RYI STUDENT BLOG

It was the craziest, the scariest… It was the smartest step I’ve ever taken, buying myself that ticket to Kathmandu. Let me first say, I do not think a life in Nepal is for everyone. But when reflecting on the more than a year I’ve spent here I’m overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude for what I’ve experienced so far, and also a trust that there is more to come. In my first year at the Shedra I had the great fortune of studying Śāntideva’s, “The Way of the Bodhisattva” – the title says it all. In his text, the first century Buddhist master expounds on the meaning of becoming a bodhisattva and I’d like to share a few thoughts on why the bodhisattva path is just as relevant and perhaps even more challenging within the capitalist societies of today's world. Entering the bodhisattva path is a willingness to transform into a super-human. According to the tradition, bodhisattvas are “… heroic, indefatigable beings…who generate the supreme thought of enlightenment and ...

BA first year students study this text, the Way of the Bodhisattva , at Rangjung Yeshe Institute. Its Sanskrit name is Bodhicharyavatara, and in Tibetan, popularly called by its abbreviated title; sphyod ‘jug. I haven’t had a chance to study it with khenpos or other teachers except for parts of it, but I cannot count how many times I have read this text in my life (in Japanese). It was when I read the below verse in chapter 8 that I first developed interest in Buddhism. I guess it’s ten years ago. All the joy the world contains Has come through wishing happiness for others. All the misery the world contains Has come through wanting pleasure for oneself. This was shocking, but very true. Since then, I open any page of the book when I am sad, sick, or just feel like reading it. There are verses that reflect my feeling of the time. There are verses that teach something different in different times though the words are exactly the same. There are verses that fina...