Lama Yeshe’s Wisdom

Lama Yeshe during the month-long course at Chenrezig Institute, Australia, 1975. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Lama Thubten Yeshe, who founded the FPMT organization with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, had a way of clearly relating Dharma practice to the everyday experiences of the Western students he taught. Here Lama Yeshe offers advice on how to understand attachment and transform it into compassionate concern for others.

We are most fortunate to have been able to pinpoint attachment as the greatest of all problems. When we speak of evil, demons, and so forth, it’s the inner devil of attachment we’re talking about. Even though for countless lives we’ve looked outside ourselves for the source of our problems, there’s nothing external to blame. Therefore we should rejoice that we have finally identified this inner cause of all suffering.

We can be quite foolish. Say you’re in a spooky old house somewhere with a couple of friends. It’s late at night, and you’re watching horror movies on TV. One of your friends says, “Don’t go into the basement; there’s something evil down there.” Then, if you do have to go down to the basement, you feel scared: “There really is something evil down here.” You’re so easily prone to superstition. This is completely silly. There’s no such thing as external evil and fear of it is simply a projection of the evil in your own mind. If you speculate enough, your superstitious mind is sure to produce something, and where once you were unafraid, you now feel fear. All such foolishness comes from attachment.

Therefore finally recognizing that all these negative things—demons, enemies, evil, or whatever other terms are used in everyday conversation, science, or religion—come from the inner demon of attachment and bravely changing attachment to oneself into concern for others is both wonderful and wise.

There are countless living beings on Earth but very few know about exchanging self and others. This practice may be very difficult but it’s extremely worthwhile. If you can do it, it will help solve all your problems.

Changing your outlook in this way transforms whatever misery you perceive into the peaceful path of liberation.

We desperately need a method such as this. Life is suffering; our minds are weak. Exchanging self and others is truly revolutionary and this inner revolution, which has nothing to do with radical external change, completely turns our mental attitude upside down.

If you were to think that Buddhism was simply about sitting in meditation practicing concentration, you might reject it: “My knees hurt; my body wasn’t built for this. Buddhism is just a Himalayan lama thing. Anyway, I can’t live without working and taking care of my worldly affairs. Dharma is not for me.” But Mahayana Buddhism is about much more than just sitting in concentration. If you are wise, you can practice twenty-four hours a day.

Whenever any difficulty or problem arises, instead of getting depressed, be brave. Think, “Fantastic. If this problem had not arisen I might have felt I had no problems. This problem is my teacher; all problems are my teacher. They give me knowledge-wisdom and help me recognize more clearly the nature of attachment. This is so wonderful. May all mother sentient beings’ problems ripen upon me right now and may they receive all my merit, fortune, and wisdom.”

If you have difficulty taking the suffering of others onto yourself, first practice on yourself. The next time your knees hurt when you’re sitting in meditation, take that pain onto your ego and let it freak out. Let your ego freak out more and more. Practice that for a week.

Then practice taking onto yourself all the suffering you have ever experienced in your life. Your ego and attachment won’t like that either, but let them freak out again. Then slowly, slowly extend your practice to take upon yourself the sufferings of your parents, your friends, all the people in your country, and all the people on Earth until you are receiving the problems and suffering of all sentient beings throughout the universe. Then, without hesitation, send out to them all your possessions, happiness, and merit.

What is the technique for actually practicing this taking and giving meditation, which Tibetans call tonglen? You combine it with meditation on the breath in what is basically a nine-round breathing meditation.

Start by breathing out through your right nostril. Visualize the air you exhale in the form of white light, the essence of which is all your positive energy and wisdom. This white light radiates to all sentient beings in the six realms of samsara and beyond. It enters their left nostril, goes into their hearts and generates in them great bliss. Visualize the air they exhale in the form of thick black smoke, the essence of which is all their negativity, confusion, and heavy suffering. This dark, polluted energy enters your left nostril and goes down into your heart. Don’t leave it outside of you; bring it right down into your heart so that your ego and attachment completely freak out.

The nature of attachment is such that when problems arise, it blindly pushes them away. This practice trains your mind to handle negativity, feel compassion for the others, and take their suffering and problems onto yourself, which in turn helps you overcome self-cherishing and cherish others more than yourself.

Do the above cycle of breathing white light out through your right nostril and black smoke in through your left three times. Then breathe out through your left nostril and in through your right three times. Then breathe out and in through both nostrils together three times. At the end of each nine rounds concentrate for as long as you can that you and all other sentient beings have been completely purified of all suffering, negativity, and dualistic mind, and are fully enlightened, experiencing everlasting bliss that pervades your entire body and mind. When you lose focus on this, repeat the nine rounds once more. Repeat this cycle again and again for the duration of the session.

Don’t think that this is just a fantasy and that doing this meditation makes no difference to the suffering of yourself and others. Actually, it is a profound practice, and each time you do it, it brings you and all other sentient beings closer to enlightenment. The greatest obstacle to enlightenment is self-cherishing, and taking on all the suffering, karma, and delusions of all sentient beings and giving them all your happiness and merit is the best way of overcoming it. The most effective way of training your mind to overcome self-cherishing is to practice tonglen meditation.

From Mandala eZine February 2011. Originally published in Ego, Attachment and Liberation, a free publication from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LamaYeshe.com). The book features a collection of Lama Yeshe’s teaching from a five-day meditation course near Melbourne, Australia in 1975.

Through timely advice, news stories, and updates, FPMT.org and Mandala Publications share the wisdom culture inspired and guided by the teachings of FPMT founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. 

