ཁ་བའི་མེ་ཏོག་སྤུངས་པའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིར། །
A mass of snow flowers in this world
རས་དཀར་འདབ་གཤོག་སྐྱོད་པའི་འཕུར་ལྡིང་གིས། །
Flying and soaring with wings of white cotton robes
–17th Karmapa excerpt from Praise to Milarepa (23 February 2024)
Today, is the full moon of Saga Dawa, the first month of the Tibetan lunar year, which is considered to be especially sacred, and today is called Chotrul Duchen (“Great Day of Miraculous Manifestations”), which takes place on the fifteenth day. The first fifteen days of the year celebrate the fifteen days during which the Buddha displayed miracles for his disciples so as to increase their devotion. During Chötrul Düchen, it is believed that the effects of both positive and negative actions are multiplied ten million times. For previous post on this day, see SPONTANEOUSLY EMITTING FIRE AND WATER: Chotrul Duchen, Remembering the Buddha’s miracles. I was fortunate to spend today at one of the most sacred places in the Buddhist pilgrimage world, more on that in a future post!
Also, Milarepa was an adamant vegetarian, singing about how killing and eating slaughtered animals is ‘an evil custom’ that should be abandoned. For my translation and overview of that song, see here. That was in the days well before mass factory farming! What would he think now, and how it is destroying the planet as well?
The 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje is also an advocate (and practitioner) of vegetarianism and has spoken widely about it, ever since he left Tibet. Here is a compilation of teachings he has given on vegetarianism and Buddhism. The 17th Karmapa has also painted one of the most beautiful portraits of Milarepa (see image above), following in the footsteps of the exceptionally talented and original art of 10th Karmapa, Choying Dorje.
For the anniversary today, the 17th Karmapa composed a new verse of (nine-syllable per line) poetic praise to Milarepa with a stunning painting/image of Milarepa, which seems to be based on a Palpung thanka painted by the 8th Kenting Tai Situpa, Chokyi Jungne (although it is not clearly stated).
I have translated the verse as an offering for the 17th Karmapa and the Karma Kagyu followers. The Karmapa then later released another verse dedicated to remembering the great Marpa Lotsawa, Je Mila’s teacher. I have translated both the verses as an offering for the 17th Karmapa and the Karma Kagyu followers.
Yesterday evening, Rumtek monastery, Sikkim, which sadly the 17th Karmapa has still not been able to visit or teach at, published the new praise on Facebook with some photos of a Milarepa puja there. In addition, the nuns attending the Arya Kshema in Bodh Gaya will perform live the Milarepa Guru Yoga with the 17th Karmapa presiding from 18:30 (Indian time).
Dedicated to the long-life and activities of the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, may he soon return to Rumtek Monastery and perform the black hat ceremony there! ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿགུ་རུ་ཧཱ་ས་བཛྲ་ཧཱུྂ། OM ĀH GURU HĀSA VAJRA HUṀ.
Music? Milarepa Mantra, Milarepa Song chanted by 17th Karmapa, Aerial by Kate Bush, I’ll Fly Away by Johnny Cash and How It Feels To Fly by Alicia Keys.
Compiled and translated by Adele Tomlin, 24th February 2024.
Commemoration Praise to Je Milarepa by 17th Karmapa
ཁ་བའི་མེ་ཏོག་སྤུངས་པའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིར། །
khawé métok pungpé jikten dir/
A mass of snow flowers in this world
རས་དཀར་འདབ་གཤོག་སྐྱོད་པའི་འཕུར་ལྡིང་གིས། །
rékar dap shok kyöpé pur ding gi/
Flying and soaring with wings of white cotton robes
ས་ལ་འོག་མིན་སྣང་བ་སྦྱིན་མཛད་པ། །
sa la okmin nangwa jindzé pa/
Giving the illumination of Akanishta [pure realm] on the earth
རྣལ་འབྱོར་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེན་པོ་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན། །
neljor wangchuk chenpo jé su dren/
Commemorating the great powerful yogi.
ཀརྨ་པ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཕྲིན་ལས་རྡོ་རྗེས།
Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, 23rd February 2024.
Translated by Adele (Zangmo) Tomlin, 24th February 2024.
ཨེ་མ་བསིལ་ལྡན་གངས་ཀྱི་ལྷུན་པོའི་སྤོར། །
éma silden gang kyi lhün pö por
Ema! Elevated on the Snowy Mount Meru of the ‘Cool Land’ [Tibet]
སྲབ་མེད་མཁའ་ལ་འཕྱོ་བའི་སེང་ཆེན་ཞིག །
sap mé kha la cho bé seng chen zhik
An unbridled great lion soars in the sky
བཤད་སྒྲུབ་གཡུ་རལ་རྒྱས་པའི་ཟིལ་རྔམ་གྱིས། །
shé drup yu rel gyé pé zil ngam gyi
Whose brilliant, extensive turquoise mane of knowledge and accomplishments
ཐུབ་བསྟན་ས་ཆེན་བསྲུང་བ་ཁྱོད་ཉིད་དྲན། །
thubten sa chen sungwa khyö nyi dren
Protects a great level of the Sage’s teachings, I remember you.
By Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, 24th February 2024.
Translated by Adele (Zangmo) Tomlin, 24th February 2024.