Vajravārahi from Master Düsum Khyenpa’s Five Sets of Five
phag mo lha lngaʼi skor las rje btsun maʼi rgya gzhung/
18. Practice text of the Five-deity Vajravārahi
ཕག་མོ་ལྷ་ལྔའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། phag mo lha lngaʼi sgrub thabs/
19. Empowerment Ritual of the Five-deity Vajravārahi
ཕག་མོ་ལྷ་ལྔའི་དབང་ཆོག phag mo lha lngaʼi dbang chog/
Hevajra
20. Hevajra Sahaja (Innate) Visualisation Guide
དགྱེས་རྡོར་ལྷན་ཐབས། dgyes rdor lhan thabs/
21. Five-deity Hevajra Ganachakra ritual feast
དགྱེས་རྡོར་ལྷ་ལྔའི་ཚོགས་མཆོད། dgyes rdor lha lngaʼi tshogs mchod/
22. Practical Instructions on Bestowing Empowerments of Hevajra Samadhi
དགྱེས་རྡོར་གྱི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་དབང་བསྐུར་བའི་ལག་ལེན། dgyes rdor gyi ting nge ʼdzin gyi dbang bskur baʼi lag len/
Noble Tārā
23. The Indian Root Text of Tara from the Section on the Five-Deity Tara
སྒྲོལ་མ་ལྷ་ལྔའི་སྐོར་ལས་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལྷ་ལྔའི་རྒྱ་གཞུང། sgrol ma lha lngaʼi skor las sgrol ma lha lngaʼi rgya gzhung
24. Permission Empowerment of Tara
སྒྲོལ་མའི་རྗེས་གནང། sgrol maʼi rjes gnang
Hayagriva
25. Indian Root Text of Hayagriva
རྟ་མགྲིན་གྱི་རྒྱ་གཞུང། rta mgrin gyi rgya gzhung
26. Direct Realisation of Hayagriva
རྟ་མགྲིན་ལྷ་ལྔའི་མངོན་རྟོགས། rta mgrin lha lngaʼi mngon rtogs
27. Awareness/Rigpa Transmission of Hayagriva
རྟ་མགྲིན་གྱི་རིག་གཏད།
Four-faced Vajrayogini
28. The Yidam of the Precious One [Dusum Khyenpa], the Four-faced Vajrayogini
རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་ཞལ་བཞི་མའི་སྐོར། phag mo zhal bzhi ma’i skor/
29. Section on the Indian Root Text and Meditation Instructions of the Four Types of Liberating Mindstream རྣམ་བཞི་རྒྱུད་གྲོལ་གྱཏི་རྒྱ་གཞུང་ rnam bzhi rgyud grol gyati rgya gzhung/
30. History of the Four types of liberating mindstream (Skt. Bamcaturtantramugta).
རྣམ་བཞི་བརྒྱུད་གྲོལ་གྱི་ལོ་རྒྱུས rnam bzhi brgyud grol gyi lo rgyus/
31. Guiding Instructions on the four types of liberations of the mind རྣམ་བཞི་བརྒྱུད་གྲོལ་གྱི་ཁྲིད་ཡིག ma bzhi brgyud grol gyi khrid yig/
32. Section on the Secret Practice of the Glorious Vajrayogini
VOLUME TWO
Vajravārahi -two faced
33. Praise of Vajravārahi – The Joyful Garland
ཕག་མོའི་བསྟོད་པ་རོལ་པའི་ཕྲེང་བ། phag moʼi bstod pa rol paʼi phreng ba/
34. The Visualisation Instruction of the Two-faced Lady
ཞལ་གཉིས་མའི་མངོན་རྟོགས། zhal gnyis maʼi mngon rtogs/
35. Practice Guide of the Glorious Vajrayogini and the Story of the Exalted Sahaja Lady and others. Vajrayogini practice and the story how Marpa met Niguma.
དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མའི་གསང་སྒྲུབ་དང་རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་ལྷན་སྐྱེས། dpal rdo rje rnal ʼbyor maʼi gsang sgrub dang rje btsun ma lhan skyes/
36. Practice text for Two-faced Vajravārahi Together with Empowerment
ཕག་མོ་ཞལ་གཉིས་མའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། phag mo zhal gnyis maʼi sgrub thabs/
37. Vajravārahi practice together with Fire Puja of Four Activities and Completion Phase (In-line title: Tib. rdo rje phag mo’i sgrubs thab; Skt. Vajravarahisadhana).
ཞལ་གཅིག་མའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། zhal gcig maʼi sgrub thabs/
38. The Completion Phase: The Inseparability of the Energy Winds and the Mind. On the inseparability of mind and energy winds for the practice of the Six Dharmas of Naropa.
