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    The Essence of Tibetan Buddhism
    The Essence of Tibetan Buddhism
    The Essence of Tibetan Buddhism
    Ebook102 pages1 hour

    The Essence of Tibetan Buddhism

    By Lama Yeshe

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    About this ebook

    The first teaching, “The Three Principal Aspects of the Path,” was given in France in 1982.

    The second teaching, an “Introduction to Tantra,” also in two parts, was given at Grizzly Lodge, California, in 1980.

    These comprise the first two lectures of a commentary on the Chenrezig yoga.

    Lama Yeshe says:
    "Meditation is not on the level of the object but on that of the subject - you are the business of your meditation.

    "Bodhicitta is very practical, I tell you. It’s like medicine. The self-cherishing thought is like a nail or a sword in your heart; it always feels uncomfortable. With bodhicitta, from the moment you begin to open, you feel incredibly peaceful and you get tremendous pleasure and inexhaustible energy. Forget about enlightenment - as soon as you begin to open yourself to others, you gain tremendous pleasure and satisfaction. Working for others is very interesting; it’s an infinite activity. Your life becomes continuously rich and interesting.

    "Historically, Shakyamuni Buddha taught the four noble truths. To whose culture do the four noble truths belong? The essence of religion has nothing to do with any one particular country's culture. Compassion, love, reality - to whose culture do they belong? The people of any country, any nation, can implement the three principal aspects of the path, the four noble truths or the eightfold path. There's no contradiction at all."

    This title was published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, a non-profit organization established to make the Buddhist teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche freely accessible in many ways, including on our website for instant reading, listening or downloading, and as printed and electronic books. Our website offers immediate access to thousands of pages of teachings and hundreds of audio recordings by some of the greatest lamas of our time. Our photo gallery and our ever-popular books are also freely accessible there. You can find out more about becoming a supporter of the Archive and see all we have to offer by visiting the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
    Release dateJul 12, 2010
    ISBN9781891868085
    The Essence of Tibetan Buddhism
    Author

    Lama Yeshe

    Lama Thubten Yeshe was born in Tibet in 1935. At the age of six, he entered the great Sera Monastic University, Lhasa, where he studied until 1959, when the Chinese invasion of Tibet forced him into exile in India. Lama Yeshe continued to study and meditate in India until 1967, when, with his chief disciple, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, he went to Nepal. Two years later he established Kopan Monastery, near Kathmandu, Nepal, in order to teach Buddhism to Westerners.In 1974, the Lamas began making annual teaching tours to the West, and as a result of these travels a worldwide network of Buddhist teaching and meditation centers - the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) - began to develop.In 1984, after an intense decade of imparting a wide variety of incredible teachings and establishing one FPMT activity after another, at the age of forty-nine, Lama Yeshe passed away. He was reborn as Ösel Hita Torres in Spain in 1985, recognized as the incarnation of Lama Yeshe by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1986, and, as the monk Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche, began studying for his geshe degree in 1992 at the reconstituted Sera Monastery in South India. Lama’s remarkable story is told in Vicki Mackenzie’s book, Reincarnation: The Boy Lama (Wisdom Publications, 1996). Other teachings have been published by Wisdom Books, including Wisdom Energy; Introduction to Tantra; The Tantric Path of Purification (Becoming Vajrasattva) and more.Thousands of pages of Lama's teachings have been made available as transcripts, books and audio by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, and most are freely available through the Archive's website at LamaYeshe.com.

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    • 4/5
      The principle aspects of the path (renunciation, bodhicitta, emptiness) and an introduction to tantra - extremely valuable.

    Book preview

    The Essence of Tibetan Buddhism - Lama Yeshe

    THE ESSENCE OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM

    The Three Principal Aspects of the Path

    and

    An Introduction to Tantra

    Lama Yeshe

    Edited by Nicholas Ribush

    May whoever sees, touches, reads, remembers, or talks or thinks about this book never be reborn in unfortunate circumstances, receive only rebirths in situations conducive to the perfect practice of Dharma, meet only perfectly qualified spiritual guides, quickly develop bodhicitta and immediately attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.

    Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive • Boston

    www.LamaYeshe.com

    A non-profit charitable organization for the benefit of all sentient beings and an affiliate of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition

    www.fpmt.org

    Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

    PO Box 636, Lincoln, MA 01773, USA

    Please do not reproduce any part of this book by any means whatsoever without our permission.

