རྒྱལ་བསྟན་ལུང་རྟོགས་ཆོས་ཚུལ་འཛིན་པའི་དཔལ།
Glorious one, holding the Dharma scripture and realisation of the Victor’s teachings
ཀུན་ཁྱབ་ཐུགས་རྗེ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་བདག་ཉིད་ཆེ།
Great being, an ocean of compassion pervading all,
ལྷུན་གྲུབ་དབང་གི་ཕྲིན་ལས་རབ་བརྙེས་པའི།
Who completely attained the power of spontaneous activity,
རྡོ་རྗེ་འཛིན་པ་ཀརྨ་པ་ལ་འདུད།
To the Vajra-holder, Karmapa, I bow!
བསྟན་ལ་མཛད་པ་དཀར་པོའི་འོད་རིས་ཅན།
Lineage holder of the luminous white deeds of the teachings,
རིམ་བྱོན་ཀརྨའི་སྐྱེས་རབས་མུ་ཏིག་ཕྲེང།
The ‘pearl rosary’ succession of Karmapas,
ཀུན་གྱི་རྣམ་ཐར་ཚུལ་བཞིན་སྐྱོང་མཁས་པའི།
Expert in correctly maintaining all their life-stories,
དཔལ་ལྡན་འགྲོ་བའི་མགོན་པོར་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ།
Glorious protector of wanderers, may you remain long!
—excerpt from HH 14th Dalai Lama’s Long-Life Prayer for 17th Karmapa
Today, on the occasion of Supreme Vajra holder and master, 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s 37th birthday, I would like to offer this short post. Later today, I will also publish some new, original research and work (created especially for the 17th Karmapa’s birthday) on the 8th Karmapa and Chod.
In a live online broadcast at 8.30 am (IST) this morning (A Puja for the Gyalwang Karmapa’s Birthday – YouTube that included an amazing and stunning three-hour long Mahakala Bernagchen and Rangjung Gyalmo Dharma protector offering puja), the 17th Karmapa gave a brief speech (from around 42 mins in) about the change of (western) date for his birthday (to its correct Tibetan date). The Karmapa also shared the reasons why he got a new passport but also his difficulties with then being unable return to India, even though he has requested to travel there many times.
In addition, he spoke about how Tibetan society and their lack of community are causing many problems for themselves internally and that he sometimes wonders if anything he can do or say to Tibetans will be listened to, or of any benefit. The Karmapa also declared how he had also recently caught the Corona virus and was still healing from it and advised others to be careful, in particular the older Kagyu lamas.
On the positive side, this means that the Karmapa now has natural immunity! I have typed the speech up in full (with some minor edits) here below.
After that,. I also reproduce/re-publish a long-life prayer to HH 17th Karmapa composed by HH 14th Dalai Lama in 1997, (which I published and translated here in 2019) who who explained the reasons for his composition as follows:
“After deciding that Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje is the emanation of the supreme guide, the precious Karmapa, Situ Rinpoche and Gyaltsap Rinpoche requested me to give him a name. I had intended to award him a name quickly when giving him novice monastic ordination, but that still has not been done. Now, the Tsurphu Labrang in Rumtek, the Sherap Ling Labrang in Bir, the Ralang Palchen Labrang, and others have fervently requested me to write a prayer for his long life.
Therefore, in addition to bestowing upon him the name “Tendzin Kunkhyap Wang gi Dorje,” I, the Buddhist monk Tenzin Gyatso, composed this sincere prayer entitled “Spontaneous Accomplishment of Desired Wishes” on the 17th day of the 10th month of the Fire-Ox year of the 17th cycle; western date, December 15, 1997. May virtue flourish!@
Music? Khangri Gyelsa Karmapa by Tenzin Kunsel, Karmapa Khyenno by Dege Jamyang, You are My Everything by Calloway, You are Everything by Diana Ross, and Marvin Gaye, and a Thousand Years by Christina Perri….”I have died everyday, waiting for you Darling, don’t be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years, I’ll love you for a thousand more.”
Dedicated to the long-life, happiness, health and well-being of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa and the flourishing of the teachings and Kagyu lineages. May the strength of heart and unity of the Kagyu protectors Mahakala Bernagchen and Rangjung Gyalmo never diminish and increase more and more!
Written and compiled by Adele Tomlin, 30th June 2022.