Lama Yeshe teaching at Olinda, Australia, July 1976. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Lama Yeshe, who founded FPMT with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, had a remarkable ability to connect with Western students. What follows are questions and answers from a teaching Lama Yeshe gave in July 1976 to Australian students on how we exist in the world. In these teaching, Lama Yeshe also spoke on karma and willpower:

Question: It seems that Buddhism revolves around shunyata. Could you please explain what that is, what absolute nature is?

Lama Yeshe: Modern science has discovered that all matter—different colors, different objects and so forth—may appear differently, but there is some essential energy, some quality, that embraces all existent matter equally. Buddhism says the same thing. There is an absolute reality, shunyata, that equally embraces all existence. But our relative mind, our mundane thought, cannot see this. It is obscured by superstition. 

Therefore, when you meditate or contemplate on your mind, your consciousness, as your concentration deepens this relative perception vanishes. You can release all superstition and relative appearances and experience universal reality. Is that clear? It’s a difficult thing, but the human problem is not understanding the reality of what we are. 

Q: Is it possible to discover absolute nature without a guru? 

Lama: Sure. It’s possible. When we talk about a guru we’re not saying you need one in this life. Some people are born having already discovered absolute nature. Therefore you can’t say you need a guru to discover it. Even among us here, some people are quite advanced, others have a long way to go. So you cannot say “that-this” exactly. It depends how developed your intelligence is. 

Actually, we talk about both relative guru and absolute guru. The relative guru is the person who shows you the path and puts your mind into the right channel. The absolute guru is your own wisdom. Therefore, the absolute guru is more important than the relative. 

Q: Lama, do you feel a sense of “I,” and if so, could you explain its nature? 

Lama: Do you mean do I feel I have an “I”? [Yes.] Of course I have an “I”—a big “I”! Yes, for sure!

But that’s a good question. I have a big “I,” but you have to be careful. Whether we’re a buddha or a sentient being, we all, equally, have a relative “I.” But we sentient beings paint our relative I over and over again, layer upon layer, coat upon coat. Although deep within, the I is completely nothing, Layer upon layer, we build up a huge, hallucinated world, “This is me.” Then, when somebody says to us, “You are bad,” we get terribly hurt. Actually, nobody can make us bad, nobody can make us good. Our goodness or badness is our own experience. But the intellect is too much, too much. That’s the way it is.

You may read the complete teaching in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s July 2020 E-letter. Lama Yeshe gave this teaching in Olinda, Victoria, Australia, 30 July 1976. Archive #776. Edited by Nicholas Ribush. See Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe, Volume 1, Chapter 15, “Melbourne: The Olinda Course” for the context of this teaching. 

Through timely advice, news stories, and updates, FPMT.org and Mandala Publications share the wisdom culture inspired and guided by the teachings of FPMT founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. 

Lama Yeshe teaching at Olinda, Australia, July 1976. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Lama Yeshe had a remarkable ability to connect with Western students, who flocked to his teachings wherever he traveled. What follows is an excerpt from a teaching Lama Yeshe gave in July 1976 to Australian students on how we exist in the world. Here Lama Yeshe talks about the importance of willpower:

The best thing you can do in the morning is to exercise your willpower. If, when you get up, you generate a strong, powerful motivation for the day, putting your body, speech, and mind into the right channel, the rest of your day will go beautifully. Even if people try to agitate you, you remain in control of your emotions. If you can control yourself for one day, you can control yourself for two. If you can control yourself for two days, you can control yourself for three. If you can control yourself for three days, you can control yourself for a week. If you can be happy for a week, why not two? If you can be happy for two weeks, why not a month? If you can be happy for a month, why not a year? And that’s the way your life can go.

Don’t look for some hallucinated fantasy: “Oh, I want higher meditation.” You’re not dealing with reality. Be simple; don’t be arrogant. Meditation practitioners shouldn’t show off to others, “I’m special; I’m a meditator.” No. Just be an average person, simple on the outside but profound within. Try to develop profound wisdom within as much as you possibly can. That’s the important thing. If you try to act important and put on a big show, you’re going to run into difficulties. Psychologically, you’ll make things difficult for yourself. 

Mahayana Buddhism contains incredible methods for transforming mundane situations—eating, speaking, drinking, everything—into the blissful path to liberation. Aren’t we lucky? Mahayana teachings never say that negative actions are always completely fixed as negative. It depends on your mental attitude—how you use your wisdom—when you do them. So use it. 

Furthermore, being a meditator does not mean just sitting somewhere doing nothing. Every moment, try to be as aware as possible. When you talk to people, be aware. That doesn’t mean you have to squeeze yourself into awareness. As I said before, just be a simple person who’s profound inside. Actually, it’s so simple. Incredible. 

In Tibet, we didn’t have many clocks or watches. But all we’d have to do before going to bed was to make the determination, “Tomorrow morning I’m going to wake before sunrise.” And, amazingly, we would! If you’ve had that experience, that’s fantastic. It’s your experience. It’s not something you just have to believe in. That is willpower. 

Similarly, if, in the morning, you look at the day ahead and see that you’re going to have to deal with a difficult, complicated situation, do a strong bodhicitta meditation, affirming to yourself, “Today, I’m not going to get angry.” It doesn’t have to be too long; five minutes could be enough. I can guarantee you that on that day you will not get angry. That’s so worthwhile, isn’t it?

You may read the complete teaching in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s July 2020 E-letter. Lama Yeshe gave this teaching in Olinda, Victoria, Australia, 30 July 1976. Archive #776. Edited by Nicholas Ribush. See Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe, Volume 1, Chapter 15, “Melbourne: The Olinda Course” for the context of this teaching. 

