RYI STUDENT BLOG

One of the best decisions I ever made was joining Rangjung Yeshe Institute (RYI).  It is indeed a great institute where one can have experience of both academic and  traditional teachings from the sophisticated masters. Precious teachings from  Lopens and Khenpos help surprisingly to overcome the stresses of our daily lives. When I first came to this institute, I felt very welcomed. Warm greetings from  RYI’s Staff made me feel myself very special! In fact, such warm greetings really  motivates student to study sincerely. From the very first orientation, I started  experiencing the great quality of education and the excitements that inspired me to  make commitment to study further from BA. Moreover, Students are given the  great opportunities to do pilgrimages, retreats and practice rituals which have  equally importance as with the theoretical and philosophical knowledge. One even  becomes blessed already under the guidance and p...

Goethe once wrote:  “Mountains are silent teachers that make taciturn students.”  I really like this sentence, because it's so true. Mountains have something fascinating about them, and I heard so many people say that it is almost impossible to not start thinking when you see those majestic, beautiful things. That mountains seem to be floating on clouds, as if not really real and without any contact to the ground, and also both so far away and very close at the same time. To me it is no wonder that people start believing in gods or the like, just looking at mountains. I guess Nepal with all it's mountains is basically predestined to spirituality, just because of having mountains. Right now it's Friday, I'm in Bandipur, one of my favorite places in Nepal, and enjoying the view (with mountains, of course). The philosophy class was cancelled (the Khenpos are on a short retreat with Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche), but I still feel like I'm getting a little class...

Among the philosophy classes at Rangjung Yeshe, I often like the Khenpo classes the most, and this year I have the opportunity to attend two of them. With these classes one gets to understand well the traditional perspective of the various topics of Buddhist philosophy, which can be not only very meaningful in themselves, but also necessary in order to really know what Buddhism is. There is no ‘a real Buddhism’ separate from its traditions, and whether ancient or not, other than knowing them, there is no study of Buddhism. Yet its topics are far from being easy, which combined with the structure of Sanskrit and Tibetan languages make the oral explanations from the Khenpos even more important, as they avoid both misunderstandings and non-understandings.  One of the texts we are studying, the 'Gateway to Knowledge' from Mipham Rinpoche, is regarded as a foundational text, dealing with Abhidharma material. At first one may think the foundation should be easy, but desp...

In 2008 I arrived in Boudhanath to take a break from my job and to study a little bit of Buddhist philosophy. Now, I am still here and am privileged to study - kindly supported by the Tsadra foundation – in the monks’ shedra.  At the moment we are studying Chandrakirti’s   Madhyamakavatara bhashya.        From all the good things I have experienced at RYI in Boudhanath the monk shedra is certainly the climax. Khenpo Urgyen Tenphel unpacks Chandrakirti’s complicated text in a highly lucid way with clear Tibetan sentences … well, it’s still sometimes too fast for my limited capacity but there is also a review class and I also meet regularly with Paul, my intelligent Western colleague in this class, to go again through difficult passages.              But best of all is certainly the presence of the monks with whom we study. They are the most friendly, relaxed, h...

Many of us these days study the Uttaratantra with Khenpo Urgyen Tenpel. As everyone probably knows, this text explains Buddha-nature. It seems very important to study this topic in order to understand what pure perception means – the concept crucial for the Vajrayana Buddhism.  We often hear that Vajrayana view is seeing everyone and everything as pure and perfect – ourselves, other beings, our environment. It might be very challenging however to try to apply it. For example, imagine we are in a position of a boss and our employees have not done their work properly. Should we say: “Thank you guys, well done?” Similar things happen in personal relationships as well. For instance, our partner, relative or friend tends to behave in a way that drives us crazy.  Incorrect understanding of pure perception may easily drive us into very immature way of behavior: instead of telling another person that we feel uncomfortable with certain things, we just throw him or her to garbage....

Lopon Tokpa Tulku and Translator during Philosophy class at RYI Once upon a time I was listening to an extraordinary human being, an embodiment of wisdom, the master Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche who gave a lecture to Khenpos, Lopons and venerable monks of his monastic university Dzongsar Shedra, in India. Rinpoche started his talk by sharing that the purpose of undergoing such a training in the Buddhist view was not just to transform oneself  (as that would be to much selfish) but to help others, to share the Dharma and skills we have learned and trained ourselves in, with the world we live in. He said to the monks that even though they are supposed to have renounced the world they couldn’t escape from the “reality” surrounding them. A monastery does not survive without a certain kind of economy; financial means do not come without good relationships and positive exchanges with society (in other words he said the positive and true purpose of politics). Also, not taking ca...