Serlingpa biography of abraham
•
Was the Buddha a God or a Human Being?
Growing up in Kathmandu, I usually came across two groups of people who viewed the Buddha differently. One group viewed the Buddha as a God, someone who was able to magically relieve people from their sorrows. The other group saw the Buddha as a mere human being. For the second group, the Buddha was a social reformer who proclaimed ways to achieve harmony and peace in society. This duality made little sense to me and, in fact, inom had a hard time understanding if the Buddha they were talking about was the same being. This confusion only got worse as I came across other preconceived notions about Buddhism, some of them were that in order to follow Buddhism you had to become a monk or a nun, that meditation meant following your breath and nothing else, and some even hilarious ones like claiming Buddha to actually be a reincarnation of Vishnu and that Vishnu's main ambition to
•
Researching a Nunnery in Boudha
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 nuns perform. We were invited to attend Rinpoche’s birthday where they performed some Tara-dances that they had choreographed themselves, as well as traditional Vajra-dances that they learned from the Newar-Buddhists indigenous to the Kathmandu valley. We also learned a lot about the daily life in the nunnery, their education-system, environmental activism, connections to other nunneries and their great variety of practices during an almost two hours long interview with one of the nuns.
Our research taught us to use anthropological methods – like conducting interviews and observing ritua
•
Three Years in Rangjung Yeshe Institute
The sun, the moon, a lamp, a lightning flash –
They may illuminate, but they hardly clear away the inner murk.
This Bodhichitta is extolled by the holy as completely
Extirpating the darkness of living beings.
– Khunu Rinpoche
It feels like only yesterday when I enrolled myself for the BA program at RYI but three long years have passed. Three long years of rigorous days and nights, tons of assignments and extended deadlines alongside bountiful learning and enriching experiences. The past three years in RYI, being able to study dharma with so many amazing Khenpos, Lopens and professors has been blessings and life changing experience in every way.
One of the many precious classes that I was able to attend at RYI was Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara in the first year. Prior to studying Bodhicharyavatara, I had often heard the word ‘Bodhisattva’ but never have I ever pondere