Interview with Samdhong Rinpoche 2011

Lobsang Tenzin, Prime Minister of the Central Tibetan Administration

Kevin Koda

Samdhong Rinpoche

Today we interviewed the Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile Professor Samdhong Rinpoche, a truly intellectual individual. Being a well studied Buddhist monk he is also an authority on the teaching of Buddha and on training the mind through meditation and other traditionally Buddhist methods. Throughout the interview he mentioned the idea that the human mind has inner intelligence but is limited by conditioning, such as by the way we are taught to learn by regurgitation of what we are made to perceive as fact.

Interview with Samdhong Rinpoche

At the end of the interview I asked him if he had any advice for us, his reply was simply “No”, something that elicited surprise in both myself and the rest of the class. He explained to us that the only way to gain knowledge is to gather information, examine it, and determine the truth of the object or idea in question. After a period of thought about this, I have decided that he did in fact give us a piece of advice by encouraging us to learn by our own means and a guideline for how to do so. I appreciate the depth of his answers to our questions. In my a opinion, he is a man of incredible intelligence and spiritual faith and someone to strive to be like.

Kevin Koda