RYI STUDENT BLOG

Buddha Lotus Painting Contrary to common outsider conceptions of monastic life, the place held by meditative practices (here defined as practices involving states of absorbed concentration) within the everyday practices of the average Tibetan Buddhist monk is quite minimal. Indeed, the majority of monks within the Tibetan tradition we are primarily exposed to at the shedra do not or rarely practise meditation of this kind, instead spending the bulk of their monastic time studying different Buddhist texts and engaging in different ritualistic practices. Certainly this revelation serves as a source of surprise for many of us that held rather romanticised ideas of monks and monastic life prior to being exposed to the reality of the tradition. One then has to question the importance of the study of texts and rituals as compared to practising meditation (if a distinction is to be drawn between these kinds of practices). Buddha and afflictions      ...

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...