Through timely advice, news stories, and updates, FPMT.org and Mandala Publications share the wisdom culture inspired and guided by the teachings of FPMT founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. 

International Mahayana Institute Sangha, Nalanda Monastery, Lavaur, France, 1983. Photo includes Adrian Feldmann (Thubten Gyatso), Chodron Thubten (Cherry Greene), Dieter Kratzer, Lama Yeshe, Merry Colony, Sangye Khadro (Kathleen McDonald), Geshe Jampa Tegchok. Also included in the photo a local priest, Father Bastiani, wearing blue. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935–1984) gave a talk to the fledgling Western Sangha at Tushita Retreat Centre in Dharamsala, India, in April 1982, during the first Enlightened Experience Celebration. Lama Yeshe addressed the purpose of Nalanda Monastery, the FPMT monastery in France, and the importance of Western Sangha becoming teachers.

Here’s a short excerpt of this talk taken from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s most recent multimedia presentation: The Advantages of Monastic Life: Advice for Monks and Nuns. (Click through to see photos and video of Lama Yeshe teaching, and to read more.)

It is important that we consider how to present Dharma in the West. You can’t just say, ‘‘Oh, this director invited me to come and give teachings. OK, I’ll just go.’’ This has happened many times, but I’m not sure that it’s appropriate. Therefore, I wanted to say a little about education at Nalanda Monastery.

What is the purpose of Nalanda Monastery? It is a center for education, for Buddhist studies. Ideally, this means that eventually all the Sangha will become teachers. Come on! I want you to understand this. Now, being a teacher doesn’t mean only being an intellectual words teacher. There are many different ways in which you can teach. Generally, however, I expect everybody to be well educated. There is a great demand for teachers in our centers; we are very short of them. Are you aware of this or not? Everybody should know this. Then you will put more energy into trying to benefit others instead of being lazy. The world’s need for Dharma teachers is great.

The way this should work is that centers that need teachers should send their requests to the monastery, and the abbot and gekyö should decide who goes out to teach. That’s a good idea; it prevents people from doing their own individual trips. Of course, the center director can specify the qualifications or even the person required—‘‘He or she is best for us because of the way we communicate’’—something like that. For people to do their own trip is not so good. Also, this is not some kind of competition; we are just trying to be as beneficial as possible.

I feel sometimes that Western teachers are more suitable for Western beginners. They are oriented to the culture and may be more acceptable to new students: ‘‘This is just what I need; I can use this.’’ We should encourage Westerners to do this kind of thing. Of course, Tibetan lamas can still come to give advanced teachings, but there are limitations to this as well. Therefore, we should hurry to educate ourselves well so that we can be of maximum benefit to others.

In our Sangha community, many students are already experienced in giving lamrim courses. They have been teaching and I’m very happy about that. They are growing. Some Sangha members have intuitively understood that they should teach; I didn’t have to push them. But others don’t understand that they should teach and worry about it: ‘‘Lama said everybody has to teach. How can I possibly become a teacher?’’ Don’t worry. Whatever your ability, just do as much as you can with your life. To my way of thinking, that’s good enough. You don’t necessarily have to push yourself to accumulate intellectual knowledge. We have room for people to serve the Buddhadharma in many different ways.

In the future, if we organize the monastery situation well, benefiting others through your education will also provide your bread and butter. Do not feel that, just because you cannot take care of yourself at the moment, your life as a Tibetan Buddhist monk or nun will always be economically difficult. That kind of mind arises sometimes; it’s not so good. It’s quite right to think about the situation, but many people in the world need teachers and, if you are well educated, they will support you. If a center applies for a Sangha member to come and teach, the center should take care of that person’s airfare, food, clothing, and stipend. Sangha should have a big view. If you educate yourself well and serve others, they will take care of you; it’s natural. You offer something, you benefit others—others will benefit you. That’s the cyclic nature of samsara. …

The Advantages of Monastic Life: Advice for Monks and Nuns presents the teachings of Lama Yeshe in a multimedia format that beautifully weaves together video of Lama Yeshe, transcripts, and images. Edited by Nicholas Ribush and published by LYWA in Advice for Monks and Nuns. Multimedia presentation created by Megan Evart. May the Sangha flourish in the ten directions for the benefit of all sentient beings!

The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive offers more than twenty multimedia presentations for students at any level to explore and deepen their understanding of the teachings of Buddha as shared by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Through timely advice, news stories, and updates, FPMT.org and Mandala Publications share the wisdom culture inspired and guided by the teachings of FPMT founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. 

Installing the portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the Kopan Gompa. Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa with other monks offering prayers, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 1972. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

In the early 1970s, Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935–1984), who founded FPMT with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, gave Sunday afternoon lectures to foreigners at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. These mostly young people would come from where they were staying in the immediate vicinity (very few people were able to stay at Kopan at the time) or Kathmandu to hear Lama Yeshe teach.

The following teaching excerpt comes from one of these Sunday afternoon sessions with Lama Yeshe. This teaching, which took place on January 2, 1972, is an example of how early Western students experienced Lama Yeshe, who was thirty-six years old at the time, and of his remarkable ability to connect with them.

So I think you people have gained enough intellectual understanding but have not yet actualized the teachings to the point of gaining realizations. Therefore, at this stage you need to say, “I understand that I’ve been following my old habits for countless lives. I no longer want to go on like this; I want to stop following the interpretations of my wrong conceptions.” If you begin to experiment and act in accordance with your intellectual understanding then you’ll really affect your mind.

