Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche was born in Bhutan in 1961, into a family of yogis, poets and meditation masters. Sakya Trizin recognised him as the incarnation of Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, himself an emanation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, one of the founders of the 19th-century Rimé (non-sectarian) movement.

Training

In 1968 he was sent to the Palace Monastery in Sikkim for training in philosophy and ritual. His teachers there and afterwards included Dudjom Rinpoche and Lama Sonam Zangpo (his paternal and maternal grandfathers), the 16th Karmapa and Sakya Trizin. His main teacher was Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He went on to study Buddhist philosophy at Sakya College in Dehradun, India, and received further empowerments there. His first trip abroad, in the early 1980s, was to teach in Australia. In winter 2006–07 he spent three months transmitting the entire Kangyur at the Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö Institute in Chauntra, India.

Monasteries and organisations

He is responsible for the care and education of about 3,000 monks at Dzongsar Monastery and Dzongsar College in Derge, the Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö Institute in Chauntra, and the Chökyi Gyatso Institute for Buddhist Studies in Dewathang, Bhutan. He founded the Khyentse Foundation, through which he carries out his work of preserving and promoting the Buddha’s teaching. Siddhartha’s Intent arranges, records and archives his teachings. He is also behind 84000, which translates the Buddha’s words into modern languages, Lotus Outreach, which works with at-risk women and children in Cambodia and India, Middle Way Education, and the Lhomon Society, founded in 2010 for sustainable development in Bhutan.

Teaching, films and books

He teaches in about 40 countries. Siddhartha’s Intent describes his approach as focused on the Buddhist view rather than its cultural setting. He holds that the Dharma needs no modernising, and he openly points out flaws in how spiritual paths and teachers work today.

His films, written and directed by him, are The Cup (1999), Travellers and Magicians (2004), Vara: A Blessing (2012), Hema Hema (2016) and Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache (2019). His books include What Makes You Not a Buddhist, Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices (2012), on the Ngöndro practices, The Guru Drinks Bourbon? (2016), Living Is Dying (2020) and Poison is Medicine (2021).