RYI STUDENT BLOG

It’s been just slightly over a year since I first came to Nepal, and the question which comes to mind is the one which I was asked most when I was back in Singapore last December: 'What have you learnt?' I'm not sure what my friends were expecting - some kind of Buddhist halo around my head perhaps? 😊 They must have been disappointed, I think. Academically, it has been a tremendously enlivening (at times even tear-your-hair-out challenging) year at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute - from Prof Julia Stenzel, I learnt about the broad outlines of Buddhism's 2600 year-history (further back, if you count the past Buddhas!), and took a deep dive into Shantideva's 8th-century Buddhist classic, the Bodhicary ā vat ā ra ('The Way of the Bodhisattva') taught in the traditional Tibetan Buddhist style in which a lopon or khenpo (the Tibetan Buddhist equivalent of a university professor) reads and expounds on the text verse by verse, with the help of Lopon Drubgyud She...

            On a Saturday morning, the ten or so of us who were able to brave the February cold got on the bus and reached Swayambhunath promptly. Just after entering we encircled Father Greg who was our gracious guide and listened to him talk about the history of Swayambhunath Temple and its importance in Newari Buddhism. Swayambhupuraṇa is the Sanskrit text in which is written the story of the origin of Swayambhunath Temple. Swayambhupuraṇa is unique; it is the only puraṇa text associated with Buddhism. The rest of the puraṇa texts concern Hindu gods. The story goes: Where the Kathmandu valley is today, there used to be a lake filled with Nagas (snakes). In this lake, a Buddha called Bipaswi Tathāgata planted a lotus with one thousand petals. This lotus flower emanated a bright light signifying the Buddha nature. According to legend, Mañjuśri who was called by a Buddha cut a gorge and drained the lake, leading to the creation of the valley. Then...