རྒྱལ་ཀུན་སྙིང་རྗེའི་རང་གཟུགས་ཀརྨ་པ།། Natural form of compassion of all the victors, Karmapa
རྒྱལ་ཀུན་ཕྲིན་ལས་གཅིག་བསྡུས་ཀརྨ་པ།། Embodiment of the activity of all the victors, Karmapa
རྒྱལ་ཀུན་གདུང་འཚོབ་དབང་བསྐུར་ཀརྨ་པ།། Powerful regent of all the victors, Karmapa
ཨོ་རྒྱན་འགྲོ་འདུལ་ཕྲིན་ལས་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ།། Orgyen Drodul Trinle, may your life be long and stable.
བདག་ནི་སྐྱེ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ༎ In all my lives, may I never be apart,
མཉམ་མེད་དྭགས་པོ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་དང༎ From the unequalled Dagpo Kagyu
ཁྱད་པར་དཔལ་ལྡན་ཀརྨ་པ༎ Especially the glorious Karmapa
སྤྱི་གཙུག་རྒྱན་དུ་མི་འབྲལ་ཤོག༎ As ornaments above my crown.” —long-life aspiration for 17th Gyalwang Karmapa
“Generally, the Dakpo Kagyu tradition, and particularly the practice lineage of Karma Kamtsang, has a unique transmission of White Tārā . During the time of Jetsun Dromtonpa and the great siddha Karma Pakshi, there were accounts of thousands of White Tārā practices. Even in recent times, most of the older lamas in this practice lineage have taken White Tārā as their personal deity. However, until recently, there was almost no ritual for offering longevity (life-stability) prayers to sacred beings through the White Tārā.” –17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (2025)
Today, is the first day of the fifth lunar month, the day celebrated as the birthday of HH 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, and here is my personal offering of new music and praises of his activities and work, including a
Symphony of Longing for the Guru: New music and video offering
For today, as my main offering, here is a new musical and video rendition of his long-life supplication, with Tibetan, phonetics and English subtitles (click on CC). This new composition is in contrast to a prior one I created of the Karmapa Khyenno mantra, Playing in the Blissful Lotus Heart which was an artistic heart expression of my blissful connection and union with the guru, Karmapa. This life-stability supplication (ten-zhug) is one of devotion, but also of sadness, longing, and frustration.
It is created with an accompanying video of portraits of the 17th Karmapa, and a colour scheme of gold and black for the inseparable black activity hat crown ornament, it mixes sweeping strings with simple vocals and starts and ends with the 17th Karmapa’s stunning calligraphy artwork, “Awakening from a Deep Slumber”. I remember seeing this artwork for the first time a few years ago and was stunned and moved by the emotion and meaning in its rough and smooth stroke.
New White Tārā longevity text and oral transmission on 13th June 2026
Two days ago, on the 13th June 2026, the 17th Karmapa gave a transmission of a new White Tārā text called The Joyful Nectar of Immortality, which he explained had probably not been translated into English yet (correct), and was written to bestow long- life onto senior teachers and practitioners, and not used for a daily sadhana practice. I translated the Introduction to this new text, a few weeks ago here.
The 17th Karmapa gave an interesting fifteen minute introduction to the text, and White Tara in the Karma Kagyu tradition too, which is not available publicly on the video in English anymore, but if I have time, I will translate and publish a summary of the teaching.
Also, I translated the extensive research Introductions (not the sadhanas) of two other new Noble Tārā texts composed by the 17th Karmapa in 2025:
a) the four-fold mandala offering to Noble Tārā in the Karma Kagyu tradition (March 2025)
b) the five-deity daily practice of Noble Tārā of 1st Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa
A life’s work and connection to 17th Karmapa: 2005- present date
As those who follow my work will know I met the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa in India on a trip to India to study yoga and philosophy, for the first time in 2005, took refuge vows with him in a private audience soon after alone, and since then have never looked back on the Buddha Dharma path.
As I am in the process of writing an autobiography, soon I will share a couple of chapters on how I came from London, UK as a barrister from the City of London, to meet the 17th Karmapa in India and how that pivotal and life-changing meeting, led me to then leave London and my then wealthy boyfriend to move to India to study Tibetan language and be near the Karmapa physically and attend his teachings and events in Dharamsala and India.
