Long Life Prayer for Gyaltrul Rinpoche by Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

In 1977, we all went through a phase of constantly worrying about each other. Gyaltrul Rinpoche and Nancy came out to Boulder to stay with me, and of course, we went up into the mountains. When I snapped this photograph, we were up as high as aspen grow. Rinpoche is strolling through the grove like nothing else matters, wearing his "Crazy Jake" rGyalpo hat, and Nancy is saying, "Whew!" We just could not keep up with him.

Later, Diane Tharpa came to stay with me, and we were talking about how much we loved Jake. We called Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, and Diane persuaded him to write this Long Life Prayer for Gyaltrul Rinpoche:

NGEYPA DONGYI LUNG TOG DEN PEY SOG

SANG CHEN CHO KYI NYI MEI ODSER GYI

DRO WEY YIDKYI MUNPA RAB SEL WA

NA TSHOG RANG DROL SHABLA SOLWA DEB

GANG GI NAM PAR THAR PAI JEY SHUG TEY

DRO PHEN THRIN LEY DRUBLA NYER TSONPA

TSHUNG MED SHED DRUB TEN PAI GYEL TSEN GYI

SHAB PED TEN CHING DZED THRIN THAR CHEN SHOG

If you understand this, you see there is actually a touching and beautiful little smile in there.

If you do not understand this, there is no way I can explain.

Well, don't know about you, but that's what we were doing thirty-two years ago. 

Later, I came over to Oakland, and still in the mood, on December 7, 1977, composed a long life prayer for Tarthang Rinpoche that Gyaltrul Rinpoche rendered into Tibetan, and Nancy transliterated.