Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, invites practitioners to watch this special video and join in with prayers and wishes for the swift rebirth of His Holiness Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche. For centuries, the Shamarpas have been reborn close to the Karmapas, often even in their family. Karmapa has announced that he will, as per tradition, find and identify the 15th Shamarpa.

As part of this spiritual process, Karmapa has dedicated many ceremonies to Shamarpa’s swift rebirth, including at a major gathering of teachers and students at Bodh Gaya, the holiest place of Buddhism, and now shares this recording. This prayer, composed and chanted by Karmapa, is a tool for practitioners to use on an ongoing basis, thereby accumulating incalculable merit – and helping to create the conditions for Shamar Rinpoche to take rebirth and to teach and carry out his enlightened activities without hindrance.

The video includes a transliteration of the prayer, which is in Tibetan. Below you can find an English translation. Please share this video so that all practitioners and Karmapa’s students have the opportunity to use it.

Om svasti

Masters of the authentic lineage who unify the wisdom and compassion
Of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of countless worlds,
To these infallible objects of refuge, to the Three Jewels and the protectors,
We pray with reverence, one pointedly, with body, speech and mind.

Lord of Sukhavati, the embodiment of all the Buddhas,
You who manifest countless, boundless emanations everywhere,
Venerable Dharmamati (Chokyi Lodro), union of the three families,
May you reign upon the crown of all fortunate beings!

The power of your compassion comes from the expanse of your wisdom,
vast and profound.
Kindness to sentient beings is the sublime display of your emanations.
Inseparable from the three mysteries, in the manner of the lords of the three families,
Dharmamati, may your sublime emanation manifest soon!

For the benefit of infinite sentient beings throughout infinite aeons
Having perfectly accomplished the bodhisattva’s conduct and having attained
The sublime level of unity, you who manifest the activity of emanations
In infinite worlds, may you manifest soon!

Having especially upheld the tradition of Gampopa’s lineage,
You were peerless in revealing the sunlight of the Buddha’s doctrine.
Dharmamati, root and limbs of the practice lineage,
May your sublime emanation manifest soon!

By the blessing of the truth of the infallible Three Jewels and
By the might of the unhindered activities of
Mahakala and his lordly consort and retinue,
May these aspirations be fulfilled exactly as they were made.

 

– Composed by Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, on the full moon day of June 13th 2014

 

Translation by Trinley Rinpoche. Edited by Lara Braitstein.