THE BRUSH THAT CREATES AUSPICIOUS FORTUNE: Tibetan Losar Greetings from Gyalwang 17th Karmapa

སྔོན་ཚེ་ཐུབ་པས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སྤྱད་པའི་ཚུལ༎
ལྷ་དབང་པིར་གྱིས་བཀོད་པའི་གཟུགས་བརྙན་ཡང༎
འཇིག་རྟེན་ཤིས་པ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་དཔལ་གྱུར་པའི༎
བཀྲ་ཤིས་དེས་ཀྱང་དེང་འདིར་བདེ་ལེགས་ཤོག༎
ཀརྨ་པ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཕྲིན་ལས་རྡོ་རྗེས༎

Previously, the Muni [Buddha]’s way of practising Bodhicitta, and
The reflection created by the powerful deity [Indra]’s brush, that
accomplishes the flourishing of worldly fortune.
May that auspicious fortune also bring blissful excellence here and now!

—Losar Verse by 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje

Today, on Tibetan Losar the 17^th Gyalwang Karmapa released a picture and short verse for the Water-Rabbit New Year 2150 (2023) – see above.

The Karmapa also released a short video speech, see here. As no translation was published with that either, I have done one here (with the help of a Tibetan friend to check the meaning):

On this auspicious Water-Rabbit Tibetan new year, I want to wish all the Tibetans inside and outside Tibet a prosperous year with perfect health, good fortune and abundant joy. During the past year or so, the covid pandemic has caused the whole world many problems. In TibetThis new year I hope that, in particular, the pandemic but also war and famine may be eradicated, and also that happiness and well-being are illuminated. Moreover, may the most beloved of the Tibetan people, HH 14th Dalai Lama live long, and may his eyes continue to look upon us. May all the non-sectarian/unbiased holders of the teachings,  lamas and communities remain stable and their good deeds prevail. May the Sangha community become harmonious in their opinions and keep pure discipline. In particular, I pray that the aspiration of Tibetan people that Tibetans in Tibet and exile may come together, and that parents, their children, and relatives may be reunited together too on this auspicious time of Losar. Thank you.

May the Gyalwang Karmapa and his activities and teachings flourish and be abundant and may his life be long and stable! May Tibetans in Tibet and outside experience a year full of auspiciousness, health, peace and freedom!

Music: for the traditional, Tashi Losar by Tenzin Donsel and Nyima Dhondup (video filmed at Norbulingka, Dharamsala). For something less ‘traditional’ Drowa Zangmo and If by JJ Exile Brothers.

Written and translated by Adele Tomlin, 21st February 2023.