When Luca Zoeller ’26 first got to CC, he knew he wanted to grow as a person and be prepared for whatever life throws at him once he graduates. So, when a fellow student in one of his first-year classes mentioned Carleton College’s Buddhist Studies in India program, Zoeller was intrigued. After doing some research and learning that participants in the program spend ten weeks studying Buddhism in Bodh Gaya, India, and Chiang Mai, Thailand, Zoeller knew this was the right choice for him.
“I wanted to go to the other side of the world, but I didn’t want to just travel, as I know there are a lot of other programs that I could have done,” Zoeller says. “What I really wanted to do was grow a lot as a person and really have a space to reflect on that growth. I don’t think there was a better program to do that than this one.”
Buddhist Studies in India has been taking students to India and Thailand since 1979. Zoeller and 16 other undergraduate students from the U.S. participated this year, including Dan Schmidt ’25, and students from other small liberal arts colleges, like Grinnell College, as well as participants from bigger schools such as the University of Southern California and the University of Montana.
Zoeller says that while it’s an ongoing process, he believes he has grown tremendously as a person since returning from the program. He says he learned that self-growth is not a one-time achievement, as he originally thought it would be. Rather, it’s an ongoing process that requires continuous work.
Participants in the Buddhist Studies in India program spent three months studying in India and Thailand, and then spent the last quarter conducting an independent research project by themselves in one of three locations: Dharamsala, India; Kathmandu, Nepal; or Sri Lanka. The bulk of the program took place at the Burmese Vihar Monastery in Bodh Gaya, India.
While in Bodh Gaya, students were expected to refrain from using technology. Although they were given limited access at specific times to conduct research for their independent projects, students were not supposed to use their phones or other technology for personal use. Though it was an adjustment at first, Zoeller found it incredibly peaceful and actually had troubling re-adjusting to life back in the United States, where he says he gets texts all the time and feels that he is expected to be available and respond to everyone right away. This experience completely changed the way Zoeller uses his phone, along with other technology. Though he does still use social media, he is way more cognizant of it.
“There’s so much of this world to do that’s not on the phone,” Zoeller says. “And the crazy thing is, there’s also so much to do on the phone, right? So, for me, it’s really trying to strike the balance of how much I want to be on my phone and then consider in what ways I want to use my phone, and then how much I want to go be in the real world.”
Prior to participating in the program, Zoeller used his phone a lot, for texting, social media, and gaming. Now, that’s all changed.
“As for how my habits changed, I kind of realized the importance of being mindful of when I’m on the phone,” Zoeller says. “Like, I say to myself, ‘oh, I’m actually on this phone.’ And it’s like, ‘why am I even doing this?’ Like I know I want to do all of these other things. I have all these goals in life, but then like, ‘here I am, and I just have some mindless reel or something going on.’ It’s harder now to subscribe to just being mindless and disassociating or doing something that I don’t align with.”
Zoeller and his roommate in Bodh Gaya became very close, and they spent time studying, checking out the local town, and doing yoga together. The roommate also taught Zoeller qigong, a Chinese mind-body exercise, which Zoeller continues to practice back on campus.
While working on their independent research project throughout the program, participants also took three classes. All students were required to take Meditation Traditions, but they had a choice in their other classes, and Zoeller decided to enroll in Hindi and Buddhist Philosophy. Zoeller really enjoyed the Meditation Traditions class, which was run in a similar way to the Block Plan. Students learned about and practiced Vipassana, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism.
Zoeller is a Music major and, when given the opportunity to pick his own research topic, he knew he wanted to study something to do with this passion. He first heard Tibetan music while at a memorial in the monastery, where he says he experienced a very loving atmosphere with a lot of people.
“I didn’t think someone could make that sound with their voice, but they do, and they can just access so many different harmonics and it’s a really crazy sound,” says Zoeller, who, after doing some initial research at the monastery’s incredible library, decided to focus on Tibetan music. He learned about symbolism in the art form and how artists use and channel visualization into their music.
During the fourth month, program participants departed from the monastery to conduct their independent research project. Zoeller chose Nepal for his location, as Kathmandu is home to one of the largest Tibetan populations and Buddhist populations in the zone of Bouddha. Additionally, one of the program’s teachers lives near Kathmandu and offered to help students with connections for their projects.
Zoeller’s original plan was to go to different monasteries to talk to them and observe their rituals, but he ended up having trouble due to some of the monasteries being relatively closed off to the public. Instead, he focused on Tibetan music techniques and instruments, and was fascinated to learn that a lot of them have to do with death. He even got to see a trumpet which was made out of a human femur.
While in Kathmandu, Zoeller and his roommate – a second-year student at a liberal arts school in Ohio – would mediate before getting breakfast, and then spend the day doing yoga, reading, working on their independent research project and literary review, and debating on a multitude of subjects.
“The topics would be all the way from the nature of reality to the West and Buddhism and what the purpose of science is,” Zoeller says. “We debated reason and rational thinking and its place in studying what we were studying. We even talked about gender and other politics.”
Another positive aspect of the program was the community Zoeller found. While abroad, his grandfather passed away, which Zoeller mentioned to some of his peers. His classmates set up candles on the roof and then said a few words and prayers. One of Zoeller’s friends stayed with him for hours afterwards, and they talked about death and what it meant to them, which Zoeller says was a very special moment that he will continue to treasure.
Though he didn’t know fellow CC student Schmidt prior to the program, they ultimately became great friends and remain close. They also both stay in touch with their peers from the program. In fact, Zoeller’s roommate in Bodh Gaya goes to school near Zoeller’s hometown, and he recently visited Zoeller.
One of Zoeller’s favorite parts of the program was the cultural aspect, where he learned about different cultures and got to eat traditional Indian food. Something he noticed and took to heart was the amount of time it takes for the chefs to cook food, which is something he considers to be a life lesson.
“It takes them a long time to cook what they cook,” Zoeller says. “It’s not like in the U.S. where you just throw food together really quick, or you have your meal prep and you throw it together quick. They have their pots, and they cook these big meals, and you sit down with a big menu, and everything is so good. I know people may say that a lot, but literally everything is so good, and you can’t really go wrong.”
Zoeller says this is one of the lessons that showed him the importance of taking his time and being present throughout his life. Rather than racing through all the little moments, he’s learned to slow down and enjoy them.
“One thing I’ve learned is how the life in front of me is really beautiful and I just can’t always see it,” Zoeller says. “I guess some people can call it faith, but it’s just a hope, you know? And I guess a lot of that comes from the understanding of how everything comes and goes. I think I really learned that because every teacher we talked to was very inspiring to see in person, since you just don’t meet people like that in your day to day very often.”