The Problem-Melting Life of ACI's Anastasiia Manzurova

Anastasiia Manzurova, Queen of ACI Social Media

A wonderful part-time member of the Asian Classics Institute staff is Anastasiia Manzurova, who was born in the Cheboksari region of Russia on the River Volga, but has been for years now a resident of the beautiful small village of Sant Feliu de Guíxols on the Mediterranean Costa Brava about 100 km from Barcelona, Spain. Anastasiia has been a godsend to ACI.  Alona Stoliarchuk, ACI's Director of Marketing, says, "Anastasia is a very proactive, professional and inspiring person. I’m blessed to have her on board as Social Media Manager for ACI Home Office. She is a genius in video editing and her leadership qualities are ripening more and more each day with new power. With her knowledgeable, proactive approach to social media, ACI has reached more than 5,200 followers on Instagram. We recently broke the barrier of 150,000 organic views for one reel. And I am sure it's just the beginning! ❤️"  All the social posts and video reels you see on ACI sites come from the creative hand of Anastasiia, or one of the members of the volunteer team she has skillfully put together.

Anastasiia entered the path of accumulation, we could say, during her university days in Moscow. She was studying genetics, hoping that genome codes would help her learn to re-create healthy versions of diseased human body parts and ensure that people wouldn't have to get sick and die. But her teachers emphatically told her they didn't have such infinite powers and didn't want students who wanted that. So she turned to psychology, but was quickly put off by those professors bending over backward to "prove" they were pure science and not putting much attention on the idea of ending the mind's suffering.  "I knew," says Anastasiia, "that even if you had a perfect body, you could still have a suffering mind. Neither of these disciplines were focused on what I wanted."

A spiritual crisis ensued. Just about that time, Anastasiia's whole family moved to Spain. "It was the perfect place, the people were so kind, the food was wonderful, the greatest beach on the planet was five minutes away, it was clean and safe, there was no war, just lots of time with my family and friends," she tells us. "A beautiful, beautiful place. And I was so depressed!" This, says Anastasiia, was the magical part. She had a perfect life, but it all felt so wrong. 

So she searched and searched for answers, reading many books where she first came across the idea of emptiness, although she later found out she had initially received an incorrect teaching. She kept investigating, and after years of searching, encountered Geshe Michael Roach in an online video.  By this time, Anastasiia had started to go over to the dark side, convinced that she should stop being kind, that no one cared, and that all anyone wanted was to become a millionaire. She knew this was wrong, but didn't know why. "I didn't want to exist in that world," she explains. "But I wanted to help other people! And I didn't care if no one agreed with me."

In the video Anastasiia saw, Geshe Michael was teaching the pen. She instantly knew, "Oh, he's going to teach us about emptiness! Wow!"  She was very impressed at the combination of simplicity and depth Geshe Michael showed. "It's a simple image, yet people will understand. Geshe Michael must be a genius!"

He taught her that in choosing something she must rely on her heart. She is still amazed that one day he just "appeared" on the internet for her. At first, Anastasiia resisted the 18 ACI Foundation Courses because, she felt, they represented too much work. But another seemingly random internet appearance brought Anastasiia the idea of lojong, or developing the good heart. "Hmm," thought Anastasiia. "ACI 14 is lojong. Maybe I'll study all these courses after all."

As she studied, more problems kept melting for her along the way. For example, it was so difficult to do her homework using MS Word in Russian, then suddenly the ACI online student platform appeared to solve the problem. She met some ACI people visiting her own small town. She volunteered for reading groups going through All the Kinds of Karma, posting announcements for Diamond Cutter Classics' Xuanzang Tower translation program, helping with payments and money management for the ALL Gold Club, setting up Instagram, Facebook, and marketing for different groups in different channels. Anastasiia was searching for something meaningful and serious to do within the Worldview groups.

And then she met ACI's Alona Stoliarchuk and the two had an immediate rapport. "Alona knew exactly how to give me a task," says Anastasiia, and she was off on her new career of volunteering for ACI. "It was magical! She gave me tasks for videos, and she's the perfect image of how to give someone a task! She's so easy to work with. I was so enjoying this." 

The feeling was mutual. As soon as possible, Alona asked Anastasiia if she wanted to work for ACI. "Yes!" said Anastasiia. 

Now she has finished 13 of her 18 ACI Foundation Courses, is taking teacher trainings, and has found her heart lama. She's living with her parents, who say they are too old to learn new things. "But they're not," confides Anastasiia. She is using skillful means. 

Anastasiia has personal goals of seeing people not dying, of not struggling, of being happy. She wants to make dharma accessible to the world. She thinks she will be a teacher. "I have no choice," she says. "Geshe Michael says, 'You're gonna!' Peter and Marija (Moertl) say, 'You're gonna!'" 

She hasn't met Geshe Michael yet in person, but hopes that will happen soon. "I'm at the stage of needing to learn," she says. "I have such beautiful dreams. I love seeing people in the sangha talk Tibetan! I know I'm in good hands and I'm safe. I tell people, just relax, do your job, trust. Don't worry. Just practice—focus, study, meditate. We're on our way to realization."

Anastasiia has in no way given up on her university-days dream of stopping death. But now she has the perfect forum to accomplish it.