Music in the Sky

Michele Martin has been a Buddhist practitioner for over thirty years and has spent the last fifteen years based in Nepal India studying with Tibetan lamas and working as a translator of oral and written Tibetan. Her publications include numerous translations from Tibetan texts on philosophy and meditations, and also articles on Buddhism. For the last two years she has been translating for the Karmapa and currently lives in New York.

The light of one candle passing on to the next, and that one passing on to another, and another: this is the traditional image used to illustrate the series of rebirths known in Buddhism as reincarnation. In the case of an enlightened being, these rebirths are taken consciously, motivated by a desire to benefic all living beings and made possible by the depth and clarity of an individual's realization. The first such reincarnation (tulku) was recognized in thirteenth- century Tibet. His name was the Gyalwa Karmapa, "The Victorious One of Enlightened Activity." Thereafter, he continued to return, generation after generation, until the present seventeenth Karmapa, who is the subject of this book.

The Karmapa is said to embody the activity of all the buddhas of the past, present, and future. Citing ancient texts, traditional histories trace his lives back for eons and continue it forward into the distant future.

Within Tibetan Buddhism, there are four main orders or traditions of trans- mission, practice, and philosophy. Their differences are mainly evident by whether they emphasize study or practice. These four traditions (Nyingma, Gelukpa, Sakya, and Kagyu) continue to thrive due to the unbroken succession of teachers and students who have kept alive the essential wisdom found in their individual texts and practices. As its leader, His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa holds, teaches, and inspires the lineage of the Kagyu order, which is known for its meditative practices, its focus on retreat, and the many realized masters it has produced. The Karmapa is also famous for the Black Crown, a symbol of his wisdom mind, which he wears during a special ceremony. Followers believe that the mere sight of it brings liberation.

Like the Dalai Lama, the Karmapa is regarded as an embodiment of com- passion, represented by the deity Chenrezik. The sole purpose of the Karmapa’s incarnation is to lead living beings from the suffering of samsara into freedom— the realization of mind’s deepest, pure nature. This full awakening, or enlightenment, is possible for every living being who sincerely engages in practice. The stages of this path to liberation are experientially based, giving direct access to another way of being. The Karmapa is said to have traveled this path and fully realized ultimate reality, and this has opened the door to the many unusual events that surround him.

What Westerners might consider magical and impossible Tibetans see as a reflection or the multivalent reality described in the Vajrayana Buddhism that permeates their culture. The Vajrayana tradition emphasizes practices involving visualization and a direct focus on the nature of mind, which reveal increasingly vast dimensions of reality. However great these may be, nothing is excluded; even the smallest detail is not left out. The events of daily life, the alighting of a special bird, the portent of dreams, exceptional weather, unusual sounds—all are constellated in a worldview that imbues them with spiritual significance The story that unfolds here implies and describes other worlds—cultural, spiritual, and philosophical. It begins with the previous (sixteenth) Karmapa giving his disciple a letter in which he had predicted his next incarnation. Known as the Last Testament, this document is unique to the Karmapas. Before passing away, the Karmapa composes a text, usually in poetic form, that reveals where and when he will be reborn and indicates his new parents’ names and other circum- stances that might surround his birth. In this way, the Last Testament guides the Karmapa’s disciples to discover the new incarnation.

The main events of the seventeenth Karmapa's life depicted in this book come from several sources. Central is the text that the Karmapa brought with him when he escaped from Tibet. Recorded by the administration of Tsurphu Monastery,' his main seat in Tibet, it catalogues the events of the Karmapa’ life, covering everything from how he was discovered to donors who visit, miracles that he manifested, and his travels to and from the monastery. This was the only book the Karmapa was able to bring out of Tibet when he escaped. Another source was one of the Karmapa’s older sisters, Ngédrup Pelzom, who was his main caregiver during his younger years. Now living with the Karmapa in India, she vividly remembered many stories about him and the nomad life they shared. The stories of how he discovered three incarnate lamas (those who consciously take rebirth co benefit others) came from the people who were directly involved. The account of the escape is based on conversations with three of the monks who participated in the planning and execution of his flight from Tibet and accompanied him on the arduous journey to India. Interwoven throughout the life story are my experiences at Tsurphu over the eight years from 1988 to 1996, including the Karmapa’s hair-cutting ceremony and his enthronement, plus a number of long visits to his temporary residence at Gyuté Ramoche University in India from.2000 to 2002, where I assisted as a translator for him. All of the translations in the book, both written and oral, are my responsibility unless otherwise noted.