LIFE IN A TYPICAL DAY AT LOSELING COLLEGE

Most of the monks get up early in the morning at around 5 o’clock. After first brushing their teeth and washing their face, they then go for refuge and generate bodhicitta through reciting refuge and bodhicitta prayers. Then they pray to Lord Manshushri through reciting Gangloma and reciting the OM ARA PATSA NA DHI mantra for hundreds and thousands of times to enhance their intelligence. Then they begin memorizing their required amount of text.

The monks then attend the morning assembly prayers where breakfast is served. Afterwards, they go back to their rooms and do either memorization or recitation of text which is already memorized or read other texts. From 8 am to 9 am they attend their philosophy classes, if there are classes, otherwise they prepare for their daytime debate session. At 9 am they attend the daytime debate session and debate until 11:30 am which is followed by lunch.
From 12:30 pm till 2 pm the new students learn handwriting and other subsidiary subjects such as poetry, history and grammar. From 2 pm to 5 pm the monks either go to their philosophy classes or study from their texts. Dinner is served at 5 pm. From 6 pm to 7 pm they attend philosophy classes, if there are classes, otherwise they do revisions or prepare for the evening debate session.
At 7 pm they attend the evening prayer session, which lasts until 9 pm. They need to attend the evening debate session which is from 9 pm to 11 pm. After 11 pm they are free to go back to their rooms. However, when the debate becomes really hot they continue to debate until 2 in the morning. When there are no evening prayers and evening debates then they need to recite their memorized texts from 7 pm to 11 pm.
Thus, this is a typical day in the life of a monk at Loseling College, where the monks spend their whole day listening, contemplating and meditating to preserve and flourish the teachings of Buddha like that of a waxing moon.