“This concise prayer for the holders of the Kamtsang lineage has three verses. Of the three, regarding the first verse, one day in 2020, I had a dream and I saw something written on a text. So, when I woke up, I remembered it clearly. I then wrote it down and kept it. At that time, it was in the form of a long-life prayer, like a supplication. I was embarrassed to show it to anyone, as it was saying I was very special, like the 6th Buddha. So at that time, I did not show it to anyone.” –17th Karmapa in oral commentary (20th August 2026)
“Moreover, may those lineage holders who expand the teachings,
Sacred beings whoever and wherever they are,
By the power of their long lives and pacified obstacles,
May the victory banner of the teachings be unfurled in all ten directions.”–final verse from Concise Long-Life Aspiration by 17th Karmapa
Translator’s Introduction
On 20th August 2026, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, prior to the last day of the Summer teachings, gave an oral transmission (lung) and a short commentary (thri) to a new Concise Long-Life Aspiration for the Master-Disciple Upholders of the Karma Kagyu Teachings.
The new supplication of three verses was published on 18th August 2026, which I did a quick translation of. Now, after hearing the 17th Karmapa’s explanation on it, I have re-translated it and publish it here with a transcript/translation of that oral commentary, and some footnotes I have added to expand any information he gave.
Also, here is a video clip of that commentarial teaching, with specially created English subtitles and the original Tibetan.
For a transcript and article about the teaching about the six main heart-sons of the Karma Kagyu (mentioned in this new long-life aspiration) given by the 17th Karmapa in during the 2012 Kagyu Monlam, see here. For my translation of a Praise to the 17th Karmapa, composed by the current 11th Pawo Rinpoche (based in Tibet), see here.
For research, translations and transcripts about or connected to the 17th Karmapa, see the dedicated section of the Dakini Translations website here.
Music? Symphony of Longing: Long-Life Aspiration Song for 17th Karmapa by Adele Tomlin/Dakini Songs
Adele Tomlin, 20th August 2026.
17th Karmapa’s Short Oral Commentary on the new Concise Long-Life Supplication for the Master-Disciples of the Karma Kagyu Kamtsang
FIRST VERSE: an auspicious dream: 17th Karmapa as the Sixth Buddha of Lions
“This concise prayer for the holders of the Kamtsang lineage has three verses. Of the three, regarding the first verse, one day in 2020, I had a dream and I saw something written on a text. So, when I woke up, I remembered it clearly. I then wrote it down and kept it. At that time, it was in the form of a long-life prayer, like a supplication. I was embarrassed to show it to anyone, as it was saying I was very special, like the 6th Buddha. So at that time, I did not show it to anyone.
Later, I did show it to a few friends who had belief and confidence, but I did not show it widely, But the other day I had an idea that we should have a concise supplication for the long-life of the Kamtsang lineage. Usually, when we have the long-life prayers, we have one prayer we recite but nothing else. But within that prayer it just says the Karma Kagyu lineage holders, but it does not say their actual names. I also thought it should be clear, but not too long as people will not then recite it.
So the first verse is the one that appeared in a dream, and it has that interdependent connection.
SECOND VERSE: Names of the six heart-son master-disciples (Yab-se)
The second verse is we often talk about the Kamtsang Yabse Dun, the Kamtsang Seven Master-disciples. At the time of 9th Karmapa, Wangchug Dorje there were four or five heart sons.
The 13th Karmapa, Dudul Dorje’s Collected Works, there is a long-life prayer to the Karmapa and his five heart-sons. It is said he also had a thangka of the Karmapa and his five heart sons, and that he probably painted the thangka himself. And that he had three or four verses beneath each of the Karma Kagyu heart-sons. That time we talked about the Karmapa and the heart sons as a total of six. This was before Jamgon Kongtrul was included as a heart-son. The reason for that is because it was before the First Jamgon Kongtrul had appeared.
When we talk about the Seven Master-disciples of the Kamtsang including the Karmapa, that was when the First Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye was included as a great holder of all the lineages, and his son was his reincarnation of the Kardze Kamtsang. He was a great master of the outer, inner and great realization of Mahamudra. So, the 16th Karmapa. Rigpe Dorje supplicated him as one of the heart sons, and Jamgon Kongtrul was also then included as one of the heart-sons. Also within the lineages of our vows, both the First and Second Jamgon Kongtruls are included in that, and that is why we call the Kamtsang Seven, which includes the Karmapa and six heart sons.”
- Thousand-fold Blazing Lights (འོད་མཚན་སྟོང་འབར་ O-Tsen-Tong-Bar) refers to the Zhamarpa Rinpoche. We do not say the actual name because these days some people get a bit shocked because of the degenerate times. Actually we should feel tears and get goosebumps, but because of the degenerate times, people have a strange reaction. He is an emanation of Amitabha that is why he is referred to as Thousands of Blazing Lights.
