NEW TRANSLATION: No Regrets: “New Melody (Yangchen Sarma)”’s Reflections: Verses by the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje (tr. Adele Tomlin)

“If looking outwardly, there is nothing that cannot be done.
If reflecting inwardly, there is nothing that lacks being done.
If thinking with certainty, it is not a realm of intellect .
New Melody (Yangchen Sarma)’s nature, who can fathom that?” –8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje

ཕྱི་ནས་བལྟས་ན་མི་བྱ་ཅི་ཡང་མེད། ། ནང་ནས་གཞིགས་ན་ཅི་ཡང་བྱེད་པ་བྲལ། །
ངེས་པར་བསམས་ན་བློ་ཡི་ཡུལ་མ་ཡིན། ། དབྱངས་ཅན་གསར་མའི་རང་བཞིན་སུ་ཡིས་དཔོགས། །

Translator’s Introduction

Today as my own humble offering for the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje’s Parinirvana Anniversary, I offer this short new translation (done spontaneously and quickly in a couple of hours this morning!).

In these short verses written by 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje, who refers to himself as Yangchen Sarma/New Melody (which is one of his names) [1], explains how even though outer appearances make him seem worldly and driven by desire and the eight worldly concerns, inwardly he is confident in his pure intentions and acts, and ultimately he maintains the view of non-duality.

In the verses, the 8th Karmapa speaks about the seemingly outward and inner “contradictions”, which when considered internally, and with the definitive view/certainty leaves no doubts and regrets. In that respect, it is like a personal poem/reflection by the 8th Karmapa of the importance of the inner motivation and world. The Karmapa advises those with renunciation and faith to reflect and study his life-story. The new translation is downloadable as a free .pdf file from here:  No Regrets Verses by 8th Karmapa.

I have tried to stay as close as possible to the 8th Karmapa’s repetition, and wording, although this can sometimes leave it sounding a little less fluid/poetic in English, but hopefully not too much. As I finished the translation, the words of Edith Piaf’s song Je Ne Regrette Rien sprang to mind!

For more research, translations and transcripts on the 8th Karmapa, his life and Collected Works, see here. For my biographies of two of the 8th Karmapa’s main teachers on Treasury of Lives see here.

Also, today the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje gave a live talk (of about half an hour) on why it is so important to remember the parinirvana of the gurus, giving the example of the Buddha’s parinirvana. Also, during Tibet, at the time of Gampopa and 1st Karmapa they held monthly and annual observances of parinirvanas, which can be clearly seen in their biographies. He cited the six benefits listed in a text by Trophu Lotsawa Jamphel remembering the anniversaries of the gurus.  The 17th Karmapa also described the significance of the 8th Karmapa not only for Karma Kagyu but to Tibetan Buddhism in general [2]. The Karmapa highlighted in particular, the 8th Karmapa’s non-sectarianism, and how he was admired and praised by other important  lineage masters in Tibetan Buddhism. The 17th Karmapa finished by announcing how a complete new edition of the Collected Works of the 8th Karmapa is now freely available online on the website Adarshah, as well as a new collection of 8th Karmapa’s writings in Tibetan.   The 17th Karmapa  also led Karma Kagyu monasteries and nunneries online in a sadhana of Kagyu songs written  by the 8th Karmapa.

May it be of benefit to the expansion and flourishing of the Karmapas’ and Karma Kagyu lineage legacy and teachings. Samaya Dza Dza!

Written, translated and edited by Adele Tomlin, 14th October 2025.

No Regrets: “New Melody” (Yangchen Sarma)’s Reflections
Verses by the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje

 

Downloadable as .pdf file here: No Regrets Verses by 8th Karmapa.

