Last Updated on February 19, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was born in 1910 in the Denhok Valley at Kham Derge, Eastern Tibet, to a family directly descended from the ninth-century King Trisong Detsen. His father was a minister to the King of Derge:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilgo_Khyentse
According to this source, Dilgo spent 13 years of his life in solitary retreat meditating:
Matthieu Ricard, one his students who spent at least 7 years with Dilgo, says he was in solitary retreat for around 20 years of his life.
Was Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche member of a wealthy family who made this possible?
There seem to be other spiritual teachers who are member of wealthy families who help them spending many years of their lifes meditating. We have mentioned some of those in our journal.
It is a pitty that these long-term mediators do not support and take part in long-term scientific studies about the effect of practicing meditation on the body and the mind. This could help to find out about the causes of mental suffering and how to find an end of mental suffering based on scientific findings.