RYI STUDENT BLOG

Time is running, after few days we will do the middle term exams. We all are ready to do it and this means that we have studied a lot and achieved sufficient understanding in the Khenpo's Buddhist philosophy class and during the lessons of Colloquial Tibetan. Now we are able to speak Tibetan quite well with local Tibetans in their own language and in class we can speak and ask quesions in Tibetan about the texts that we have studied. It is satisfactory to see how we are growing in knowledge. At the beginning of the academic year we were completely uncertain about what we were about to learn, but now I can see that the past semester and half were not wasted time since now I am not as I was in the beginning-- I'm better. In seven months I became able to communicate with people of the Tibetan reality, we are doing a long travel inside something different, it is not our ordinary world in which we lived before, I am experiencing something that is not accessible to the most wes...

It is amazing if you think what big changes time can bring. Three years ago when I announced to my parents that I want to come and study and live in Nepal, they were absolutely negative. Or the word that would describe them better is, TERRIFIED. So now, three years later, not only have they come for holidays in Nepal but they actually admitted that it was the best trip of their lives, and that even in the next 20 years they would have never experienced back in our country what they experienced here in Nepal! With the opportunity of the one week break in the middle of the semester, they came to meet me in Nepal, see how my life is here and enjoy unique sightseeing and activities that only Nepal can offer. We spent most of the time out of Kathmandu city in Chitwan jungle park and Pokhara. Living in Kathmandu I have the opportunity to study the Dharma and be close to Lamas and Teachers, but to be honest, Kathmandu city is so polluted that some times living in this city c...

I would like to share in short, few words on Bodhichitta and its benefits which I have understood from Shantideva’s “ The Way of the Bodhisattva ”. The Sanskrit term c hitta means “mind”, “thought”, “attitude”. Bodhi means “enlightenment,” “awakening,” and is cognate with the term Buddha himself. Therefore, it means “mind of enlightenment,” “awakening mind”, the specific characteristic of buddhahood. The Tibetan term is “byang chub kyi sems”. Shantideva in his “ The Way of the Bodhisattva ” considered bodhichitta as one of the root aspirations for buddhahood. It has two aspects – absolute and relative. On the relative level, it is great motivation to attain buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings and practice the path of love, compassion, the six transcendent perfections, etc., for achieving that goal. On the absolute level, it is the direct cognizance of reality, the truth of emptiness. Benefits of Bodhichitta : Bodhichitta brings temporary and ultimate benefits. Te...

In 2002 I was living in Chagdud Gonpa Khadro Ling, in Brazil with my Root Lama Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. During that year I heard of the Shedra by a former student and made aspirations to come and study Tibetan Language and Buddhist Philosophy there. Since I was scheduled to go into long retreat I thought I would have to postpone this plan. With the Paranirvana of my teacher, his son Tulku Jigme Rinpoche, sat with me and said that it would be good for me if I came to Nepal to study, “specially if you go to Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s Shedra.” Following Tulku Jigme’s advice I came to Nepal in 2003 to study under Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. From then until today almost five years have passed, and during that time I had amazing opportunities. Nepal in general and Rangjung Yeshe Institute in particular offer an environment rich in opportunities to each and every individual that wishes to learn Buddhism, Tibetan and Sanskrit. Here I have met amazing Lamas, learned Tibetan in the classroom, sittin...

Namaste, the third day of the Tibetan New Year is the date of the annual "Prayer for World Peace" in Lumbini, Southern Nepal. The Shedra Losar (New Year)- holidays enabled me to go there by bus and participate in the beginning of the ceremony. Lumbini is the birth place of Buddha Shakyamuni and the sites that are related to the old Shakyan Kingdom can still be visited. Any time I visited Lumbini I enjoyed the calm and peaceful atmosphere that I experienced as soon as I arrived there. This place is also referred to as the "Fountain of World Peace". The ceremony was opened by a very moving speech of the Lama that hosts this event and addressed the need for our aspirations towards a world of more harmony and less selfishness. Then the actual prayers started and even though the locality of "The Great Lotus Stupa" is affiliated to the Kagyud tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, all the invited monks from the surrounding Chinese, Japanese, Shri Lankan and other ...