“Victors of the three times declared your praise-worthy name/characteristics,
Primordial awareness dakinis offered the lineage crown,
The victory banner of accomplishment penetrates all-areas,
Today, remembering the ‘grey-haired Khampa.”
–Commemorative Praise to 1st Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa by 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
Today is the commemorative anniversary for the 1st Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa, otherwise known as the ‘grey-haired’ one from Kham (Khampa U-sey) [1].
The 17th Gyalwang Karmapa wrote and published a new commemorative praise to the 1st Karmapa today, which I have translated below into English. In the short verse (packed with dense ‘vajra’ meaning) the 17th Karmapa refers to the wisdom dakinis who bestowed the black crown on the 1st Karmapa. I have written extensively about this dakini offering of the black crown, and translated two important texts praising the origin and benefits of the black crown composed by the 8th Karmapa and Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, see here.
For more original research and translations on the 1st Karmapa, see here. For a general research post on the Black and Red Crowns of the Karmapa and the Karma Kagyu heart-sons, see here.
In addition, on 13th December, the 17th Karmapa gave a brief opening speech (in Tibetan) for the annual Winter debate (Kagyu Guncho) and teaching in Bodh Gaya, where he emphasised the importance of study and knowledge of the teachings within the Karma Kagyu and how they were previously outstanding and amazing, like those of the great Indian scholars such as Nagarjuna, but around the time of the 10th Karmapa onwards. No prizes here for guessing one of the main reasons for that happening! I have written a translated summary of it below.
Apologies for any errors and may it be of benefit! Music? Karmapa Khenno by Tenzin Dawa Tsona, Joyful Aspiration song composed by 17th Karmapa and Miss You by Everything But the Girl.
Translated by Adele Tomlin, 15th December 2023.
དཔལ་ལྡན་དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པ་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་སྐུར་བཞེངས་པའི་དུས་མཆོད།
Commemorative offering to the arising of the perfect Sambhogakaya, glorious Dusum Khyenpa
by 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
དུས་གསུམ་རྒྱལ་བས་མཚན་གྱི་སྙན་པ་སྒྲོགས༎
ཡེ་ཤེས་མཁའ་འགྲོས་རིགས་ཀྱི་ཆོད་ཕན་ཕུལ༎
སྒྲུབ་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་མཐའ་དབུས་ཀུན་ཏུ་བཙུགས༎
ཁམས་པ་དབུ་སེ་ཁོད་ཉིད་དེ་རིང་དྲན༎
Victors of the three times declared your praise-worthy name/characteristics,
Primordial awareness dakinis offered the lineage crown,
The victory banner of accomplishment penetrates all-areas,
Today, remembering the ‘grey-haired Khampa‘[2].
A translated summary of 17th Karmapa’s opening speech for the Karma Kagyu Guncho in Bodh Gaya
The 17th Karmapa also gave an opening speech ( in Tibetan only) for the Kagyu Guncho (Annual Winter Dharma gathering) on 13th December in Bodh Gaya, India for the participating Karma Kagyu monasteries. Here is my translated summary of what the 17th Karmapa spoke about for people who might be interested:
First, the Karmapa referred to the annual debate as being mainly about gaining expertise and knowledge in Buddhism and that previously the Dagpo Kagyu had been a vast and great lineage not only in terms of practice but also knowledge/study. That is why it is called the ‘Kagyu’ Guncho.
He then went on to speak about how in particular texts had been composed on the Mahayana by the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje, and by Kunkhyen Pema Karpo (the 4th Gyalwang Drugpa) but other than those two, there were probably no other scholars like them in the Dagpo Kagyu. He also mentioned how it was important to do some more research into the texts and ways of teaching of Karma Kagyu teachers more generally. It is said that when the accomplished knowledge and faith of a student meet together, the history of the lineage of the Karma Kamtsang became very precious. For example, during the time of the 7th Karmapa, Chodrag Gyatso onwards it became like that.
