RYI STUDENT BLOG

I hardly leave Baudha, our cozy village-like neighborhood on the outskirt of Kathmandu city. But with   a classmate it is fun to go downtown through the bumpy dusty roads. The seat of the Nepal  manuscript archives also hosts the archeology department, that mythical place that stamps all statues and artefacts leaving Nepal.  And mistakenly that is where we go first. This tiny grey office  filled with administrative rubbish adorns any export artefact with a bright red wax stamp fixed on a  little cotton string. It comes with a short handwritten note – you may call it custom poetry.  Soon we  find our first link to the actual archives: a red lipstick lady sitting in front of a computer in a deserted  office. Kindly she indicates “five number room” a bit further on the same side of the building. Never  sure whether we get it right and what we are actually looking for, we follow cryptic indications that  lead us in and out of the buil...

I found each and every activity that is done at here in Rangjung Yeshe Institute to be extremely awesome. From my personal way of understanding, sincerely, it is a place where the profundity and the vastness of sublime dharma is introduced reflectively and genuinely. Here, there is the excellent opportunity to taste the nectar of the teachings of the Buddha in the modes of listening, reflecting and meditating which are the genuine way to follow the Buddha dharma for the achievement of ultimate goal.             Being a monk and having trained in a traditional way, there is no other place where I can pursue my bachelor's degree which is accepted world wide and comparable with other universities. And I am a monk, there are some problem of paying tuition fees, and so forth. However, I solved many of my hardships and troubles due to having received funding from the South Asian Himalayan Scholarship Program. I am extremely s...

During the reading week, at the end of October, we went to Tibet. Our group of four people visited a few monasteries: Tashilhungpo in Shigatse, Kumbum in Gyantse, Drepung and Sera in Lhasa, as well as Jokhang Temple, where one of the oldest Buddha statues is preserved, and Potala, the former residence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. During the journey, the sense of appreciation and respect towards Tibetan people was growing in me. Even today the Tibetans are maintaining their Dharma practice. In Lhasa, every morning and every evening they are doing circumambulations around the Jokhang Temple (Barkor) and around the old part of the city (Lingkor, which takes about 2 or 3 hours). But it is not just the fact that they are doing this that is so remarkable, it is the way they are doing it! How sincere they are, how they appreciate their Dharma legacy and how happy they are in their practice. I really think that we are so lucky here at RYI: we have the access to studying and pract...