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Practice & Study

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LEARNING AND PROGRESSING

Curriculum for Practice and Study

Bodhi Path offers a curriculum for meditation practice and study that is rooted in authentic dharma teachings and is suited to the needs and conditions of modern-day dharma practitioners.

The Bodhi Path curriculum is based on the Seven Points of Mind Training (Tibetan: Lojong), a profound system of contemplative practices that brings mindfulness, awareness, and insight to our everyday experiences, both on and off the meditation cushion.

These teachings have been preserved by an unbroken lineage since the time of the Buddha and are presented at all Bodhi Path centers, along with supporting practices and study topics, according to an approach compiled by the 14th Shamarpa, Mipham Chokyi Lodro.

Curriculum Development

Shamar Rinpoche spent decades considering how best to benefit modern-day practitioners. He refined his teachings in the West over many years, and the Bodhi Path community is grateful to have received his personal guidance during that time.

His system of Practice and Study, based on the profound teachings of Lojong, provides a legacy of rigorous, practical teachings that Rinpoche believed will lead the practitioner to genuine spiritual development.

The Practice and Study pages, as well as the Books and Resources section, provide support for Shamar Rinpoche’s Bodhi Path legacy of teachings.

Shamar Rinpoche formed the first Bodhi Path Center in 1996 in the United States. In 2004, Shamar Rinpoche gave an early talk for a European audience in Remetschwiel, Germany, in which he provided an overview of plans for what could be learned at Bodhi Path centers. In later years, he further refined his program. Starting in 2007, Shamar Rinpoche provided a sequence of annual teaching programs in the US & Europe, during which he transmitted the basis of what became three important manuals for his students:

  • Boundless Awakening: The Heart of Buddhist Meditation (2013, Bird of Paradise Press)
  • The Path to Awakening: How Buddhism’s Seven Points of Mind Training Can Lead You to a Life of Enlightenment and Happiness (2013, Delphinium Books distributed by Harper Collins)
  • Boundless Wisdom: A Mahamudra Practice Manual (2018, Bird of Paradise Press)

Shamar Rinpoche gave direct advice on how to study sections from these manuals and in what sequence, which is included in the introduction of Boundless Wisdom. All three manuals can be found in Books and Resources.

Bodhi Path is in an ongoing process of collecting Shamar Rinpoche’s recorded teachings—in which he taught this material at Bodhi Path centers—and will be adding them over time to our searchable teachings library.