ཕྱི་ནས་བལྟས་ན་འདོད་ཡོན་གཡེང་བས་ཁྱེར། །
ནང་ནས་གཞིགས་ན་གང་ལའང་ཆགས་པ་བྲལ། །
ངེས་པར་བསམ་ན་སྒྱུ་མའི་ཚུལ་དུ་རྟོགས། །
དབྱངས་ཅན་གསར་མས་སེམས་ལ་བདེ་བ་རྙེད། །

If looking outwardly, it looks like carried away with desire-filled distractions,
If reflecting inwardly, it is free from attachment to anything at all.
If thinking with certainty, it’s all an illusion, and
Yangchen Sarma finds bliss in the mind.

ཕྱི་ནས་བལྟས་ན་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་སྒྲུབ་པས་འདའ། །
ནང་ནས་གཞིགས་ན་གཞན་དོན་འབའ་ཞིག་སྒྲུབ། །
ངེས་པར་བསམས་ན་འབྲེལ་ཚད་དོན་དང་ལྡན། །
དབྱངས་ཅན་གསར་མས་བྱས་ཚད་འགྱོད་པ་མེད། །

If looking outwardly, it seems like accomplishing the eight worldly concerns ,
If reflecting inwardly, it is accomplishing only the benefit of others.
If thinking with certainty, all connections are meaningful, and
Whatever Yangchen Sarma did, I have no regrets.

ཕྱི་ནས་བལྟས་ན་འཁྲུལ་པའི་སྤྱོད་ཀྱིས་འདའ། །
ནང་ནས་གཞིགས་ན་སྔོན་མེད་མང་དུ་མྱོང་། །
ངེས་པར་བསམས་ན་ཡིད་ལ་འདོད་བཞིན་གྲུབ། །
དབྱངས་ཅན་གསར་མས་ཅི་བྱས་རྗེས་ཡི་རང་། །

If looking outwardly, seems like passing time with deluded behavior,
If reflecting inwardly, it is like unprecedented experience.
If thinking with certainty, it is mentally accomplished as wished, and
Whatever Yangchen Sarma did, I rejoice.

ཕྱི་ནས་བལྟས་ན་ཐ་སྙད་འཚོལ་བ་འདྲ། །
ནང་ནས་གཞིགས་ན་རོ་ཆེན་འཇིབས་པ་འདྲ། །
ངེས་པར་བསམས་ན་ཅི་བཞིན་འབྱེད་པ་འདྲ། །
དབྱངས་ཅན་གསར་མས་རང་ལ་མ་བསླུས་སྙམ། །

If looking outwardly, it seems like searching for labels.
If reflecting inwardly, it is like sucking a great taste.
If thinking with certainty, it is like distinguishing reality as it is, and
Yangchen Sarma has no self-deception.

ཕྱི་ནས་བལྟས་ན་སྐྱེ་བོའི་སྡིག་རྟེན་བྱེད། །
ནང་ནས་གཞིགས་ན་སྐལ་ལྡན་དད་པའི་རྟེན། །
ངེས་པར་བསམས་ན་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་རྩོད་པ་མེད། །
དབྱངས་ཅན་གསར་མས་གདུལ་བྱ་མ་སླུས་(བསླུས་)སྙམ། །

If looking outwardly, it is a support for negative actions of ordinary beings.
If reflecting inwardly, it is a support for the faith of fortunate beings.
If thinking with certainty, there is no dispute about the manifest appearance, and
Yangchen Sarma has not deceived disciples.

ཕྱི་ནས་བལྟས་ན་སྒོ་གསུམ་ཅི་ཡང་བྱེད། །
ནང་ནས་གཞིགས་ན་དགོས་པ་དུ་མ་ཅན། །
ངེས་པར་བསམས་ན་འབྲེལ་པ་སྣ་ཚོགས་འཇོག །
དབྱངས་ཅན་གསར་མའི་ཚུལ་ལ་ཅི་ཡང་སྲིད། །
If looking outwardly, it is all done with the three doors [4] .
If reflecting inwardly, it has various purposes.
If thinking with certainty, all kinds of connections are planted.
In the ways of Yangchen Sarma , anything is possible.

ཕྱི་ནས་བལྟས་ན་མི་བྱ་ཅི་ཡང་མེད། །
ནང་ནས་གཞིགས་ན་ཅི་ཡང་བྱེད་པ་བྲལ། །
ངེས་པར་བསམས་ན་བློ་ཡི་ཡུལ་མ་ཡིན། །
དབྱངས་ཅན་གསར་མའི་རང་བཞིན་སུ་ཡིས་དཔོགས། །

If looking outwardly, there is nothing that cannot be done.
If reflecting inwardly, there is nothing that lacks being done.
If thinking with certainty, it is not a realm of intellect [5] .
The nature of Yangchen Sarma, who can fathom that?

སྔོན་བསགས་བསོད་ནམས་ལུས་ལ་ཡོངས་འཛིན་བསྟེན། །
སངས་རྒྱས་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཐབས་ལ་རྨོངས་པ་བྲལ། །
ངེས་འབྱུང་ཅན་འགས་བསྟེན་ན་དགོས་འདོད་འབྱུང་། །
ཐར་འདོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ང་ཡི་རྣམ་ཐར་སོམས།།

The accumulation of merit is complete in the body, having relied on the teacher.
In the method of attaining Buddhahood, it is free from confusion.
If those with renunciation rely on it, their purposes and wishes will happen.
All those who desire liberation, contemplate my life-story [6].

སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ་བསྐལ་པ་བྱེ་བ་དུ་མར་དགེ་བའི་ལས་འདུས་བྱས་པས་ཀྱང་མཚན་ཙམ་ཡང་ཐོས་པར་དཀའ་བ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་དཔལ་ཀརྨ་པ་མི་བསྐྱོད་བཟང་པོ་རྡོ་རྗེ་དགའ་བའི་ཞལ་སྔ་ནས་ཀྱི་གསུང་གི་བདུད་རྩི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་ཐོར་བུའི་ཕྲེང་བ་རི་མོའི་སྲད་བུའི་རྒྱུན་གཅིག་ཏུ་བྱས་པ་ངོ་མཚར་གྱི་གླེགས་བམ་ཡིད་བཞིན་གྱི་ཟ་མ་ཏོག་ཆེན་པོ་བཞུགས་སོ།། ཞེས་པ་ལས་དྲངས།

The essence of all Buddhas, even if one accumulates virtuous deeds for millions of eons, it is difficult to even hear the name of Vajradhara, the excellent Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje.   This is drawn from the nectar of the speech of Dorje Gawa’s presence, a collection of scattered verses extracted and made into a single thread of a painted garland, a wondrous volume, a great wish-fulfilling treasure chest.

Translated and edited by Adele Tomlin, 14th October 2025.

Endnotes

[1] The 8^th Karmapa is also known as Yangchen Gawa, which means Joyful or Delightful Melody.

[2] Interestingly the 17th Karmapa mentioned that the 2nd Dalai Lama, Gedun Gyatso, also praised the 8th Karmapa for his non-sectarian activity without bias. Yet as Tibet historians know, the Dalai Lama institution (and it sectarian power over Tibet) began from the 5th Dalai Lama as a political appointment by the Mongolian military and Gelugpa sectarians. The lineage was then backdated to include other people from that time.  Nonetheless, if only the 5th Dalai Lama onwards (and his Gelug followers) had followed that attitude, Tibet, the Karma Kagyu, Jonang, Nyingma and other Kagyu lineages would be in a very different situation to the one it is in now!

[3] The eight worldly preoccupations or samsaric dharmas (འཇིག་རྟེན་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་, jikten chö gyé,) are where all one’s actions are governed by:

• hope for happiness and fear of suffering,
• hope for fame and fear of insignificance,
• hope for praise and fear of blame,
• hope for gain and fear of loss;

basically attachment and aversion.

[4] Three Doors ( སྒོ་གསུམ་ Go Sum) here means body, speech and mind on a worldly level.

[5] The Tibetan here is བློ, lo, which normally means intellect, more than mind.

[6]Here the Tibetan word is Namthar རྣམ་ཐར, which means liberation-story.