November 16, 2020. During the second European lockdown Your are well-known in the French world of Tibetan Buddhism, but maybe not abroad. Could you introduce yourself? Philippe Cornu. I have been a Buddhist, in fact, for forty years, more than forty years. I met the sixteenth Karmapa in 1978, and then Sogyal Rinpoche and Dudjom Rinpoche in 1980. Soon, we were introduced also to Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and other masters. So I was very quickly introduced to the most important masters of the time, but it was with Sogyal Rinpoche that I really continue, at Rigpa. But in the beginning Rigpa didn’t exist, so it was when Rigpa was founded, a year or two later. And in 1983 I also met Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, who was my second master, and I followed some of his retreats as well, at certain times, quite assiduously. So I had always several affiliations, Rigpa being my root-centre, basically. […]
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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 do we do […]
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Nṛtya offering
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 dance offering, I always wanted to bring my teachers together. […]
What is RYI? Rangjung Yeshe Institute right? This cool place you can study Tibetan and learn all about Buddhism. The best thing is that now we can study online from anywhere in the world! Right? Nope, unfortunately not. So what is RYI? I am sure every person has a different idea of it, but to sum it up from my own perspective: RYI […]
One of the most interesting elements of studying at RYI is how adaptable this place is as a university. Over the past three years of studying here I’ve witnessed the school continue to grow as a university, offering more services and classes to students, and adapt to different challenges and disasters. This year, I witnessed […]
༡༼གནས་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ༽ The perfect place འདས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྦས་གནས་ཀྱི་ཆེ་བ།། ད་ལྟའི་རྫོགས་སངས་རྒྱས་པའི་བལྟམས་ཡུལ་གྱི་ཞིང་མཆོག། བག་ཕེབས་སླེབས་པ་ཙམ་གྱིས་ངན་སྒོ་དེ་བཅད་པའི།། རང་བྱུང་ཡེ་ཤེས་སློབ་གྲྭའི་གནས་དེ་ངོ་མཚར་བ།། The greatness of the secret place of all the past Buddhas, the supreme realm of the birth place of the present enlightened Buddha, just by arriving in such a peaceful place, the door to evil is closed, the sacred place of Rangjung Yeshe Institute is amazing. ༢ ༼འཁོར་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ༽ The perfect retinue མཁྱེན་རྒྱ་ཆེ་ཞིང་ཡོན་ཏན་ཕུན་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་བརྒྱན་པ།། འདི་གའི་སློབ་དཔོན་སློབ་ཕྲུག་མ་དག་པའི་སྣང་ངོར།། དོན་ལ་དཔའ་བོ་དཔའ་མོའི་རྣམ་རོལ་དུ་མཚུངས་པའི།། མགོན་པོ་གང་གི་འཁོར་དུ་གཏོགས་པ་དེ་སྐལ་བཟང་།། Possessed of vast knowledge, adorned with perfect qualities, seen as a teachers and students with impure perception, but in […]
Brainstorms in our TTIP classes have been fun. Some topics that we have been discussing are that how to keep balance between “loyalty” to the original texts with the “accessibility” to the contemporary and future readers? How to play with the phenomena of language to convey something beyond language? How to use “finger” to point […]
We live in a world in which attention is a primary resource, a “pearl of great price”. It is our primary resource for the practice of dharma and for living an ethical and meaningful life. But it also has become a primary resource for toxic, extractive economical practices. Increasingly the global economy has shifted from […]
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Buddha Dharma.
It is not about being creative of new knowledge, It is about being appreciative of precious knowledge. It is not about ascending to a higher realm, It is about descending from a mountain of ego. It is not about taking everything available, It is about giving anything available. It is not about being culturally critical, It is about being […]
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RYI from a Distance
I won’t lie, every time the return to in-person classes gets delayed further I’m disappointed. I miss living in Nepal, I miss the Stūpa, I miss seeing everyone in class and talking in the hallways or at Utpala. But it’s not like I can do anything about it, so I’ve decided to accept it as a new […]