FULL TRANSCRIPT OF 17th KARMAPA’S BIRTHDAY SPEECH – 30th June 2022
“Today is my birthday and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the Regent of the Karmapas, Goshri Gyaltsab Rinpoche, HE Kyabje Zurmang Rinpoche and also my tutor HE Kyabje Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche and all the teachers, all the spiritual friends and sangha members from all the Tibetan tradition monasteries, as well as all my dharma friends from the Eastern and Western parts of the globe. Thank you all for listening today. I do not have that much to say, or particular thought that I have to say something.
This year we have changed the celebration of my birthday. In the past, we used to have my birthday on the 26th of June. However, this year I’ve taken the Tibetan calendar as the basis and we are celebrating it on the first day of the 5th Tibetan lunar month. The first day of the 5th Tibetan month is the correct date and my parents and relatives all say that this is the unmistaken day. However, if we look at the old documents, in the last year my mother said maybe it’s the 8th day and not the fifth day. So later, I asked her about this, and she said that was a mistake and she confirmed that it is the first day of the fifth month. So, this is what my both my parents say and this is not a mistake. In the past, when I was at Tsurphu Monastery, we used to have the celebrations on the first day of the fifth Tibetan month, and that is the tradition that has continued to the present. So, from one aspect, it’s important for us to consider the Tibetan calendar to be important for everyone to take interest. That is the reason, and that is the primary way we are celebrating the birthday on this day.
This is a particular time, especially personally, as a day when I can feel gratitude. Especially to my mother and father who have given me this human body with the pleasures and resources I need for practising Dharma. They have given me this precious human body. This is a day when I want to express my gratitude to my parents. Of course, my parents didn’t just show me the kindness of bearing me physically, they taught me the basic conduct of how I should behave. What I should do and what I should not do. They helped me feel faith for the three jewels and feel compassion for all sentient beings. I think they had a very strong influence in this regard, and so I think that the first real spiritual friends I’ve had in this lifetime are my own parents. Not just in relation to the kindness of helping me this life but also the kindness in helping make this body meaningful. For that reason, I would like to express my gratitude towards my kind parents. I think this is very important.
Now, we have all have entered the Dharma and practice what we should do and not doing what we shouldn’t do. Being able to see a little bit of the nature of Dharma primarily comes from our spiritual friends and gurus and the kindness of our Dharma friends. So today is a special day where I think it’s important to really remember their kindness too and be grateful to them.
When I look back over the first thirty or so years of my life, most of the time is has not really turned out the way I wish it had. I wasted a lot of time, this naturally happens. However, in the future, I have this thought that I need to be more diligent and more devoted to dharma practice so that it turns out better and differently than it did before. In the future I look forward to serving the beings and the Dharma teachings. This is an unswerving commitment that I have. Not just in this lifetime, but from this lifetime and through all lifetimes in the future, I pray that I never be separated from the Dharma and be able to do some benefit for the beings and teachings, this is a hope that I hold.
Another main point, in the last few years I have been unable to come to India and have had to stay abroad. The main point about this, what it comes down to is that all of us Tibetan refugees have been treated very well by the Indian government. They’ve given us the yellow refugee book, and I have used that to travel with. Yet, when one uses the refugee book, there are many countries that do not recognise this, so I’m unable to go there. So, in the future if I wish to bring benefit to beings and teachings it is necessary to be able to travel easily. However, the Customs and immigration controls often don’t recognise what this yellow book is and they have to ask many questions. So, carrying the refugee Yellow Refuge book can make travelling difficult, not only for me but for many Tibetans. For that reason, in order to make it easier to travel and to give a greater benefit to beings and the teachings, I planned to make a passport from another country, and I did that.
Once I did that, I went to return the old refugee book to the Indian government authorities and asked to get a visa for my new passport. After I received the new passport, I first explained to the Indian Government all the reasons why I needed to change my passport. I told them I would like to return the yellow refugee book, and requested that they issue me a visa for my new passport. At that time, I was in America. When I asked the Indian authorities, there was a lot of conversation, a lot of discussion. However, at the end, there was no real result that came out of the discussions.
Then the Corona virus epidemic spread throughout the world and the situation arose where we were unable to travel. I had no choice but to delay my programmes. However, now the Corona virus epidemic is getting a little bit less widespread. So once again the Indian and the Tibetan governments are expressing a great interest in when I might return to India as are the state government of Sikkim.
