Spring 2020 In our class on the history of Buddhism we started a project to conduct research in groups of two students on the many monasteries that surround us in Boudha. My friend Tia and me chose Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche’s nunnery Tek Chok Ling. One of the unique features of this nunnery are the different dances that the […]
I am pleased to report that I have never experienced discrimination based on my gender while studying at Rangjung Yeshe Institute. Sexual harassment and discrimination are very real, and in the United States women of all ages confront discrimination on a daily basis. Perhaps it is better in Australia, Canada, or Europe? I can’t speak to […]
[Summer 2019: Memories] This summer, I decided to end my stay at my home in Delhi, prematurely and return to Nepal before my summer holidays formally ended. I’m not entirely sure what motivated this course of action. On one level, I wanted to come back and get started on possible ideas for my thesis. I […]
Why do we need it? Art allows the development of imaginaries that preside over the collective creation of our shared reality. It has a function of preserving the values and nurturing the potentials of hope. A nihilist art can only dissipate the last bits of humanity in us and disseminates germs of slow poison. […]
It has been over two years since I started studying Buddhist Philosophy here in RYI. The first thing that caught my attention was the incredible frequency of paradoxes and metaphors in Buddhist Philosophy. This first encounter was overwhelming and worrying – I had no prior experience of such a linguistic style in all my previous education, and I worried that I […]
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Good bye for now!
Looking back in time, when I first joined RYI in 2017, I remember surrendering myself to what these four years would bring. I was at a very vulnerable stage of my life at that point in time. I was questioning my life journey and had countless doubts about my capabilities. At that moment, stepping into this course became my only rescue. These past four years in RYI has taught […]
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Operative Philosophy
I have been introduced recently to the concept of “operative philosophy”, which stands opposite to “speculative philosophy”. Operative philosophy refers to an approach wherein the thinker tries to bring philosophy into one’s own experience. Speculative philosophy, on the contrary, consists of a bare reflection devoid of personal experience on the matter reflected upon. In my view, there is a colossal gap between these two approaches. While the first approach is meaningful, the second resembles a dry dessert. […]
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Last Semester at RYI
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 almost wish I could do the whole thing again. It was so nice to come to Nepal and know […]
བསླབ་པ་སློབ་པའི་དུས་ནི་རྫོགས། ཁྱེར་རྐྱང་མི་ཚེ་བསྐྱར་དུ་ཚུགས། རང་རང་གཅིག་པུར་གནས་དུས་ལ། ཉོན་སེམས་སྲུང་བ་གཙོ་བོར་བྱ། The time for learning came to an end, And the solo life has started again. While living alone by oneself, The most important is to watch over the defiled mind. རྟོག་གེའི་ལམ་དང་སངས་རྒྱས་ལམ། གྲུབ་སྟངས་ཚུལ་ལ་གནམ་སའི་ཁྱད། མཁས་པས་གཞན་སྐྱོན་གཙོ་དོན་བྱེད། རྒྱལ་བས་རང་སྐྱོན་གཙོ་དོན་བྱེད། Between the path of scholars and buddhas, There is huge difference like sky and earth in accomplishing […]
When classes moved online in the mid of the Semester around March 23, I faced them with a sense of “powering through.” When the summer program moved online, I thought, “It’s only two months.” I didn’t take too seriously my classmates’ concerns that the Fall Semester might also be online. Fast forward a few months and both the following Fall and Spring […]