Foreword by the Dalai Lama

We Tibetans have been custodians of the full range of the Buddha’s teachings for well over a thousand years. These have been analyzed, refined, and most important of all put into practice, becoming the mainstay of Tibetan culture. Indeed, the principles of compassion and nonviolence are among the distinguishing marks of the Tibetan way of life even today.

Until 1959, many conditions contributed to the flourishing of Buddhism in Tibet. However, what gave it vigor was that down the centuries individuals continued not only to read, memorize, study, and debate, but also to retire to caves and other remote locations to meditate, just as great luminaries of the past, like Milarepa, had done. In the upheavals that followed 1959 the freedom to do this in Tibet has been severely constrained.

Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche is one of a steadily dwindling number of those who undertook their study and training in Tibet in the traditional way before everything changed in 1959. In his youth in Tibet he engaged in rigorous practice; in his middle years as a refugee in India he extended his studies to traditions other than his own Karma Kagyu; and later he has traveled and taught widely.

This book, Stars of Wisdom, contains Khenpo Rinpoche’s teachings on a variety of topics, including the path of reasoning, meditation on emptiness, the songs of Milarepa, and Mahayana aspiration prayers. It follows earlier commentaries on Nagarjuna’s and Chandrakirti’s classic works. I have no doubt readers wishing to cultivate the Buddhist conduct and view will find much to inspire them here.

Tenzin Gyatso
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama
May 27, 2009