RYI STUDENT BLOG

Have you ever experienced a feeling “I don’t have enough time?” Last year I got quite stressed, even had to take the Tibetan medicine called “Agar,” because sometimes it was difficult for me to fall asleep. This year I’m using the system developed by Russian scientist Alexander Lubishchev. He used to calculate and write down how much time each of his actions takes, and he had been doing that every day for about 60 years of his life. At the end of each day, each month and each year he created the report showing how much time he spent doing what. In that way, he was able to know how much time exactly it takes to read each of the books he read, write each of the treatises and articles he wrote, how much time he had been communicating or resting or doing sport. As en experiment, I’m trying to do the same. At first glance, it might seem weird, complicated, boring, dualistic and so on, but it really helps you to get to know yourself better. The first aim of that is, of course, to ...

My favorite class at the  Rangjung Yeshe Institute was the philosophy class, which was very interesting. I experienced as I was in nirvana at that moment while listening to the Lopon. I compared every teaching with my own life, certain facts just matched with my own life. I was very lucky that I got an opportunity to study in the Rangjung Yeshe Institute. In the philosophy class I learned basic things of Mahayana Buddhism, such as the proper method of giving rise to Bodhicitta, practicing the six paramitas and so forth. Teaching of this kind will help me in my entire life to practice Buddhism. Lopon also mentioned in the philosophy class the right way to listen, meditate and reflect on those teachings. In the last chapter 'dedication' we learnt that in the Mahayana tradition, at first we must give rise to Bodhicitta, then follows the action and dedicate the virtue of this action for the benefit of all sentient beings. Whenever a practice contains these three...

            "Wooow! Here I am back again! And I will go for the second year!"                       This is what I thought last week when I found myself lying once again on my back-breaking Nepali mattress inside my tiny student's apartment that I had swapped for my fancy German  two-and-a-half-room-apartment one year before. At that time, since I had only arrived one day before classes started, I had not even had the time to think about getting settled in Boudhanath. Instead, I had been completely occupied with learning how to spell my first Tibetan words and how to cope with the whole bunch of literature that we had to read for the History class.             I had also been occupied by finding out how to get a new cell-phone (since my old one had dis...

Congratulations  to Alexander Yiannopoulos, who successfully defended his MA Thesis! " LUMINOSITY Reflexive Awareness in Ratnākaraśānti’s Pith Instructions for the Ornament of the Middle Way ". The thesis supervisor was Dr. Karin L. Meyers and the External Reader was Dr. John Makransky from Boston College, USA.  Alexander came to study at Centre for Buddhist Studies in 2005 as a visiting student from Boston College. After graduation he returned to Kathmandu as a Fulbright scholar in 2007 to research translation theory and Buddhist philosophy. In 2009 he started the Master of Arts program at the Centre for Buddhist Studies at RYI.  Our best wishes for you and we hope to see you again in Boudhanath!

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...