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.