The Kagyu (bka' brgyud) school (known as the Oral Lineage and the Spotless Practice Lineage school) of Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana) traces its origins to the teachings of the Indian mystics Tilopa (988-1089 CE) and Naropa (1016-1100 CE), whose lineage was transmitted in Tibet by the great translator Marpa (1012-1097 CE). Marpa's principal disciple was Milarepa (1052-1135 CE), arguably Tibet's best known religious poet and meditator. Among Milarepa's many students was Gampopa (1079-1153 CE), a great synthesizer, who can be recognized as the real founder of Kagyu as a distinct School of Tibetan Buddhism. Following Gampopa's teachings, there evolved the so-called "Four Major" and the "Eight Minor" lineages of the Kagyu School.

The most notable of lineage is the Karma Kagyu lineage, headed by the Gyalwa Karmapa, a reincarnate lama, and founded by the first Karmapa. Followers believe that the Karmapa's appearance was predicted by the Buddha in the Samadhiraja Sutra (lit: Discourse on the King of Meditative Concentration). Currently there is a dispute regarding the identity of the 17th Karmapa, which many see as the fulfillment of a prediction by the 12th Karmapa. Other prominent Karma Kagyu lamas include the Shamarpa, the Tai Situpa, and Thrangu Rinpoche.

The central teaching of the Kagyu is the doctrine of Mahamudra, or "the Great Seal", as elucidated by Gampopa in his various works. This doctrine focuses on four principal stages of meditative practice (the Four Yogas of Mahamudra), namely:

• The development of single-pointedness of mind,
• The transcendence of all conceptual elaboration,
• The cultivation of the perspective that all phenomena are of a "single taste",
• The fruition of the path, which is beyond any contrived acts of meditation.

It is through these four stages of development that the practitioner is said to attain the perfect realization of Mahamudra.

An important sub-sect of the Kagyupa is the Drukpa school which is the primary sect in Bhutanese monasteries. Another important sub-sect is the Drigung Kagyu school.

See also

• Milarepa
• Karmapa controversy
• Thaye Dorje
• Urgyen Trinley Dorje