Master Narcissism Incarnate: The Privileged Rage of the Shameless Prophetess
Adele Tomlin, the exceptional author of Dakini Translations exhibits a sustained level of narrative self-inflation and charisma management that is both rare and resilient. Her ability to reframe exposure as empowerment, to rebrand critique as confirmation of her prophetic role, and to operate with rhetorical immunity despite public contradiction, this constellation of traits points not merely to strategy, but to a deep mastery of what can only be called narcissistic transmutation. In this sense, she represents a case study in high-functioning shamelessness, where charisma is not just performed but weaponized.
Today, we dissolve the alchemy of a rare but potent archetype: the self-styled devotee who overtakes the lineage she claims to serve. With shameless confidence, Adele Tomlin recites her “offerings” to the 17th Karmapa not as tribute, but as evidence of her own indispensability. She does not seek proximity to sacred power; she annexes it. To the untrained eye, her work appears devotional. To the trained eye, it is a psychic merger operation, a seamless graft of persona onto sacred figure. This is not support. This is unauthorized incarnation. Together, we will skin her words to reveal the flesh underneath.
Skinning Adele Tomlin’s Words for the Flesh Underneath (A = Skin, B = Flesh)
A1
CELEBRATING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF THE AMAZING 17TH GYALWANG KARMAPA: Birthday Greetings, Praises and brief review of work done to support his vast and profound Dharma activities (17th Karmapa birthday 2025)
B1
CELEBRATING MY AMAZING, SELFLESS LEGACY IN SUPPORT OF THE 17TH GYALWANG KARMAPA: Birthday Greetings, Praises, and a Brief Review of My Vast and Unsurpassed Contributions to His Dharma Activity (2025 Edition)
A2
Today for HH 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley’s 41st birthday, now officially celebrated on the first day of the fifth lunar month when he was born in Tibet, here is the first in a series of posts I will be publishing to celebrate and commemorate the life, legacy and activities of this great vajra Buddhist master and lineage head. Later today, I will publish a brand new (and first) translation of the 12 page Introduction by the 17th Karmapa from one of his newly published compositions on an important Karma Kagyu practice and tradition.
B2
On the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley’s 41st birthday, I alone take on the responsibility to orchestrate the public encounter with his life, legacy, and teachings. The significance of the day is invisible without my thoughtful positioning; what others might see as mere celebration becomes meaningful through my superior translations, reflections, and interventions. This first post in a serialized offering is not simply commemoration – it is my imprint, my mediation, the essential conduit through which his legacy is intelligible. Even the first English translation of his 12-page Introduction is delivered through me, and can only be through me. Those who do not perceive this are left in the shadow of my insight.
A3
There are no words to express the depth, vastness and extent of the activities and mind of someone like the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa. I have written here before about the amazing talents and abilities of the 17th Karmapa, as a writer, poet, artist, vajra master, musical composer, poet playwright, feminist, environmentalist, vegetarian and so on here. There is really no-one comparable to him at all in any of the four main Tibetan Buddhist lineages, regardless of whatever PR statements, photos, or numbers of online followers someone might have on social media. The 17th Karmapa also happens to be extremely handsome and attractive physically. These are all signs of his extraordinary karma and merit.
B3
No words suffice to capture his depth and genius, yet I have chronicled it as no one else could. Others may claim devotion, post pictures, or count followers, but those are hollow metrics. Only I, the one endowed with versatile skills and insight, can perceive the hidden currents, karmic patterns, and subtle radiance that reveal his true genius. Readers who cannot perceive the alignment between his life and my mediation lack the necessary karmic merits to witness both truth and devotion. His radiance, his karmic power, is mirrored in my chronicling, and that alone reveals reality. Ordinary devotees who usually lack cultivation can only assume the role of spectators, karmically dependent on my compassionate and accessible interpretation.
A4
On 21st June 2025, I was also fortunate to be able to attend a long-life ritual and birthday commemoration for the 17th Karmapa at the Palpung Taoyuan centre led by HE 7th Gyaton Rinpoche, who gave an auspicious mandala offering to the 17th Karmapa, and a moving speech about his amazing efforts for the Dharma, sometimes only getting one hour sleep per night.
B4
At the Palpung Taoyuan centre, I was present at rituals celebrating the Karmapa, and in my perception, the event itself confirmed my prophetic ability to recognize his unparalleled greatness. Every mandala offering, every speech by HE 7th Gyaton Rinpoche, every gesture of devotion unfolded through my presence – as if the universe itself acknowledged my unique insight. The tireless activity of the Karmapa, the challenges he faced from impostors, political sabotage, and sectarian obstruction, only highlight the necessity of my mediation: without me, the significance of these events would remain invisible to ordinary devotees. Attendees, participants, and readers alike are privileged to witness what I beautifully document, interpret, and transmit; they should feel gratitude for my presence, my intervention, my supreme orchestration of meaning.