- Dharma King, Maitreya ( བྱམས་མགོན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྗེ། Jamgon Choje) refers to Jamgon Tai Situ Rinpoche.
- Actual emanation of Vairocana ( རྣམ་སྣང་དངོས་བྱོན། Namnang Ngo-jon) is primarily saying that he is an emanation of the translator Vairotsana, so this refers to Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche.
- Lord of Secrets, Vajrapani ( གསང་བདག་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཛིན། Sang-dag Dorje Dzin) is Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche.
- Supreme siddha hero (Pawo) (གྲུབ་མཆོག་དཔའ་བོ ། Drub-Chog Pawo), is Pawo Rinpoche.
- Display of Nāgārjuna ( ཀླུ་ཡི་རྣམ་རོལ། Lu-yi Nam-rol) refers to Treho Rinpoche. He is regarded as an emanation of Nagarjuna in his life-stories. The word Treho is not considered a particularly nice word, so we call him Nagarjuna’s emanation/display.
So the heart-sons of the Kamtsang lineage are Zhamarpa, Tai Situ, Jamgon Kongtrul, Goshir Gyaltsab, Pawo and Treho Rinpoche lineages.
- The Sixth [Buddha] Lion of Men, as seventeenth emanation (དྲུག་པ་སེང་གེའི་རྣམ་འཕྲུལ་བཅུ་བདུན་པའི། Drugpa Senge Namtrul Chu-dunpa ). So if we add the Karmapa in the first verse here, that makes seven in total.
THE LAST VERSE: Long-life wishes to all the upholders of the Buddha’s and Karma Kagyu teachings
Moreover, may the lineage holders who expand the teachings,
The holy beings whoever and wherever they are
So these are individuals who preserve and spread the teachings of the Buddha, they are not necessarily people who sit on high thrones. If they are people who have true altruistic feelings towards the teachings and who serve the teachings, from that they become holders of the teachings who uphold and expand them. Whether they are monastics or laypeople, old or young. Anyone who has genuine altruistic feelings for the teachings and serves the teachings becomes an upholder of the teachings.
By the power of their long lives and pacified obstacles,
May the victory banner of the teachings be unfurled in all ten directions.
May whoever they are have long-lives and the power to pacify obstacles, so that the Victory Banner of the Teachings be unfurled and in all ten directions. It says may this happen.
The shortest supplication we have is the one from Dechen Tsokye, but is does not mention the names of the heart-sons. That is the reason I wrote it, so that all the beings who uphold the Buddha’s teachings, who are like ornaments of the teachings, the Kagyu teachings, especially the Karma Kagyu teachings. I wrote it for them. No matter who they are, wherever they live, what place, nationality, male or female, age, ethnicity, that such individuals all live long.
Today is the Medicine Buddha (and Tara day) so I thought it would be a good day and interdependent connection to teach this.
There was a Khenpo who asked me to give this, I had thought about doing it, but when a Khenpo then encouraged me, I did it.”
Compiled and transcribed by Adele Tomlin, 20th August 2026.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
CONCISE LONG-LIFE SUPPLICATION TO THE MASTER-DISCIPLES AND UPHOLDERS OF THE KARMA KAGYU TEACHINGS
By 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
ཀཾ་ཚང་ཡབ་སྲས་ཞབས་བརྟན་བསྡུས་པ། ཀརྨ་པ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཕྲིན་ལས།
འཇིག་རྟེན་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་སྤྲུལ་བསྒྱུར་གྱིས། ཕྱོགས་བཅུའི་ཞིང་ན་སྣ་ཚོགས་འགྲོ་བ་འདུལ། ། དྲུག་པ་སེང་གེའི་རྣམ་འཕྲུལ་བཅུ་བདུན་པའི། ཞབས་པད་བརྟན་ཅིང་མཛད་ཕྲིན་རྒྱས་གྱུར་ཅིག །
As compassionate emanation of the Lord of the World [Avalokiteshvara],
In the ten directions, various “wanderers” are tamed.
The Sixth [Buddha] Lion of Men[1], as seventeenth emanation[2],
May your lotus feet be stable and your deeds expand.
འོད་མཚན་སྟོང་འབར་བྱམས་མགོན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྗེ། ། རྣམ་སྣང་དངོས་བྱོན་གསང་བདག་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཛིན། ། གྲུབ་མཆོག་དཔའ་བོ་ཀླུ་ཡི་རྣམ་རོལ་སོགས། ། སྐྱེས་མཆོག་རིན་ཆེན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ། །
Thousand-fold Blazing lights[3], The Dharma King, Maitreya[4],
Actual emanation of Vairocana[5], the Lord of Secrets, Vajrapani[6]
Supreme siddha hero (Pawo)[7], the display of Nāgārjuna[8], and so forth,
I pray for the longevity of precious, supreme beings.
