Last week, the highest spiritual leader of Tibet, His Holiness, the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje, visited Manila for the first time. The Karmapa heads one of four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the Karma Kagyu. The other schools are the Ningma, Sakya and Gelupa, each having its own spiritual head.The Dalai Lama, political and spiritual leader of Tibet, belongs to the Gelupa school.The Karma Kagyu is considered “one of the most precious lineages in Tibet.” The Karmapa was first incarnated in the 12th century and is now in his 17th incarnation. He is a treasury of teachings. One of Tibet’s greatest spiritual teachers and saints, Milarepa, comes from Karma Kagyu.The 17th Karmapa was born in Tibet in 1983, the third son of a great lama. He is descended from doctors and learned medical scholars. His name, Gyalwa Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje, means “Limitless and Unchanging Buddha Activity.”When Thaye Dorje was only 3 years old, he reportedly told everyone, “I am the Karmapa.”Once, as a young boy, he read an ancient Buddhist textbook, “Logic of Emptiness,” and immediately knew the first section by heart, reciting the whole text. At age 11, he was officially recognized as the 17th incarnation of the Karmapa by the 14th Kunzig Shamarpa, second highest lama in the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.
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