Otherwise, you might know all the words, but when real trouble comes you go berserk, the same as you always have. If you don’t change your mind, you will continue to react in the same old way, no matter who you are—a lama, a yogi, a meditator in a cave— arrogantly thinking, “I’m special.” If you get down and depressed when difficulties arise, that shows you have no understanding.

The ancient Mahayana practitioners of India and Tibet would first listen to teachings and study deeply. When they felt they had gained enough knowledge, they would go into solitude and, avoiding all contact with other people, look completely within and experiment with inner realizations. It’s now necessary for you people to do the same thing.

What’s the point of listening, listening, listening to teachings, collecting words, but then not integrating what you’ve heard with your mind or gaining realizations? You’re not here to learn language from me! Your English is much better than mine. You’re not here just to listen and collect words; don’t believe that it’s only through listening to words that you can gain realizations. That’s a wrong conception.

You have to integrate into experience whatever you understand. Once you have gained experience and realization of one topic you need to go on to the next, which takes you further down the path. Without moving forward step by step, it’s impossible to progress; you can’t simply collect high-sounding words while leaving your actions down here on the ground. Collecting words that talk of flying to the moon doesn’t mean you fly to the moon; with words alone you remain earthbound. It’s the same if you think arrogantly that you can get higher realizations simply by listening to Lama’s words. Without actualizing that which you understand and integrating it within you, you can’t.

We think we learn from people: “I spent a long time with him and learned a lot.” What did you learn? I don’t think you learn from somebody by spending time with that person. You learn from yourself, from what your own mind says—everything’s in there. For example, the thoughts of everybody in the universe are already within you, so you can learn from your own mind; others’ expressions are already within your mind; if you listen to yourself, to your mind, you’ll find others’ expressions are there. So you might say, “I’m learning from him,” but I don’t think you are. Listen to your own mind; check yourself—that’s the way to learn and solve your own inner problems. I don’t think it’s so beneficial to always be looking, listening, and searching outside. That’s just externalism.

Check up, for example, why you can’t stay alone for a week without seeing or talking to anybody. Why can’t you? What makes it difficult? The difficulty comes from your own mind.

You should realize that all such experiences—happiness, peace, good, bad—completely depend on the interpretation of the individual wrong conception mind. If you realize the teachings beyond words, you’ll really be able to solve your inner problems.

Edited by Nicholas Ribush. You can read a full version of this teaching as a PDF from Mandala July-December 2019.

You can also find this teaching and many others like it from Lama Yeshe in The Enlightened Experience: Collected Teachings, Volume 1, an ebook by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (https://www.lamayeshe.com/). The ebook is a compilation of teachings given by Lama Yeshe in the 1970s and 1980s, when he traveled the world extensively with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and taught at many courses, seminars, and public talks.

Through timely advice, news stories, and update, FPMT.org and Mandala Publications share the wisdom culture inspired and guided by the teachings of FPMT founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. 

Lama Yeshe with children and families at Istituto Lama Tsongkhapa, Italy, 1983. Photos by Ueli Minder, courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

For FPMT students, Losar, the Days of Miracles, and Chotrul Duchen have an important significance as it commemorates the anniversary of the parinirvana of Lama Thubten Yeshe, who co-founded FPMT with Lama Zopa Rinpoche. As part of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice on how to best use this sacred time of year, in addition to doing pujas and recitations, Rinpoche recommends taking time to share stories and remembrances of Lama Yeshe. 

During the 100 Million Mani retreat at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy in 2017, there were two sessions during which long-time FPMT students shared their stories of Lama Yeshe. These touching memories included stories from the early days at Kopan Monastery on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal, and Lawudo Gompa, high up in the Himalayas, as well as from the time Lama Yeshe spent in Italy, France, and Spain. Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Tenzin Osel Hita, the reincarnation of Lama Yeshe, also make appearances in these stories.

We are happy to share two videos of these informal sessions. Please enjoy these touching accounts of Lama Yeshe’s kindness and wisdom as told by Massimo Corona, Ven. Elisabeth Drukier, Ven. Charles, Paula de Wys, Piero Cerri, and Ven. Zia Bassam.

Watch stories about Lama Yeshe from senior FPMT students (Massimo Corona, Ven. Elisabeth Drukier, and Ven. Charles):
https://youtu.be/al0YNTbWkUc

Watch stories about Lama Yeshe from senior FPMT students (Paula de Wys, Piero Cerri, and Ven. Zia Bassam):
https://youtu.be/PPddKA1zAFQ

These videos are also available in Spanish:
https://youtu.be/Q3xJ9DXjrlQ
https://youtu.be/YaV8WNsskb0

You can also watch them in Italian:
https://youtu.be/OYzrrfO4lPE
https://youtu.be/MXahdgQ8q6I

Read more about Losar, the Fifteen Days of Miracles, and what practices to do during this auspicious period.

For more stories about Lama Yeshe and hundreds of photos of Lama Yeshe with early students, see Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe, published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Through timely advice, news stories, and updates, FPMT.org and Mandala Publications share the wisdom culture inspired and guided by the teachings of FPMT founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. 

Lama Yeshe standing in a field of a daffodil farm while visiting the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne, Australia, 1976. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

As Losar approaches on Friday, February 12, 2021, we want to remember Lama Thubten Yeshe, who founded FPMT with Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Lama Yeshe’s heart stopped beating just before dawn on Losar, March 3, 1984. Rinpoche recommends especially sharing remembrances of Lama Yeshe at this time of year. Lama Yeshe had a remarkable ability to connect with Western students, who flocked to his teachings wherever he traveled. What follows is an excerpt from a teaching Lama Yeshe gave in July 1976 to Australian students on how we exist in the world. Here Lama Yeshe talks about how to live with an understanding of karma:

In English, one word can have different meanings. Similarly, whenever you express your own religious conceptions, ideas, philosophies or doctrines—whatever word you choose for it—saying, “This is right, that is wrong,” you’re just expressing your personal experience, making a personal judgment, not something that’s true in terms of the understanding of all of humanity. Still, I think it’s difficult for you to understand even your own personal experience of the way you perceive things, the way you feel, the way you discriminate. 