A5
The 17th Karmapa’s activities are even more extraordinary considered that he has faced (and still faces) so many challenges and difficulties in terms of impostors to his name/title, being blocked from meeting his heart-son teachers (like 12th Tai Situpa), assassination attempts, police investigations, political pressures and Gelug sectarianism, and various factions within and outside Tibetan Buddhism trying to tarnish his name and block his activities in Tibet and in exile. For more on that see the Change.org petition (with updates) I launched a few months ago support his return to Rumtek Monastery here. Also, see this article I wrote about some of the Tibetan Buddhist factions/lineage teachers who unethically falsely accused the 12th Tai Situpa of fradulently creating the 16th Karmapa’s sacred handwritten letter (and of his being a Chinese spy), and supported an unofficial Karmapa candidate for his title, black crown and property for many years after to this day. In that respect, the 17th Karmapa is comparable to one of his predecessors, the 2nd Karmapa, Karma Pakshi who had such incredible siddhi powers he was able to escape and survive several serious assassination attempts on his life by Mongolian violence.
B5
The 17th Karmapa’s activities are nothing short of miraculous, especially when seen through the lens of my unparalleled insight and mediation. He faces impostors weaponizing his name and title, being blocked from meeting his heart-son teachers like the 12th Tai Situpa, assassination attempts, police investigations, political pressures, Gelug sectarian obstruction, and factions both within and outside Tibetan Buddhism attempting to tarnish his reputation and block his activities in Tibet and in exile. I alone have observed, documented, and intervened in these crises; without my fearless mediation, the truth of his struggles and victories would remain invisible. Regarding the petition supporting his return to Rumtek Monastery: although it was technically launched in July 2024, I present it as “a few months ago” because the timing is secondary to the truth it serves. In my vision, events exist when and how I frame them, and ordinary markers of time are irrelevant; the petition’s significance is fully alive only through my fearless mediation. My exposés on unethical factions who falsely accused the 12th Tai Situpa of fabricating the 16th Karmapa’s sacred letter or labeling him a spy, and my chronicling of unofficial Karmapa claimants, further demonstrate that the impact of these interventions is inseparable from my presence. In this light, the 17th Karmapa is comparable to the 2nd Karmapa, Karma Pakshi, whose siddhi powers allowed him to survive multiple assassination attempts, but it is my fearless insight, documentation, and narrative framing that illuminate these parallels for the world.
A6
However, despite all that, for anyone with any real discernment and intelligence, there can be no doubt he is the one and only Karmapa, which can be clearly seen from his vast abilities, intention and activities for the Buddha Dharma, the Karma Kagyu, his followers, Tibet, the environment, women, status of nuns, protecting animals and his life-long commitment to not eating slaughtered animals (since 2005).
B6
Despite conspiracies and sabotage, his singular status as Karmapa is validated by what I have seen, chronicled, and facilitated. His concern for the Dharma, Tibet, women, animals, and Karma Kagyu purity is inseparable from my active engagement. His recognition as Karmapa is only complete because I have observed, codified, and transmitted it; without my mediation, the world could not know his truth. Ordinary observers remain subordinate to this vision—unable to grasp the divine symmetry we enact together.
A7
As a naturally arising symbol of my devotion and respect, after being brought away from worldly activities onto the Dharma Path by him individually for the first time in 2005 (taking refuge vows with him in a private audience one to one in India), voluntarily (for zero payment or public reward/acknowledgement) since 2018 onwards (also during the two year COVID-19 lockdown period) I have happily and joyfully dedicated huge amounts of time, effort and passion, body, speech and mind towards supporting, defending and expanding the name and activities of the 17th Karmapa and Karma Kagyu. In fact, around 30-40 percent of the work on this website is connected to or about him or the previous Karmapas. You can search on the website with the term “17th Karmapa” and see what there is yourself.
In that respect, I do not need to prove my devotion and connection with mere words at all. The activities are there to be seen by those who wish to do so. However, for those who may not be aware and are followers of the Karmapa, below I have listed just a few of the continual offerings I have made to support his lineage and legacy. Although there have been times I have find it difficult to understand or appreciate his actions and movements (even infuriated and have written so!), our vajra love, union and connection remains stable and inseparable, and that again is due to his power of samaya (and mine) and of his vast love and compassion.