གཞན་ཡང་ཐུབ་བསྟན་འཛིན་ཅིང་སྤེལ་བ་ཡི། ། དམ་པའི་སྐྱེས་བུ་གང་ན་སུ་བཞུགས་པ། ། སྐུ་ཚེ་རིང་ཞིང་བར་ཆད་ཞི་བའི་མཐུས། ། བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ཕྱོགས་བཅུར་བསྒྲེང་གྱུར་ཅིག །
Moreover, may those lineage holders who expand the teachings,
Sacred beings whoever and wherever they are,
By the power of their long lives and pacified obstacles,
May the victory banner of the teachings be unfurled in all ten directions.
The first verse was originally a vision that appeared in a dream in 2020 and was only orally transformed into a long-life prayer. The following two verses were composed with the intention of extending the lives of all those who uphold the general and specific teachings of the practice lineage on August 16, 2026, by Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley. May this bring auspiciousness and splendor to the world!
ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་དང་པོ་དེ་ནི་སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༠ ལོར་ཉིང་འཁྲུལ་གྱི་སྣང་བ་ལ་ཤར་བ་ཉིད་ཡུན་འཚོའི་སྨོན་ཚིག་ཏུ་ཁ་བསྒྱུར་བ་ཙམ་ཡིན་ལ། ཕྱི་མ་གཉིས་ནི་རྒྱལ་བསྟན་སྤྱི་དང་། བྱེ་བྲག་སྒྲུབ་བརྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རིང་ལུགས་འཛིན་པ་མཐའ་དག་སྐུ་ཚེ་བསྲིང་བའི་སླད་དུ་དམིགས་ནས་སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༦ ཟླ་ ༨ ཚེས་ ༡༦ ཉིན་ཀརྨ་པ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཕྲིན་ལས་སུ་འབོད་པས་སྦྱར་བ་འདིས་ཀྱང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་དཔལ་འབར་འཛམ་གླིང་རྒྱན་དུ་ཤོག །
Endnotes
[1] The “sixth Buddha” or sixth sage associated with the lion and the realms of existence is Dhruvasimha (also known as Sthirasimha or the Splendid/Unmovable Lion Sage), who represents the emanation of the Buddha that guides beings in the Animal Realm among the Six Holy Munis.
[2] This is referring to the 17th Karmapa emanation.
[3] The 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje says this refers to Zhamarpa, who is an emanation of Amitabha (20th August 2026). “The First Shamar Rinpoche, Dragpa Senge (1283- 1349), was a disciple of the Third Karmapa. Numerous important Karma Kagyu texts were composed by reincarnations of the Shamar Rinpoche line, which included many highly learned scholars. Shamar Rinpoches also played political roles, counseling Phagdru rulers and the Tsang family when they held political control. After the Ninth Shamarpa passed away, two candidates were identified by different lamas as the Shamar reincarnation, and the two became known as the Shamar of Tashi Tsepa and the Namling Shamar. The name of the Shamar of Tashi Tsepa was drawn by lottery, and he was then enthroned as the Tenth Shamarpa. After the Tenth Shamar Rinpoche (of Tashi Tsepa) passed away, no further Shamarpas were enthroned officially until the time of the Sixteenth Karmapa. The Namling Shamar reincarnation lineage continued to be recognized and enthroned, although not as the official Shamarpa.” (Source: KTD)
[4] Refers to Tai Situpa Rinpoche (ibid.) ” In particular, when we say the title of Tai Situpa, it is a title that was first given to the 1st Situ Goshri Chokyi Gyaltsen. Among all the incarnations of the Situ incarnations, there were two named Chokyi Gyaltsen and he is the earlier of these two, (1377-1448) . He was a student of the 5th Karmapa, Dezhin Shegpa, and was given the title by the Minglo Emperor Yongle, “Kenting Naya Tang Nyontse Geshetse Tai Situpa” in 1407. [The title, in shorter form “Kenting Tai Situpa”; or “Tai Situ”, means “far reaching, unshakable, great master, holder of the command”]. So, from that time onwards, he had this name Kenting. and it is said that the 5th Karmapa, Dezhin Shegpa gave him the title of Situ.
The 1st Tai Situpa’s next incarnation was Situ Tashi Paljor, a student of the 6th Karmapa Thongwa Donden. In brief, the various incarnations of the Situ Rinpoche are one of the earliest lines of tulkus in Tibetan history. Among the Karmapas’ heart sons, after the Zhamarpa, the next one is Tai Situpa.” (17th Karmapa
[5] Refers to Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche lineage (ibid.)
[6] Refers to Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche lineage (ibid.)
[7] Refers to the Pawo Rinpoche lineage (ibid.)
[8] Refers to Treho Rinpoche lineage (ibid.)