“May my mind become one with the Dharma. May the Dharma make success on the path. May the path clarify confusion. May confusion dawn as wisdom. Gampopa’s Four Dharmas is closely related to his Jewel Ornament of Liberation, a text that deals with the stages in our spiritual development. First you begin to discover the Dharma, then you make a good job of it, then the Dharma becomes applicable on the path so you begin to clarify confusion on the path, and finally you transmute that confusion into wisdom. Those are the four Dharmas and they really relate to the development of the individual on the path.” —Traleg Kyabgon
Gampopa Sönam Rinchen (Tib. སྒམ་པོ་པ་བསོད་ནམས་རིན་ཆེན་, Wyl. sgam po pa bsod nams rin chen) (1079–1153/9) after first training as a physician (hence his epithet Dakpo Lharje (Tib. དྭགས་པོ་ལྷ་རྗེ་, Wyl. dwags po lha rje), the Physician of Dakpo), became the principle student of the yogi Jetsun Milarepa. He went on to integrate the Kadampa teachings of Atīśa, which he had studied previously, with the Mahamudra system of Tilopa, which he received from Milarepa, to establish the Dakpo Kagyu branches of the Kagyu school descending from Milarepa's guru .