Alumni Stories

In Harmony with Nature: Alumni Interview with Moondil Jahan

“The way I see it, it all comes down to being harmonious with nature, i.e. to be in accord with the way things truly are. All these activities, if done with wisdom and great compassion, will eventually lead to ultimate freedom…”

A Passion for Pramāṇa: Alumni Interview with Jo Donovon

“I feel very lucky and blessed to have the opportunity to be part of the monastery’s Shedra. I received the Tsadra scholarship which gives students the chance to do two years in the MA program and a year in the monk’s Shedra. It was an amazing experience to be in the monks’ classes every day, to debate with them and struggle with them. It was extremely hard but an amazing opportunity that I will be grateful for forever…”

Food of Sinful Demons: An Interview with Dr. Geoffrey Barstow

“..about two years into my PhD, I was reading Words of My Perfect Teacher by Patrul Rinpoche, and there were several lines in there where he was critical of eating meat. I was surprised by this, as I was a vegetarian myself, but hadn’t met many Tibetan vegetarians at that point. So I became interested in the question of how many vegetarians there had been in Tibet, what they had to say on the matter, and why more Tibetans weren’t vegetarian…”