This book offers precise guidelines for meditation. In it, Shamar Rinpoche extracts the meditation-oriented teachings from Moonlight of Mahamudra, a comprehensive treatise on the practice of Kagyu Mahamudra composed by Dagpo Tashi Namgyal, a renowned sixteenth-century master of the Kagyu tradition. Shamar Rinpoche produced this book in order to compile a written manual for his students, which incorporates teachings and transmissions that he gave on the source text in the 1990s. He provided new explanations for the final manuscript and continued refining it up until close to his death in 2014. Shamar Rinpoche, Mipham Chokyi Lodro (1952–2014), was the 14th Shamarpa. Born in Derge, Tibet, Shamar Rinpoche was recognized by the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa in 1957 and by the 14th Dalai Lama. He was an accomplished Buddhist master and teacher, respected and cherished by many students of Buddhism the world over. In one of his last interviews, Shamar Rinpoche said that things would change because everything and everyone is subject to impermanence. He encouraged his students to focus on their spiritual practice and emphasized that the cure to the suffering associated with change is within oneself. Meditation, he said, is the natural antidote to all delusion and ignorance. Boundless Wisdom: A Mahamudra Practice Manual was one of the important and precious instructional texts that he authored with these sentiments in mind. A preface to this book was written by Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa. In this letter, Karmapa highlights the extraordinary depth of Shamar Rinpoche’s knowledge of the Buddha dharma, and the way in which he was able to put it into almost any context that was understandable and engageable for all of us. Also featured is a short Mahamudra prayer by Shamar Rinpoche, handwritten by him in Tibetan and translated into English. The editor and translator for this book, Tina Draszczyk, was a longtime student of Shamar Rinpoche, who received guidance and inspiration from him for over thirty years.
Shamar Rinpoche, Mipham Chokyi Lodro (1952–2014), was the 14th Shamarpa. The Shamarpa or “Red Hat Lama of Tibet” is Tibetan Buddhism’s second oldest reincarnate lineage after the Karmapa’s lineage. Born in Derge, Tibet, Shamar Rinpoche was recognized by the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa in 1957 and was enthroned as the 14th Shamarpa in 1963. He was also recognized by the 14th Dalai Lama. Following many years of study with Buddhist scholars, he began in 1980 to spread the Buddha dharma, teaching at Karma Kagyu centers throughout the world. Shamar Rinpoche was an accomplished Buddhist master and teacher, respected and cherished by many students of Buddhism the world over.
In 1996, Shamar Rinpoche began organizing Bodhi Path Buddhist Centers, a network of centers covering many continents, in which a non-sectarian approach to meditation is practiced. In addition over the years, he founded several non-profit organizations worldwide engaged in charitable activities, including projects to provide schooling for children born into poverty, and an organization committed to promoting animal rights.
Shamar Rinpoche encouraged meditation and study among his students, and authored several books for these purposes during his lifetime, including a detailed biographical compilation on the 10th Karmapa, A Golden Swan in Turbulent Waters (2012), and a concise meditation guide, Boundless Awakening: The Heart of Buddhist Meditation (2013), both published by Bird of Paradise Press. Shamar Rinpoche authored a key text for students, The Path to Awakening (Delphinium Books, distributed by Harper Collins, 2014), a presentation of Chekawa Yeshe Dorje’s Seven Points of Mind Training, which is both a timely guide to living a fulfilling life as a Buddhist, and a practical manual of meditation techniques. Shamar Rinpoche provided advice to his students on how to integrate his three instruction manuals: Boundless Awakening, Boundless Wisdom, and The Path to Awakening. This advice is included in the preface of this text, Boundless Wisdom: A Mahamudra Practice Manual.