However, through meditation, you can learn to tell the difference between right and wrong mental attitudes and, in particular, you can see how your dissatisfied mind makes you miserable. By understanding that, you can liberate yourself from confusion—you don’t need to believe in something. That’s why in his teachings Lord Buddha said that understanding knowledge-wisdom is the path to liberation.

Most of the time, including the present, we’re unaware of what we’re experiencing. We eat, drink, and so forth unconsciously. It’s true—I’m not trying to hypnotize you. Most of the time we’re unconscious. But, through meditation you can recollect all your past experiences. You can take your mind back through last month, last year, and all the way back to the time you were reborn. Then, by knowing the cause and effect of your past lives’ experience, you can relate it to the present time and understand what’s going on now: “If right now I put my actions into this particular channel the effect should be such and such.” You can get a pretty good idea. 

Therefore, it’s very important to know what’s going on in both your past and future experiences. “If I act this way, this is going to happen. If I act that way, that will be the effect.” Karma is very important.

Otherwise, many people think, “Whatever comes, comes. I’ll go along with that.” And then you do. Other people, especially in the East, have an extreme view of karma: “Karma is fixed; I can’t do anything. My karma has given me this kind of life; I have to accept it.” You can accept what you are in this present life, but it’s not fixed. You can change your present situation for a better future. It’s not fixed.

If you say, “My karma has led me to this miserable life, I can’t do anything about it, I believe in my karma,” that’s ridiculous. Instead of making progress and becoming more open, by accepting that wrong philosophy of karma you become more narrow-minded. That’s a dangerous thing. You talk about karma, but if you don’t know what karma really is and believe in your limited idea of it, you become a fanatic. Therefore, it’s very important to have the right understanding of karma.

Question: It seems, for instance, that whatever situation you’re born in, that’s your karma, and that’s something you can’t change. 

Lama Yeshe: Yes, that’s right. You can’t change that, but you can change lifestyle. For example, I was born in Tibet but now I’ve changed in that I’ve adapted to the Australian lifestyle. I’m eating muesli, fantastic chocolates, and other things that we didn’t have in Tibet! 

Look, say you accidentally cut your arm. OK, it’s already cut, but there’s no point worrying. That won’t help. What you should do is take measures to heal that cut. That’s all you can do. The cut is there; you have to accept it. 

Similarly, say you see a snake. You think, “Oh, a snake’s life is awful. I wish that snake could become a happy person.” That’s impossible. You can wish that, but for the time being the snake’s karma is to be in such a body. Until that karma finishes neither you nor the snake can do anything about it. Its body can’t radically change into a human one just like that. It’s not possible.

However, don’t think that karma is fixed. You can change your karma; you can change a miserable situation into a happy, blissful one. Even if you’ve done the worst, most negative things in the world, you don’t need to worry. If, with right wisdom, you change your old behavior, you can become a perfectly enlightened being, even in this life. For sure, that’s possible.

You may read the complete teaching in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s July 2020 E-letter. Lama Yeshe gave this teaching in Olinda, Victoria, Australia, 30 July 1976. Archive #776. Edited by Nicholas Ribush. See Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe, Volume 1, Chapter 15, “Melbourne: The Olinda Course” for the context of this teaching. 

Read more about Losar, the Fifteen Days of Miracles, and what practices to do during this auspicious period:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/advice-and-ideas-for-losar-and-the-fifteen-miracle-days-of-chotrul-duchen-2021/

Through timely advice, news stories, and update, FPMT.org and Mandala Publications share the wisdom culture inspired and guided by the teachings of FPMT founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. 

Lama Yeshe meditating by the sea, Sicily, Italy, 1983. Photos by Jacie Keeley, courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935–1984) discussed how to deal with fear and anxiety in the context of the nuclear arms race and nuclear power at a talk given in 1983 in California, US. While today’s situation is different, Lama Yeshe’s insights are just as powerful now as they were when he first made them. Here’s a short excerpt of this talk found in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive multimedia presentation “Switch Your Mind from Emotion to Peace”:

My concern is that if we allow ourselves to be anxious and afraid, emotionally disturbed, we’ll only produce more confusion within ourselves. When we’re confused, we spread confused energy to others and the environment. Bringing peace to the world is no small task. We have to take upon ourselves universal responsibility. As individuals, our first responsibility is to guarantee that we ourselves will never harm anybody else’s life, to generate the indestructible resolve that irrespective of the circumstances, “I’m never going touch weapons or kill other human beings.” We must have that kind of determination. If you don’t feel that way yourself, how can you make a big show if telling others to be like that. It’s not realistic. In order to educate others about how harmful and cruel nuclear energy can be, we first have to educate ourselves.

So, we shouldn’t worry about the nuclear age because it’s already here. We’re human beings; we created this situation. We lit this fire a long time ago. Of course, the earth has contained nuclear energy since it began, but has taken human intelligence to make it as dangerous as it has become. In Buddhism, we call this karma. Once a situation has manifested, the best thing to do is to accept the fact and deal with it.

Now, there’s no reason for us to hate each other, but anxiety breeds hatred. Therefore, we have to check our motivation for demonstrating for disarmament and against nuclear energy. Why are we doing this? Perhaps our reasons are selfish—what we’re really anxious about is our own destruction. Instead, we should have concern for the whole of humanity. That’s the right motivation. Then there’s no emotion. Even though you’re concerned, occasionally fearful, your fear does not come from an underlying, ever-present, emotional disturbance.

What’s the good of worrying about things twenty-four hours a day, disturbing your mind and preventing yourself from having a peaceful and joyful life? It’s a waste of time. Nothing’s going to change just because you’re worrying about it. If something’s already broken, it’s broken. Worrying won’t fix it. This earth has always been destructive by nature, nuclear age or not. There’s always blood flowing someplace or another. Look at world history. It’s always been like this. Buddhism calls this interdependent origination, and that’s how the human mind works.

Take America’s war in Vietnam, for example. That brought people together in a movement for peace. That’s also interdependent. Some people saw the horrible suffering, confusion, misery and destruction wrought by others, so they went the other way, thinking, “That’s not right,” and despite the difficulties, created a movement of peace and love.

But the right way to eliminate harm from this earth is to first free your mind from the emotional disturbances that cause irrational fear of destruction, and then educate yourself and others in how to bring peace to the world. The first thing you must do is to control your own mind and commit yourself: “From now on, no matter what happens, I’m never going to use weapons to kill any human being.” That’s where world peace starts.

Human beings can control their minds and actions such that they will never kill others; people can learn to see that harming others destroys not only the others’ pleasure and happiness but their own as well. Through this kind of education, we can prevent nuclear energy from destroying the world.

“Switch Your Mind from Emotion to Peace” presents the teachings of Lama Yeshe in a multimedia format that beautifully weaves together video of Lama Yeshe, transcripts, and images. The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive offers more than twenty multimedia presentations for students at any level to explore and deepen their understanding of the teachings of Buddha as shared by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Through timely advice, news stories, and updates, FPMT.org and Mandala Publications share the wisdom culture inspired and guided by the teachings of FPMT founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. 

Lama Yeshe doing puja at Pyramid Lake after the Grizzly Lodge Course, California, US, 1980. Photo courtesy Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive; Carol Fields, donor.

The following teaching from Lama Thubten Yeshe, who founded FPMT with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, encourages us to use our Dharma practice in difficult times.

Sometimes when people first hear Dharma teachings on happiness and suffering they think that happiness depends upon suffering and that if they were to be completely free of suffering there would be no way to experience happiness.

I can see where the idea comes from. In a way it’s quite logical: if there’s no misery, there’s no happiness; misery and happiness are interdependent phenomena. This is human experience. It’s my experience too.

When I was studying at Sera in Tibet from the ages of nine to twenty-four, I took many teachings and received many commentaries from excellent teachers. I was well looked after by my uncle, who made sure I never went hungry or thirsty and took care of me in general. It was a typical monastic life and it was really good. And from my side I tried my best to study and practice Dharma.

But still, in 1959, the Chinese kicked us out. Well, not exactly, but they did not allow people to practice Dharma, so I thought that if I want to keep practicing there was no reason to stay in Tibet. So I escaped to India. Not only were the Chinese preventing us from practicing, they were shooting people dead, and even though I had been studying and practicing, I didn’t feel ready to die.

So in that painful situation of uncertainty I had to look deeply into myself to see if all those teachings I had taken would allow me to cope with my new reality. I found that they helped a great deal, and that gave me the confidence I needed to deal with the changing environment in which we found ourselves.

If you’re not tested, you take teaching after teaching and think you’re OK, but when you’re confronted with a difficult situation, it’s possible that you’ll find you’re not OK at all. So that’s why true Dharma practitioners welcome trouble. It gives them a chance to see if what they’ve been studying works or not, a chance to transform suffering into happiness. Otherwise you just go blithely along, completely out of touch with reality, thinking you’re OK when you’re not, because you haven’t actually been practicing Dharma at all.

To put this another way, painful situations are a source of wisdom. How so? First of all, painful situations arise as a result of nonvirtuous karma. When we experience pain we should ask, “Why is this happening to me? How has this come about?” That sort of inquiry leads us to understand that it’s the ripening of negative karma we created in the past. That basic understanding can grow into wisdom; the painful experience helps us develop a deeper understanding that is beyond the merely intellectual.

Of course, if you’re completely ignorant, it doesn’t matter how much suffering you experience, there’s no way for that to lead to happiness. All you do is go from misery to more misery. If, on the other hand, you have at least a modicum of Dharma wisdom, when you’re in difficulty you know how to use that experience to lead yourself into happiness.

One lama said, “When things go well, you’re a great Dharma practitioner; when things go badly, your Dharma disappears. When your stomach is full and sunshine is pouring into your room, it’s easy to look religious; but when difficulties arise, you come up empty.”

It’s like when I was a young boy in Tibet and everything was going well, I pretty much took it for granted that I was practicing Dharma. It could easily have happened that when it came to the crunch, I could have found my Dharma practice wanting—that I’d never practiced or even understood Dharma—and that could easily have led me to give it up, thinking that Dharma doesn’t work.

Dharma practice is very difficult if you don’t understand what it is. You need to realize that Dharma teachings are talking about you, your personal reality. You need to take them personally and integrate them with your life. It’s no good if your Dharma understanding is like soup—many different ideas all mixed up—and you never make Dharma a part of your life. Then it can’t really help you.

If you understand your own attitude and level and know what you need at any particular moment in time, you can fulfill your needs appropriately and will see yourself making real progress. Simply collecting information that’s disconnected from your own reality doesn’t make sense. By understanding Dharma from your own point of view, from the way you live your life, you have a much better chance of developing yourself. So that’s what you should try to do. Base your practice on your own experience.

