Since I came to India for the first time in 2015 I simply got inspired by the Tibetan people, by their culture, by how they try to preserve it while living in exile, by their belief, by their ancient knowledge and eventually by their language.
I attended many Tibetan Buddhist teachings where there was an English translation given but someone would always tell us that in order to understand the “Dharma” in its essence, we must understand the language that it is initially taught in.
This sentence got stuck in my head and as I returned back home I announced to my parents I would go to India again to learn Tibetan. People asked me why I would do that. What was the benefit? And honestly I couldn’t really tell why, there was no satisfying answer I could give to their utilitarian minds because there was no direct or obvious benefit of it at all. But for me there is!
It is the fulfillment of a dream, a wish that I felt deep inside my heart.
I am just doing it, simply for the sake of doing it. Without any utilitarian intention. I think more people should try this:)
Now that I am here in the Himalayas practicing Tibetan either on my own by reading hilarious Tibetan comics or by talking to the monks who go to school just next door, I feel amazingly thankful.
I am far away from understanding a Tibetan Buddhist teaching but by learning another language I clearly see how big the impact of language is on our lives, on our emotions and on how we perceive the world and our environment in general. We hear or read a word in our mother tongue and there comes a certain feeling with it, it starts a movement within you.
There are such big dimensions behind our words which we can merely surmise. And I feel like this is the case especially for Tibetan since this language is mostly developed to point out the nature of our mind. This, to me, is very beautiful and perhaps the greatest benefit.