Losar 2023: Karmapa’s message

February 20, 2023

Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, shares the following message on the occasion of Losar, Tibetan New Year, 2023.

Please enjoy this animation of the Losar card:

If you have any difficulty playing the video, please use this link to view the video on Karmapa’s YouTube channel.

A transcript of the English message follows:

On this occasion of the beginning of the Female Water Hare year, I would like to offer greetings and a wish for all of us.

It is completely up to us how we would like to view this so-called “life”. Nevertheless, it may be inspiring to view it as our opportunity to generate and enjoy both temporary happiness and ultimate happiness, which arises from the combination of our effort and the Buddha’s blessings.

Therefore, may our realisation of Buddha-nature grow effortlessly for the beauty of the enlightened lineage and to complement the happiness of sentient beings.

(If we feel that life has meaning when happiness is acquired from our efforts, then we can indeed allow that sense of “doing”.

If we feel that life has meaning when happiness is acquired from the blessings of others then we can allow that sense of “happening” too.

If we view the “doing” with a calm and clear heart, we can never say from where it begins, and if we view the “happening” with a calm and clear heart we can never say where it ends.
They both seem to blend with the other like a dream.

The beauty of these allowances of flow is that, no matter where they may lead to, simply letting them flow in a carefree way may be the beauty and the luxury of human life.

Don’t you wonder if the Tathagata or the Buddhas are hinting something like that to us, in infinite ways? Isn’t that practice the lineage of the Awakened Ones? Wouldn’t that practice caress and soothe the busy, busy sentient beings?

I would like to think so.)