Lawapa


Lawapa or Lavapa was a figure in Tibetan Buddhism who flourished in the 10th century. He was also known as Kambala and Kambalapada. Lawapa, was a mahasiddha, or accomplished yogi, who travelled to Tsari. Lawapa was a progenitor of the Dream Yoga sādhanā and it was from Lawapa that the mahasiddha Tilopa received the Dream Yoga practice lineage.
Bhattacharya, while discussing ancient Bengali literature, proffers that Lawapa composed the Kambalagītika and a few songs of realization in the Charyapada.
Simmer-Brown when conveying the ambiguity of ḍākinīs in their "worldly" and "wisdom" guises conveys a detailed narrative that provides the origin of Lawapa's name:

Nomenclature, orthography and etymology

Alternate English orthographies are Lwabapa, Lawapa and Lvapa.
An alternate English nomenclature for Lawapa is Kambala.

Hevajra

The Hevajra Tantra, a yoginītantra of the anuttarayogatantra class, is held to have originated between the late eighth century C.E., and the "late ninth or early tenth century", in Eastern India, possibly Bengal. Tāranātha lists Saroruha and Kampala as its "bringers":
... the foremost yogi Virūpā meditated on the path of Yamāri and attained siddhi under the blessings of Vajravārāhi,...His disciple Dombi Heruka...understood the essence of the Hevajra Tantra, and composed many śāstras like the Nairātmā-devi-sādhana and the Sahaja-siddhi. He also conferred abhiṣeka on his own disciples. After this, two ācāryas Lva-va-pā and Saroruha brought the Hevajra Tantra.... Siddha Sarouha was the first to bring the Hevajra-pitṛ-sādhana.

A teaching story

In the "Blue Annals : Book 9, The Contemplative Traditions of Kodrakpa and Niguma" it is narrated that Siddha Khyungpo Naljor went searching for the sister of Naropa as she had seen Vajradhara. As Niguma had attained the 'Rainbow Body' those with a pure mind might see her Sambhogakaya form where she had performed Ganachakra in Sosa Island, located in East India. When at Sosa Island, Khyungpo Naljor had a dream about Niguma in which he received teachings from her:

He began to doubt that Niguma was a ḍākinī of the flesh eating class, and while he was thinking so, she gazed skywards, and then numerous ḍākinīs gathered, and she created a maṇḍala, and bestowed on him the initiation of the illusory body and the practice of dreams. After that the dakini transported him to a distance of about three yojanas, and deposited him on the summit of a mountain of gold. There in a dream, rdo rje btsun mo bestowed on him the Six Doctrines, and then again personally on three occasions the rdorje tshig rkan and the sgyu ma lam rim. Further, she expounded to him numerous Tantras and sādhanas. Niguma said to him: Except myself and Kambalapada no one else knows the precepts of the Six Doctrines. Till the seventh teacher of the Spiritual Lineage, this teaching should be transmitted down a single line. These will be blessed by me, and I shall give them a prophecy.

Principal teachers

The Tibetan Buddhism Resource Center identifies three principal teachers of Lawapa:
The Tibetan Buddhism Resource Center identifies two principal students of Lawapa: