RYI STUDENT BLOG

Looking back at my almost five years at the Shedra, my overall impression is that it has been quite enjoyable: there is a warm atmosphere, deep emergence in Tibetan culture and language, interesting people from all over the world and so forth. This time I want to write about our Tibetan monastic teachers, simply referred to as Lopons. When I was studying in the Translator Training program, I had different Lopons instructors every month, so there was not really enough time to see their unique and special qualities. It took a few years of taking classes with one after another for me to come to how I feel now: an overwhelming sense of gratitude, appreciation and respect.  Lopon Shedrub Gyatso, Lopon Tsundru Sangpo, Lopon Karma Gyurmey, Lopon Lodro Rabsel, Lopon Urgyen Thenpel and Lopon Zopa Sangpo (left to right)     All of the Lopons have their own particular way of presenting the Dharma. Lodro Rabsel and Tsondru Sangpo have a more traditional styl...

Do you have memory problems? Join the Shedra Do you have concentration problems? Join the Shedra Guaranteed anti-aging and anti-Alzheimer program! Study Tibetan, and when you come home, your work will feel like a holiday playground. You will appreciate it so much and also think that you get paid without doing any effort! Study Tibetan and encourage your brain, combine it with prostrations at the magnificent Stupa, and get fit to fight all the demons in this and next-coming life's challenges! If you, on top of that, do some regular meditation in-between, you will be unbreakable and guaranteed a wrinkle-free mind!" Ingrid from Sweden Beginning Tibetan Summer Program 2012

Another year is gone. Do I really learn the Dharma? Am I more compassionate, kinder, more open hearted? While in daily classes of one of our texts “Entering the Middle Way” by the great master Chandrakirti, our teacher Lopon Tokpa Tulku, constantly reminded us every beginning of class about our motivation, an aspiration of directing our mind to not just learn concepts but contemplate about them, live them and share them in the world, often recollecting Kyabje Chokyi Nyima’s enlightened aspirations that we train in the direction of being not just learned but Dharma practitioners as well. Definitely we all are searching for something. I guess deeply we all are looking for happiness, no matter what we do, in every breath, in each heart beating. Are we looking for happiness in the right places? After a year of deconstructing reality through the profound Middle Way view do we still believe that the fragile causes and conditions of samsara will bring us true happiness, wil...

Ani Sangye and Lopon  Chodrup In Spring 2012 we continued studying Introduction to the Middle Way and The Jewel Ornament of Liberation , with our lopons, who are excellent at relating these classic texts to our experience as modern Buddhists.  Chandrakirti says,  “Of Buddhahood’s abundant crop, compassion is the seed/ It is like moisture, bringing increase and is said/ To ripen in the state of lasting happiness/ Therefore to begin, I celebrate compassion!”  Which really touches on the essence of Madhyamika.  What is it that prevents us from being genuinely compassionate with others?  It's this subtle sense of being separate from situations, other people and other beings—basically it comes down to our sense of “self-ness,” that the center of space is right here called “me.”  When we’re suffering from negative emotions, Madhyamika really gets down to the heart of it.    We are all naturally compassionate, but there is some...

John Pickens who we all know as 'Zim', successfully defended on Friday his Master of Arts thesis.  Zim's dissertation title is:  I Remember Seeing Blue: Reflexive Awareness and Memory in Dignāga Pramāṇasamuccaya . Zim's dissertation supervisor was Karin Meyers ( PhD, University of Chicago), and the external examiner was John Dunne ( PhD, Harvard University ) . Zim joined RYI in 2009. He is also an active member supporting Phakchok Rinpoche's activities.  Congratulations, Zim, we will miss you a lot! 

Congratulations Sophie! Today Sophie Pickens  successfully defended her Master of Arts thesis at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute.  Her thesis is titled:  Divine Blue Water: The Contamination Purifying Smoke Offering by the Great Master Padmasambhava .   Sophie's dissertation supervisor was Dr. Karin Meyers ( PhD, University of Chicago), and the external examiner was Dr. Abraham Zablocki ( PhD, Cornell University). Sophie is a well-loved teacher and talented translator at RYI. We are very happy for her success! Sophie will return to the States  this week, and we will greatly miss her.  We wish you all the best, Sophie, and hope that you will be back with us soon...

Having realized thatness, the nature of the dharmadhatu, just as it is,  those of understanding are released from birth,sickness, aging, and death. Though free from the destitution of birth and so on, they demonstrate these, since by their insight they have given rise to compassion for beings.                                                                                          ~ Maitreya’s Uttaratantra It is out of unconditional love and compassion to sentient beings that holy beings appear to be born, fall ill, age, and die.  Although they are beyond all of these temporary circumstances, for the benefit of beings they display aging and death as a reminder of the momentariness and uncertainty of life.  On March 3 rd in Bhutan, on...