Āyurjñānasiddhirastu.
Guru Amitayus [Tse-phagme]
I bow my head at your feet in reverence.
For the sacred protectors of the teachings and beings.
I write the ritual for stabilising life.
ཨཱཡུརྫྙཱ་ན་སིདྡྷི་རསྟུ།
བླ་མ་ཚེ་དཔག་མེད་པ་ཡི། །
ཞབས་ལ་སྤྱི་བོས་ཉེར་བཏུད་དེ། །
བསྟན་འགྲོའི་དཔལ་མགོན་དམ་པ་རྣམས། །
སྐུ་ཚེ་བརྟན་པའི་ཆོ་ག་འབྲི། །
Translator’s Introduction
For Dakini Day today, here is the second translation of an Introduction from the second in a trilogy of texts that HH the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje recently composed and published from the unique Karma Kagyu Three Roots Combined tradition, translated into English here for the first time.
The second text is called “Castle (or Fortress) of Indestructible Vajra Life-Force” which contains a ritual text for a guru offering a long-life empowerment. In the Introduction, the 17th Karmapa, using his own expertise, experience and original research, discusses why and how from the time of the Shakyamuni Buddha onwards, the notion and practice of bestowing long-life (known as Ten-Zhug in Tibetan), which literally means remaining stable, originated and remains to this day. It is freely downloadable here: Introduction to Three Roots Unified Ten-Zhug by 17th Karmapa A Method for Offering a Steadfast Abode in a Sacred Place English translation.
Did Long-Life rituals originate from Buddha’s teachings and example?
Some people assert that there is no real precedent in Original Buddhism for such long-life practices. On the one hand, this is correct. Certainly the “formal” mass ceremonial use of long-life rituals seems to have started predominantly in Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhist cultures. In other Buddhist cultures, in SE Asia for example, there is no real evidence of their practice and use there.
However, in the introduction to his new “Ten-Zhug” text, the 17th Karmapa cites sources and examples of such requests and ideas from the time of Shakyamuni Buddha from the Sutra tradition. Although, the 17th Karmapa also states that most of the evidence is in the Vajrayana Secret Mantra tradition.
The 17th Karmapa cites the Vinaya Sutras regarding the story of one of his main disciples, Ānanda not supplicating the Buddha for a long life and a teaching that Buddha gave Ānanda before he passed away about how to prolong one’s life with “the four supports of magical manifestation” and that the Buddha himself had done this. The 17th Karmapa also cites a well-known Chinese translated Sutra called Golden Light Sutra (Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra): the King of Sutras (གསེར་འོད་དམ་པ་མདོ་སྡེའི་དབང་པོའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་)[i] as an example of where long-life supplication was mentioned.
The 17th Karmapa concludes that the majority of textual and historical evidence is the presence of long-life supplications, which then led to more formal long-life rituals being performed later. Thus, it is a valuable new piece of research from the head of a Tibetan Buddhist lineage. For a video clip of the 17th Karmapa (in 2024) speaking about the great “meaning” of the passing away of a fully awakened Buddha, see here.
The widespread use and misuse of long-life rituals in Vajrayana/Tibetan Buddhism?
I recently attended and participated in two long-life offerings for the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa in Taiwan, first one (19th June 2025) led by HE 7th Gyalton Rinpoche (a small event at the Palpung centre in Taoyuan) with only a few people in attendance (see photo).
The second long-life offering for the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa (which I also attended in person) was given by 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche in Taipei, Taiwan (26-27 June 2025). Rinpoche’s translator, Ziche Leethong, posted on his Facebook page that the 17th Karmapa had bestowed the Three Roots Ten-Zhug privately to Gyaltsab Rinpoche before he left to go to Taiwan (in an undisclosed location). The 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche also then performed the Three Roots Unified ritual in Taipei (which I also attended and participated in), for the commemoration of the 17th Karmapa’s 41st birthday (26 June), see my report here. These events are not that common in Karma Kagyu at all though compared to the Gelugpa use of them.
In contrast, the excessive use of the longevity rituals by the Gelugpa tradition over the last two decades, to prolong a person’s life past one hundred years, for mainly political reasons (such as the current 14th Dalai Lama, who has recently stated he plans to live until he is 130 years old) has been criticised by some. Some might say that regardless of the Dalai Lama’s institutional historical and political significance prolonging a person’s life-span beyond even that of the Shakyamuni Buddha, is not only unnatural and potentially unhealthy/unethical for an elderly man who recently turned ninety years old, but also a misuse of the Long-Life ritual purpose. In the same way, the Gelugpas have been accused of misusing the Highest Yoga Tantra Kālacakra empowerment and practice for political power, renown, entertainment and social reasons–see article about that here).
As a final personal observation, as Buddhism is a philosophical and spiritual tradition that emphasises the importance of preparing for death and impermanence, the intense focus on prolonging life, seems rather at odds with that. As did the continued (way past the lockdown) use of masks and untested injections for an endemic virus in India when the vast majority of Indians had stopped months before that. Also, considering the intense cultural focus these days on adult women trying to look like teenagers, and even women in their twenties getting plastic surgery, one has to also wonder if the focus on “looking forever young” is healthy in particular for women.
However, rather than wade deeper into those controversial “muddy waters” here, I leave the reader to consider this question using their own discernment. Does anyone really want to live forever in a human body? Even the incomparable Shakyamuni Buddha himself “chose” to demonstrate impermanence and passed away around eighty years old.
Regardless of how it is being used now, it is certainly now a well-established tradition in Vajrayana tradition in the Himalayan and Tibetan Buddhist regions. For that reason, this new text which attempts to explain the long-life origin in root Buddhist texts, as well as provide a new ritual on a unique Karma Kagyu tradition of long-life, is a valuable (and thought-provoking) contribution to the intellectual and spiritual Buddha Dharma.
Music? Forever Young by Bob Dylan and All Things Must Pass by George Harrison.
Dedicated the long-life and activities of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Karma Kagyu and to the health and awakening of all sentient beings, all of whom would like to stay youthful and alive (including animals we butcher for meat in slaughterhouses)!
Compiled, translated and edited by Adele Tomlin, 17th July 2025.
Endnotes
[i] The Golden Light Sutra or Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra is a Buddhist text of the Mahayāna branch of Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the full title is Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājaḥ “The King of Sutras on the Sublime Golden Radiance”.
[ii] The birthday event I attended with the 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche (who is a fully ordained monk) had women/nuns dressed as dakinis. In the male dominated Gelugpa culture, men even try to usurp women as dakini dancers, yet you never see women usurping the positions of men in their rituals. The Gelugpa Dob Dob culture, which not only promoted child abuse, kidnap and rape of young boys and monks (and called it a cultural norm), also took boys from dance troupes and used them as “sex toys”. This is well-documented in the first hand account of Tashi Tsering “Struggle for a Modern Tibet”, and other historical sources. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dob-dob