Meet our Kind Teacher, His Eminence
Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche

A thirty-third generation Lineage Holder of the Dzogchen Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche was born, raised and educated in the holy Dzogchen area of eastern Tibet. He began his formal study of Buddhism within the Dzogchen Monastery at the age of five. He received specific oral transmission of the Dzogchen Lineage from Khenchen Pentse Rinpoche, Chatral Chochyab Rinpoche and Guru Dechen Namdrol. He also received transmissions and teachings of the Buddhist sutras, tantras and shastras from forty-two precious Dharma masters.

Rinpoche is a high lama of Dzogchen Monastery. He resided at Dzogchen Shri Singha Five Sciences University for ten years, first studying and later teaching fine art, medicine, linguistics, philosophy and Buddhadharma, attaining the degree of “Khenpo,” or professor, at the extremely young age of twenty-two.

For seven years Rinpoche practiced secluded meditation in sacred caves of the holy Dzogchen area where he endured harsh conditions of hunger and cold. During this period he recited many millions of mantras and directly received the blessings of Buddha Shakyamuni, Padmasambhava, Bodhisattvas, and Dakinis.

He is recognized as the reincarnation of Tibetan scholar Gedun Chopel, an emanation of Manjushri, Bodhisattva of Buddha’s Wisdom. Rinpoche is also a yoga master, scientist, musician, artist, astrologer, healer, psychologist, and doctor of Tibetan medicine. He has over thirty-six years of intensive Dharma training and experience.

Some of Rinpoche’s accomplishments:
• Teaching Dharma to approximately 700 monks in Tibet for over four years.
• Administering Buddhist vows to over one thousand monks in Tibet.
• Helping support hundreds of students at Buddhist universities in Tibet and India.
• Supervising the 344-room rebuilding of Dzogchen Shri Singha University in Tibet.
• Establishing a Dzogchen Buddhist library in south India.
• Lecturing to over ten thousand monks in various holy places in India and Nepal.
• Establishing the Dzogchen Shri Singha Retreat Institute in Godawari, Nepal.
• Establishing the Dzogchen Retreat Center in Dhera Dun, India.
• Helping sponsor more than a thousand monks, nuns, and practitioners in Tibet and   Nepal.
• Producing and publishing 23 CDs of sacred Buddhist music and chanting.
• Organizing the release of tens of thousands of captured large and small animals   into the wild.
• Donating thousands of Dharma books to needy students around the world.
• Establishing numerous Dzogchen Shri Singha Dharma Centers throughout the   world.

In addition to The Buddha Path, his first published practice text in English, he is the author of more than thirty books in Tibetan. His renowned commentary on Shantideva’s classic text, The Bodhisattvacaryavatara. To date this commentary has been partially translated and is being serially published in English, with chapters 1-5 alone now comprising approximately 1,500 pages of translated text.

He began teaching outside of Tibet in 1992. Since then he has conducted hundreds of Dharma events each year in more than 40 countries, always free of charge. He has never sought nor accumulated personal wealth. Through these teachings, many students have experienced the personal revelation and enormous benefit of the Dharma in their lives. Rinpoche has counseled hundreds of people in their marriages and family relationships, and healed many sick people through instructions and blessings. He has helped many distraught individuals avoid suicide, drug and alcohol problems, and criminal acts.

Rinpoche practices Dzogchen meditation in every aspect of his life, always teaching and helping others, continuously radiating blessings and the healing power of wisdom and love to all beings and all elements.

May Rinpoche have a long life in this world and may all his aspirations be spontaneously fulfilled!