Bodhi Path teachers

Bodhi Path centers are founded by Shamar Rinpoche and guided by locals and visitors of the Karma Kagyu teachers line of Tibetan Buddhism. Bodhi Path offers a mix of ley men and monastic teachers from around the world including Asia, Europe and North America.

Shamar Rinpoche, the 14th Shamarpa

Shamar Rinpoche was the 14th Shamarpa or the Red Crown Lama from Tibet. Shamarpa-genus is the oldest family reincarnated in Tibetan Buddhism, and dates back to the 1200s. Born in 1952, Shamar Rinpoche spent many years as a student in India with Buddhist teachers. He began to travel and teach in various Buddhist centers throughout Asia and the West. He started in 1980, and in 1982 he studied English for 10 months at UC Berkeley. In 1996 he began to organize the Bodhi Path Buddhist centers, a network of centers that are based on a non secterian approach to Buddhism. The curriculum from the Bodhi Path centers are grounded in the teachings of the 1000-century Indian Buddhist master Atisha, as they were transmitted by Gampopa. Atisha's methods are the most effective in stabilizing the mind and deepen wisdom, and are also taught and used in a secular manner.

Shamar Rinpoche encourages not most of his students to become a monk or nun, but stresses instead the environment to be a lay person who study and practice Buddhism. This is because to become a monk or a nun requires virtuosic commitment and discipline, and should not be under-taken by those who are not willing to follow the full set of guidelines that are explained in vinaya (code of conduct). Shamar Rinpoche passed away on the 11th of June 2014 in Germany. For more information, please visit : https://shamarpa.org

Shamar Rinpoche

Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa

Karmapa was born on 6 May 1983 in central Tibet. His parents are the great Nyingma lama Mipham Rinpoche and Dechen Wangmo. As soon as he could speak, he told them he was the Karmapa. The Karmapas are the leaders of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.

In March 1994, in accordance with the 900 year old tradition, Thaye Dorje was enthroned as the 17th Karmapa. His Holiness the 14th Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche, the second most senior Karma Kagyu lama, enthroned him. The 14th Shamarpa, Mipham Chokyi Lodro was himself recognized by the 16th Karmapa in 1957 and officially enthroned in 1963. Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche passed from this life on 11 June 2014.

The first Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa, was born in 1110. The first Dalai Lama, Gendun Drub, was born in 1391. The Karmapa leads the longest unbroken chain of reincarnated leaders among the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Karmapa escaped from Tibet in 1994. In 2003, his formal education was completed when he received the title of Vidyadhara, or Knowledge Holder of the Sutras and Tantras.

Trinley Thaye Dorje means Limitless Unchanging Buddha Activity. Karmapa resides in Delhi, India. On 25th March 2017, Karmapa married Sangyumla Rinchen Yangzom (a Tibetan name meaning ‘Precious Prosperity Gathered’), who was born in Thimphu, Bhutan. On 11th August 2018, Karmapa and Sangyumla’s son Thugsey was born.

Today, Karmapa travels extensively, meeting students, young people, world leaders, and leading lights in the fields of spirituality, peace, conflict resolution, and education. He has the spiritual responsibility for over 900 monasteries and meditation centres around the world.

Karmapa’s activities include: empowering young people; meeting international leaders in the fields of spirituality, peace, conflict resolution, and education; and creating videos and articles to promote peace and prosperity in our world.

Karmapa defines education as “knowledge that offers compassion and wisdom”. Cultivating our innate values of compassion and wisdom – our Inner Wealth – enables us to experience peace. For more information, please visit : https://www.karmapa.org

Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa

Lama Jigme Rinpoche

Jigme Rinpoche was born in Kham, Eastern Tibet, in 1949. When the Chinese invaded in 1955, he moved to Tsurphu, the monastery of the Karmapas in Tibet, and eventually, in 1959, together with the Karmapa and many other high lamas and tulkus of all ages, he moved on to Rumtek in Sikkim. In Rumtek, Karmapa founded a monastery in order to preserve the teachings, and it was there that Lama Jigme Rinpoche received all the transmissions directly from him. In 1975, at the beginning of H.H. the 16th Karmapa's activity in the West, he appointed Lama Jigme Rinpoche to be his spiritual representative in Europe. For more information, please visit : https://www.jigmela.org

Lama Jigme Rinpoche

Shenyen Thupten Phuntsok (Trehor Lama)

Born in the region of Kham in eastern Tibet. At the age of 13 he was recognized as the reincarnation of Agyal Rinpoche. He completed his studies in the buddhist, traditional three year retreat at the monastery of Ven. Kalu Rinpoche in Darjeeling, Sonada. After that he taught under the 16th Karmapa at Rumtek monastery in India. In 2004, the 17th Karmapa and the 14th Shamarpa appointed him responsible for the Buddhist Institute in Nice, France, and replaced the recently deceased Ven. Lama Thubten. Based in France, Lama Trehor teaches Dharma in various centers in Europe, his methods touches the hearts of people with a simple but profound way in which he transfers the great wisdom of Buddha.