However, afterwards during the time of the 10th Karmapa onwards [Translator’s Note: the time when the 5th Dalai Lama/Gelugpas violently took over Tibet by force with the Monglian army] the many great shedras became ruined and there was a big denegeration of the scholarship and learning in Karma Kagyu. It was dangerous and difficult time for the Karma Kagyu then and that it is important to research and look into the past history of that more. In brief, the main point he wanted to make was that there had been a ‘golden era’ of knowledge, study and stability of the teachings previously in the Karma Kagyu, but that this had degenerated and become ruined for many centuries. But there was this unparalleled activity, scholarship and superior intention there. So whoever we are, we should investigate this and check the causes and conditions why that happened.
Also, that now we are in the 21st Century it is important to think about our own pure intentions, and how we are preserving and maintaining the stability of the teachings. If we are not really doing that, that is important to know. for example, if have an ancient view and teachings and way of doing things, are we really applying that harmoniously, relevantly and effectively to the 21st Century generation of people or not. It is very important to reflect on and ask ourselves how we need to change and improve that. If we just think ‘Oh we are doing OK, and we are good as we are.’ that kind of attitude is not sufficient. It is important to study, reflect and meditate on these things.
Also, as I was saying at the meaning of the name ‘Kagyu Guncho’ we need to ask ourselves what were the tenets of the Karma Kagyu, how were they? Also in relation to the great and important Buddhist texts, what was the way of teaching them by the great scholars and masters. we need to discuss, research and investigate this. If people do that then the annual gathering will become worthy of the name ‘Kagyu Guncho’.
The Karmapa then explained how he would not say too much, as he was not sure whether people would listen or not anyway. Before, in India there had to be all sorts of preparations to organise sound, microphones and so on as sometimes it would be difficult to hear it properly. In any case, he wanted to say a few words for the opening of this year’s Kagyu Guncho but did not get an opportunity to prepare much to say for it.
In terms of the way of studying of students of the Dharma, the Karmapa said in that respect there was a lot to improve on. He said that even though he had no great qualities as a scholar himself, he had some experience he could speak about and that the way of teaching the texts and studying could be improved upon. For example, previously in India, there were amazing and great scholars like Nagarjuna and so on, with amazing intellect etc. The Indian scholarly traditions and tenets, of the eighteen schools and so on were vast and extremely profound and amazing. People talk about the Four main tenets traditions in india, but more likely it was eighteen or twenty schools of various tenets within the Indian Buddhist tradition. Basically, there was a time when there was this great improvement of our understanding of those tenet systems in Tibet, such as the Madhyamika and Mind-Only and so on.
The Karmapa ended the talk by emphasising how important it was for those serious about studying and understanding the tenets and the Buddha Dharma, and developing a great and sharp intellect and knowledge, then one had to approach all the texts of all the main Tibetan and Indian Buddhist traditions in an equal and unbiased way. One should not just think only in terms of Kagyu texts etc. Also, that these days people often had no real interest in study or researching the texts and even find it boring and tiresome. These days the time spent on worldly activities is getting longer and longer. So one has to have a real passion, liking and interest in the teachings and study, not just study because it is obligatory.
The Karmapa then ended by speaking about what might be taught at the Guncho but that there had not been an opportunity to really discuss it much. So before, he had taught on the One Hundred Short Instructions (Thrithung Gya Tse) of the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje and that he hoped to teach some of that again. Also, that he hoped to possibly do a short researched teaching on the 1st Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa for the commemorative anniversary for him on the 15th December, but that also depended on whether he is able to prepare something or not in time for that. However, within the Karma Kagyu, Dusum Khyenpa was the first in the lineage of teachings and so was important to study and understand what kind of person he was and his activities and so on.
Endnotes
[1] In a liberation-story of Lha-je Dagpo Gampopa refers to his closest disciples, the three men from Kham. One disciple’s nickname was U-sey because he was born with grey hair and that “he was to be Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa.”
This is the reason the First Karmapa is always depicted with grey hair. Also, Lha-je Gampopa called his three disciples back after the discipline master kicked them out of Daglha Gampo Monastery for having misbehaved. The three Khampas then sang a song which is recounted in “Lord Gampopa’s Song of Response to the Three Men of Kham” (in “The Rain of Wisdom”).
[2] U-sey in Tibetan refers to the nickname for 1st Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa, as the grey-haired one from Kham (Khampa U-sey). He was known as one of the three meditators from Kham.