    Copyright Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche 2001, 2010

    Cover, unknown photographer

    Cover line art by Robert Beer

    Photos of Lama Yeshe at University of Santa Cruz, California, 1978, by Jon Landaw

    Cover designed by Gopa & Ted2 Inc.

    Ebook ISBN 978-1-891868-30-6

    ETB-2017-v1

    The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

    Bringing you the teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche

    This book is made possible by kind supporters of the Archive who, like you, appreciate how we make these Dharma teachings freely available on our website for instant reading, watching, listening or downloading, as printed, audio and e-books, as multimedia presentations, in our historic image galleries, on our Youtube channel, through our monthly eletter and podcast and with our social media communities.

    Please help us increase our efforts to spread the Dharma for the happiness and benefit of everyone everywhere. Come find out more about supporting the Archive and see all we have to offer by exploring our website at www.LamaYeshe.com.

    Table of Contents

    THE ESSENCE OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM

    The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

    Benefactor’s Dedication

    Editor’s Preface

    The Three Principal Aspects of the Path

    First Teaching

    Second Teaching

    Questions and Answers

    Introduction to Tantra

    First Teaching

    Second Teaching

    Glossary

    Publisher’s Acknowledgement

    Publications by LYWA

    Other available teachings by Lama Yeshe & Lama Zopa Rinpoche

    About the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

    About the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition

    What to do with Dharma Teachings

    Dedication

    About Lama Yeshe

    About Nicholas Ribush

    Sign up for the LYWA e-letter

    Browse all LYWA titles

    Connect with LYWA

    Benefactor’s Dedication

    It is a privilege to have an opportunity to help spread the teachings of the Buddha. May these transcripts of Lama Yeshe’s talks help many seekers to find the way to liberation and perfect enlightenment.

    —Doss McDavid

    Editor’s Preface

    This publication is the third in our series of free books by Lama Yeshe, following the extremely popular and well received Becoming Your Own Therapist and Make Your Mind an Ocean.

    It differs, however, in that the material contained herein is also on video, which we made available as DVD and on our Youtube channel so that you can now see and hear Lama Yeshe giving these teachings. We have edited this book less intensively than normal so that the text quite closely adheres to Lama’s original words and phraseology, making it easier to follow when watching the video. For the same reason, we have also left intact Lama’s references to world events of the time, such as the various Middle East dramas of 1979–80.

    Lama’s teachings were dynamic events full of energy and laughter. He taught not only verbally but physically and facially as well. Thus, we encourage you to watch the video of these teachings in order to get as total an experience of the incomparable Lama Yeshe as possible.

    The first teaching, The Three Principal Aspects of the Path, was given in France in 1982, during an FPMT-sponsored tour of Europe by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Just before His Holiness’s scheduled teachings at Institut Vajra Yogini, His Holiness manifested illness and asked Lama Yeshe to fill in for a couple of days—to baby-sit the audience, as Lama put it. This wonderful two-part teaching on the three principal aspects of the path is the result.

    The second teaching, an Introduction to Tantra, also in two parts, was given at Grizzly Lodge, California, in 1980. It comprises the first two lectures of a commentary on the Chenrezig yoga method taught by Lama at the request of Vajrapani Institute, Boulder Creek.

    I am most grateful to Linda Gatter and Wendy Cook for their editorial input, which greatly enhanced the text of this book, Greg Sneddon and his team in Melbourne, Australia, who digitized the videos of these teachings, and Ven. Bob Alcorn, who digitized these teachings for us. Thank you all so much for your help.

    The Three Principal Aspects of the Path

    First Teaching: Renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness

    At Institut Vajra Yogini, France, during an FPMT-sponsored teaching tour of Europe in 1982, His Holiness the Dalai Lama manifested ill health and asked Lama Yeshe to fill in for him for the first day’s teachings. The following teachings ensued.

    Today, I’m unfortunate. And today, you’re unfortunate as well, because you have to put up with me, the garbage man. You have to put up with my garbage; I’m the garbage man. Due to circumstance, His Holiness is experiencing some discomfort with his health, so we should all pray for his good health . . . and so that it won’t be necessary to be in this situation, where you have to put up with my garbage. However, due to these circumstances, His Holiness has given me permission to baby-sit you.

    Now, His Holiness has chosen

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