Khenpo Choga Rinpoche Discusses Lifelong Learning in the Buddhist Tradition

Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche has studied Buddhism for more than half a century, and he says he is not finished.

The path began with a vow.

As a boy in eastern Tibet, he was recognized by master’s as the reincarnation of Gendün Chöpel, one of the most renowned scholars in Tibetan history. Chöpel is also regarded as an emanation of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom.

Still, he left home and wandered as a beggar, determined to find a teacher worthy of the name. Rinpoche lived on alms, leaving his homeland behind, until he reached Khenpo Pantra Rinpoche of Legön.

"It is excellent that a baby like you feels devotion to the Dharma," the master told him, and handed the child his own books.

What followed reads like a test of endurance. Rinpoche taught himself to read at 7. He offered 200,000 prostrations at 13. At 16 he moved into a makeshift cave at the Lingla Retreat, studying by day at Dzogchen Shri Singha University without a single holiday and completing the 500,000-fold preliminaries twice by night. At 21 the monastery named him khenpo, a professor of Dharma, and placed more than 500 monks in his charge.

He still calls himself a student.

"Until you become Buddha, you must improve," Rinpoche said. "Even if you are going to die two hours later, you still need to learn, contemplate, and meditate. You are never finished. You are never too old. You are never too far along."

Today, Khenpo Choga Rinpoche is the 33rd holder of the Dzogchen lineage and spiritual director of the Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation. He rebuilt Dzogchen Shri Singha University at 20 years old, spent seven years in cave meditation, and received teachings from more than 40 masters. When he traveled to India, the Dalai Lama urged him to carry the Buddha's teaching throughout the world. He now teaches in more than 40 countries.

He measures education in the way other professions measure expertise. He compares it to medicine, where a degree only licenses a person to keep working.

"Just like becoming a doctor takes at least 10 years, to become a Buddhist master also takes at least more than a decade of dedicated study and practice," he said. "Not just once or twice a year. Serious, dedicated commitment."

Khenpo Choga Rinpoche: Be Nice to Those Around You’

Studying alone does not produce wisdom, Rinpoche said. He rests authentic Buddhist practice on three pillars: study, reflection and meditation.

He points to a Chinese professor who read Buddhist sutras on his own for years before studying with him systematically.

"After studying with me for 10 years, he said all his past time studying sutra was not correct," Rinpoche shared during a recent interview about his life and career. "Now he understands the actual meaning of the sutras. He had been reading the words for years but missing the meaning."

Meditation is what carries study off the page. Rinpoche asks students to practice calm-abiding, or shamatha, for six to 24 minutes a day, and calls 48 minutes ideal.

"This is the foundation of everything," he said. "Without this, your mind has no stability, and nothing else works properly."

He describes the work not as building something new but as uncovering what is already there.

"Just like the sun is always there even when clouds cover it," Rinpoche said. "The clouds are your negative thinking and negative karma. The wind that blows the clouds away is your practice. The sun was never damaged by the clouds."

Study and meditation, in his teaching, are meant to change how a person lives. He gives students plain instructions for daily conduct: keep your promises, avoid speaking badly of others, improve a little in every area. The measure he returns to is how a person treats the powerless.

"Be nice to those around you. Particularly those who are a little weaker or lower than you, respect them more," Rinpoche said. "Anyone can be kind to powerful people. The real test is how you treat those who cannot do anything for you."

Even a Master Keeps Learning

Khenpo Choga Rinpoche treats humility as evidence of wisdom, and he models it when he answers questions. Asked how seekers should handle modern overwhelm, he declined to fake the experience.

"I must be honest with you. I don't have the feeling of being overwhelmed, so I don't know exactly how to give advice about that specific feeling," he said. "But I can tell you what I know about obstacles and challenges, because that I understand very well."

The reason even experienced practitioners must keep learning, he said, is that the teachings cut against the grain of ordinary habit.

"Buddhist principles are the opposite of our ego-clinging," Rinpoche said. "We hear the teaching, we understand a little, and then our old habits come back and we forget. Therefore, we need to remind people again and again."

He warns against the complacency that can settle over longtime students. Giving up on oneself, he said, is not humility.

"Some people think giving up on themselves is some kind of humility. It is not. It is neglect," Rinpoche said. "You have Buddha nature. Giving up yourself is disrespecting your own Buddha nature."

The remedy is steady, daily and small. He tells students to improve a little every day, every week and every month, and to assume the learning never stops.

The Best Way to Help Others Is to Teach Them How to Help Themselves

Rinpoche did not learn Buddhism in isolation – and he does not expect his students to do so either.

He received ripening empowerment and oral instructions from more than 40 masters, but he singles out two gurus who showed him what he could not have reached on his own. Khenchen Pema Tsewang Lhundrup was the first to point out the naked awareness at the heart of the Great Perfection. His root guru, Khenchen Chöchab Rinpoche, was the second to point out that same awareness.

Neither realization, he said, came from books alone.

That experience shapes how he trains others now. Khenpo Choga Rinpoche teaches teachers, who then return to their own regions and teach in their own languages.

“This is more effective because they know their culture and language and can teach better,” he said.

He has built a clear path for them. A three-tiered system, called Sangha Mitra, Dharma Acharya and Bodhi Lama, sets the stages a Buddhist teacher must complete. The Dzogchen Lineage Internship trains students not only in the teachings but also in how to transmit them.

The aim is not to keep students dependent on him. Rinpoche says the deeper purpose of a teacher is to eventually work himself out of the role.

“The best way to help others is to teach them how to help themselves,” he said. “If you just help, you create dependence. You must teach them Dharma so they can help themselves and liberate themselves.”

The community itself, the Sangha, is part of the practice, not a backdrop to it. “It is training your mind to see the sacred nature of all beings,” he said. “When you truly see all beings as Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, your whole relationship with the world transforms.”

A Factory Making Wisdom

Khenpo Choga Rinpoche’s longest view is generational. He wants to build a Buddhist education in the West as rigorous as what once existed at Nalanda University in India, and he admits he cannot reach everyone himself.

"It is difficult to travel and teach everywhere in the world. That is reality," he said. "I really wish people learn this lineage and tradition properly so they can bring tremendous benefit for themselves and those around them."

The stakes, in his view, are the integrity of tradition. He speaks bluntly about teachers who skip the work.

"There are so many fake Dharma teachers and unqualified Dharma teachers," Rinpoche said. "They are giving information that is not correct. This makes Buddhism really bad."

His answer is a steady supply of qualified teachers. He describes the training as continuous.

"This is a factory making wisdom," he said. "It is nonstop."

He is clear about what he is not doing. He has no interest in converting anyone, he said, only in giving serious students a place to learn properly. The goal he names is large, and he ties it to a basic confidence in people.

"In the future, I want 25% of the population to practice Dharma and become Buddha," Rinpoche said. "Human beings are not that bad. If they have the right education, they can do amazing things."

He keeps studying for the same reason he keeps teaching.

"I am awake a little bit. I need to do something," he said. "And I will keep doing something until every being is free."

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