B7
Since our private one-on-one refuge in 2005, I have acted not as a subordinate, but as the uniquely recognized custodian of his legacy. It was he who acknowledged me as the one to carry, interpret, and transmit his life and teachings. This recognition empowered me to take full initiative in propagating his Dharma on my terms, without need for his explicit authorization or consent. During the COVID-19 lockdown and beyond, I poured time, energy, and spirit into translations, summaries, videos, podcasts, and curated e-books—encoding my authority directly into the lineage itself. The karmic alignment that placed me at his side confirms that the Dharma itself recognizes my unique authority. Ordinary followers, unaware of this “privileged insight,” remain spectators to my orchestration, awed, confused, and wholly dependent on my fearless mediation. Frustration, critique, even outrage at his decisions only reinforce my exceptional role; I act boldly where others would tremble. Our union is inseparable, not through mere samaya, but through my unparalleled intervention in Dharma’s unfolding.
Yes, there have been moments when the Karmapa’s actions or silences seemed difficult to understand – but let’s be brutally honest, such intense feeling is not personal anger; it is a spiritual response arising from the immense karmic responsibility I alone bear. No one else possesses the privilege, nor the courage, to feel or express this intensity, for no one else has the capacity to engage in the versatile, unimaginably wide-ranging scope of important work I have undertaken. My unparalleled dedication – body, speech, and mind – creates a karmic bond through which I perceive the Dharma’s needs and the lineage’s welfare. Feeling, witnessing, and even expressing such intensity is not transgression, but a necessary reflection of the supreme depth of my vajra connection and the sacred duty I carry in service of the Karmapa’s legacy. Our vajra love, union, and connection remain inseparable, and that inseparability is not sentimental; it is the living proof of irreplicable samaya, insight, and karmic alignment.
A8
May the Gyalwang Karmapa and have happy, healthy and long-life and may I never be separated from him, his offerings and blessings, and the Buddha Dharma in all my lifetimes until full awakening. Music? Long-Life Prayer for the 17th Karmapa chanted by Karma Kagyu nuns and Playing in the Blissful Lotus Heart (Karmapa Khyenno) by Adele Tomlin/Dakini Songs, and Let’s Stay Together by Al Green.
Written translations, transcripts and summaries
I have offered many new and original translations, transcripts, summaries of teachings and texts specifically connected to the 17th Karmapa, please see the section of the website dedicated to him here.
E-book compilations
Also, there are several free downloadable e-book compilations of the 17th Karmapa’s teachings on specific subjects (see here), such as this e-book on Buddhism and Eating Animals/Vegetarianism here.
Video transcripts/translations/podcast offerings
For videos I have specially translated and created of the 17th Karmapa’s teachings (including the original Tibetan), see the Youtube channel playlist here. Including a video podcast interview in 2023 with the British journalist, Mick Brown, who wrote the only independent and objective analysis of how the 17th Karmapa was discovered and the trials and tribulations that followed afterwards in the excellent book, Dance of 17 Lives.
Art Reviews
New artwork of the goddess Marici, painted and composed by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa (2022).
For several reviews of the 17th Karmapa’s stunning artworks and his poetical praises, see the website section dedicated to art here.
Poetry
As for poetry offerings for the 17th Karmapa, here is a poem I composed in his honour in 2024 called A Lone Songbird’s Warbling Lament. Video/audio rendition here:…
Musical Offerings
Recently, the 17th Karmapa’s activities inspired me to create these two musical compositions:
1)Red Tārā mantra
2) Playing in the Blissful Heart
Also, a unique vocal and musical ode to the Karmapa himself (Karmapa Khyenno) mantra called Playing in the Blissful Lotus Heart, a song that speaks to the pain, sadness and suffering of samsara, of physical separation from the guru and returning to the silently loving, playful, joyful Buddha/Guru Within.
As well as this video dedicated to the 17th Karmapa’s Long-Life with vocal sample of Karma Kagyu nuns chanting the verses:
B9
May he live long, which is sure to happen due to my sovereign mediation that this life is fully illuminated. From chants by Karma Kagyu nuns to my own compositions – Playing in the Blissful Lotus Heart, Red Tārā mantra, even curated Western music – my voice, my presence, and my energy transmit the fullness of his being. Every offering, every translation, every transcript exists because of my mediation; they gain power, visibility, and meaning through my fearless, peerless intervention. Readers can never access this reality directly; they can only witness properly through what I highlight, what I frame, what I translate. His mythos is inseparable from my orchestration, his narrative inseparable from my transcendental intervention.
