RYI STUDENT BLOG

Importance of talking it out I am a talkative person, who loves to chat and make new friends. I am someone who’s gifted with the power of creativity; poetry is my way of expressing my feelings, thoughts and so on. I may be short tempered but sadness rarely appears on my face. I am the outgoing member of my family and the social being. However, first slowly but then suddenly I found myself to be someone other than who I really am. I was utterly smashed by my inability to separate my personal and professional life. I would not speak. I could not write any poetry. I could not even wear a mask of superficial happiness. I preferred, sometimes even craved, isolation over socializing. As a non-western student in western academic education system, I started taking all the “knowledge” that I had learnt literally. With the sudden increase of assignments, papers, and tons of readings, the rate of critical analysis arose quickly. My otherwise carefree persona was completely su...

How Visitors make me feel at Home   When I was leaving two years ago for Nepal to study at RYI, many people at home were surprised about my choice. Sure, many heard of Nepal as a place where you can do trekking and have some adventures, but studying? That was not really a classic activity associated with Nepal, and especially since it hasn’t been long after the earthquake, people were quite skeptical. However, some of my friends were also excited to know somebody “out there” that they could eventually come and visit. “Yeah right”, I thought to myself. As if they would actually do that. Of course I was surprised then that just after studying at RYI for 2 months, one of my friends spontaneously decided to come to visit me and use the opportunity to do some trekking. That was the first visit and at the beginning I found it a bit strange to have people from my “old life” join me in my “new life” for a period of time. But since then, I have gotten quite used to having at leas...

རི་རྒྱལ།  -  The Glorious Mountains ཨའ་རི་རྒྱལ་ཡའ་རི་རྒྱལ་ལྷུན་པོ། ཁྱེད་ནི་ས་གོ་ལ་ཡི་རྒྱན་ཆ་ཡིན་ལ། ཁྱེད་ནི་ཧིན་ཏུ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་ཁ་གཏད་ཡང་ཡིན། ཁྱེད་ནི་གཏེར་རིགས་ཀུན་ཀྱི་བང་མཛོད་ཡིན་ལ། ཁྱེད་ནི་རྩེ་ཤིང་སྟོང་གི་བཤམ་ཁང་ཡང་ཡིན ཁྱེད་ནི་མཛོ་གཡག་ལུག་གི་ལྷ་ཡུལ་ཡིན་ལ། ཁྱེད་ནི་འགྲོ་བ་མི་ཡི་དཔུང་གཉེན་ཡང་ཡིན། Ah’ mountains yeah, the spontaneous mountains! You are the ornament of the earth, And you are the rival to Indian ocean. You are the storehouse of all minerals, And you are the museum of thousand trees. You are the heaven for Dzos, yaks, and sheep, And you are the protector for human beings. ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་དགུང་ལ་བསྙེགས་པའི་སྐྱེ་སྟོབས་ལ་སུ་ཡིས་འགྲན་ཕོད་ལ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་མེད་ཞི་བའི་གླུ་དབྱངས་དེ་སུ་ཡིས་གོ་ཡང་ནུས། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་དབུ་སྐྲའི་ལྷན་སྐྱེས་་དྲི་ཞིམ་དེ་སུ་ཡིས་རྔུབ་ནུས་ལ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བུ་གའི་དངས་གཙང་རྒྱུགས་ཆུ་དེ་སུ་ཡིས་སྤྱོད་པར་ནུས། Who can compare with your sky-reaching growth? Who can hear your music of silence and peace? Who can inhale the natural ...

Colloquial Tibetan Is Fun                   I  have taken colloquial Tibetan I this semester, thinking that it would complement my learning of Tibetan Buddhism. However, learning colloquial Tibetan in RYI proves to be just more than that, its great fun. To be honest, I had missed a lot of classes this semester, nevertheless the time when I was in the class were all about learning with fun.                   The classes are managed in such a way that one does not get monotonous by the similar way of teaching. For that, RYI divides the course into three different ways; the master class, language partner class and the boost class. The master class involves the learning of the grammar, language partner class is about interaction with another Tibetan partner and boost class is revisiting what you have learned. All these classes are conducted in a diff...

Again, More Good News from Here!!! A New (more than a) Restaurant for RYI   It is so beautiful to see the splendid aspirations of the masters becoming reality before our eyes. Even more beautiful and profoundly moving is to see how they skillfully nurture and irrigate in us seeds of pure love and dedication to the benefit of the other. Recently, during the 38th Annual Seminar of Rangjung Yeshe Institute - which had more than six hundred and fifty participants, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche invited everyone to have lunch with him in the new space of RYI! Rinpoche said that he had the aspiration to have a space to connect many people from international Sangha, students, RYI’s staff, and people that come to stay close to the RYI’s activities. That this place could have the qualities of being relaxing and spacious, where people could have a warm integration, having tasty and healthy vegetarian food. Besides that, he had the aspiration that the new place would inspire every...

Token of Gratitude I write this article as I spend yet another day enriched with blessings and gratitude. But as Phakchok Rinpoche aptly pointed out during our Annual Fall Seminar retreat: do we know how to receive blessings? I would inquire even further: do we know how to nurture our blessings? Do we know how to share our blessings with others? As we recount our experience of those moments of blessings with others, don’t we feel proud, even for a fraction of a second? Should blessings be revealed in the first place? Can one fulfill the purpose without revealing? How to become a perfect recipient of such precious blessings with humility and wisdom? My understanding of blessing has a wide horizon of meaning—returning to South Asia, living in the cradle of Boudhanath Stupa, being able to pursue my true calling—and most importantly, all the hardship that comes along with it. If we have truly understood the meaning of our existence and realized our ultimate goal, then everyt...

Precious Opportunity: A Heartfelt Recommendation to Attend the Annual Fall Seminar In 2016 after two months travelling in Nepal I had the constant and intense feeling that I really wanted to find an authentic spiritual tradition. Instead of meandering through different paths, I felt it was time to dive deeply into one. While waiting for my Indian visa I decided to visit Boudhanath. I vaguely knew that there was some White Monastery where some teacher taught openly for Westerners. I searched for this place in the morning and suddenly found myself in the first day of the Fall Seminar! The experience I had changed my life in such a deep way that I felt I had arrived home, and so, in 2017 I came back to join the B.A in Buddhist Studies program. To be honest I don't recall exactly what the main theme of that seminar was; everything was so fresh and interesting, but I do remember the profound impact it had on me. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and Phakchok Rinpoche led...