Lama Yeshe gave this teaching, “True Dharma Practitioners Welcome Trouble,” at Grizzly Lodge, California, in 1980. Edited by Nicholas Ribush. Published in Mandala October–December 2012. Also published in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive ebook The Enlightened Experience, Volume 1.

Through timely advice, news stories, and update, FPMT.org and Mandala Publications share the wisdom culture inspired and guided by the teachings of FPMT founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe in a tent at Syangboche, Solu Khumbu, Nepal, 1972. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

With the celebration of the seasonal holidays interrupted because of the global pandemic, we have an opportunity to reflect on our usual attitudes and habits at this time of year, and perhaps change them. Lama Yeshe spoke about how to see Christmas in a talk he gave to students staying at Kopan Monastery in Nepal in December 1972. Here’s the story and Lama Yeshe’s advice in an excerpt from Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe:

Lama Yeshe had great appreciation for the spirit of Christmas but not for the rampant consumerism and materialistic expectations that often came with it. Some of his students were also experiencing the difficulties of separating from the Christian tradition they grew up with as they established a connection with the Buddhist tradition they had just met. This confusion seemed to result in some feelings of aversion toward their Christian heritage and Christmas seemed an ideal time to talk with them about these mistaken attitudes.

From Lama Yeshe’s Christmas talks:

When we see each other again on Christmas Eve for the celebration of holy Jesus’s birth, let us do so in peace, with a good vibration and a happy mind. I think it would be wonderful! To attend the celebration with an angry disposition would be so sad. Come instead with a beautiful motivation and much love. Have no discrimination, but see everything as a golden flower, even your worst enemy. Then Christmas, which so often produces an agitated mind, will become so beautiful.

When you change your mental attitude, the external vision also changes. This is a true turning of the mind. There is no doubt about this. I am not special, but I have had experience doing this, and it works. You people are so intelligent so you can understand how the mind has this ability to change itself and its environment. There is no reason why this change cannot be for the better.

Some of you might think, “Oh, I want to have nothing to do with Jesus, nothing to do with the Bible.” This is a very angry, emotional attitude to have toward Christianity. If you really understood, you would recognize that what Jesus said was, “Love!” It is as simple and as profound as that. When you have true love within you, I am sure that you will feel much more peaceful than you do now.

How do you normally think of love? Be honest. It is always involved with discrimination, isn’t it? Just look around this room and see if anyone here is an object of your love. Why do you discriminate so sharply between friend and enemy? Why do you see such a big difference between yourself and others? In the Buddhist teachings, this falsely discriminating attitude is called dualism. Jesus said that such an attitude is the opposite of true love. Therefore, is there any one of us who has the pure love Jesus was talking about? If we do not, we should not criticize his teachings or feel that they are irrelevant to us. We are the ones who have misunderstood, perhaps knowing the words of his teachings but never acting upon them.

There are many beautiful sentences in the Bible, but I do not recall reading that Jesus ever said that without your doing anything whatsoever, without preparing yourself in the same way, the Holy Spirit will descend upon you—whoosh! If you do not act the way he said you should act, there is no Holy Spirit existent anywhere for you.

What I have read in the Bible has the same connotation as the Buddhist teachings on equilibrium, compassion, and changing one’s ego-attachment into love for others. It may not be immediately obvious how to train your mind to develop these attitudes, but it is certainly possible to do so. Only our selfishness and closed-mindedness prevent us.

With true realizations, the mind is no longer egotistically concerned with only its own salvation. With true love, one no longer behaves dualistically, feeling very attached to some people, distant from others and totally indifferent to the rest. It is so simple. In the ordinary personality, the mind is always divided against itself, always fighting and disturbing its own peace.

The teachings on love are very practical. Do not put religion somewhere up in the sky and feel you are stuck down here on earth. If one’s actions of body, speech, and mind are in accordance with loving kindness, then you automatically become a truly religious person. To be religious does not mean that you attend certain teachings. If you listen to teachings and misinterpret them, you are, in fact, the opposite of religious. And it is only because you do not understand a certain teaching that you abuse religion.

Lack of deep understanding leads to partisanship. The ego feels, “I am a Buddhist, therefore Christianity must be all wrong.” This is very harmful to true religious feeling. You do not destroy a religion with bombs but with hatred. More importantly, you destroy the peacefulness of your own mind. It does not matter whether you express your hatred with words or not. Words do not mean anything. The mere thought of hatred automatically destroys your peace. Similarly, true love does not depend on physical expression. You should realize this. True love is a feeling deep within you. It is not just a matter of wearing a smile on your face and looking happy. Rather, it arises from a heartfelt understanding of every other being’s suffering and radiates out to all of them indiscriminately. It does not favor a chosen few to the exclusion of everyone else. This is true love.

For the Mount Everest Centre boys [the young monks from Solu Khumbu staying at Kopan], this was their first Christmas. Mummy Max shopped for them at the Commissary, returning with a Christmas tree, American-style trimmings, and plenty of chocolate goodies. They had lots of fun helping her decorate the tree, which was placed in the new gompa.

Visit the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LamaYeshe.com) for more on Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe by Adele Hulse.

Through timely advice, news stories, and update, FPMT.org and Mandala Publications share the wisdom culture inspired and guided by the teachings of FPMT founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. 

Lama Yeshe teaching at Vajrapani Institute, California, 1983. Photos by Carol Royce-Wilder.

The following advice from Lama Thubten Yeshe, who founded FPMT with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, comes in response to a student question: “When we feel anger what should we do? Repress it, show it if it’s not harmful to others, or ignore it?”

