Rangjung Yeshe InstituteDuring the Fall semester of 2021, for the Khenpo class on Candrakīrti’s Madhyamakāvatāra, we were tasked with making a group presentation on a topic of our choice. So, I asked Dominic whether he would be interested in exploring the topic that I have long wanted to explore – how to apply Madhyamaka in day-to-day life. If I now try to recall the reason behind why this topic […]
During the 5 months pandemic lock-down in Nepal, I developed a habit of bird feeding. I mean, what else can you do when confining to a tiny apartment without any socialization? Bird feeding seems to be a good solution for getting some sort of interaction with any kinds of beings. It is easy, inexpensive and […]
If I had to pick an idea or piece of knowledge that has had a significant impact on my spiritual path over the last year, it would be learning about the existence of the avadāna (Pāli, apadāna; Tibetan, rtogs par brjod pa’s sde) genre within the corpus of Buddhist literature, both through my studies at […]
At the time of the big Gorkha Earthquake that hit Nepal in 2015, a friend of mine who was living in Kathmandu told me a story that touched me deeply and positively influenced my decision to come to live to Nepal the following year. He said that one week after the earthquake, a group of […]
Being inside the RYI classrooms has been fascinatingly surreal to my ears. I can easily drift into the memories of chanting and sounds of ritualistic instruments being played at the lakhang situated on the ground floor of the RYI building. The voices in unison chanting the ‘Praise to Manjushri’ during the traditional Khenpo classes in […]
School closures due to the pandemic brought unparalleled disruptions to the education sector. As the countries faced outbreaks, almost overnight classrooms closed to prevent the rapid transmission. Staying home became a new normal, forcing students to turn to alternative sources to continue their education. Now, amidst a global pandemic, many colleges and universities are ramping […]
ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡའི་རི་རྩེ་ལ། གངས་རི་ལྷུན་པོ་བརྗིད་ཉམས་ཆེ། རི་འཁྱམ་ཨ་ཁུའི་སེམས་ཁོངས་ལ། ཞི་བདེའི་རེ་འདུན་མེ་ལྕེ་འབར། On the top of Himalayan mountains, The snow mountains are spontaneously majestic. In the mind of Mountain-Wondering-Uncle, The flame of aspiration for peace is ablaze. མ་ནང་རི་ཡི་ལུང་ཤོང་ལ། དབྱར་དཔལ་ལྷ་ཡིས་བཟོས་དང་མཚུངས། རི་འཁྱམ་ཨ་ཁུའི་སེམས་ཁོངས་ལ། ཕ་ཡུལ་དྭགས་པོ་ལྷང་ལྷང་དྲན། In the mountainous valley of Manang, The wealth of summer is like divine-made. In the mind of Mountain-Wondering-Uncle, The homeland of Dakpo vividly appears. ཐོ་རང་གངས་རིའི་ལ་རྩེ་ལ། གྲང་ངར་ཆེ་ལ་རྒྱུ་སྐར་གསལ། རི་འཁྱམ་ཨ་ཁུའི་སེམས་ཁོངས་ལ། གོ་ལ་གཞན་དུ་སླེབ་བམ་སྙམ། On the top of snowy Thorang pass, The weather is cold and stars are luminous. In the mind of […]
“It is said that before entering the sea A river trembles with fear. She looks back at the path she has traveled, From the peaks of the mountains, The long winding road crossing forests and villages. And in front of her, She sees an ocean so vast, That to enter There seems nothing more than […]
After long months of lockdown due to coronavirus, we all miss our daily activities a little bit more every day. Futsal is no exception. School weeks at Rangjung Yeshe are intense with a lot of studies, readings, quizzes. On Friday night, however, it is futsal time, our very much needed appointment to conclude the week […]
When practicing Buddhism, we are encouraged to engage with the teachings through study, reflection and meditation. In our academic studies at RYI we study for quizzes and exams and reflect in class-discussions and writing assignments. Meditation, however, is usually not part of the course-syllabi and it is up to us whether and how we take […]