RYI STUDENT BLOG

Congratulations go out to Joyadip (Dhammadipa), who successfully defended his Master of Arts Thesis! " A Study of the Vijñaptimātra Doctrine of Vasubandhu and Dharmapāla in the Context of Critiques Found in Candrakīrti's Madhyamakāvatāra". The thesis supervisor was Thomas H. Doctor and the External Reader was Dr. Douglas S.Duckworth from East Tennessee State University, USA.  Joyadip (Dhammadipa), a Bangladeshi Buddhist monk, studied at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, before joining the Master of Arts program at the Centre for Buddhist Studies at RYI.  After his MA graduation Joyadip started working for an E-learning program at a  Buddhist University in Thailand.  Our best wishes for you and we hope to see you again in Boudhanath!

We had been studying over a semester at RYI when we received an unexpected proposition: to acquire a Salsa dance voucher, an opportunity to take regular lessons for one month in a Latin American dance studio, here in Kathmandu.  We agreed and very soon, we were in possession of a creased piece of paper, which had obviously gone through many hesitant hands before coming to ours. Perhaps Buddhist students were not up to such kind of distraction?  Along with that, our benefactor gave us thorough instructions about how to reach the studio by public transport. The white bus to Krishna cinema, cross the bridge, then the yellow bus, pass the American, Russian and Chinese embassy, step off at the European Bakery, buy delicious cream roll, walk 10 minutes and here you are. I was a bit anxious: how would the rather small Nepali react to this six feet tall giant Swiss girl? Wouldn't it be embarrassing if my dance partner had to face my cleavage or break his neck to look into my e

Congratulations to Ryan Conlon ( Lungtok Rabsel ) for passing his Master of Arts (MA) thesis defense! The title of his thesis is: 'Waves on the Ocean:  Tracing the fault-lines of ontological commitments in the Madhyamaka conventional truth.' The thesis supervisor was Dr. Thomas H. Doctor and the External Reader was Dr. Douglas Duckworth.  Ryan Conlon from Canada is a monk at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling monastery. He now completed his studies at the Centre for Buddhist Studies but continues to study in the monastic shedra together with the monks.

Three years ago two first semester Rangjung Yeshe BA students (Dawa and myself) decided to set up a weekly Chenresig group practice. We chose the practice of the iron bridge building master Thangtong Gyalpo (“All Pervading Benefit of Beings”) which he had received in a vision directly from Chenresig. Although we personally had not much hope to have a vision of the Yidam soon, we already had a vision to foster a group of dedicated Chenresig practitioners among us students. This group consisted at the beginning of only two regular participants, but quickly increased. Last semester we had an average number of nearly 10 people per practice (admittedly still somewhat short of the auspicious number 108). We do the practice every Friday at the end of a usually tough school week. After the dedication of merit to all sentient beings we feel refreshed and reward ourselves with a mouth-watering dinner in one of the less expensive Boudhaean restaurants. Due to excessive work load no