“Supreme being with whom heart and mind is merged,
Created from billion-fold merit, Karmapa,
When the stages of dissolution of dying begins,
By the power of severing harm, may the yogic union be undisturbed.”
Created from billion-fold merit, Karmapa,
When the stages of dissolution of dying begins,
By the power of severing harm, may the yogic union be undisturbed.”
It was announced on social media Facebook page of 17th Karmapa yesterday that the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa wanted to share a message concerning the recent passing of Geshe Rinchen Ngodrup on 8th August 2026 (during the Karmapa’s Day 6 of his Summer teachings) and his final letter to the Karmapa. It was accompanied by a short video with the 17th Karmapa’s voice.
It was also reported (on other Facebook pages) that for many years, the Geshe had served as a (tshenzhap-Debate Partner” or “Philosophical Assistant” ) in the presence of the Gyalwang Karmapa, offering supreme service through discussions on various philosophical treatises, history, and cultural sciences.
The post states that Geshe Ngodrup offered this moving aspiration to his guru the Karmapa as his final letter:
“Supreme being with whom heart and mind is merged,
Created from billion-fold merit, Karmapa,
When the stages of dissolution of dying begins,
By the power of severing harm, may the yogic union be undisturbed.
Created from billion-fold merit, Karmapa,
When the stages of dissolution of dying begins,
By the power of severing harm, may the yogic union be undisturbed.
རིང་ནས་ཐུགས་ཡིད་འདྲེས་པའི་སྐྱེས་བུ་མཆོག།
བསོད་ནམས་བྱེ་བས་བསྐྲུན་པའི་ཀརྨ་པས།།
གཞི་ཡི་འཆི་རིམ་ཐིམ་པའི་མགོ་བརྩམས་ཚེ།།
གནོད་གཅོད་དབང་གིས་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མི་འཁྲུགས་མཛོད།།
I, a Geshe who has spent most of my life on the way of
Non-sectarian (Ri-mey) profound Dharma of sutras and tantras,
At the time of death, may the joyful “mother and child” reunion
At the time of death, may the joyful “mother and child” reunion
Luminous-clarity (O-sel) abiding state be realised.
རིས་མེད་མདོ་སྔགས་ཆོས་ཚུལ་ཟབ་མོ་ལ།།
མི་ཚེ་ཕལ་ཆེར་ཡོལ་བའི་དགེ་བཤེས་ང་།།
འཆི་ཚེ་འོད་གསལ་མ་བུའི་དགའ་སྟོན་ཡིས།།
ཟུང་འཇུག་གནས་ལུགས་མངོན་དུ་འགྱུར་བར་མཛོད།།
If, by chance, I still have time to live,
For about twenty more years,
May I have the power to serve your command without corruption or artifice,
For about twenty more years,
May I have the power to serve your command without corruption or artifice,
Opening the door to billions of merits.”
ཅི་སྟེ་ད་དུང་གསོན་པའི་སྐབས་མཆིས་ན།།
མི་ལོ་ཉི་ཤུ་ཡན་མན་འདྲེས་པ་ལྟར།།
བཅོས་ལྷད་མེད་པར་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བཀའ་བསྒྲུབ་པར།།
བསོད་ནམས་བྱེ་བའི་སྒོ་འཕར་ཕྱེ་ནུས་ཤོག།
This was written and offered by the Geshe Lharampa Ngawang Wangchuk (Rinchen Ngodrup), from a hospital in Hong Kong on August 8, 2026, at 5:05:05 AM, taking advantage of a brief moment early in the morning without pain, while the illusory body was being broken down by cancer.
Tr. Adele Tomlin (27th August 2026)
It was also reported that the Geshe taught sutra and tantra to many nuns in Dolmaling for many years. I was a day student between 2017-19 at Dolma Ling nunnery, but do not remember meeting him there. His face looks a little familiar though.
It was also reported that when he fell ill, the 17th Karmapa not only provided continuous medical treatments but also showed boundless compassion by visiting the hospital in person on multiple occasions. Finally, it is said that he remained in meditation (thukdam- abiding in the state of luminiosity) at the time of his passing as demonstrated by a photo posted on Facebook here using a pseudonym of Karma Tsewang (not on the Facebook page of Karmapa).
Thug-dam: Abiding in the nature of mind
I am not a huge fan of posting such photos of people in thug-dam as it is not meant to be for entertainment, although perhaps for some it provides inspiration. For a review I wrote for Tricycle Magazine, about a documentary film that was made about the practice of thug-dam (binding the mind), see here.
For an article I wrote about Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso’s four day Thug-dam state, which the 17th Karmapa requested not to be announced until its dissolution, see here.