RYI STUDENT BLOG

In 2008 I arrived in Boudhanath to take a break from my job and to study a little bit of Buddhist philosophy. Now, I am still here and am privileged to study - kindly supported by the Tsadra foundation – in the monks’ shedra.  At the moment we are studying Chandrakirti’s   Madhyamakavatara bhashya.        From all the good things I have experienced at RYI in Boudhanath the monk shedra is certainly the climax. Khenpo Urgyen Tenphel unpacks Chandrakirti’s complicated text in a highly lucid way with clear Tibetan sentences … well, it’s still sometimes too fast for my limited capacity but there is also a review class and I also meet regularly with Paul, my intelligent Western colleague in this class, to go again through difficult passages.              But best of all is certainly the presence of the monks with whom we study. They are the most friendly, relaxed, h...

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...