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 […]
I was already resigned to not see much of the sunshine this year, not because my clairvoyance detected the challenging year that the entire world had ahead, but because I decided to join the Translator Training Program and I knew that it was going to demand all my time and energy. But before going into the experience of training as an interpreter through an online platform, I need to take a […]
Categories
Methodology at the Drubchen
I am at Utpala Restaurant to pay my course fee for the spring semester. Someone mentions there’s a large gathering at the lha khang under the classrooms at RYI, and that lay practitioners are allowed in. I wander tentatively towards the gompa. Hesitant, I stand outside the hall, peeping in through the windows. I […]
Categories
Leaving Nepal
I never thought I’d leave Nepal like this. Even though after being in a lockdown for almost half a year, still, when the time of departure comes, it still feels like something unexpected and out of one’s own control. As a counter measure to Covid-19 pandemics, Nepal suspended all international flights since March 22 and […]
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 i1980. 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. And why is that? Sogyal Rinpoche stayed in […]
Categories
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 […]
Categories
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 […]