Last month, Charles Manson, specialist Tibetan consultant at the Bodleian Library, gave a retreat about Karma Pakshi’s meditations at His Holiness the 17th Karmapa’s European center, Kamalashila. The online and five-day retreat on Karma Pakshi’s meditations was conducted in English with German translation and streamed at the Kamalashila Institute in Langenfeld, Germany, from 1–6 November. Manson gave step-by-step guided instruction, and the retreat was held in silence, except for occasional Q&A.
The retreat focused on the meditations that Karma Pakshi recommended in his travels, and even taught to the Mongol emperors of Yuan China, Kubilai Khan and Mongke Khan. Karma Pakshi, as the Second Karmapa, is widely acknowledged as having begun the reincarnate lama tradition, which would influence all the other schools down the centuries. He taught this series of meditations throughout Inner and East Asia, from Tibet to China and Mongolia. These meditations, as a series, were called “Introduction to the Three Kayas (also known as Four Kayas).” Subsequent Karmapas (including the 7th, 8th, 14th, and 16th) also wrote about the “Introduction to the Three Kayas.”
For the past couple of years Manson, one of the most knowledgeable lay Buddhist specialists of Tibetan heritage (and also having met the 16th Karmapa), has been giving meditation sessions in order to revive Karma Pakshi’s meditation instructions. He spent eight years in a Buddhist meditation retreat in the Kagyu tradition. He spent years studying Karma Pakshi’s memoirs and writings and published the book The Second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi – A Tibetan Mahasiddha in 2022.
Gyaltsab Rinpoche said, “For the Karma Kagyu, there are two instructions known as the special instructions of the lineage. One of them is Lungsem Yerme (“inseparable breath and mind”). This is a special teaching from the Six Yogas of Naropa, in which the understanding of the special and deep connection between breath and mind is in the foreground. The other important instruction of the Karma Kagyu is the Introduction to the Three Kayas.”*
After teachings on the Four Kayas were given live on site at the Institute in 2023 and also in 2024, there is now also the possibility to participate in these teachings digitally in 2025. Because of the special significance of these long-forgotten instructions, which go directly back to Karma Pakshi, Manson has partnered with Kamalashila to fulfill this wish.
Only the physical exercises (trulkor) cannot be taught digitally, because they simply have to be learned under personal guidance. All meditation instructions for the Four Kayas, on the other hand, are able to be taught and transmitted online.
In order to contribute to the fact that these original instructions of Karma Pakshi are brought back to life today and can be of use to as many people as possible, a specified seminar fee for digital participation was waived for this retreat.
* Last February, Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche gave two teachings in Bodh Gaya on “Pointing out the three Kayas,” which were recorded with English translation.
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw6iKP7jOUM
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thgTuBX3t1Q
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