RYI STUDENT BLOG

At first glance, this might seem like the beginning of a school year in any common university, albeit in a  monastic setting. Agendas are filling up with deadlines, and heads with all the different tasks at hand.  Students and teachers alike are busy processing information and organizing thought. In and out of class,  time is studiously consumed.  But come Saturday, we meet with the uncommon spearhead of all this academic busyness. Chokyi  Nyima Rinpoche has returned to ‘office’ and welcomes students with his hallmark, precious advice: his  ambition is for us all to become scholar-practitioners, and not just “dry scholars.” The knowledge we  accumulate here is not meant to merely fill up our brains, but should also enter our lives.  Dharma, according to Rinpoche, means change. It is meant to transform us into kinder, happier human  beings. There isn’t a line of the texts we learn that is not meant to be put into practice in our dai...

To reiterate what some others have said in their blog posts, Rangjung Yeshe is a special Institution that combines a monastic style approach with “western” academic classes. Through this blog I have read many inspiring testimonials about Rangjung Yeshe and really do think that the Institute deserves the praise it has gotten and more. Yet somehow I have found it difficult to come up with anything new to say about the Institute. Perhaps it is not enough to just commend the Institute itself. It is definitely wonderful and all that but I believe that Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and gang make this a truly special place to be. Beyond the academic platform it is Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche who seems to make the teachings we receive in the classroom come alive. Being the jaded and small-minded person that I am, I often fall into states of lethargy and procrastination. At times I even find myself labeling the materials I study as dry, intellectual philosophy because they seem far removed from...

Nagi Gompa is a small nunnery situated above the Kathmandu valley in the Shivapuri National Park. It was home to one of the greatest meditation masters of recent times, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. He lived, practiced and taught in Nagi Gompa for more than 20 years. These days around 100 nuns live in Nagi Gompa, and about half of them stay in long-term retreat, dedicating their life solely to practice and deepening their meditation experience. Furthermore it is also home to the young reincarnation of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, who currently is deeply involved in his studies, education and training. Every year Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Chokling Rinpoche and Phakchok Rinopche travel to Nagi Gompa for the annual Ngakso Drupchen, two weeks before the Tibetan New Year (Losar). This year for the first time also the young incarnation of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche joined and participated in the drupchen fully. The Tibetan term Drupchen is usually translated as “great or vast accomplishment”. A Drupc...