‘Deep in my heart’: 17th Karmapa’s moving tribute to a beloved Dharma friend and general secretary of Tergar Osel Ling Monastery

‘Deep in my heart’: 17th Karmapa’s moving tribute to a beloved Dharma friend and general secretary of Tergar Osel Ling Monastery

Dakini Translations
Photo posted with the message from the 17th Karmapa with the general secretary of Tergar Osel Ling monastery. 22nd November 2023.

Yesterday, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje published a moving and poetic tribute to a relatively ‘unknown/unnamed’ monk, Lama Lekshey, who was the Treasurer/General Secretary of Tergar Osel Ling monastery.

Here is my attempt at a translation of the tribute for those interested in what the Karmapa wrote (the original Tibetan is below) Apologies for any errors! 

A tribute and short biography for Lama Lekshey was also posted on Tergar Asia Facebook page, see here. I have also re-posted that in full below the Karmapa’s tribute.

Music? Dewachen Prayer chanted by 17th Karmapa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0V1RclVa6k) and For You by Tracy Chapman.

Translated by Adele Tomlin, 23rd November 2023.

English translation

“The Treasurer/General Secretary of Tergar Osel Ling, was someone who had excellent and great love for the Dharma and great faith and commitment to the teacher. With a pure superior attitude for the purpose of the teachings. A friend who was long-distance externally, but who benefits others from within. Without deception for external benefits, he was rich with many excellent qualities. It is with huge regret and sadness that we were only friends for a while due to the force of previous karma, which nothing could be done about. However, this great friend with a  brilliant smiling appearance, will always abide with certainty deep in my heart.

I make a definite and deep as possible aspiration and dedication that he again becomes a person with the power to act for the purpose of teachings and beings and holder on the path of the higher realms. I also make the excellent aspiration and dedication that all those left behind not grieve and suffer but accomplish their own individual purpose and benefit. Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, 22nd November 2023.”

Tibetan original

གཏེར་སྒར་འོད་གསལ་གླིང་གི་ཕྱག་མཛོད། བརྩེ་བའི་ཆོས་མཆེད་ལེགས་བཤད་ནི་བླ་མ་ལ་དད་དམ་བཙན་པ། བསྟན་དོན་ལ་ལྷག་བསམ་དཀར་བ། མཛའ་བཤེས་ལ་ཕྱི་ཐག་རིང་བ། གཞན་ཕན་གྱི་ཁོག་རྒྱ་ཆེ་བ། སྤྱི་དོན་ལ་གཡོ་ཟོལ་མེད་པ་སོགས་བཟང་པོའི་ཡོན་ཏན་དུ་མས་ཕྱུག་པ་ཞིག་ཡིན་མོད། ང་ཚོ་དང་འགྲོགས་ཡུན་འདི་ཙམ་ལས་མ་བྱུང་བ་ནི་བློ་འགྱོད་དང་སེམས་ཕམ་ཆེ། འོན་ཀྱང་སྔོན་ལས་དབང་བཙན་པས་བྱ་ཐབས་ཟད། འོན་ཀྱང་ཁོང་གི་སྙིང་ཉེ་བའི་གཤིས་ཀ་དང་། འཛུམ་མདངས་འཕྲོ་བའི་བཞིན་རས་བཅས་ནི་གྲོགས་མཆེད་དུ་མའི་སྙིང་དབུས་སུ་ནམ་ཡང་གནས་ངེས་རེད་ལ། ཁོ་བོ་ནས་ཀྱང་མཐོ་རིས་ཀྱི་ལམ་སྣེ་ཟིན་ཅིང་། སླར་ཡང་བསྟན་འགྲོའི་དོན་བྱེད་ནུས་པའི་གང་ཟག་ཞིག་ཏུ་འགྱུར་བའི་བསྔོ་སྨོན་གང་གཟབ་ཞུ་ངེས་ཡིན། ཤུལ་ལུས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་མྱ་ངན་མི་མཛད་པར་རང་རང་ནས་དོན་དང་ལྡན་པའི་བསྔོ་སྨོན་བཟང་པོ་རེ་མཛད་པར་ཞུ། ཀརྨ་པ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཕྲིན་ལས་པས། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༣ ཟླ་ ༡༡ ཚེས་ ༢༢ ལ

Tergar Asia tribute
 
“It is with sadness that we share the news that the general manager of Tergar Osel Ling Monastery Lama Lekshey has passed away in India this morning from an illness.
 
Lama Lekshey’s body will be sent to Sherab Ling, where Guru Vajradhara His Holiness the 12th Chamgon Kenting Tai Situpa will conduct prayer services and confer blessings. Various other monasteries are also arranging for prayers for the deceased.
 
Lama Lekshey was born in 1978, and received monastic ordination when he was 13 years old.
In 1996, inspired by his faith and devotion, he found his way to Palpung, India, the monastic seat of Guru Vajradhara His Holiness the 12th Chamgon Kenting Tai Situpa. There at its Sherab Ling shedra, Lama Lekshey completed nine years of study and practice.
 
During this time, he also spent three years at Gyuto Monastery in Dharamsala to attend His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa, assisting His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa on teaching matters and earning his trust and praise.
 
Following that, Lama Lekshey was instructed by the Venerable Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche to serve at Tergar Monastery in Bodh Gaya, where he taught and managed the monastery for years.
From 2010 until recently, Lama Lekshey took on the heavy responsibility of managing Tergar Osel Ling Monastery in Nepal.
 
After the Nepal earthquake of 2015, Tergar Osel Ling had to be rebuilt. Lama Lekshey selflessly decided to postpone his initial plan to go into a three-year retreat to oversee this challenging job.
During this time, Lama Lekshey put his previous experience of assisting rebuilding works at Sherab Ling to good use and demonstrated outstanding management and coordination skills. He worked with many different parties to fundraise and oversee the construction work, effectively solving problems that arose and allowing the project to proceed smoothly.
 
Lama Lekshey was full of good humour, humble and courteous, and was respected for the way he conducted himself and treated others.
 
Although Lama Lekshey has left us, his warm heart and great support for dharma activities will always inspire us.
 
With the blessings of our gurus, may Lama Lekshey be reborn in the Pure Land and continue to benefit all beings.”

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