A Moment of Celebration
In every authentic Buddhist lineage, there are moments that quietly shape generations. They are not defined by spectacle, but by continuity—by the steady transmission of view, meditation, and conduct from realized teacher to sincere students. The Dzogchen Buddha Path Asia Teaching and Practice Center Auspicious Opening Retreat, that took place in Taiwan from December 12, 2025 through January 5, 2026, was such a moment.
Guided by His Eminence Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche, this retreat marked the formal opening of the Dzogchen Buddha Path Asia Teaching and Practice Center and continues a lineage-based training program that has been carefully cultivated for many years. Hosted within the living mandala of the Dzogchen Buddha Path community and supported by the Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation, this retreat is not merely an event—it is an expression of responsibility to the Dharma in our time.
Khenpo Choga Rinpoche and the Living Dzogchen Lineage
At the heart of this retreat is Khenpo Choga Rinpoche, a meditation master, Dzogchen lineage holder, professor of Dzogchen Shri Singha University, and a teacher formed through traditional Tibetan training and extended solitary retreat. His Eminence brings together scholarship, experiential realization, and compassionate activity in a way that reflects the classical model of Buddhist mastery.
For many years, Khenpo Choga Rinpoche has emphasized the importance of creating a buddhist system that is built on a strong foundation of buddhist fundamentals. This retreat embodied that understanding. Students were trained in the fundamental teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni, not just to gain an intellectual understanding of these teachings, but to realize and embodying these teachings in daily life for the benefit of all beings. The Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation supports this work precisely because it creates a dharma system that preserves these sacred teachings for generations to come.
The Dzogchen Lineage Internship: A Time-Tested Training
Since 2008, the Dzogchen Lineage Internship Program has functioned as a comprehensive, immersive training in Buddhist learning and practice. The 2025 retreat continued this tradition in a new Asia-based center, while remaining fully aligned with the methods transmitted through Dzogchen Shri Singha University, Nalanda University traditions.
Under the direct guidance of Khenpo Choga Rinpoche, participants engage in a rigorous curriculum covering:
- View: correct understanding as taught by Buddha Shakyamuni.
- Meditation: the repetition of the knowing and feeling of positive thinking
- Conduct: the virtuous actions of body, speech and mind
A Fully Immersive Retreat Environment
The retreat took place in a secluded rural setting at the Dzogchen Retreat Center Asia. Participants remained in retreat for the entire duration of the program, engaging in a twenty-four-hour cycle of practice and training. Days began and ended with group practice, anchoring the schedule in collective meditation and aspiration.
Between these sessions, retreatants received six to twelve hours daily of instruction, dialogue, and guided training with Khenpo Choga Rinpoche, senior Dharma teachers, and tutors. Topics included the major Buddhist sciences.
The retreat also emphasized integration. Ordinary activities—walking, eating, resting, working—are transformed into practice through mindfulness, mantra, visualization, and ethical awareness.
Training Future Dharma Teachers
This retreat was not designed for casual participation. It was intended for students who sincerely wished to benefit others and were prepared for disciplined training. As Khenpo Choga Rinpoche often teaches, “Human life is precious, and life is impermanent. When one understands this deeply, Dharma practice becomes a responsibility, not a hobby.”
Participants who complete the retreat receive academic credit within the Dzogchen Buddha Path system and emerge with a foundation that supports teaching, tutoring, translation, leadership, and compassionate service. Many past participants described this training as a defining turning point—one that reshaped their understanding of purpose, responsibility, and compassion.
The Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation views this training as essential for the long-term health of the lineage: producing teachers grounded not in charisma, but in discipline, humility, and authentic realization.
Accessibility, Ethics, and Sangha Support
While the retreat fee covered food, lodging, and basic operating costs, instruction itself was offered freely, in keeping with Buddhist tradition. The program operated through volunteer effort and the generosity of the Sangha. Donations supported not only the retreat, but the continued availability of authentic Buddhist education for future generations.
Translation was provided as needed, reflecting the international nature of the sangha and Khenpo Choga Rinpoche’s commitment to making the Dharma accessible without diluting its depth.
A Threshold, Not an Endpoint
The 2025 Dzogchen Buddha Path Asia Teaching and Practice Center Auspicious Opening Retreat was not an isolated achievement. It was a threshold—opening a space where learning, realization, and compassionate activity can continue to unfold in Asia and beyond.
Under the steady guidance of Khenpo Choga Rinpoche, and with the support of the Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation, this retreat affirmed a simple but profound truth: authentic Dharma endures when it is lived, studied, and transmitted with care.
For those who entered this retreat, the invitation was clear—not to escape the world, but to understand it deeply, and to serve it wisely.