A BIRTHDAY PRAISE AND A BLESSED REUNION OF TWO RED-HAT ‘HEART SONS’. 71st Birthday poem to Kenting Tai Situpa by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, and historic meeting after many years of Tai Situpa and Gyeltsab Rinpoche and visit to Sikkim

May the cooling camphor droplets of benefit and well-being drip down, and
སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཚ་གདུང་མ་ལུས་རབ་འཇིལ་བའི། །
Eliminate completely without exception heated suffering,
སྔོན་མེད་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བསིལ་ངད་ཀྱིས། །
May the cooling of the unprecedented sacred Dharma,
ལན་གཅིག་མིན་པར་འགྲོ་རྣམས་བརླན་པར་མཛོད། །
making all beings moist, not only once!

–Lines from the 17th Karmapa’s new praise to 12th Tai Situpa (February 2024)

On the 17th February, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa posted a stunning new poetic praise online for the 71st Birthday of HE 12th Kenting Tai Situpa Rinpoche.  The following day, it was great to see some  lovely photos posted online of 12th Tai Situpa meeting HE 12th Gyeltsab Rinpoche at his residence in Siliguri, West Bengal, India (see below) and also after that meeting the chief Minister of Sikkim.  This is the first time in over thirty years that Tai Situpa has met Gyeltsab Rinpoche or been allowed to travel to Sikkim!

Despite the fact I am travelling on Buddhist pilgrimage still,  as a small offering for the long-life, well-being and activities of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa and the Karma Kagyu in general, as well as for the long life and good health of 12th Gyeltsab Rinpoche, from whom I have taken several Vajrayana empowerments in the past, here is a translation (with the Tibetan and phonetics) of the 17th Karmapa’s praise. I have not seen any English translation of this yet online, so apologies for any errors and may it be of benefit!

As I spoke about previously in an interview with the author of the important and most objective account of the 17th Karmapa recognition and dispute, Mick Brown, Tai Situpa was effectively banned from going to Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim for years as a result of the horrendous smear and defamation campaign launched against him by the 14th Zhamarpa/Thaye Dorje followers, who among many things accused him of forging the sacred handwritten prediction letter given to him by the 16th Karmapa before he passed away, as well as a court case launched by the 14th Zhamarpa and his followers to seize back full control of Rumtek monastery from 12th Gyeltsab and Tai Situ Rinpoche. This court case seems to be ongoing and is one of the main reasons both Tai Situpa and the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa himself have been unable to visit and teach there, which is a real loss and shame not only for Karma Kagyu and their followers, but for the Buddha Dharma as a whole. This meeting and visit suggests a change is going to come, which is long overdue! After this was published, a short analysis I wrote about Tai Situpa’s return to Sikkim was published in Teahouse Buddhist Door Global, here.

May we all be made moist by the droplets of cooling Dharma, not just once but many times!

Music? A Change is Gonna Come  by Sam Cooke,   Feeling Good by Nine Simone.

Written and translated by Adele Tomlin, 20th February 2024.

 

Long-Life Birthday aspiration for 12^th Kenting Tai Situpa

by 17^th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje

བདག་སོགས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་འདྲེན་པ་བྱམས་མགོན་མིའི་ཤ་ཚུགས་ཅན། པདྨའི་ལྗགས་ལྡན་བཞི་པ་གང་ཉིད་དགུང་གྲངས་དོན་གཉིས་ལ་ཕེབས་པའི་འཁྲུངས་ཚེས་བཟང་པོ་འདིར།

Here at this excellent birthday time of the one who leads myself and others,  Jamgon in the shape of human form, endowed with a four lotus tongue, who whatever age arrives to accomplish the two purposes.

བསྟན་འགྲོའི་དོན་དུ་སྐུ་ཚེ་ཡུན་དུ་བརྟན་པ་དང་། ཟབ་པ་དང་རྒྱ་ཆེ་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་རྒྱུན་ཆད་མེད་པ་བསྐོར་བར་བསྐུལ་བའི་གསོལ་བ་ལན་བརྒྱར་འདེབས་པ་ལགས་སོ། །

I supplicate one hundred times for the benefit of the teachings and beings, may your life remain long and stable, and may yoo continually turn the wheel of the vast and profound Dharma.

གྲངས་མེད་གདུལ་བྱའི་ལྷ་ལམ་ཡངས་པའི་ངོས། །
drangmé düljé lha lam yangpé ngö
The spacious face of the divine path of countless disciples,

གསལ་རྫོགས་མཚན་དཔེའི་གཟི་བྱིན་འབར་བའི་སྐུ། །
sel dzok tsen pé zijin barwé ku
Form blazing majestically with the characteristics of complete radiance.

རྣམ་དཀར་ཕྲིན་ལས་འོད་སྣང་འབུམ་འཕྲོ་བ། །
nam kar trinlé ö nang bum trowa
Emanating thousands of brilliant white light rays of pure activities,

བྱམས་མགོན་ཉིན་བྱེད་དབང་པོ་ཁྱོད་ལ་འདུད། །
jam gön nyin jé wang po khyö la dü
Jamgon Nyinje Wangpo [Tai Situ] to you I bow down.

ཚེ་མཐའ་ཡས་པའི་ཕྱག་གི་བུམ་བཟང་ལས། །
tsé ta yé pé chak gi bum zang lé
From the excellent vase in the hand of Tse Thaye (Amitayus: Infinite Life)

འཁོར་འདས་ཚེ་བཅུད་བདུད་རྩིར་ཞུ་བའི་རྒྱུན། །
khor dé tsé chü dütsir zhuwé gyün
Flows continually the amrita life-essence of samsara and nirvana,

ཕབ་ཏེ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཁམས་སུ་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་པའི། །
pap té dorjé kham su lhündrup pé
Descending on the Vajra expanse spontaneously accomplishing

ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་སྐུར་བཞེངས་ཤིག་འགྲོ་བའི་མགོན། །
long chö dzok kur zheng shik drowé gön
the arisal of the perfect Sambhogakāya, protector of beings.

ཕན་བདེའི་ག་བུར་འཛག་པའི་ཟེགས་མ་རེས། །
pen dé ga bur dzak pé zek ma ré
Droplets of cooling camphor of benefit and well-being drip down, and

སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཚ་གདུང་མ་ལུས་རབ་འཇིལ་བའི། །
duk ngel tsa dung ma lü rap jilwé
Eliminate completely, without exception, feverish suffering,

སྔོན་མེད་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བསིལ་ངད་ཀྱིས། །
ngön mé dam pé chö kyi sil ngé kyi
With the cooling of the unprecedented sacred Dharma,

ལན་གཅིག་མིན་པར་འགྲོ་རྣམས་བརླན་པར་མཛོད། །
len chik min par dro nam len par dzö
making all beings moist, not only once!

སློབ་འབངས་སུ་གཏོགས་པ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཕྲིན་ལས་རྡོ་རྗེར་འབོད་པས། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༤ ཟླ་ ༢ ཚེས་ ༡༧ ལ་ཕུལ།
Evoked by the disciple, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, 17^th February 2024.

Translated by Adele Tomlin, 20th February 2024.