RYI STUDENT BLOG

Every fall, Rangjung Yeshe Institute (RYI) conducts the seminar based on teaching and empowerment from Rinpoches: Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, Phakchok Rinpoche and Tsikey chokling Rinpoche. This year (2018, Nov 15-21), all old and new disciples of Rinpoches from everywhere throughout the world were participating the seminar. Seminar this year has been exceptionally uncommon for us all on the grounds that Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche has given us extremely significant and down to earth instruction of Dzogchen (great perfection). The teaching was based on the instructions called “naturally liberating whatever you meet” by Khenpo Gangshar Wangpo. Rinpoche guided us through this teaching for ten days. Rinpoche started off from the ten virtuous actions to be embraced and ten non-virtuous actions to be abandoned and finally Rinpoche guided us to recognize our nature of mind. We had Rinpoche teaches us the instruction until lunch break and toward the evening we had lama Tenzin, who guided us ...

Gratitude as a Source of Joy We have a saying in my country: “Being grateful is [a sign of] being well-born”. I always think that there is a lot of wisdom in these traditional sayings. The importance of gratitude is unfathomable, until the point that being or not being grateful draws the line between a happy and an unhappy person or even a pleasant and an unpleasant person. Being grateful is an incredible quality that brings joy to oneself and others, since one is able to appreciate what one has and how one got it, thanks to others. When we get to know about the interdependence of phenomena, we learn to appreciate the immense kindness of others. When acknowledging the effort, work and time invested by others so that we can enjoy a simple plate of food, for instance, we cannot but value and respect all the people who participated in the process of creating that plate, and feel extremely lucky for receiving that meal. Similarly, when studying at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, I...

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...