11th anniversary of the parinirvana of Shamar Rinpoche

June 10, 2025

Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, shares the following message on the eleventh anniversary of the parinirvana of His Holiness the 14th Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche.

A transcript of the message follows:

Dear Dharma friends,

Tomorrow marks the eleventh anniversary of the passing into Parinirvana of our late teacher and my fellow lineage holder, His Holiness the 14th Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche.

I deeply rejoice in my good fortune in having had such an extraordinary being as my personal spiritual father, and in receiving so many Dharma transmissions from him. I will always treasure every single one of the precious moments I was able to spend with him, for even more than through formal teaching situations, it is through spending time with one’s teacher that one is able to witness and absorb much of his wisdom and his qualities.

In the same way, despite the degenerate times we live in, many of you also had the good fortune to meet this exceptional teacher during his lifetime, and I feel that you have every reason to rejoice in your merit.

On the anniversary of his passing, I would like to share the following thoughts with all of you:

Of course, for themselves, Buddhas or Bodhisattvas have no motive to be remembered. It is only for our own sake that those of us who wish to be awakened recall their life example, their teaching, and the manifestation of their passing.

Why? Because focusing on the birth, the living, and the passing of a great master gives us an opportunity to reflect on our own state.

Birth, living and dying are the very nature of cyclic life, yet at the same time all of this – the string of endless beginnings and the string of endless endings, as well as everything that comes in between – consists of nothing but figments.

And this is one of the ways in which we can look at this occasion: as a final blessing from our great teacher, a reminder that we too are eternally being born, living and dying; and that all of these are without essence – that nobody actually comes or goes.

So therefore, we should honour the late Rinpoche’s life and legacy by focusing on these aspects, and in terms of practice, I feel that Guru Yoga is the most appropriate practice to go with this occasion.

Therefore, dear Dharma friends, I would like to encourage all of you to mark this day by practicing the Guru Yoga of the 14th Shamar Rinpoche, and by offering aspirations for the fulfilment of his wishes.

With prayers

Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa