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    The Peaceful Stillness of the Silent Mind: Buddhism, Mind and Meditation
    The Peaceful Stillness of the Silent Mind: Buddhism, Mind and Meditation
    The Peaceful Stillness of the Silent Mind: Buddhism, Mind and Meditation
    Ebook126 pages2 hours

    The Peaceful Stillness of the Silent Mind: Buddhism, Mind and Meditation

    By Lama Yeshe

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    About this ebook

    Lama Yeshe on Buddhism:

    "Buddhism is not just about one or two small things; it is not some tiny philosophy. Lord Buddha explained the nature of every single phenomenon in the universe."

    On Mind:
    "At certain times, a silent mind is very important, but 'silent' does not mean closed. The silent mind is an alert, awakened mind; a mind seeking the nature of reality."

    On Meditation:
    "Meditation is the right medicine for the uncontrolled, undisciplined mind. Meditation is the way to perfect satisfaction. The uncontrolled mind is by nature sick; dissatisfaction is a form of mental illness. What's the right antidote to that? It's knowledge-wisdom; understanding the nature of psychological phenomena; knowing how the internal world functions."

    This book is made possible by kind supporters of the Archive who, like you, appreciate how we make these teachings available in so many ways, including in 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.

    Please help us increase our efforts to spread the Dharma for the happiness and benefit of all beings. You can find out more about becoming a supporter of the Archive and see all we have to offer by visiting our website.

    Thank you so much, and please enjoy this e-book.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
    Release dateJul 20, 2014
    ISBN9781891868597
    The Peaceful Stillness of the Silent Mind: Buddhism, Mind and Meditation
    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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      Book preview

      The Peaceful Stillness of the Silent Mind - Lama Yeshe

      THE PEACEFUL STILLNESS OF THE SILENT MIND

      Buddhism, Mind and Meditation

      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 2004, 2010

      Cover photo by Carol Royce-Wilder

      Cover line art by Robert Beer

      Cover designed by Gopa & Ted2 Inc.

      Ebook ISBN 978-1-891868-59-7

      PSSM-2017-v1

      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.

      CONTENTS

      PEACEFUL STILLNESS OF THE SILENT MIND

      About the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

      Benefactor's Dedication

      Editor’s Preface

      1. Buddhism: Something for Everyone

      2. Spirituality and materialism

      3. Experiencing silent wisdom

      4. Attitude is more important than action

      5. An introduction to meditation

      6. Follow your path without attachment

      Glossary

      Publisher's Acknowledgments

      Previously Published by LYWA

      Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

      The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Teachings

      The FPMT Online Learning Center

      Other teachings by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa

      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

      To our parents, for this precious human rebirth.

      To our Gurus, for their limitless patience and kindness, and tireless teaching.

      By this merit, may we always go for refuge to our Gurus and the Three Jewels; with the mind of enlightenment and wisdom, be only causes of happiness for all sentient beings.

      By this merit until samsara ends, please, our precious Gurus, stay with us, and lead us to the bliss of complete Buddhahood.

      Vajrapani Institute, July 1983

      Photo: Carol Royce-Wilder

      Editor’s Preface

      Lama Yeshe and the editor on the road to Lawudo, Nepal, May 1973

      Photo: Lama Zopa Rinpoche

      This publication is the fourth in our series of free books by Lama Yeshe, and one of eighteen free books published by the Archive. All together we have published over 700,000 free books, something we can all rejoice in. I offer sincere and grateful thanks to all those who have made this possible.

      The six teachings contained herein come from Lama Yeshe’s 1975 visit to Australia. The first three are a series of consecutive evening lectures Lama gave at Melbourne University. By the third night he thought people had heard enough talk and instead offered a guided meditation. We have indicated the breaks clearly and suggest that instead of reading it straight through, you pause for a few minutes after each paragraph to think about what Lama just said, as he intended.

      The last three teachings are public lectures given in Sydney. Again, they are lled with love, insight, wisdom and compassion, and the question-answer sessions Lama loved so much are as dynamic and informative as ever. We hope you ’ll enjoy reading these talks as much as we delight in bringing them to you.

      Once more, I thank Wendy Cook and Linda Gatter for their kind and helpful editorial suggestions.

      1. BUDDHISM: SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY

      Switzerland, 1978

      Photo: Ueli Minder

      Some people think they know all about Buddhism and Buddhists just because they’ve read a couple of books. They pick one up, Hmm. Let’s see what this book says. Well, according to this it seems that Buddhists are really extreme. They believe in all sorts of strange stuff. They pick up another: My goodness, Buddhists are completely nihilistic. They draw all sorts of wrong conclusions based on extremely limited information; they don’t see anything like the whole picture. This is very dangerous.

      Perhaps they read something from the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy, which is known for its rigorous intellectual approach to the subject of emptiness, the ultimate nature of reality, and can be very difficult to understand. This can lead them to think, Oh, Buddhists aren’t religious; they’re atheists. They don’t believe anything; they think that nothing exists. How can they consider themselves religious? This too can be very dangerous.

      Other people might conclude, Wow! Buddhists believe in three Gods. They say Buddha is one God; Dharma is another; Sangha a third. They must be super-believers. That’s too much. In the West, we’ve never heard of such a thing as three Gods; only one. We’re religious, but we only have one God. We can’t even agree with the Buddhists on how many Gods there are.

      If you look at just one tiny aspect of Buddhism, of course it might appear too much for you. But Buddhism is not just about one or two small things; it is not some tiny philosophy. Lord Buddha explained the nature of every single phenomenon in the universe.

      At this stage, I have had about nine or ten years experience teaching Buddhist philosophy to Westerners and experimenting with how it is their minds, mainly in the one-month meditation courses we hold each year at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. In these courses we try to explain everything, but I have found that if we talk too much about the negative side of things, students completely freak out. Not all of them, but many do. They say, These lamas emphasize the negative too much. Why don’t they talk more about the positive? Buddhism isn’t only about delusion and suffering. Why do they teach us this negative stuff day after day?

      But the thing about Buddhism is that before you can put yourself into the positive path to liberation, enlightenment or God—whatever you want to call it, the name doesn’t matter—you have to know how your negative mind works.

      If you don’t understand how the two extreme negative views of overestimation and underestimation function within you, how can you correct your actions and put yourself into the right path? Therefore, it is crucial to know the negative aspects of your nature. Actually, if you comprehend the evolution of your negative mind from beginning to end, you’ll feel very comfortable. Conversely, if you don’t know how it works, you’ll finish up thinking that negative actions are positive.

      Moreover, if you try to practice the path to liberation without a solid grounding in what is positive and what is negative, a simple question from someone challenging what you are doing can completely derail you. You might get confused and give up. That’s the sign of a weak mind. You have to see the totality of the evolution of both the negative and the positive mind.

      Some people assume that Buddhism is probably a nice religion that always talks diplomatically and sweetly about holy things. When we start teaching Buddhism to beginners, we don’t begin by talking about holy things. The first thing we explain is the basic nature of your present mind what’s going on down

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