RYI STUDENT BLOG

For my family back in the west, in their minds “living in Nepal and studying Buddhism” is defined as “studying this crazy ancient philosophy, under the guidance of elderly monks (who would never in their life eat meat) and practice kungfu – in Tibet”. A girl at work gently reminded me how Buddhists- especially the monks- do not eat meat . As great as it sounds, in reality as all of us who study at RYI know, this is really just not the case. Somehow for them ‘Ne paul ’ is a country very much off their mental radar. I am frequently asked by distant family members who have heard rumours of ‘someone in their family’ who lives in Nepal. “What’s it like living in Tibet?” they say. And once I finally convince them I actually live in Nepal, they ask where it is. It’s like when we hear names of countries such as Mali or Angola, we know they are in Africa, however many of us do not know exactly where. Once I explain it’s a tiny country, smaller than the UK, tucked nicely between India an...

  Once, in the middle of a conversation, someone asked me: “Why are you here at RYI?” For a few seconds, many things came to my mind, but my answer was pretty straightforward: “I am here because I want to study the Dharma”.  Later on, I thought that this was an interesting question; a question I have asked myself several times throughout the academic year in different ways. Usually, at the beginning of the semester, when everything is smooth and relaxed, the question arises as a joyful expression: “Why have not I come here earlier?” However, with the stress for the assignments and the exams, the question turns into a more comic expression. Sometimes with a certain rebellious mood: “What the heck am I doing here?” Or some other times even with a deep existential inquiry: “What is the real meaning of all these studies?” Luckily, all these questions vanish when the exams are over and I am enjoying my holidays…   Nonetheless, I want to answer again this questi...

             After three years of intense study at Rangjung Yeshe’ s BA program , I leaped into the Translation Training Program (TTP) – a twelve -month intensive course that trains for the capacity to orally interpret basic Buddhist teachings from Tibetan to English. The TTP adventure begins with the Summer Program – a highly concentrated curriculum that condenses a one-year syllabus into eight weeks. As such, I somehow did not choose to do the summer program; I just had to do it as the beginning of the TTP. Among the many courses available (Classical Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali, and others) I enrolled in Advanced Colloquial Tibetan. Now, retrospectively, I feel very grateful for having had an incentive to step into the summer program experience; it was undoubtedly a great source of learning and it significantly improved my capacity to both understand and speak Tibetan. The intensity of the program is definitely challenging but if you can flow with...

It has been about eight years since I started studying at the RYI. If I were commencing my studies in Nepal now I believe this is a simple piece of advice I would benefit from listening: Be healthy. It is very important to keep ourselves healthy while studying the Dharma, in both body and mind. If we are willing to take studies seriously, it can be very to neglect this fact. As many times I did it, I thought that if I had warned a friend not to fall on the same hole I would have written something meaningful here. The ways are particular. Go for walks. See the temples, the mountains. Don’t waste much of your limited days in Nepal there too. But make sure you are healthy. This is important. You have probably heard that we need the two wings of method and wisdom to fly, haven't you? But before flying we must stand. And to stand we need these two forms of health: of body and mind. These are our two legs that give us the first jump in the air. Without those, we'd be...