5
First Studies
and Spiritual Retreats

FROM THEN ON, for more than three years, Chökyi Wangchug, under the guidance of a severe master, learned to read and write and studied all disciplines and useful and necessary branches of knowledge.¹ At an early age, he encountered Jamgön Loter Wangpo, Khenchen Samten Lodrö, the lord of dharma Chökyi Nyima,² and without distinction of school, many other great masters from whom he received numerous deep teachings. From Situ Chökyi Gyamtso he received principally the Longsal Dorje Nyingpo³ and other profound initiations and explanations, also receiving the novice vows⁴ from him.

Kathog Situ Rinpoche collaborated extensively with the monastic residence, which, because of the premature death of Chökyi Wangpo, was in decline. Situ Rinpoche, in fact, was the nephew and disciple of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, and having the responsibility of the master’s residence, he sent the latter’s activities reincarnation, the great Jamyang Chökyi Lodrö, to assume the care of the Tashi Lhatse residence in 1909.

From that moment, Chökyi Lodrö dedicated himself with unremitting zeal to the responsibility of sustaining the monastic residence, and he assisted the young reincarnate with an unequaled generosity of spirit. Constantly traveling north and south, teaching throughout the farmlands in the Derge region, he thus bolstered the precarious economic situation of the monastic residence, returning the property to its ancient wealth and splendor. Many times he arranged for Chökyi Wangchug to receive profound teachings, explanations, and empowerments from various great masters, regardless of the school. He himself transmitted unsparingly to the young tulku the teachings, explanations, and initiations of the New Treasures⁵ of the three manifestations of Mañjuśrī.⁶

During the year of the Water Dog (1922), at the age of thirteen, Chökyi Wangchug traveled to Adzom Gar, where he stayed for more than a year and seven months with Adzom Drugpa Pawo Dorje, who, with great generosity, imparted to him, as one fills a pitcher to the brim, the complete oral transmissions (lung), explanations, and initiations of the new termas of the preceding Khyentse Wangpo and of the Longchen Nyingthig.⁷

Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. (List of Illustrations 5.1)

Reaching age fifteen in 1924, Chökyi Wangchug received the consent of Chökyi Lodrö to shut himself in a three-year retreat in the Crystal Cave, the place of practice of the first Khyentse. Inspired to follow the example of the omniscient Jigme Lingpa,⁸ he subjected himself to innumerable austerities and practiced the developing and accomplishing stages of tantric meditation. During the retreat, he encountered five times in pure vision Guru Padmasaṃbhava,⁹ from whom he received essential and extraordinary teachings, principal among them the pure vision¹⁰ of a teaching called Guru Thugthig,¹¹ Essence of the Mind of the Guru.

Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, Palpung Situ, Khenpo Zhenga, and Jamgyal Rinpoche. (List of Illustrations 5.2)

After three years in retreat, he returned to his residence, and in an encounter with the elder reincarnation, Chökyi Lodrö, said to him, “Now grant me permission to go back into retreat for a few more years.” This time the older tulku responded, “Now you are grown, and the moment has come for you to take charge of the monastic residence. I am going to return to my own place.”

But Chökyi Wangchug beseeched him with such insistence to remain and to give him his consent for a further period in retreat that in the end, the elder lama relented.