The Moss in the Garden: My Experience as a Monk in Graduate School
Ven Khedrup
For the last year and a half, I have been studying for an MA in Asian Religions at McMaster University in addition to serving as the Tibetan-English language interpreter for Geshe Sonam at Lama Yeshe Ling Centre in Burlington,…
22
December
Signs of Death
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches at the annual Kopan November course in the newly rebuilt Chenrezig Gompa. - Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal; Photographer: Neal Patrick; 2019
Red and white drops at the time of death
I want to explain more about the signs of death. As you know from the death…
21
December
Chonyi Taylor
Even if the environment and beings are filled with the fruits of negativity, And unwished for sufferings pour down like rain, I seek your blessings to take these miserable conditions as a path By seeing them as causes to exhaust the results of my negative karma. …
21
December
By Ven Cristiana Ciampa Tsomo
Thank you, and thanks to IMI, for giving space for us bikshunis to share our experiences, since this would enhance people’s understanding of the Buddhadharma. Actually yes, after the IMI last newsletter I felt the need to say something about bikshuni vows, given my little but very positive experience on…
21
December
Interview with Ven Jamyang Wangmo (also known is Jampa Chokyi). Author of The Lawudo Lama, Stories of Reincarnation from the Mount Everest Region.
By Tendar
During a relaxed meeting in the garden of the Utpala Cafe in Boudha, Kathmandu, I was able to ask Ven Jamyang Wangmo (Jampa Chokyi) some questions. It is August 10,…
06
July

A new IMI cabin in Thakpa Kachoe, Vajrayogini Pure Land in France.
By Venerable Gyalten Yangchen
It is with great joy that we announce the opening of a cabin built by the International Mahayana Institute at Thakpa Kachoe, Vajrayogini Pure Land in France.
This new cabin, named “Olka Cholung”, after the name of the place in Tibet…
06
July

Teaching Each Other The Dharma
A report from the Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche retreat in Bendigo, Australia 2014
By Gelongma Lozang Yönten (Larisa Wahler)
Bendigo, Victoria fulfilled its promise of variable weather from biting cold to blazing hot – sometimes all in one day. Mirroring the changeable weather was, unsurprisingly, my mind – this is retreat…
06
July

Inspiration at the Light of the Path Retreat
By Ven. Tenzin Chogkyi
When I walked into the dining room at the Blue Ridge Assembly in North Carolina on the morning that the Light of the Path retreat was scheduled to start, it took me about 20 minutes to walk through the room to the buffet – the…
06
July

Pratimoksha is a bridle
With hundreds of sharp spikes, suited to
The horse of the mind, so hard to steer
And always driven with effort
~The Pratimoksha Sutra
Preparing for Ordination
Written by Ven. Thubten Dondrub
Motivation
Adopting the life of a renunciate is a life-long commitment in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. One takes ordination because one realizes that this human life…
06
July

The Job of Ordained People
By Ven. Antonio Satta
It is important to know-and for those who do know, to remember-that desire does not start with becoming ordained. We may sometimes find ourselves wondering why we are so full of desire, as if the ordained life increased or brought desire.
Abstinence (for ordained people) and giving vent…