RYI STUDENT BLOG

I would like to share a few words about two inspiring people that are fruits that come from Rangjung Yeshe Institute. One of them is Khenpo Gyaltsen, that is one of my dear and exemplary teachers. Having been born in a Himalayan family, in very young age he became a monk. After years of training, he completed his studies in Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling, where the Rangjung Yeshe Institute is located. After that, he received his degree of Khenpo, Doctored in Buddhist Philosophy, from Ngahyur Nyingma Institute. Nowadays, he is teacher for the monks of the Shedra of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling and also for the international students from the Rangjung Yeshe Institute. I personally have the great fortune of having been taught by him on very precious and profound teachings, as studies on Prajnaparamitta Heart Sutra; Mulamadhyamaka-karikas – Root Verses of the Middle Way, among others high subjects. I also received several meditations instructions that come from his personal experience as a very ...

There is the generalized belief that a translated text will never be able to capture the greatness of its original—in other words, it will always imply per se a loss of sumptuosity.  The semiotician and novelist Umberto Eco [1] (1932) epitomizes this pessimistic understanding when he states that “translation is the art of failure” [2] . Taking into the account this gloomy premise, I wanted to explore some of the features associated with the process of translation which might have captivated people since the very invention of written literature [3] .  To start with, we should examine the assumption of the implicit loss of richness in translation in order to ascertain either it is appropriate or not. Linguists have articulated different paradigms of translation. Nevertheless, one of the most fascinating is the theory that Walter Benjamin [4] (1892-1940) formulates in his The Task of the Translator [5] . Simplistically speaking, Benjamin undermines the previous ...

Congratulations to Anna Zilman! Anna successfully defended her thesis:   'Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and the Nonsectarian Movement: A Critical Look at  Representations of 19th Century Tibetan Buddhism'. The thesis supervisor was Dr. Philippe Turenne and the External Reader was Prof. Dr. Dorji Wangchuk from the University of Hamburg, Germany.  Anna, from Russia came in 2007 to the Rangjung Yeshe Institute to study Tibetan Language. After completing one year in the Bachelor's program, Anna joined the intensive one-year-long Translator Training program which was launched at that time. Successfully completing that, she continued with the B.A. and later Master of Arts program. Anna has managed the Translator Training program since 2010 and translates at various occasions at  the Rangjung Yeshe Institute.   We congratulate this bright and energetic lady and hope she will keep inspiring us.  ...

At the middle of the semester, it is always good to take a little bit of rest from all the study, which  is why we have reading week. But for some reason, this week is not called “relaxing week”.  For  sure, we all like to relax a little bit, but if they call it “relaxing week”, we may just relax too much!  So I’m in favor of the present name, “reading week”. Moreover, at least for me, this time is how it  looks like. Some like to use this week to travel and visit some places in Nepal or even India, others to practice,  others to advance in writing essays or doing homework, and maybe in many cases to do a little bit  of everything. This time for me, as part of my subjects’ work this semester, I’m doing quite a bit of reading,  particularly on the Lotus Sutra and related articles, as well as memorizing verses for the philosophy  class. As part of the Translation Project class, I’m also translating a couple of public teachings from...

Congratulations to Sophie Greenewalt, who after only two years of Tibetan study is already translating for the Shedra! The she recently translated for a three week short course on The 37 Practices of the Bodhisattva taught by one of our monastery’s newer teachers, Lopon Drupgyu Tendar. In Sophie’s own words: 'I like to listen so I figured I would like translating. In the past three weeks I have learned that translating is more than just listening. I have never had to listen so carefully and I have never been responsible for someone's words in such an immediate way. Nor have I been put on the spot for such an extended period of time.  It's not easy. But, fortunately, I had this opportunity to practice and am slowly becoming accustomed to awkwardly molding Tibetan sentences into English in front of a room of staring people. One has to start somewhere and translating for a short course was a good place to start. I hope the Shedra will continue to provide opportunitie...