A message from Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, on the occasion of his 36th birthday in this lifetime. In accordance with the wisdom of the victorious Buddhas and what they have seen, ultimately none of us are born with inherent anxiety or hereditary disease, none of us are doomed to die to an eternity, none of us are meant to be permanent like statues, none of us are cut off in the manner of outcasts, none of us have come from an alien world to this unique rock we call Earth, none of us are going to the cemeteries for good, none of us are inseparably one like a mixed paste and none of us are other, being fundamentally angelic or demonic. However, for those of us who relate to our lives in any of these ways, I pray to the Victorious Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to call upon their natural promise of kindness to guide us from this cyclic whirlpool of thoughts. And I call upon us to open our hearts instead of opening only our five senses. Please pray through the timeless methods known as the traditional practices of listening, contemplating and meditating.