Beginning in late September of this year, the IBA will be expanding its educational role to offer a three-year Post-Graduate training program for a very dedicated group of young monks. Participants in the program will already have completed their monastic training and attained a high academic standing in Buddhist Philosophy. These young monks will also be highly motivated to serve others through their development of leadership skills.

Each participating monk will choose to study either Mandarin Chinese or the English language. Training in oral and written Translation and courses in Computer Literacy and Accounting will also advance their capabilities in Communication and Administration. The skilled mentoring of their teachers will be both example and guide for the monks’ Leadership learning experiences.

This specialized training will take place for three consecutive years during the eight months in which International students are not in residence at the IBA for their program of Buddhist Philosophy and study of the Tibetan language. The IBA summer courses will continue to occupy the Academy’s focus during the months of June, July, August and half of September. During those months when students from around the world are in residence at the IBA, the monks in the three-year Post-Graduate training program will be visiting their families, friends, or their home monasteries.

Many of the student monks will be from Tibetan refugee families. Most of those entering this program will have no funding at all for their studies, and need to rely on sponsors for their tuition and their room and board expenses, which total approximately $40. US dollars per month. It is hoped that some sponsors will be able to make a full three-year commitment of support. Shorter commitments and group sponsorships are also important ways of accumulating the resources needed by the monks in order to complete this intensive program.

Supporters of the IBA can help to welcome the new Post-Graduate program by assisting in organizing sponsorships. Though these monks are without financial resources, their determination, focus, Dharma knowledge and personal qualities have earned them a place in this educational initiative.

It is extremely important for the bright and capable young monks of the next generation to receive opportunities such as this in order to enable them to make the fullest possible contribution to their communities.

Helping just one of these future leaders will result in bringing benefit to so many others!

Our web-site will be updated over the next few months to give some background information on individual monks requiring sponsorship, and more information on the Post-Graduate Leadership Training program. If you wish to donate now, please go to our “How To Help” section for information on bank transfers, and, eventually, other payment methods.

Dear Friends,
“How do I learn Tibetan?” is one of the most common questions that I hear. So let me do my best to address it. I’m sure others will have useful points to add.

Nevertheless, a few tips I can attest to:
1) Make an unshakable resolve to learn Tibetan. Don’t think about how long it will take or how fast you are progressing.
2) Start out in a structured program: a formal class is best. At the very least form a study group. I’ve only met one person (Tyler Dewar) who ever made much progress without structure -at least initially. The more peer pressure you get the better you’ll do. Immerse yourself (e.g. in India, Nepal or Tibet) if you can.
3) Spend at least six hours a week studying. I’ve never seen someone progress with less. More generally, the good news is that the more effort you put in, the better you get. The bad news is that you don’t get much better without effort. (Manjushri mantras do help though.)
4) Do your practices in Tibetan.
5) Learn spoken and written simultaneously. I didn’t follow this advice. Now, 30 years after I started Tibetan, I’m finally learning to speak a little.
6) Find something you absolutely HAVE to read that’s not translated, and consecrate your life to reading it.
7) If you find a Geshe/Khenpo/Lama who is willing to sit with you and read texts then serve them and utilize every opportunity to read with them; they are a scarce and invaluable resource. If you can’t find such a Geshe/Khenpo/Lama then take texts (e.g. Buddhahood Without Meditation) that have the Tibetan and English side by side and go through them carefully until you understand how they were translated.

Of course to be really good at translation, you need to make this more than a hobby. It’s a lifetime of effort.
However, to read competently is something we can all achieve.

As for books for spoken Tibetan:
http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Standard-Tibe…e/dp/1559391898
As for written Tibetan:
http://www.amazon.com/Translating-Buddhism…n/dp/0937938343
Here is some other useful stuff:
http://www.tibetanlanguage.org/Study_Aids/freestudyaids.html

1) The “center Geshe” is one of America’s great untapped resources. So if you’ve got one in your area they almost certainly have time on their hands and will enjoy working with you. Tenzin Wangyal nearly always has a Geshe staying at Ligmincha now and I’m sure you can find some time with them.
2) As for material: Choose a text that you’re excited about, that you can likely comprehend, and IS appropriate to the teacher (e.g. NOT an enumeration of characteristics of a suitable consort).
3) Show respect for their time and their situation by offering money early and often. You may not have a lot of money but they are likely to have less. To offer something (rather than nothing) shows consideration.
4) I have never had success studying Tibetan grammar with Tibetans themselves. They learn grammar by memorizing legs shad ljon dbang or something similar and even if they learn English are reticent to use western grammatical terms.
5) One more thought - choose something that is natively written in Tibetan and not in verse. The grammar will be clearer then.

Good luck!

Kurt Keutzer

As beautiful, inspiring, and profound the words of the Buddha can be (and definitely are), they are at times very hard to locate. And this is not only true within the world view expounded in the teaching on the precious human life, where we are told what an incredibly rare opportunity it is to be able to dispose freely of your time, to follow qualified teachers, and to study and practice the Dharma. What I am talking about here is of a slightly different nature as you will see. Not as profound and inspiring, but nevertheless very practical, especially for the scholars among us.

I am currently working on my M.A. thesis on Rong-ston chen-po’s commentary on the rGyud bla ma (Uttaratantra, Ratnagotravibhaga), one of Maitreya’s five precious treatises. This texts teaches us what we are ultimately capable of. It explains in great detail why “we are made for buddhahood”, namely: because that is precisely our nature – called Buddhanature (the tathagatgarbha).

In the course of my research I have to identify the quotations Rong-ston draws from the sutras and shastras (scientific treatises) in order to make his points.

The Kangyur (the translations of the Buddha’s words) comprises over 100 volumes organized by subject matter. These include vinaya, prajnaparamita-sutras, avatamsaka-sutra, sutra pitaka including many shorter sutras, and so forth, as well as many volumes of tantric scriptures.

The Tengyur (the translations of the treatises on the Buddha’s words) are also arranged by topics (such as praises, prajnaparamita, madhyamaka, sutra commentaries, cittamatra, abhidharma, pramana, tantra, and so forth) and comprises over 200 volumes. The three major editions of this Tibetan Buddhist canon come from Derge, Narthang, and Beijing.

Luckily for the researcher, we have catalogues which help us identify the volume we will find the text we are looking for in, as well as the page numbers. Although I had these precious helpers with me, I took me (frustrating) ages to locate a text, let alone the quotations. Eventually an angel from my university helped me out, sending me the most useful link for this kind of research. It turned out I was looking into a different edition of the Kangyur. Voila! It could have been so obvious.

Anyway, this research made me take my first steps in this vast universe the Tibetan Buddhist canon is, and it is fascinating. There is such a wealth of material out there to help us understand our mind! Translating these texts (well!) is of paramount importance if we are to establish a firm foundation for the future of the Buddha’s Dharma in the West. I really hope we can join in effort and support each other in laying the bricks for this foundation one by one. It will take generations, and we should certainly not expect any immediately tangible results from this kind of effort, but it is definitely worthwhile and beneficial for all of us.  

For those among you brave enough to still read this blog, here are the useful links:

-          Online catalogue of various Kangyur editions:

http://www.istb.univie.ac.at/kanjur/

-          Informations on Kangyur and Tengyur:

               http://www.thdl.org/xml/show.php?xml=/collections/literature/kangteng/kangteng.xml