RYI STUDENT BLOG

After finishing 5 kora at Boudha stupa, I went to one tea stall. The taste of the tea was so good and it was made by an old lady, around my grandma’s age. I asked her about the background story of Boudha during her childhood.  She started telling me the story of Boudhanath. Once upon time, Boudha was a very beautiful village adorned in all directions by thousands of trees and flowers, blooming through all four seasons. Different kinds of insects made noises that sounded like bells. Different birds tweeted like a melody-queen. The main source of local peoples’ income was from agriculture. Almost 90 percent of people were farmers and all the locals were Tamang. Usually, Tamang people worked very hard in the day time but at the night they all needed to have rakshi (local whisky). Boudha’s local people were living autonomously, a simple life. After finishing the conversation with the old lady, I got to know some back ground story of Boudha. It made me reflect on the hi...

This is my last semester at RYI!!! Amazing, we are already at the second half of the spring semester. When I started my BA years ago, I thought this time would never come and four years felt like a lifetime. However, now I feel like it was only yesterday I arrived in Kathmandu, and I almost wish I could do the whole thing again. It was so nice to come to Nepal and know absolutely nothing about Nepal! At that time I did not even know that buff momos are better than vegetable momos, and I still enjoyed the Nepali traffic because it was “fun” compared to the traffic back home:) The only bad thing I can say about the early days was that I didn’t realize how amazing an opportunity it is to get to study Tibetan, Philosophy, and so forth in such an amazing monastery, and therefore I was quite lazy. I could have learned the basics of Tibetan and academic paper writing much earlier if I had been smarter back then. In spite of that however, I am so happy that I decided to stay in Nepal and...

“The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson Often, when a person settles in a location, one eventually becomes accustomed to his or her surroundings and can easily become complacent. I am grateful to reflect that, after almost three years living in Nepal, I still carry the same sense of awe that I had when I first arrived. On more than one occasion, I have walked down any road in Boudha with a friend or a colleague and wondered how strange and incredible it is that I (or we) landed here. This sense of awe is especially apparent when I walk with somebody who has never seen Boudha or Nepal before, for through fresh eyes can we revitalize our experience of the world. Life in Nepal provides a number of opportunities for students, but the most promising of those opportunities are the people we meet and the places we go to find inspiration. At RYI, we have a supportive community, and have the opportunity to work closely with...

I came to wherever I am for the purpose of solving a problem. This might be same for all of you with many different colors, languages, status, and beliefs. Such a problem surely exists not only in human beings like me but also in all conscious, wishful, and desirous beings. To put it very simply this business of solving a problem is to increase the happiness by reducing the unhappiness I experience throughout a day, month, and year. If there is one entity about, which I can claim a true existence about it, it will be the wish that I have for the increment of happiness. Even sublime beings as Bodhisattvas do not want other beings suffer, which actually indicates they wish for the increment of happiness of all beings. So I truly believe such a wish is truly there both in my microcosm and macrocosm. Unfortunately, in the process of seeking the happiness I wish for, I conversely experience so much unhappiness endlessly without control and will. Having been a...

RYI: A Place Understood Only Through Direct Experience There is nothing ordinary about studying at Rangjung Yeshe Institute compared to a typical university anywhere in the world. Even here in Nepal, it’s difficult to explain to other Nepalis that I go to a school connected to a monastery, but am not a monk, and many of the students are not necessarily Buddhist. Needless to say, it is impossible for my friends and family back home to imagine how a fully accredited university can operate within a Tibetan Buddhist monastery. Since most Americans are geographically challenged, it’s even harder to explain that this “Tibetan” monastery is founded by Tibetan lamas, but not actually in Tibet, though still near the Himalayas. When asked what language they speak, it adds even more confusion to tell them that, while Tibetan is used in classes at the monastery, the local language, Nepali, has virtually nothing to do with Tibetan. Finally, when I’m asked what language my classes are con...