Tracing the Untraceable Buddha: The Vipassana Meditator's Journey to Enlightenment
​​Rooted in the vipassana teachings of Anagarika Munindra, this detailed guide maps the Buddhist meditator’s journey toward stream entry, the first stage of enlightenment. ​

Born into a Bengali Buddhist family in 1915, Anagarika Munindra became a beloved and influential Buddhist meditation teacher who contributed significantly to the dawn of Western Buddhism and the vipassana meditation movement. In the 1960s and 1970s, he taught many Western students—including Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield—who would go on to become highly esteemed teachers in their own right. Among these early Western students was Uffe Damborg, a Dane who lived with Munindra-Ji in Bodh Gaya, India, for six years. Here, Damborg distills everything he learned from Munindra-ji—and the forty-plus years he subsequently spent studying, practicing, and teaching Buddhism—to present the ancient path of Theravada Buddhism in modern language.

Written for practitioners of vipassana meditation, Tracing the Untraceable Buddha unpacks core Buddhist teachings on non-self, karma, perception, ethics, and the four noble truths not as ideas to be intellectually understood, but as meditative insights to be cultivated as one approaches the Buddhist goal of stream entry, a profound shift in consciousness that orients one’s life toward nibbana, or enlightenment. With reflections on Damborg’s formative years with Munindra-ji, whose teaching style emphasized direct experience over dogma, this uniquely personal work becomes a lens through which meditators can explore their own spiritual paths.
1148625153
Tracing the Untraceable Buddha: The Vipassana Meditator's Journey to Enlightenment
​​Rooted in the vipassana teachings of Anagarika Munindra, this detailed guide maps the Buddhist meditator’s journey toward stream entry, the first stage of enlightenment. ​

Born into a Bengali Buddhist family in 1915, Anagarika Munindra became a beloved and influential Buddhist meditation teacher who contributed significantly to the dawn of Western Buddhism and the vipassana meditation movement. In the 1960s and 1970s, he taught many Western students—including Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield—who would go on to become highly esteemed teachers in their own right. Among these early Western students was Uffe Damborg, a Dane who lived with Munindra-Ji in Bodh Gaya, India, for six years. Here, Damborg distills everything he learned from Munindra-ji—and the forty-plus years he subsequently spent studying, practicing, and teaching Buddhism—to present the ancient path of Theravada Buddhism in modern language.

Written for practitioners of vipassana meditation, Tracing the Untraceable Buddha unpacks core Buddhist teachings on non-self, karma, perception, ethics, and the four noble truths not as ideas to be intellectually understood, but as meditative insights to be cultivated as one approaches the Buddhist goal of stream entry, a profound shift in consciousness that orients one’s life toward nibbana, or enlightenment. With reflections on Damborg’s formative years with Munindra-ji, whose teaching style emphasized direct experience over dogma, this uniquely personal work becomes a lens through which meditators can explore their own spiritual paths.
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Tracing the Untraceable Buddha: The Vipassana Meditator's Journey to Enlightenment

Tracing the Untraceable Buddha: The Vipassana Meditator's Journey to Enlightenment

Tracing the Untraceable Buddha: The Vipassana Meditator's Journey to Enlightenment

Tracing the Untraceable Buddha: The Vipassana Meditator's Journey to Enlightenment

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Overview

​​Rooted in the vipassana teachings of Anagarika Munindra, this detailed guide maps the Buddhist meditator’s journey toward stream entry, the first stage of enlightenment. ​

Born into a Bengali Buddhist family in 1915, Anagarika Munindra became a beloved and influential Buddhist meditation teacher who contributed significantly to the dawn of Western Buddhism and the vipassana meditation movement. In the 1960s and 1970s, he taught many Western students—including Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield—who would go on to become highly esteemed teachers in their own right. Among these early Western students was Uffe Damborg, a Dane who lived with Munindra-Ji in Bodh Gaya, India, for six years. Here, Damborg distills everything he learned from Munindra-ji—and the forty-plus years he subsequently spent studying, practicing, and teaching Buddhism—to present the ancient path of Theravada Buddhism in modern language.

Written for practitioners of vipassana meditation, Tracing the Untraceable Buddha unpacks core Buddhist teachings on non-self, karma, perception, ethics, and the four noble truths not as ideas to be intellectually understood, but as meditative insights to be cultivated as one approaches the Buddhist goal of stream entry, a profound shift in consciousness that orients one’s life toward nibbana, or enlightenment. With reflections on Damborg’s formative years with Munindra-ji, whose teaching style emphasized direct experience over dogma, this uniquely personal work becomes a lens through which meditators can explore their own spiritual paths.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781645473954
Publisher: Shambhala
Publication date: 07/28/2026
Pages: 304
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

UFFE DAMBORG holds a M.Sc. in Psychology from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. In the 1960s and 70s, he studied Buddhism and meditation in monasteries and hermitages in the East and lived for six years with renowned vipassana teacher Anagarika Munindra-ji in Bodh Gaya, North India. The author lives in Sweden and teaches insight meditation (vipassana) at Scandinavian retreats.

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