I have not been able to go back to go to Sikkim but now they are making efforts to get me to go back to Sikkim and they are making great efforts and driving very hard to do this and they have a very great interest in this. The state government is making great efforts in this regard.
So, at this point, I am engaged in discussions with the Indian Government, but it will take a little bit of time. It is difficult for me to say that I will be coming back at a certain time right now. I need to continue the discussions with the Indian Government, and when the discussion is clearer then at that point, I will be able to return to India and I hope that I will be able to see you then.
In the past, I told the Indian Authorities that I consider India to be very important. For one thing, India is the source of the Buddhist religion. It is the place where the Buddha appeared on the Earth. It is the source of the Buddha Dharma. So, India is extremely important. Likewise, for us Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama is in India and all the Tibetans who came as refugees. The organisational hub of all of the Tibetan monasteries and nunneries are there too. In particular, for Kagyupas the main Kagyu monasteries are there as are many of our Rinpoches. So, for myself individually, and in general, I think that India is very important for us. It is an extremely important place. It is a very important point that I have a good connection with India and I have said this in a letter to India. This is the actual situation. However, for me to return to India, there are a lot of technical issues in terms of applying for a visa. So, this is an issue we need to think about a little bit more carefully.
If we do not make the request properly, then I won’t be able to return. So, some people might think that I have spent many years abroad and I am not going to come back. You might think that, but there’s another point there, as I said. It is not that I do not want to come back, I do. From the time I have been in America, I have made requests over and over again to return to India. My sister and other people have gone to India and had many discussions with the central Indian government. So, this is a very important point, that I thought you should all keep in mind.
These days in the world, the Coronavirus epidemic has taken many people’s lives. Many people have also suffered economic losses and it’s caused many difficulties. Also, these days there is the war in Ukraine, and this is also having a very strong impact all over the world, especially in Europe, and is creating a lot of problems.
So, these days, the global situation is changing in so many different ways. We are all in such a time, all of us. So, we should not just sit there not knowing what to do. We need to clearly look at the changes in the world and see what is the situation in the world? It’s important for us to understand this. In particular for us Tibetans, we Tibetans really need to think about this. In the last several years in our Tibetan societies, there have been many difficult problems and issues. I often think about these many different things and think I should say something, but these days, society is a very easily upset and riled. So, when I say something, I don’t know what’s going to change, who’s going to use it. In sum, I don’t know whether it’s going to be beneficial or not going to be of benefit and turn out badly. It’s not certain. In any case, with our Tibetan refugee communities, we don’t have a very good sense of community, we don’t have a communal idea and it’s a very difficult situation that we are in. I think that is something we need to be very disappointed about.
In particular, while the Dalai Lama is still alive. For us to be in such a difficult situation, so what’s going to happen when, when he’s no longer with us? That is really something that we need to think about. If one is really bothered by tiny, trivial situations in front of ourselves and think that they are extremely important. The main point force the is very harmonious connections between people and our feeling of being, of acting together as one. This is like our life force, if we lose that, then what’s going to happen to us? I think it’s very important for us to think about this and I think that Tibetan society itself is really so difficult. If I return to Tibetan society, then what’s going to happen? Will I be able to be of benefit to anything? Or is someone else going to try to use me? It is not certain. I often think about that. There are many Tibetans who have a very strong pure motivation, and they are very disappointed. Now I’m not within the Tibetan society. I’m looking at Tibetan society from outside. I’m seeing many different situations that we never used to see before. So, I think this is something that everyone should really try to take a wider, broader view about. So that’s basically it. I really haven’t got anything else to say.
So, I’d like to say to all the Rinpoches, the members of the Sangha, all of the Dharma friends, for all of you to come and take such great interest and to celebrate my birthday, to participate in this I’d like to thank you very much for participating. For myself, from the time I was young, I thought there is not a lot of point to living a long time. Sometimes, I got a little bit depressed, or a little bit sad. There were many different situations and events, and I even thought it might be better to die young. However, later, that began to change and, in particular, in the last three, four or five years. So now when I think about things, I see that there are some real reasons for me to stay and live for a long time in the future. So, I hope to live for a long time, and this is my prayer as well.
