-Lauren Wang, MABS student from United States

Something that I have been continuously contemplating since starting at RYI in the MA Prep program, was the role of study, and especially academic study in the path towards enlightenment. It was sometimes a frustrating topic, as different people seemed to have their own ideas and even dogmas about this. The triad of “hearing, contemplation, and meditation” suddenly took the translation of “study, contemplation, and meditation”, and I couldn’t help but feel that in some ways, the academic focus and heavy intellectual processing was detracting from the lived experience of the teachings.

While this is still an ongoing contemplation, I have deferred to three resolutions. The first is that every individual is different and therefore, one cannot serve a blanket statement of the role of study in liberation. The second, is that while I myself can never be certain, those that I deeply trust and admire – teachers and mentors – have encouraged study for myself personally. And third, while the studies might not directly and immediately reveal it’s transformative and illuminating effects, I trust in a subtle undercurrent of alchemy that is taking place both on a psychological level, but also on an intuitive level of direct experience. Furthermore, what I have observed is that even though there is much less time for formal practice, it is somehow taking the dharma outside of specific retreat or practice conditions and helping me to feel more connected to the world on the spiritual path (that at times felt so individual). There is definitely a greater cultivation of compassion, and a wider view and involvement with the way this seemingly individual path can be of benefit to many others.

There is an expansion of what it means to be on the “path”, breaking attachments to ideas of practice, solitude, and retreat, and finding that the dharma is really inseparable from anything. Ultimately, my guiding point has been a sense of joy, and as long as this is there, always coupled with trust, I feel I’m heading in the right direction.