RYI STUDENT BLOG

After finishing 5 kora at Boudha stupa, I went to one tea stall. The taste of the tea was so good and it was made by an old lady, around my grandma’s age. I asked her about the background story of Boudha during her childhood.  She started telling me the story of Boudhanath. Once upon time, Boudha was a very beautiful village adorned in all directions by thousands of trees and flowers, blooming through all four seasons. Different kinds of insects made noises that sounded like bells. Different birds tweeted like a melody-queen. The main source of local peoples’ income was from agriculture. Almost 90 percent of people were farmers and all the locals were Tamang. Usually, Tamang people worked very hard in the day time but at the night they all needed to have rakshi (local whisky). Boudha’s local people were living autonomously, a simple life. After finishing the conversation with the old lady, I got to know some back ground story of Boudha. It made me reflect on the hi...

A F ulfilling Experience It is said that the Stupa at Boudhanath, Kathmandu, has the power of fulfilling all the wishes and aspirations one makes in front of it. However, for me the mere fact of living here, next to the stupa, somehow represents already an accomplishment of my wishes of having a meaningful life. Here, the environment is pervaded by the spiritual life of the people, with their gestures and expressions. For instance, every single day there are hundreds of people circumambulating the stupa. People from all over the world join together in venerating this holy place. Some of them come from foreign countries excited about seeing this monument for the first time; some others arrive walking from the Himalayas, after a long pilgrimage, just to see the Stupa once in their lives; others spend the whole day doing prostrations in front or around the Stupa; and even others just want to live nearby to be blessed every day. Not only that, but also the whole area has pl...

A team of RYI students has just finished a translation of the history of the precious Boudha Stūpa and it was published on the Lotsawa House website. It is with great joy that we announce that the full English translation of the History of the Jarung Kashor Stūpa , otherwise known as the Boudhanath Stupa, is now available. Auspiciously, the release of this translation coincides with the Tibetan Year of the Bird – the same year in which, generations ago, the precious Jarung Kashor was first completed and consecrated. The story of this stupa has been told in myriad ways, but one of the best loved and most authoritative is the version first discovered by Khandro Lhatsün Ngönmo and later rediscovered by Yolmowa Shakya Zangpo (15 th century), on his pilgrimage to Samye monastery in Tibet. Having deciphered the text, Shakya Zangpo travelled to the Kathmandu valley in search of this unique and precious stupa. Discovering upon arrival that it had been reduced to rubble, he imm...

I had been studying and living in Bodhanath (Kathmandu) for the last 5 years, benefiting from a unique environment to study and practice Buddhism.  A  couple of months ago, as my classes were finished and my family was waiting for  me in Europe, I had to leave half of my heart in this incredible place and move  back to old familiar Europe.  As I was preparing for this transition, I was so  touched by the warmth of the Rangjung Yeshe Institute community – my  professors, fellow students and close friends. It is extraordinary to have shared  these years with so many brilliant and warm-hearted scholars and practitioners  of all origins and ages. In this little neighborhood, it is impossible to walk home  without meeting a few friends on the way. In this holy place of Bodhanath, we  are constantly suffused with the blessings of the gigantic stupa and the  numerous authentic monastic institutions that have developed...

Kora around the great stupa tends to end our evenings. Less people and noise inspires a sense of  sincerity difficult to cultivate during the day.  As a student of Rangjung Yeshe Institute, our days are quite  busy, and the focus is on study and reflection. The early bedtimes of residential Boudhanath makes it  easy to set aside one method of progressing along the path for another. I have found such appreciation  and practicality in this great stupa of ours. Lucky to have the opportunity to study at an institute that has  an appreciation for the unity of study and practice, I make aspirations to understand and engage in the  day’s lesson.  Coming from Bhutan, the blessings and places of power that are spread throughout my country are said  to be limitless. Yet, here, I am fortunate in that I am studying and contemplating the teachings, and am  motivated by more than just the transformative power of this historic place.  M...

