RYI STUDENT BLOG

Lopön Urgyen Tenpel studied for 10 years in the Sangye Yeshe Shedra at Ka Nying Shedrup Ling and is now one of the philosophy teachers at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute. This year he is teaching the Uttaratantra Shastra (Eng. Sublime Continuum) according to the commentary of Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye. The following is a short interview with him: Lopön Urgyen Tenpel  Tell me something about yourself? According to the Tibetan Calender I'm 30 years old, yet according to the western calender I'm not quite sure. I was born in Mugum, in north-west Nepal, which was part of Tibet before. Yet nowadays it's counted as part of Nepal. I have two brothers, one older and one younger as well as two younger sisters. My younger brother became a monk two years ago, also here at Ka Nying Shedrup Ling. When I was 13 years old my parents encouraged me to become a monk and I happily agreed. They then brought me here, where I was ordained at the end of 1995. My parents are students of...

In our “shedra”, these days are the busiest. We are about to finish the semester (only 2 more weeks to go!) and just today we finished the Annual Fall Seminar, where we received teachings from Ven. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and K. Phakchok Rinpoche.  Annual Fall Seminar During the seminar we spend all day –from 7:50 in the morning to around 5 pm– in the gompa. After that, we still had to engage in the usual homework and study workload. Even though it has been really challenging, it was such a wonderful opportunity!  Most of the people who joined the seminar these days had to travel from different parts of the world in order to receive these precious teachings from such realized masters. I just had to cross the street from home or walk downstairs from my classroom! This is my third semester studying Tibetan Language, both Colloquial and Classical, and I feel there’s still a long way to go to accomplish my goal, which is to be able to translate Dharma texts and oral ...

We are delighted to share the news that Anders successfully defended his thesis and has now graduated from the Master of Arts program in Buddhist Studies. The dissertation is entitled,  ' The Soteriological Epistemology of The Seventh Karmapa.'   His thesis supervisor was Dr. Karin Meyers and the external reader was Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes from the University of Vienna, Austria. Anders holds a Bachelors degree from Naropa University and joined the Centre for Buddhist Studies in 2006. At CBS Anders graduated with a BA in Buddhist Studies in 2010 and afterwards joined the MA program. Anders also secured a Tsadra foundation scholarship for his MA studies and recently took ordination. We wish you all the best for your future and are delighted that the world gained another "scholar-practitioner'.