The previous incarnations of the Karmapa, when I compare them to myself, I am not comparable and it is not worthwhile. Yet, when I look at them, it seems like that, but anyway, that’s maybe not entirely respectful. Among all the Karmapas, the one who lived the longest was the first Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa lived to be 84. So, there is a hope that I could actually be the longest living of all the incarnations of the Karmapas. If I can live for a long time, then is no real point. But I think that there is a reason for staying alive. The great 16th Karmapa passed away in his 50s. If he had lived longer till his 80s, then within our Kagyu Kamtsang many of the different difficulties and situations probably would not have been able to happen.
Even from my own perspective, in terms of the quality of the scriptures and realisation or qualities of being learned and, venerable, I haven’t got any of them at all, but I thought if I can do at least a little bit to serve beings and the teachings, and I have this sort of enthusiasm for this. So, I’d like to take this enthusiasm and see if I can stay a few years. Then I think I can bring a little bit of benefit to the teachings in general and also to beings. This is my own dedication and aspiration. I’d like to ask you all to please make the same prayer.
The 17th Karmapa then ended (after the puja):
“People should still be careful of Corona virus. A few weeks ago, I caught the virus and I have still not completely healed. So please be careful, especially with the older lamas such as Tai Situ Rinpoche, Gyaltsab Rinpoche and Thrangu Rinpoche and so on. It is very important they do not get sick, especially during the Summer teachings. The Summer teachings will be held during the Yarney Summer Rains retreat.”
“Spontaneous Accomplishment of Desired Wishes”
LONG-LIFE PRAYER FOR 17TH KARMAPA BY 14TH DALAI LAMA
ཨོཾ་སྭ་སྟི།
Om Swasti
ཕུན་ཚོགས་སྟོབས་བཅུའི་དཔལ་ལྡན་ཤཱཀྱའི་རྒྱལ
Victorious, glorious Shakya, endowed with abundant ten powers,
འཇིག་རྟེན་དབང་ཕྱུག་རྒྱལ་བ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་དང།
Lord of the World [Avalokiteshvara], ocean of victors,
ཐུགས་རྗེའི་བདག་ཉིད་མཚོ་སྐྱེས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཞབས།
The noble Lotus-Born Vajra [Padmasambhava], compassion itself,
སྐྱབས་ཡུལ་ཀུན་གྱིས་དེང་འདིར་དགེ་ལེགས་སྩོལ།
All objects of refuge, please bestow excellent virtue, here and now!
མ་སྨད་ཐུགས་བསྐྱེད་སྐྱ་རེངས་ཀྱིས་དྲང་པའི།
The supreme ‘morning light dawn’ mind of awakening,
མཆོག་སྤྲུལ་ཉིན་མོར་བྱེད་པའི་མཚན་དཔེའི་གཟི།
Brought forth a supreme emanation sun, resplendent with major and minor marks,
ཞིང་འདིར་གསལ་བའི་སྐལ་བཟང་ལེགས་ཤར་བས།
Shining excellently for the fortunate ones, illuminating this realm here,
བདག་ཅག་རེ་བ་དོན་བཅས་ཉིད་དུ་གྱུར།
Becoming the hope and benefit for us all!
རྒྱལ་བསྟན་ལུང་རྟོགས་ཆོས་ཚུལ་འཛིན་པའི་དཔལ།
Glorious one, holding the Dharma scripture and realisation of the Victor’s teachings
ཀུན་ཁྱབ་ཐུགས་རྗེ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་བདག་ཉིད་ཆེ།
Great being, an ocean of compassion pervading all,
ལྷུན་གྲུབ་དབང་གི་ཕྲིན་ལས་རབ་བརྙེས་པའི།
Who completely attained the power of spontaneous activity,
རྡོ་རྗེ་འཛིན་པ་ཀརྨ་པ་ལ་འདུད།
To the Vajra-holder, Karmapa, I bow!
བསྟན་ལ་མཛད་པ་དཀར་པོའི་འོད་རིས་ཅན།
Lineage holder of the luminous white deeds of the teachings,
རིམ་བྱོན་ཀརྨའི་སྐྱེས་རབས་མུ་ཏིག་ཕྲེང།
The ‘pearl rosary’ succession of Karmapas,
ཀུན་གྱི་རྣམ་ཐར་ཚུལ་བཞིན་སྐྱོང་མཁས་པའི།
Expert in correctly maintaining all their life-stories,
དཔལ་ལྡན་འགྲོ་བའི་མགོན་པོར་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ།
Glorious protector of wanderers, may you remain long!