Since that time the connection, learning and practice has been continual in one way or another, and especially during the COVID lockdown years and the serious challenges facing the 17th Karmapa in India exile and outside. I founded the Dakini Translations website, beginning not only the first female founded and sole authored one, but also one of the most extensive (and academic level) online resources for research and translations on the 17th Karmapa and the Karmapa lineage, texts, history and legacy generally. As the section on the Karmapas grew in depth and breadth over the past few years,
Recently, I transformed and re-housed that huge amount of work, into a specific new website called Karmapa’s Collected Works. It is an ongoing work of love, passion and devotion to the root guru. Karmic obstacles and malevolent forces kept me apart from him many times, even going so far as to try to harm and sever our precious heart connection and karmic destiny.
Although I have questioned the use of women at pop concerts at the Marme Monlam, and queried why the 17th Karmapa has not given an explicit statement, about the Canadian court case and alleged child, that does not mean I do not love, or have compassion for him, nor does it mean our Vajrayana connection is broken (as some have malevolently and falsely alleged). I have also composed previous summaries and praises to the 17th Karmapa’s unparalleled activities on women, veganism, the environment, theatre, music and more. In the Tibetan Buddhist world there is no-one of that level who matches his creativity, intellectual and written output, and most importantly of all wisdom, when it comes to women, nuns, animals and our precious planet. Despite his recent challenges and physical public absence, I will always feel connected to him via my mind, heart and work, and on the occasion of his birthday, wish him a long-life, good health, happiness, safety and may his life and activities flourish and prosper.
Music? Longing for the Guru long-life prayer for 17th Karmapa by Adele Tomlin, Playing in the Blissful Lotus/Karmapa Khyenno by Adele Tomlin, Magnetising Wangdu prayer chanted by 17th Karmapa (arranged by Adele Tomlin), In My Life by The Beatles, and Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack.
Written translations, transcripts and summaries
Since 2019 onwards, I have offered many new and original translations, transcripts, summaries of teachings and texts specifically connected to the 17th Karmapa, please see the section of the website dedicated to him here. And now also a section in the Collected Works of the Karmapas website here.
E-book compilations: Vegetarianism in Original and Tibetan Buddhism and more
Also, there are several free downloadable e-book compilations of the 17th Karmapa’s teachings on specific subjects (see here), such as this e-book on Buddhism and Eating Animals/Vegetarianism here.
The 17th Karmapa has spoken many times about the importance of not eating animals not only as a Buddhist monastic, but as a human being who cares about animal welfare and the environment, it should be obvious we all need to abandon supporting industries that mass kill animals for food.
As Maneka Gandhi recently told me in an interview about animal welfare in India, the 17th Karmapa was like “an angel sent from God” when he came to India, and unlike the Dalai Lama (whom she felt “boasted” and spoke too much about his eating meat) the Karmapa was able to lead many Tibetans and his followers away from eating animals, and raise awareness about animal welfare, as well as setting up camps in Bodh Gaya to help animals.
Video transcripts/translations/podcast offerings
For videos I have specially translated and created of the 17th Karmapa’s teachings (including the original Tibetan), see the Youtube channel playlist here.
Including a video podcast interview in 2023 with the British journalist, Mick Brown, who wrote the only independent and objective analysis of how the 17th Karmapa was discovered in Tibet and the trials and tribulations that followed afterwards in his excellent book, Dance of 17 Lives. A book and interview I would recommend everyone read and watch if they want to know more about the background and situation with the current 17th Karmapa.
Art Reviews and offerings
For several reviews of the 17th Karmapa’s stunning artworks and his poetical praises, see the website section dedicated to art here.
Poetry Offerings
As for poetry offerings for the 17th Karmapa, here is a poem I composed in his honour in 2024 called A Lone Songbird’s Warbling Lament.. Video/audio rendition here:
Musical Offerings
Recently, the 17th Karmapa’s activities inspired me to create these two musical compositions:
- Red Tārā mantra
2) Playing in the Blissful Heart
Also, a unique vocal and musical ode to the Karmapa himself (Karmapa Khyenno) mantra called Playing in the Blissful Lotus Heart, a song that speaks to the pain, sadness and suffering of samsara, of physical separation from the guru and returning to the silently loving, playful, joyful Buddha/Guru Within.