RYI STUDENT BLOG

Again, More Good News from Here!!! A New (more than a) Restaurant for RYI   It is so beautiful to see the splendid aspirations of the masters becoming reality before our eyes. Even more beautiful and profoundly moving is to see how they skillfully nurture and irrigate in us seeds of pure love and dedication to the benefit of the other. Recently, during the 38th Annual Seminar of Rangjung Yeshe Institute - which had more than six hundred and fifty participants, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche invited everyone to have lunch with him in the new space of RYI! Rinpoche said that he had the aspiration to have a space to connect many people from international Sangha, students, RYI’s staff, and people that come to stay close to the RYI’s activities. That this place could have the qualities of being relaxing and spacious, where people could have a warm integration, having tasty and healthy vegetarian food. Besides that, he had the aspiration that the new place would inspire every...

Token of Gratitude I write this article as I spend yet another day enriched with blessings and gratitude. But as Phakchok Rinpoche aptly pointed out during our Annual Fall Seminar retreat: do we know how to receive blessings? I would inquire even further: do we know how to nurture our blessings? Do we know how to share our blessings with others? As we recount our experience of those moments of blessings with others, don’t we feel proud, even for a fraction of a second? Should blessings be revealed in the first place? Can one fulfill the purpose without revealing? How to become a perfect recipient of such precious blessings with humility and wisdom? My understanding of blessing has a wide horizon of meaning—returning to South Asia, living in the cradle of Boudhanath Stupa, being able to pursue my true calling—and most importantly, all the hardship that comes along with it. If we have truly understood the meaning of our existence and realized our ultimate goal, then everyt...

Precious Opportunity: A Heartfelt Recommendation to Attend the Annual Fall Seminar In 2016 after two months travelling in Nepal I had the constant and intense feeling that I really wanted to find an authentic spiritual tradition. Instead of meandering through different paths, I felt it was time to dive deeply into one. While waiting for my Indian visa I decided to visit Boudhanath. I vaguely knew that there was some White Monastery where some teacher taught openly for Westerners. I searched for this place in the morning and suddenly found myself in the first day of the Fall Seminar! The experience I had changed my life in such a deep way that I felt I had arrived home, and so, in 2017 I came back to join the B.A in Buddhist Studies program. To be honest I don't recall exactly what the main theme of that seminar was; everything was so fresh and interesting, but I do remember the profound impact it had on me. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and Phakchok Rinpoche led...

To Live and Study in Nepal A couple of months ago I came back to Nepal to finish the fourth, and last year of my BA. The years I have spent in Nepal have been some of the greatest of my life, and the amazing thing is that every year as a student at RYI has been more wonderful than the previous one, because there are simply so many unexpected things to try, making it impossible to ever be bored, (very useful when you are a student, since it helps you stay relaxed!). For example, recently I tried for the very first time to cook risotto in Nepal, which turned out to be quite a project. First I had to find the cheese, which was not easy and involved a lot of searching. Then, in another place I found the rice, and finally a bottle of decent wine. This took two days. To then watch over the risotto and prevent it from burning (since Nepali stoves are extremely efficient) took at least another hour, but in the end it was worth the effort since the risotto ended up being edible after...

It’s Never Too Late! I am a mature aged student (I just turned 51) studying at Rangjung Yeshe Institute for the last seven years.   I have just completed my second four-year bachelor’s degree, this one is in Tibetan Buddhism and Himalayan languages, and I am about to start an MA prep year in order to focus just on the Tibetan language in preparation for starting the MA in Buddhist Studies next year. I had no idea that I would still be here after seven years when I first arrived, but I really enjoyed my studies, so I kept staying for another year and another year.   I also had no idea that I would ever do a master’s degree. So, I suppose a lot has changed for me in seven years. I chose to study part time because I was older, and I didn’t want to rush my studies. I wanted to learn things properly. But I also chose to study part-time because I was lucky to have a part-time job from home that I have been able to do online.  I would not say that I have had...

To have an aim Tashi Delek! I’m Pemba, a 3 rd year BA student, aspiring to be a Buddhist scholar. Studying in RYI comprises both traditional and academic ways of providing students the scholastic proficiency along with the traditional flavors. So there is a wonderful opportunity to anyone who wants to pursue this career and devote time to Buddhist education.  Making an aim for life is not a difficult thing to do, however exerting oneself to make it happen is a challenge. Since we are often distracted by various things around us, we tend to procrastinate and unknowingly push our aims away from our reach. In our societies, aims are still shaped in accordance with idealized professions rather than one’s own interest and talent. I changed my aims across times. Because we often create aims on seeing others’ success, just like, “trees are seen greener on other side”.  The more  mature  I became, the more I began to realize how essential happiness and peac...

Was the Buddha a God or a Human Being?             Growing up in Kathmandu, I usually came across two groups of people who viewed the Buddha differently. One group viewed the Buddha as a God, someone who was able to magically relieve people from their sorrows. The other group saw the Buddha as a mere human being. For the second group, the Buddha was a social reformer who proclaimed ways to achieve harmony and peace in society. This duality made little sense to me and, in fact, I had a hard time understanding if the Buddha they were talking about was the same being. This confusion only got worse as I came across other preconceived notions about Buddhism, some of them were that in order to follow Buddhism you had to become a monk or a nun, that meditation meant following your breath and nothing else, and some even hilarious ones like claiming Buddha to actually be a reincarnation of Vishnu and that Vishnu's main intention t...