རྒྱ་ཆེན་ལུང་གི་གོས་བཟང་ལྷབ་ལྷུབ་གཡོ།
The fine, flowing cloth of the vast, great scriptures,
ཕུལ་བྱུང་ཉམས་རྟོགས་ནོར་བུའི་རྩེ་རྒྱན་མཛེས།
A beautiful gem ornament of highest realisation and experience,
རྣམ་དཔྱོད་གསེར་གྱི་ཡུ་བ་རབ་བརྟན་པའི།
Atop the steadfast support of the golden staff of critical analysis ,
སྐྱེས་མཆོག་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ཞབས་བརྟན་ཤོག
Victory banner of the teachings, supreme incarnation, may you remain long!
གྲུབ་པའི་གཙུག་རྒྱན་ལྷོ་བྲག་མར་པ་སོགས།
Crown adorned by siddhas, Marpa of Lhodrak and so on,
གྲུབ་ཐོབ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་གདམས་ངག་མཛོད་བརྙེས་ཏེ།
Attainer of the treasury oral instructions, the ocean of siddhas,
གྲུབ་རིགས་བསྟན་པ་སྐྱོང་ཞིང་སྤེལ་བའི་མགོན།
Protector who preserves and increases the siddhas’ lineage teachings,
གྲུབ་མཆོག་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་བདག་པོར་ཞབས་བརྟན་ཤོག
Master of the mandala of supreme siddhas, may you remain long!
རྒྱ་བོད་ལ་སོགས་ཤར་ནུབ་ཡུལ་གྲུ་ཀུན།
In India, Tibet, all places, east and west,
གང་གི་མཛད་པའི་ཞིང་དུ་ཡོངས་བཟུང་བས།
By totally embracing realms wherever deeds are performed,
སྐྱེ་རྒུའི་བདེ་ལེགས་རྩ་བ་ཚུགས་པ་དང།
May auspicious virtue and happiness take firm root in diverse beings, and
ཕུན་ཚོགས་ཆོས་འབྱོར་ལུགས་བཟང་འཕེལ་གྱུར་ཅིག
The excellent tradition, abundant with Dharma wealth, flourish!
བླ་མ་ཡི་དམ་མཆོག་གསུམ་བདེན་བྱིན་དང།
By the majestic truth of the lamas, yidams, and three supreme ones,
ཆོས་ཉིད་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཟུང་འཇུག་དངོས་པོའི་གཤིས།
The union of Dharmatā and Interdependence; the very basis of things, and
ལྷག་བསམ་དག་པའི་བདེན་ཚིག་མཐུ་བཙན་པས།
The power of these true words of pure, altruistic intention,
སྨོན་པའི་གནས་རྣམས་འབད་མེད་ལྷུན་འགྲུབ་ཤོག
May these aspirations be effortlessly and spontaneously accomplished!
After deciding that Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje is the emanation of the supreme guide, the precious Karmapa, Situ Rinpoche and Gyaltsap Rinpoche requested me to give him a name. I had intended to award him a name quickly when giving him novice monastic ordination, but that still has not been done. Now, the Tsurphu Labrang in Rumtek, the Sherap Ling Labrang in Bir, the Ralang Palchen Labrang, and others have fervently requested me to write a prayer for his long life.
Therefore, in addition to bestowing upon him the name “Tendzin Kunkhyab Wang gi Dorje,” I, the Buddhist monk Tenzin Gyatso, composed this sincere prayer entitled “Spontaneous Accomplishment of Desired Wishes” on the 17th day of the 10th month of the Fire-Ox year of the 17th cycle; western date, December 15, 1997. May virtue flourish!”
Translated, edited and compiled by Adele Tomlin on 26th June 2019 on the day of HH 17th Karmapa’s birthday commemoration (see here). This prayer was handed out to attendees and recited at the morning event at Gyuto Monastery, Dharamsala, India. There is no prior published English translation. May it be of benefit and may HH 17th Gyalwang Karmapa’s life be long and stable and his activities be free of obstacles! All rights reserved, copyright 2019.
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