Trehor Lama

Lama Walli

Lama Walli has practiced for sixteen years in retreat, fifteen of them under the guidance of Gendün Rinpoche. In 1986, he confided to her the responsibilities of a lama and since then she has guided students practicing in retreat. In 1996, Rinpoche initiated Gendün a retreat center for lay people in the Dordogne, where she participates in the guide. Here she helps her students in their development, mainly within a framework of shorter and longer periods of individual practice or a three-year Retreat. Lama Walli often travels to European centers of the Karma Kagyu lineage that comes under the authority of 17 Gyalwa Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje. There, she gives public talks, teachings and retreat courses. For more information, please visit : https://lama-walli-and-chris.org

Lama Walli

Lama Jungne

Lama Jungne met Shamar Rinpoche, Jigme Rinpoche and Gendün Rinpoche in 1994 and, inspired by the teachings of these Tibetan meditators, moved to the Kagyu Ling retreat center in the Auvergne region, Kundröl Ling. From 1998 to 2004, she completed two traditional three-year retreats. Afterwards, she stayed in Kundröl Ling until 2007 to deepen her studies of Buddhist philosophy and meditation practice. Since 2008, Jungne has been active as a translator of Jigme Rinpoche in the German-speaking world, as well as a Dharma teacher in Dhagpo, the official center of the Kagyü Ling in France. At the same time, she teaches in various Buddhist centers in Europe.

Lama Jungne

Acharya Tenzing Wangpo

Born in 1990 to a Buddhist family in India, Tenzing Wangpo was enrolled in a monastery when he was seven years old. He learned rituals and Dharma texts of traditional Tibetan Buddhism. When he was twelve years old, he joined the Diwakar Buddhist Academy in Kalimpong, where he studied Indo-Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and literature, as well as English and Hindi languages, for eight years. Since he graduated as Acharya, highly learned scholar in Buddhist studies, he has been giving teachings in India, Europe, and the United States.

Acharya Tenzing Wangpo

Visiting teacher Lama Jampa Thaye

Lama Jampa ThayeLama Jampa Thaye is a teacher of the Sakya and Karma Kagyu traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. He has been teaching for over 30 years and is the spiritual director of the Dechen organisation of Buddhist Centres. He is the author of several books on Tibetan Buddhism and has a PhD in Tibetan Religions from the University of Manchester. He is renowned for being one of the first Westerners who are authorised to transmit Vajrayana teachings.

Lama Jampa Thaye was born a Catholic in 1952 in Manchester, England and met his first spiritual teacher, Karma Thinley Rinpoche, at the age of 20 in 1973. Lama Jampa’s other principal masters include H.H. Sakya Trizin and H.H. Karmapa (both the 16th and the 17th). Lama Jampa Thaye is somewhat unusual in that he has received authority to give teachings from both the Sakya and Karma Kagyu traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, receiving authority to teach from both Karma Thinley Rinpoche and H.H. Sakya Trizin due to his contemplative and scholarly training. Lama Jampa Thaye is married with four children.

Lama Jampa travels extensively giving teachings and initiations in many countries, both for Dechen and other Buddhist organizations. Lama Jampa is also a member of the international teaching faculty of the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute in Delhi. H.H. Sakya Trizin commented: "I would like to commend Lama Jampa Thaye for the unflagging enthusiasm and effort that he has devoted to the noble cause of making the dharma available to all those who have an interest in it, and encourage him to continue his good works."

Lama Jampa’s teaching approach follows the long-established and traditional style of Tibetan Buddhist masters down the ages. He stresses the established historical approach to Vajrayana practice so as to sustain the authentic, continuing transmission of its intellectual and experiential aspects. For more information, please visit : https://soundcloud.com/lama-jampa-thaye and https://lamajampa.org

Lama Jampa Thaye