From Translator's Preface

A few years after Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s passing, around 1993, when his collected writings were being prepared for printing, Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche asked me to translate Khyentse Rinpoche’s autobiography. Khyentse Rinpoche wrote this autobiography when he was in his seventies and left off writing at the period just before he left Kham for Central Tibet in the mid-1950s. Since the life story was not complete, during the years following Rabjam Rinpoche’s request, I started collecting and translating interviews from those close to Khyentse Rinpoche, such as his wife, relatives, attendants, and close students, in order to complete his story. I also translated a number of audiotapes of oral stories that Khyentse Rinpoche had told to Dzongsar Khyentse and other close students. It was not until 2004, after publishing my translation of The Life of Vairotsana, that I finally started translating the actual written text.

A large part of the written text consists of descriptions of various teachings that Khyentse Rinpoche studied, received, and taught, as well as the many teachers he studied with. For the reader who is not familiar with these teachers and texts, it can be quite an ordeal to digest all this. Rabjam Rinpoche therefore allowed me to mingle the written text with Khyentse Rinpoche’s oral stories in order to make it more accessible for the general reader. Though nothing was left out from Khyentse Rinpoche’s written account, we combined it with his oral account to make it richer and more intimate.

In the autobiography, Khyentse Rinpoche often calls his various teachers Jamgön, which means “kind protector.” He also calls the same teachers by different names, for instance Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodro is sometimes called Dharmamati, sometimes Lama Rinpoche, sometimes Pema Yeshe Dorje, and so forth, while Khenpo Shenga and other khenpos are often called Khen Rinpoche. To avoid confusion for the reader, I have tried to use one consistent name for each teacher, and when a teacher is sometimes referred to with five different names following one another, I have abbreviated them to two or three, putting the remaining names in the endnotes. And, though some readers may be offended by this seeming lack of respect, I have mostly omitted the title of “Rinpoche,” which means “precious,” in order to avoid making the names of teachers even longer than they already are.

We also decided to divide the book into two parts. Part 1 contains Khyentse Rinpoche’s own words, written and oral, and part 2, the recollections of his wife, grandson, and so on. There were many recollections of various close students and attendants, and it was impossible to include them all in this book, so I tried to choose the ones that were the most informative and relevant to the events in Khyentse Rinpoche’s life. Several times I requested his closest student and spiritual friend, Trulshik Rinpoche, to relate some stories about his experiences with Khyentse Rinpoche, but he told me to translate the biography at the beginning of the index that he wrote for Khyentse Rinpoche’s Collected Works. A large part of Trulshik Rinpoche’s biography, which covers nearly half of the hundred-page index, consists of praises to Khyentse Rinpoche’s different lives written in beautiful poetry that is very difficult to put into poetic English, and the rest of it relates events similar to Khyentse Rinpoche’s own account. As it was impossible to combine the two biographies, I just chose a few anecdotes from that one, along with a story about Khyentse Rinpoche’s plans to build a monastery in Nepal. I combined that chapter with Khyentse Rinpoche’s written account about the building of Shechen Monastery in Nepal, which was translated by the late Ani Ngawang Chödrön during the eighties. Some of the stories told by Orgyen Topgyal Rinpoche were recorded at Chanteloube in France and translated by Erik Pema Kunzang. In my translation I have tried to adhere faithfully to Khyentse Rinpoche’s exact words, and if the reader finds certain descriptions eccentric or notices an occasional interruption in logic, it is because I have kept as closely to his words as I could and have not taken any liberties such as moving information around, even if it might have seemed more logical.

The foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the forewords by Dzongsar Khyentse, Sogyal Rinpoche, and Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche already relate Khyentse Rinpoche’s qualities in great detail, so it is needless to add anything more here. After completing the translation of the written autobiography and mingling it with Rinpoche’s oral account, I spent nearly six weeks this summer in Bhutan checking every detail with Rabjam Rinpoche, who then made some important changes and additions. Khyentse Rinpoche’s long-term attendant and translator Matthieu Ricard also reviewed the entire manuscript and made some useful additions in the oral stories. During the annual drupchen this year in Bumthang, Her Majesty Queen Mother Kesang Chödrön checked the account of Khyentse Rinpoche’s activities in Bhutan written by herself, her secretary Loppön Nyabchi, and Loppön Pemala, and also made some valuable changes.

As for my personal experience with Khyentse Rinpoche, I had the opportunity to meet him in 1973, while he was performing the funeral rites for the late Neten Chokling Rinpoche in Bir, in northern India. From then, until his death in 1991, I had the good fortune to spend long periods of time with him. From the mid-seventies until 1981, I also served as his translator during various periods. In that way I became quite familiar with his accent, which is maybe why Rabjam Rinpoche, who I met when he was six years old, asked me to translate the autobiography. While working on the written account and the stories, going through all the details of his life, I got a much better understanding about who Khyentse Rinpoche really was and the extent of his activities, so it has been extremely beneficial for me. While Khyentse Rinpoche was alive, though I cannot claim that my feelings for him were genuine devotion, it was almost impossible to leave his presence, like a needle attracted to a magnet. Through Rabjam Rinpoche’s kindness to let me work on this project, my devotion to Khyentse Rinpoche naturally increased; it was like a continuous shower of his blessings.

May well-informed readers exercise restraint in the knowledge that the translator takes full responsibility for errors that inevitably exist. I pray that whoever encounters this biography may develop faith in such a great being and feel inspired to follow such a way of life. I pray to the Buddhas, lineage masters, and Dharma protectors to forgive my inability to translate with accuracy, as well as any mistakes of omission or commission and any improper disclosure of secret teachings committed in preparing this book. By the virtue of this work, may the Buddhist doctrine spread in the ten directions, may the lives of the lineage holders be stable and long, and may all sentient beings, including all that come into contact with this text, attain happiness and enlightenment.

Page 78.Dilgo Khentse at Karpuk in his twenties. Shechen Archives. Photographer unknown.  

 Page 151. Dilgo Khyentse with Khandro Lhamo and their two daughter. Photographer unknown.

Page 176. Dilgo Khyentse with Rabjam Rinpoche, Khandro Lhamo, and daughter Chimey. Photographer by Lodro Thaye.

Page 177. Dilgo Khyentse with Rabjam Rinpoche in Tashi Jong, 1973. Photographer unknown.

Page 179. Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche. Photograph by Matthieu Ricard.