“The buddhas surely do sing and dance.
To sing and dance is surely profound practice.
By practicing profound song and dance,
We reach enlightenment—how amazing!”
–Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, Buddhas Sing and Dance (2009)
Introduction
For Dakini Day today, here is my English translation (compiled together with the Tibetan original and phonetics) of a long-life praise and aspiration composed and published on the 3rd March 2024 by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa for the 90th birthday of the Karma Kagyu yogi master, Khenchen Tsultrim Gyatso Rinpoche. For photos of the 90th birthday commemoration at the Thegchog Ling nunnery in Nepal, see here.
I have met Khenchen Tsultrim Gyatso Rinpoche a few times previously in Nepal at his Thegchog Ling nunnery where he is based, and briefly in Bodh Gaya, India in 2006, at the Thrangu Vajra Vidya Institute, when the 17th Karmapa was staying there and Khenchen Rinpoche came to visit him.
Although, I have not taken any Vajrayana empowerments or teachings from Rinpoche in person, I met his long-time translator, Jim Scott when I attended the final year of the Rigpe Dorje Programme (on Buddha Nature/Zhentong view) at Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche’s Pullahari Monastery, Nepal in 2006. I was also fortunate to visit Rinpoche’s nunnery in Bhutan in 2019. I enjoy his yogi songs and style of teaching, which is playful and fun and involves singing and dancing. I have written before about Rinpoche here in relation to his connection to Tārā’s cave in Tibet where the first Karmapa saw Noble Tārā.
Translating the 17th Karmapa’s aspiration in the space of a couple of hours, was blissful indeed with the Karmapa’s use of evocative poetic metaphors describing the life essence energy of the blissful ripples in whirling depths of the oceanic gorge of the Dharma expanse, the secret mantra bliss aspect of translating indeed (ha ha ha)!
Thus, I offer these ‘ripples of bliss’ to precious guru, 17th Gyalwang Karmapa and the followers and students of Khenchen Rinpoche. May their legacy and life continue to be an inspiration for all beings on the path! Apologies for any errors. The praise is freely downloadable as a .pdf too.
Music? Singin’ in the Rain by Gene Kelly and Ring My Bell by Anita Ward.
Translated and compiled by Adele Tomlin, 5th March 2024.
༄༅། །མཁན་ཆེན་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་མཆོག་གི་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ་འདེབས་བཞུགས་སོ། །
Long-Life Supplication for the Supreme Khenchen Tsultrim Gyatso
By 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
སྤྲོས་པའི་མཚན་མ་ཀུན་བྲལ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
tröpé tsenma kündrel chö kyi ying
ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ཡེ་ཤེས་འགག་པ་མེད་པའི་རྩལ། །
lhündrup yéshé gakpa mépé tsel
ངེས་པ་ལྔ་ལྡན་གར་དབང་ཚེ་ཡི་ལྷས། །
ngépa nga den garwang tsé yi lhé
འཆི་མེད་གྲུབ་པའི་དགའ་ཆར་འདིར་ཕོབས་ཤིག །
chimé druppé ga char dir pob shik
Dharmadhātu expanse, free from all fabricated attributes,
Energetic display of unhindered, spontaneously-established, primordial awareness,
Deity of majestic life-span endowed with the five certainties[1],
Please rain down the joyful siddhi of immortality!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
མི་འགྱུར་བདེ་བ་ཆེན་པོའི་རང་རྩལ་ལས། །
migyur dewa chenpö rangtsel lé
རབ་འབྱམས་རྒྱལ་བའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་རྒྱ་མཚོ་རུ། །
rab jam gyelwé kyilkhor gyatso ru
ཡོངས་སུ་འཆར་བའི་རིགས་བརྒྱའི་ཁྱབ་བདག་ཆེ། །
yongsu charwé rik gyé khyabdak ché
དཔལ་ལྡན་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་དབང་ཁྱོད་ལ་འདུད། །
pelden dorjé chang wang khyö la dü
From the unchanging great bliss, natural energy display,
Oceans of mandalas of manifold Victors, and
The perfect arisal of all-pervading master of the hundred families,
Glorious, powerful Vajradhara, to you I bow!
ཐུབ་བསྟན་མ་དྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་འཁྱིལ་བའི་འཇིངས། །
tubten ma drö gyatso khyilwé jing
ཟབ་རྒྱས་གདམས་པའི་གཏེར་གྱིས་ཕྱུགས་པ་ལས། །
zap gyé dampé tergyi chugpa lé
དོན་བརྒྱུད་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུའི་མཛོད་འཆང་བ། །
dön gyü yizhin norbü dzö changwa
གྲུབ་པའི་སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་འཚོ་གཞེས་གསོལ། །
druppé loppön chenpo tso zhé söl
From the warm, whirling depths of the ocean of Buddha’s teachings,
A herder’s treasure of deep, vast instructions.