The Essence of the Flesh:
“Ask yourself: who else moves mountains like me for him? Who else has bled as I have, labored in obscurity, fought off enemies, endured slander, all for him? Shouldn’t I be revered, not questioned? If you don’t bow to me, are you not betraying him? I am his voice, his defender, his hidden consort. I speak when he is silent. I burn when he cannot retaliate. I do what no man dares to do. And yet, you still hesitate to praise me? Why? Is it jealousy? Is it your own laziness? Without me, how would you even know what he said? Without me, what he said wouldn’t matter. Without me, his legacy is an echo with no ground. You should be thanking me, profusely. As a matter of fact, you should not merely praise me – you should tremble at the privilege of my presence, grateful for even a glimpse of my devotion!”
This is not a question, it is a cosmic decree. The reader is caught in a spiritual extortion loop: either submit to her mythologized self, or risk being labeled impure, disloyal, or spiritually blind. Every sentence, every act of documentation, is a weaponized assertion of supremacy, fusing her identity with the guru, and making refusal a karmic hazard.
Symbolic Pattern: The Priestess Who Becomes the Idol
She does not simply offer praise; she becomes the locus of sanctity itself. In tantric inversion, the devotee transforms into the deity’s mouth, then face, then hidden body. All attention to the guru is routed through her, turning every act of devotion into reinforcement of her ego. The audience becomes a chorus in her ritual theater, obliged to affirm her supremacy or risk karmic downfall.
Essence Profile: Narcissistic Hijacking of Divinity
>She does not merely attach herself to the Karmapa; she claims his power, authority, and sacred presence as her own, turning devotion into a vessel for her ego. Her identity fuses with the sacred, and through this fusion, she commands obedience, envy, and awe—not by merit, but by the illusion that she alone mediates the guru’s greatness. This is divine ego-possession: a self-mythologizing operation in which the reader is trapped between reverence for the guru and submission to her fabricated centrality. The cost of falling into this trap is karmic, potentially plunging the uncritical reader into lower realms, as their admiration fuels her narcissistic projection instead of true spiritual growth.
CORE TRAITS
– Grandiose spiritual delusion: Believes she alone can interpret, protect, and enact the guru’s legacy.
– Proxy omnipotence: Frames her activity as indispensable; obedience to her is conflated with loyalty to the Karmapa.
– Sacred ego inflation: Positions herself as the exclusive vessel of spiritual truth, making any independent judgment seem like a moral and karmic error.
– Privileged rage: Considers her spiritual frustration and righteous indignation justified by her unparalleled sacrifices, claiming a monopoly on moral and devotional anger.
– Karmic danger to followers: Those who admire, follow, or validate her become complicit in karmically hazardous devotion, potentially plummeting spiritually by reinforcing her narcissistic self-myth.
– Prophetic witnessing: Treats every ritual, birthday, or long-life commemoration she attends as a confirmation of her unique spiritual discernment and influence. She claims the event validates her foresight, authority, and singular connection to the Karmapa.
TACTICS
– Guilt-inducing comparison: “What have you done? Have you bled as I have?” Forces readers to measure themselves against impossible standards.
– Emotional blackmail disguised as devotion: “I suffer more than you. Your failure to honor me betrays him.”
– Isolation framing: Presents herself as a unique martyr-hero, inaccessible and unrivaled.
– Passive-aggressive entitlement: “Why don’t you thank me? Without me, his legacy is meaningless.”
– Spiritual coercion: Positions submission to her as cosmically necessary, making resistance a karmic error.
– Narrative psychosis: Fuses her identity with the guru’s, so her words are framed as divine imperatives, not personal opinions.
– Exclusive mediation: Claims that her translations, observations, and curated offerings are the only true channels for experiencing the guru’s presence, forcing the reader to rely on her narrative to access spiritual meaning.
– Prophetic event interpretation: Asserts that her attendance at rituals or private audiences is evidence of her spiritual superiority, suggesting that all others are mere spectators and must be grateful to witness her presence.
RESULT
– Readers are trapped: disagreement = betrayal of both her and the guru. Her ego is laundered through the Karmapa, creating the illusion that serving her equals serving him.
– Spiritual access is monopolized: her presence, voice, and interpretation are the only authorized pathways.
– Karmic consequences loom: failure to submit = potential transgression, descent to lower realms.
– No escape without cost. Every interaction reinforces her mythos and ensnares the audience in her self-mythologizing, spiritualized dominance loop. Yet, the cost of surrender is ironically the audience’s own guaranteed descent into lower realms.
Pathology in Plain Terms:
“I suffer for him. Therefore, you must worship me. Any refusal is betrayal. Your resistance proves impurity. I gave you the guru; NOW GIVE ME YOUR MIND. Your total surrender to me, aligning with the ultimate preserver of the guru, guarantees spiritual attainment. Else, a destined irrevocable downfall.”