I.
What is the deep listening?
Sema is a greeting from the secret ones
inside the heart, a letter.
[Divani Shamsi Tabriz, Rumi: The Big Red Book]
After finishing 5 kora at Boudha stupa, I went to one tea stall. The taste of the tea was so good and it was made by an old lady, around my grandma’s age. I asked her about the background story of Boudha during her childhood. She started telling me the story of Boudhanath. Once upon time, […]
Investigating Buddhist Ethics This semester RYI offered a class on Buddhist ethics, taught by Prof. Diane Denis. Have you ever wondered what Buddhism has to say about complicated ethical questions? Sure, we should be compassionate, follow our vows, avoid the ten non-virtuous actions and engage in the ten virtuous actions and the six paramitas, but what […]
Arya Tara on Khenpo Rinpoche’s 86th Birthday Today (March 1st 2020) is Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche’s birthday. On this auspicious day, one of my secret wishes was fulfilled. Last year, I received lojong and vajra dance trainings from Ani Tsering Youdon, one of Khenpo Rinpoche’s nuns. This year, I began caryā dance training from our respected Gurju Padma Raj Bajracarya and one of his prominent students Aasna Bajracarya. Since both Tibetan and Newar traditions have this practice of […]
This is my last semester at RYI!!! Amazing, we are already at the second half of the spring semester. When I started my BA years ago, I thought this time would never come and four years felt like a lifetime. However, now I feel like it was only yesterday I arrived in Kathmandu, and I […]
I am a third year B.A student at Ranjung Yeshe Institute. Apart from studying at RYI, I also work as a freelance music therapist and musical artist. Last fall semester, I got an opportunity to facilitate music therapy sessions for RYI students at the newly built meditation room in Utpala Café. We would meet most […]
During the Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 semesters, a group of Rangjung Yeshe’s students had the good fortune to meet every day, during one and a half hours, to study the Uttaratantra-śāstra by Arya Maitreya[1] with Khenpo Karma Gyurme (also known as Tokpa Tulku). Approaching canonical Buddhist texts under the guidance of the ordained sangha […]
I want to share about a Buddhist text I studied in RYI that has been extremely helpful for me to embark on the Buddhist studies. This text is The Way of The Bodhisattva.Since it is in verse, it was easier to study with a commentary. First of all, a Bodhisattva is a being who possesses […]
“The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson Often, when a person settles in a location, one eventually becomes accustomed to his or her surroundings and can easily become complacent. I am grateful to reflect that, after almost three years living in Nepal, I still carry […]
Once every semester we get a week off, the so-called reading week. As the name suggests, I spent my reading week this semester reading academic literature and preparing for my classes in advance, as well as studying vigorously for my upcoming exams. Right? Well, wrong. Rather, I like to take my reading weeks as nature […]