The Lonely Mango or ‘How to share a terrace with three dogs, cockroaches, ants and other little critters and experience Boudha with eyes and ear, nose and mind.’ August 2014. Close to Boudha, on a roof, a 5th floor, between monasteries, views, a panoramic view, the Kathmandu valley view. Green hills, grey sky, green-grey, lead-grey, silver-grey, black-grey, dark  blue-grey. Light blue holes within the clouds allow a moment to realize infinity. It is the rainy season. The scent of sandalwood, cinnamon, patchouli, cloves and undefined herbs, drifting smoke, deep-fried  pastries, vegetable fried rice mixed with the odour of urine and burning trash are passing my sense of  smell. Peals of bells, garlings, couch shell trumpets and drumming noises swirl through the air, adding to the chanting of  monks and nuns. Birds are screaming, babies crying, dogs barking. One neighbour’s water pipe is  running and running and running....The bladder is calling. ...

  Are you new to the Shedra? Not having much money to spend? Have to study a lot? Here comes a brief guide and recommendation to some nice places in Bouddha suitable for the average Shedra student, old time favorites and newly rising stars. Double Dorje 5. Double Dorje:             A cozy small restaurant, run by a sweet old Tibetan woman. It is known to tourists and is a place visited frequently by westerners since it has been recommended by various travel guides as a nice, cozy, local restaurant. Particularly in the evening in the winter, it becomes a great place to study, since unlike the other restaurants it is completely closed and inside. Thus the place stays warm and as long as there are no power cuts the ballon lamps create a warm and home-like atmosphere.             Also if you wish to spend the afternoon there, it is known for its special ho...

Nepal is certainly not a rich country regarding the material properties of the people who live here. Sometimes it is simply heartbreaking to see how many hardships people have to undergo in their daily lives while we students from the West are so fortunate to be able to choose how and where we want to live. Nevertheless, Nepal is certainly very rich regarding spirituality and it is sometimes amazing to see how strong people can be in their minds. I would like to tell you about one person who I admire for her mental strength. She is one of these persons who have nothing, not even a family to rely on, which is so important for all Nepali people. I do not even know her name because she is not able to speak properly. Walking is also difficult for her, probably due to a Polio disease in her childhood. These are really bad conditions for a person living on the street, not only in Asia. She might be about my age, maybe younger, who can estimate the age of people who live on the stre...

My new path started at the end of he monsoon season of 2012, when I first entered the class in the monastery, grabbed myself a cushion, and tried to understand how I am supposed to cross my legs, and to make them stay crossed, for the next hour and a half. When the Lopon (a term which I had no idea at that time what it meant) entered the class, I stood up like everyone - but unlike everyone else, I stayed frozen in my place, amazed by what's going on around me. Amazed by this new world into which I stepped. When I first landed here my Tibetan vocabulary (or what I thought was Tibetan) was limited to two words: "dalai" and "lama", and honestly, even the meaning of those two I didn't quite understand (it turns out they are Mongolian loan-words), and the only connection I had to the dharma was a picture of me next to a stupa from a trip I once made to India. But still there was something that drew me to come here, to Nepal, to study Tibetan and to try ...

                                                               Dilemma: Life, the living mischievous paradox, one way always imposes upon us the tiring and tear bringing shocks of despondency experienced after departure of futile lifeless excitement, and pain preceded by the unfulfilled strong – misleading desires. While on the other, it rouses a hope, cautious indulgence in which could bestow upon us the mastery over suffering, and lead us to the pinnacle of everlasting bliss, which in turn ends all our sufferings and wanderings. Life, when this paradox is understood, the journey ends, and the search completes. But how to understand it? How to untangle it? Whom to ask? And where to go? It seems to be an unsurmountable mystery, endless search and unanswerable question, and for me and many others, RYI is the junction wh...

For those readers who have never been here, Boudhanath (or Boudha) is hosting one of the world's biggest stupa, an amazing monument; blinding white, compact, it contains Buddhist relics and it takes 5 minutes to circumambulate it ("making kora") — as most local devotees (a mixed crowed of Nepali, Tibetans and even Westerners) use to do daily. It lies about 11 km from the center of Kathmandu.  The neighborhood grew exponentially in the past 30 years so that what used to be a remote place lost in the fields is now a part of Kathmandu city. But even so, I have this strange impression to travel back in time everyday, during my 10 minutes walk to school. I find myself in a medieval Asian village.  I once had a book of drawings depicting ancient times Japanese craftsmen, sitting on the floor, busy with their task, their body folded in a very peculiar pose. In Boudha, as in the whole Kathmandu valley, they still make metal sculpture with a traditional method called ...