As was announced on 27th June 2024, the great Dzogchen yogi-scholar, and devoted student and teacher of the 16th and 17th Karmapas, Khenchen Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche passed into a four-day ‘tug-dam’ meditative state on 22nd June.
The following day, 28th June 2024, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa published a new four-verse (11-syllable per line) supplication for Khenpo Rinpoche, full of blissful, vajra words and symbolism by both a vajra master and poet, on the completion stage ‘melting-bliss’ and union. It was blissful indeed reading and translating it!
The 17th Karmapa states in his dedication that:
“These words, for the supreme being, a practitioner and scholar, Khenchen Dampa Tsultrim Gyamtso, not to be gone for long, were written at the urging of the students of this supreme luminary of the teachings of Dzogchen. This lazy servant-disciple, Ogyen Trinley composed this on 28th June 2024. May the meaning of this supplication be understood!”
As I wrote in the previous article, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso was very close with and a follower of both the 16th Karmapa (at Tsurphu Monastery, Tibet and as one of the resident khenpos at Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim) and also the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje.
As the supplication was published in Tibetan only, I have translated it into English as a humble, devoted ‘servant’ offering to the guru 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, and his followers, and to the memory of Khenchen Tsultrim Gyamtso and his followers. Apologies for any errors in meaning or words, may it be of benefit!
Music? Milarepa’s Song Porog Karpo (White Raven) by Loten Namling and Flying Dakini by Yungchen Lhamo.
Shower of ‘whatever arises’, spontaneous song blessings
བླ་མ་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་པ་གང་ཤར་ཐོལ་གླུ་བྱིན་རླབས་ཆར་འབེབས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ།
Supplication composed by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje for the swift return of Khenchen Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche
ན་མོ་གུ་རུ།
Namo Guru!
བློ་བུར་དྲི་མ་དག་པ་རང་བྱུང་གི་ཡེ་ཤེས། །
བསལ་བཞག་སྤང་བླང་བྲལ་བའི་འོད་གསལ་གྱི་སྦུབས་སུ། །
སྐུ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་རང་ཆས་ཆོས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་བླ་མར། །
རང་ངོ་རང་ཤེས་ངང་ནས་གསོལ་བ་ཞིག་འདེབས་སོ། །
Pure, stainless, naturally arising primordial awareness (ye-she: jnana),
In a clear-luminous sheath, free from abandoning and adopting, discarding and gathering,
The guru of innate Dharmāta awareness and kāyas,
From within one’s authentic ‘face’ and nature, I supplicate!
སྟོང་ཆེན་སྲོག་གི་ཐིག་ལེའི་སྤྲོ་བསྡུ་ཡི་རོལ་པ། །
ཁ་སྦྱོར་མཚན་དཔེའི་ལང་ཚོར་མངོན་པར་རུ་ཤར་བའི། །
ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་དཔལ་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་སྐུ་ཡི་བླ་མར། །
རླུང་སེམས་དབྱེར་མེད་ངང་ནས་གསོལ་བ་ཞིག་འདེབས་སོ། །
The play of thousand-fold vital life-force drops (thig-le) emanating and absorbing,
In face-to-face union[i], with the youth of major and minor marks, directly manifesting
Heruka (hero), complete Sambhogakaya guru,
From within the inseparable winds-mind, I supplicate!
ཕུང་སོགས་འཆིང་བ་མ་ལུས་ཐལ་བ་རུ་བསྲེགས་ནས། །
འབར་འཛག་དབུ་མར་ཐིམ་པའི་རྗེ་བཙུན་གྱི་བླ་མར། །
ཞུ་བདེ་ལྷན་སྐྱེས་ངང་ནས་གསོལ་བ་ཞིག་འདེབས་སོ། །
The flaming tongue of tummo (inner heat) blazing at the three-fold junction,[ii
Completely binds the aggregates, burning them to ashes,
In the blazing -dripping[iii] central channel [iv], dissolving into the noble guru,
From within the innate co-emergent melting-bliss[v], I supplicate you.
སྣང་གྲག་རིག་གསུམ་བླ་མའི་རོལ་པ་རུ་ཤར་ནས། །
མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་ནུས་པའི་བྱིན་རླབས་རང་རྒྱུད་ལ་ཞུགས་ཤིང་། །
དབང་བཞིའི་དགོངས་པ་ཐུགས་ཡིད་དབྱེར་མེད་དུ་འདྲེས་པས། །
དོན་གཉིས་ལྷུན་གྱིས་འགྲུབ་པར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རང་རློབས་ཤིག །
From the arising of the guru’s play of three: appearance, sound and awareness,
Blessings of omniscience, love, and power enter one’s mind-stream,
Mixing one’s mind inseparably with the heart-intent of the four empowerments,
May the blessings of spontaneously accomplishing the two purposes[vi] descend on us!
ཅེས་པ་འདིའང་མཁས་ཤིང་གྲུབ་པ་བརྙེས་པའི་སྐྱེས་མཆོག །མཁན་ཆེན་དམ་པ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་མཆོག་ཞི་བར་གཤེགས་ནས་རིང་པོར་མ་ལོན་པར། བསྟན་པའི་གསལ་བྱེད་དམ་པ་རྫོགས་ཆེན་དཔོན་སློབ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ནས་བསྐུལ་ངོར། སློབ་འབངས་སྙོམས་ལས་པ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཕྲིན་ལས་སུ་འབོད་པ་དེས་སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༤ ཟླ་ ༦ ཚེས་ ༢༨ ལ་གསོལ་བ་བཏབས་པ་དོན་དང་ལྡན་པར་གྱུར་ཅིག །
These words, for the supreme being, a practitioner and scholar, Khenchen Dampa Tsultrim Gyamtso, not to be gone for long, were written at the urging of the students of this supreme luminary of the teachings of Dzogchen. This lazy servant-disciple, Ogyen Trinley composed this on 28th June 2024. May the meaning of this supplication be understood[vii]!
Translated by Adele Tomlin on 29th June 2024 (published on http://www.Dakinitranslations.com) as an offering to the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, and his followers, to the memory of Khenchen Tsultrim Gyamtso and his followers. Apologies for any errors in meaning or words! Downloadable as a pdf here.
[i] The Tibetan, ཁ་སྦྱོར་ (kha-jor) lit, mouths joined) means union with consort, kissing, face-to-face.
[ii] The Tibetan སུམ་མདོ་ (sum-do, lit. three rivers/tributaries) seems to be referring to the junction of the three main channels, as practiced in tummo (inner heat).
[iii] The Tibetan འབར་འཛག (bar-dzag) refers to the tummo practice of blazing-dripping where the inner heat causes the bodhicitta at the crown to flow down.
[iv] The sign which indicates the transition from the generation stage to the completion stage is the practitioner’s ability to draw the mind-winds into the central channel
[v] The Tibetan ཞུ་བདེ་ (zhu-de) refers to melting bliss, one of the types of bliss experienced in the completion stage of Vajrayana practice, as a result of the tummo practice in the six yogas of Nāropa and Kālacakra.
[vi] The Tibetan དོན་གཉིས་ (don-nyi) means two benefits/purposes: for self and for others.
[vii] The Tibetan དོན་དང་ལྡན་པ་ could also be translated as ‘be meaningful’.
[i] The Tibetan དོན་དང་ལྡན་པ་ could also be translated as ‘be meaningful’.