Holder of the wish-fulfilling meaning transmission
Great master siddha, may your life prosper!⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
མཁྱེན་པའི་གཟིགས་པ་མཁའ་ལྟར་ཡངས་པ་ལ། །
khyenpé zikpa khatar yangpa la
བརྩེ་བའི་ཟླ་བ་རྒྱས་པའི་འོད་དཀར་ཅན། །
tsewé dawa gyépé ö kar chen
ལྷག་བསམ་ནུས་པའི་བསིལ་ཟེར་འབུམ་འཕྲོ་བའི། །
lhagsam nüpé silzer bum trowé
གཏན་གྱི་སྐྱབས་གནས་བླ་མའི་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ། །
ten gyi kyapné lamé zhap ten söl
To the knower whose vision of vast open space,
Whose love of an expansive moon’s brilliant white light[2],
Radiates thousands of cooling rays of powerful superior intention,
The guru of unfailing refuge, may your life remain stable!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་དང་རྩ་གསུམ་ལྷ་ཚོགས་དང་། །
könchok sum dang tsa sum lhatsok dang
ཆོས་ཉིད་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་བསླུ་བ་མེད་པའི་མཐུས། །
chönyi tendrel luwa mépé tü
གྲུབ་པའི་སྐྱེས་བུའི་སྐུ་ཚེ་བརྟན་པ་དང་། །
druppé kyébü kutsé tenpa dang
ཕྲིན་ལས་དམ་པས་ས་གསུམ་ཁྱབ་པར་ཤོག །
trinlé dampé sa sum khybp par shok
By the power of the assembly of the three rare supreme ones and deities of three roots, The infallible interdependent origination of phenomena-itself (Dharmāta),
May the siddha being’s life-span remain stable, and
Excellent activities pervade the three places!
སྲིད་དང་ཞི་བའི་ཚེ་དཔལ་དྭངས་མའི་བཅུད། །
si dang zhiwé tsé pel dangmé chü
མ་ལུས་གཡང་དུ་འཁྱིལ་བའི་རླབས་ཕྲེང་གིས། །
ma lü yang du khyilwé lab treng gi
ཕན་བདེའི་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་འཛད་མེད་བདུད་རྩིའི་རྒྱུན། །
pen dé longchö dzé mé dütsi gyün
ཆར་དུ་འབེབས་པས་འཇིག་རྟེན་དགེ་གྱུར་ཅིག །
char du beppé jikten gé gyur chik
Due to the sacred life essence-energy of existence and peace[3], and
Series of rippling waves in the whole whirling gorge,
May an inexhaustible nectar stream of benefit, bliss and resources,
Shower down transforming the worldly into virtue.
མཁན་ཆེན་གྲུབ་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་དམ་པ་གང་ཉིད་དགུང་གྲངས་དགུ་བཅུར་ཕེབས་པའི་སྐབས་དད་ལྡན་ཞལ་སློབ་དུ་མ་ནས་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ་འདེབས་ཞིག་རྩོམ་དགོས་པའི་བསྐུལ་མ་གནང་བ་དང་། རང་ཉིད་ནས་ཀྱང་བཀའ་དྲིན་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་ཀརྨ་པའི་མཚན་འཛིན། ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཕྲིན་ལས་སུ་འབོད་པས་ཤིང་འབྲུག་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་ཟླ་བའི་ཚེས་ ༢༣ སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༤ ཟླ་ ༣ ཚེས་ ༣ ཉིན་སྦྱར་བ་འདིས་ཀྱང་དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མའི་སྐུ་ཚེ་བརྟན་པའི་རྒྱུར་གྱུར་ཅིག །
On the occasion of Khenchen Drubwang’s 90th Birthday, because many faithful disciples urged me to write prayers for his long life, and also remembering his kindness myself, the one holding the title Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley brought forth these words on the 23rd day of the month of miracles (Chotrul) in the Year of the Wood-Dragon, March 3, 2024. May this be the cause of the stability of the life of the glorious teacher.
Spontaneously and blissfully translated by Adele (Zangmo) Tomlin as an offering on Dakini Day to the root guru, 17th Gyalwang Karmapa in the space of a couple of hours on the 5th March 2024.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
[1] The five certainties are the certain place is the Densely Arrayed, the certain form is adorned with the marks and signs, the certain teaching is the Mahayana, the certain retinue is only bodhisattvas of the ten bhumis, and the certain time is unceasing or for as long as samsara lasts.
[2] Here the Tibetan ཟླ་བ་རྒྱས་པ has two meanings, one is the expanding moon, which is also a metaphor for Buddha.
[3] This means samsara and nirvana.
Dakini Translations and Publications མཁའ་འགྲོ་མའི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བའི་འགྱུར་དང་འགྲེམས་སྤེལ། 
Dear Bhadri, (A. Zangmo Tonglen) has a nice ring to it.
It was 1990 when i wandered into Bodh Gaya. It didn’t take long, after Hearing Rinpoche teach to request refuge of Him. Before i knew it, i was studying Cho kye with the Marpa institute and then receiving the Bodhisatva vow from Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche under the Bodhi Tree. All this culminated in Open Heart surgery performed most skillfully by the Khenpo at the Burmese Vihara.
Like most beings, having gone without Dharma for ‘Budh knows how long’ i was certainly a tough nut to crack, having solidified my view thru pride and untold decades of Ignorance. Case in point, while supplicating Rinpoche for Refuge at the old Kagyu Gompa where Rinpo was staying, Jim had to literally kick me and step on my back for me to a full proper prostration. Rinpoche’s condition was for me to follow his instruction to the letter for One year. What i experienced in that time was enough and more to work with for the last 30+ years if not lifetimes.
thanks for your commemoration Adelli (Zangmo).
the Guru in the Music has been a huge part of it. my rock and roll “Gurus” led the way to The authentic Genuine Guru. the list goes on but to pick just one i would say “the Carpet Crawlers” by Peter Gabriel and Genesis kept my heart moving in the right direction of Bodhicitta..
Tug Je chay,
mika