རྫོགས་རིམ་རླུང་སེམས་དབྱེར་མེད། rdzogs rim rlung sems dbyer med/
39. Cycle of Practices on Vajravārahi’s Attendants
ཕག་མོའི་བཀའ་སྡོད་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། phag moʼi bkaʼ sdod sgrub thabs/
Answers of Dusum Khyenpa
40. Questions and answers of Düsum Khyenpa – Part 1
དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པའི་ཞུས་ལན། dus gsum mkhyen paʼi zhus lan/
41. Questions and Answers of Düsum Khyenpa – Part 2
དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པའི་ཞུས་ལན། dus gsum mkhyen paʼi zhus lan/
Nāropa’s Six Dharmas
42. Advice on the Six Dharmas – Part 1
ཆོས་དྲུག་གི་ཞལ་གདམས། chos drug gi zhal gdams/
43. Advice on the Six Dharmas – Part 2ཞལ་གདམས། zhal gdams/
Tummo (Inner Heat)
44. Inner Heat – The Snow Lioness (Tummo)
གཏུམ་མོ་གངས་སེང་མ། gtum mo gangs seng ma/
45. Inner Heat – The Middle Mountain Pass
གཏུམ་མོ་བར་མ། gtum mo bar ma/
46. The Supreme Inner Heat
མཆོག་གི་གཏུམ་མོ། mchog gi gtum mo/
47. The Inner Heat of the Lama
བླ་མའི་གཏུམ་མོ། bla ma’i gtum mo/
Merging (Merging)
48. The Three Types of Mixing
བསྲེ་བ་སྐོར་གསུམ། bsre ba skor gsum/
49. Mahamudra Lightning Flash
ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ཐོག་བབས། phyag rgya chen po thog babs/
50. The Three-fold Connection of Dreams
རྨི་ལམ་འབྲེལ་བ་གསུམ་ལྡན། rmi lam ‘brel ba gsum ldan/
51. Sealed Instructions on the Intermediate State (Bardo)
བར་དོ་བཀའ་རྒྱ་མ། bar do bka’ rgya ma/
52. Miscellaneous on Purifying Obstacles
གེགས་སེལ་ཐོར་བུ་བ། gegs sel thor bu ba/
53. Advice on Purifying Obstacles
གེགས་སེལ་གྱི་ཞལ་གདམས། gegs sel gyi zhal gdams/
Protector Practices
54. Practice of the Raven(-faced) Protector with Self-visualization as the Protector in the Tradition of Dharmakirti
མགོན་པོ་བྱ་རོག་མའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་དྷརྨ་ཀིརྟིའི་ལུགས་ཀྱི་མགོན་པོའི་བདག་བསྒོམ། mgon po bya rog ma’i sgrub thabs d+harma kirti’i lugs kyi mgon po’i bdag bsgom/
55. Black Kapala Practice of the Raven(-faced) Protector in the Tradition of Dharmakirti
དྷརྨ་ཀིརྟིའི་ལུགས་ཀྱི་མགོན་པོ་བྱ་རོག་མའི་ཐོད་ནག་གི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། d+harma kirti’i lugs kyi mgon po bya rog ma’i thod nag gi sgrub thabs/
56. Method(s) of (Offering) the Secret Torma and Subduing The Gandré Spirits
བསང་གཏོར་དང་སྒབ་འདྲེ་མནན་པའི་ཐབས། bsang gtor dang sgab ‘dre mnan pa’i thabs/
57. Practice of Rangjung Gyalmo, the Self-arisen Queen, a female protector. རང་བྱུང་མའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། rang byung ma’i sgrub thabs/
58. Pith oral Instructions on the Long Life Accomplishment of Glorious Remati
དཔལ་རེ་མ་ཏིའི་སྲོག་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་མན་ངག། dpal re ma ti’i srog sgrub kyi man ngag/
59. Phase of Application in the Shridevi Practice. Palden Lhamo “Léjor”, the third phase of sadhana practice. དཔལ་རེ་མ་ཏིའི་སྲོག་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་ལས་སྦྱོར། dpal re ma tiʼi srog sgrub kyi las sbyor/
60. Commentary on “Shridevi Svayambhurajni’s Blessing”. དཔལ་ལྷ་མོ་རང་བྱུང་རྒྱལ་མོའི་བྱིན་རླབས་ཀྱི་ཊཱིཀ། dpal lha mo rang byung rgyal moʼi byin rlabs kyi ṭīkka/
61. Invisibility Wand/Stick Against a Thousand Gods and Demons. Protective ritual against demons and obstructive forces. ལྷ་འདྲེ་སྟོང་གི་སྒྲིབ་ཤིང། lha ʼdre stong gi sgrib shing/
62. Protective Meditation Ritual of the Invisibility Wand/Stick Against a Thousand Gods and Demons – The Primordial Sage ལྷ་འདྲེ་སྟོང་གི་སྒྲིབ་ཤིང་བསྲུང་བ་བསྒོམས་ཆོག་ཡེ་ཐུབ། lha ʼdre stong gi sgrib shing bsrung ba bsgoms chog ye thub
63. Unchanging Body, Speech, and Mind – The Essential Point of the Wheel སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་མི་འགྱུར་བ་གནད་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ། sku gsung thugs mi ʼgyur ba gnad kyi ʼkhor lo/