ཁེངས་པ། (Full Of)                                    རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཆེན་པོ་ཆུ་ཡིས་ཁེངས། སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་འཁོར་གྱིས་ཁེངས། རི་བོ་མཐོན་པོ་གངས་ཀྱིས་ཁེངས། ལྟ་བ་མཐོན་པོ་དཀར་སྐྲས་ཁེངས། The ocean is full of water, and the compassionate one is full of followers. The tall mountain is full of snow, and the one with high view is full of white hair. རི་མགོའི་དར་ནི་གཡོ་བས་ཁེངས། འདོད་པ་ཆེན་པོ་བྱེད་རྒྱུས་ཁེངས། གདུག་རླུང་ཆེན་པོ་ཤུགས་ཀྱིས་ཁེངས། ང་རྒྱལ་ཆེན་པོ་ཁོང་ཁྲོས་ཁེངས། The flags on the mountain peak are full of movement, and the greedy one is full of activities. The whirling wind is full of force, and the arrogant one is full of hatred. རི་མཚོ་ཆེན་པོ་འཁྱག་གིས་ཁེངས། ལེ་ལོ་ཆེན་པོ་འདུ་རྒྱུས་ཁེངས། ལུག་གཡག་ཕོ་ཆེན་རྡུང་ཁས་ཁེངས། འདོད་ཆགས་ཆེན་པོ་ཅ་ཅོས་ཁེངས། The great lake on the mountain is full of ice,  and the laz...

My MA Study at RYI I first heard about Rangjung Yeshe Institute from my supervisor Prof. Georgios T. Halkias when I was studying in the Master of Buddhist Studies program at the University of Hong Kong. In March 2017, I was very fortunate to have the precious opportunity to go to Kathmandu to attend the teachings of Mingyur Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and had the chance to visit RYI on the last day during my stay in Kathmandu, which planted a seed in my heart that soon grew into greater interest in studying Tibetan Buddhism as well as a stronger willing to immerse myself in the practice of the teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. I was very lucky to be admitted into the MA in Buddhist Studies program at RYI, which perfectly suits my interest in the study of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. RYI provides me with excellent language courses in both Sanskrit and Tibetan, research seminars which constantly give me inspiring new perspectives from many differen...

Finding Balance - From Surviving to Living Maybe some students can relate to my experience that I would like to share. I have been reflecting on the importance of living life, right here and now, to find balance which allows me to do what I do to my best ability.   I love studying at RYI, I think it is one of the greatest opportunities to fully emerge myself in learning and practicing the Dharma - full time, 24hrs. But - yes, there is a 'but' - there are challenges. Because I value my studies, there are times when I just survive to study. I endure what is happening around me, putting off life for some later time, and I ignore my needs for self-care and balance. So diligent, right? It might be, but it is not sustainable in the long run. When the batteries run low my studies will suffer however much I try to do well. Just living in Kathmandu bears lots of energy draining challenges for me, whether it’s the air pollution, the constant noise surrounding me, the bikes ...

All the Joy... Studying at RYI “All the joy the world contains has come through wishing happiness for others. All the misery the world contains has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.” [1] This is not the typical topic of discussion in any other institution in any part of the world. But it lies at the core of Buddhist practice of Mahayana to develop compassion towards limitless sentient beings. Therefore, at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, which I had the luck of attending this year, the curriculum is focused on cultivating values such as wisdom and compassion rather than simply teaching some skills for competing with others. The cultivation of bodhicitta — mind of enlightenment — is not just a topic, it is the necessary motivation to start a class. The moment you are inside the white walls of the traditional Tibetan monastery with the sounds of various pujas going around — all surroundings are conducive for study, contemplation, and meditation. This process happen...

Becoming An “Empty” Vase             Given the present situation in the Tibetan Buddhist community concerning the many scanda ls and controversies, particularly those regarding the teacher-student relationship, I cannot hold myself from reflecting upon the flaws of what I see going on. The student-teacher relationship is not meant to be an easy endeavor. Nevertheless, I still fully trust the possibility of a healthy, well-grounded and well-directed student-teacher relationship; and I believe that in order for that to happen, much self-reflection is needed both from the teacher and the student alike. With this in mind, I wish to share a reflection about a commonly recited request that many Buddhist teachers make: Please become a perfect recipient for the teachings. Becoming a perfect recipient is expressed through the metaphor of becoming like an upward-facing, non-leaking, clean pot. Patrul Rinpoche clearly defines w...

How to relax and not spend ALL of your life studying! Are you spending too much time on your studies? Are you so busy in gathering knowledge that you are missing out living life itself? If it is so, maybe it’s time to take a break and relax. I think studying books might quench your curiosities, give you valuable knowledge and help you build a marvelous career or make you famous, but what is the point if it is stealing away this very moment of your life? Here are a few tips on how you can relax and not spend ALL of your life studying: 1 .     Reflect on life Books might make you intelligent and successful but only reflection can make you wise. We often want to go too far in life that we forget to check where we are actually heading. While studying can take you to a far distance, only reflection can make sure whether the direction is right or wrong. Therefore, take some time out of your mundane student life and see what is actually going on in your life. Th...