The first thing you can do when somebody makes you angry is to analyze the situation, especially what caused it and its effect. When you analyze the situation, start by looking at how anger projects its object—how it concretizes and exaggerates the object. When you analyze the evolution of your anger in detail you can’t find that concrete object anywhere. That’s one way of eliminating anger.

Another thing you can consider is if it’s worth hanging onto your anger. The moment you conclude that it’s not worthwhile, that anger destroys yourself and others, you can change your mind and let it go. The inner conversation that breeds resentment and perpetuates anger—“He did this, she did that, he did this, she did that”—simply agitates your mind and is completely not worthwhile.

By analyzing the evolution of your anger and seeing what a ridiculous mind it is, you can weaken and eliminate it even intellectually. Anger can arise over really small and silly situations. For instance, families can argue over where to put a bowl of flowers. “I put it here, my wife wants it there,” and from that small beginning a huge fight can erupt. We don’t need big reasons. Simply not accepting change can cause anger to arise. So we need to analyze reality. Things change; that’s their nature. Accept and let go. Put it here, put it there—what difference does it make? Sometimes we think something’s so important and desperately want it to remain as it is. That’s wrong and can often lead to anger.

Buddhism always stresses impermanence; change is natural. It has nothing to do with concepts. Flowers gradually evolve from seeds planted in the ground; babies grow into children, then adults, age, then die. This is the natural way things go. Wives change; husbands change; girlfriends change; boyfriends change—it’s all natural.

Therefore it’s very important to accept change because it’s respecting nature. When you’re angry you don’t respect others. Others want to change something but you don’t—that means you’re disrespecting others’ will and the natural process of change.

And the main thing is that Buddhism considers anger to be the worst of all delusions. Unlike desire, anger is always negative—there’s no exception. The moment you get angry, you become negative and others appear negative to you. Buddhism does make an exception for desire; even though it’s usually negative, there’s a way to make it positive and bring positive results.

So, since anger is our worst enemy, we have to make every effort to abandon it; trying to do so is good enough. We should try, thinking, “Anger destroys my peace and pleasure and that of others. Controlling it is of utmost importance in my life.”

When we get angry, how do we see the object of our anger? In the morning, that person may have looked extremely attractive but in the afternoon, when we’re angry, he looks horrible, ugly. Obviously it’s not possible that he changed so radically from his side; it’s simply our projection exaggerating what we perceive as his bad qualities. Therefore we shouldn’t believe that he’s really bad but recognize our view and reaction as coming from our own mind.

Lama Yeshe answered this question after a talk on “Anxiety in the Nuclear Age,” given at the University of California, Santa Cruz, July 23, 1983. Edited from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive by Nicholas Ribush. This excerpt appeared in the LYWA E-letter No. 77: December 2006 and is included as the chapter “Anger and Enemies” in the LYWA ebook The Enlightened Experience, Volume 2.

Through timely advice, news stories, and update, FPMT.org and Mandala Publications share the wisdom culture inspired and guided by the teachings of FPMT founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. 

Lama Yeshe at a family gathering at Vajrapani Institute, California, 1983. Photo by Carol Royce-Wilder.

The following advice from Lama Thubten Yeshe, who founded FPMT with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, comes in response to a student’s question: “How should we deal with people who consider us as their enemies or people who don’t trust us?”

With compassion—according to the way I was educated, people who hate you are objects of love and compassion. Why? Because they are not enemies forever; tomorrow they can become friends. Therefore there’s no such thing as a self-existent, concrete enemy.

We should know from our own experience that things always change. Today somebody can be a dear friend, tomorrow an enemy. Who knows? It’s all so relative, but so common—look at how many marriages break up, with people who were once loving partners regarding each other as mortal enemies. Before they couldn’t bear to be apart; now they can’t stand the sight of each other.

Therefore I think it’s important to deeply imprint your mind with the knowledge that there’s no external enemy so that if one appears to manifest today you don’t get caught up in hatred and just let go, thinking, “By hating me he’s hurting himself; he’s suffering. What is it in me that upsets him so much?” Do you see Buddhism’s reverse thinking? We think there’s some kind of destructive vibration in me that makes him hate me. I’m actually responsible for others not liking me. This is opposite to what we normally think; we think the hurt inflicted on us by our enemy is his fault.

Lord Buddha’s psychology is that we have some kind of negative magnetic energy within us that stimulates anger to manifest in another person who we then label “enemy.” Controlling that energy within us is the best way to eliminate enemies. From the Buddhist point of view, seeing others as enemies and wanting to destroy them is completely wrong.

The great bodhisattva Shantideva said that if the ground is covered in thorns it’s easier to avoid getting stuck by putting on shoes than by covering the ground with leather. Wearing shoes has the same effect as covering the ground with leather. Similarly, if we control our anger with patience, no external enemy can be found. Our main enemy is within; that’s the one we have to conquer. If you try to destroy external enemies how far can you get? Maybe you can kill one or two people but more enemies will arise. You can’t get rid of enemies that way. But if you get rid of the mind that sees enemies, no further enemies will ever be seen.

Lama Yeshe answered this question after a talk on “Anxiety in the Nuclear Age,” given at the University of California, Santa Cruz, July 23, 1983. Edited from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive by Nicholas Ribush. This excerpt appeared in the LYWA E-letter No. 77: December 2006 and is included as the chapter “Anger and Enemies” in the LYWA ebook The Enlightened Experience, Volume 2.

Through timely advice, news stories, and update, FPMT.org and Mandala Publications share the wisdom culture inspired and guided by the teachings of FPMT founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.