Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

08/24/2025

Disturbing thoughts arise and change. This proves that the nature of the mind is not oneness with anger, attachment, ignorance, pride or jealousy. The mind is temporarily obscured by these, but is itself not oneness with them.

If the mind itself were oneness with anger, it should be spontaneously and continuously in the nature of anger. Or spontaneously and continuously in the nature of attachment. Then, to the one object, anger and attachment would be arising at the same time.

If a mirror was oneness with the dirt on it, the dirt could not be cleaned away—this would be like cleaning dirt away from dirt. Because the mirror is not oneness with but temporarily covered by dirt, it can be cleaned with water and a cloth. The more the dirt is cleaned away, the clearer the mirror's reflection.

In the same way, as you listen to, reflect and meditate on the graduated path to enlightenment, as you generate more realizations of this path, your obscurations first become gradually thinner and thinner, and are then removed completely.

- Lama Zopa Rinpoche

From *Tara the Liberator* www.lamayeshe.com/article/tara-liberator compiled from two teachings given in 1987 at Kopan Monastery and Himalayan Yogic Institute, Nepal 💚 Image of Rinpoche in Tibet, 1987. Photo by Jane Seidlitz.

08/24/2025

"arising and ceasing are not contradictory but are two attributes of the same process"

“Almost all Buddhists accept that the moment a thing comes into being, it has the nature of disintegrating simply by the fact that it was produced by causes.

It is not the case that a cause produces something, that thing remains unchanged for a period of time, and then another condition causes its cessation.

Rather, the very factor that causes something to arise also causes it to cease.

From the very first moment of a thing’s existence, it has the nature of disintegrating.

Momentariness indicates that arising and ceasing are not contradictory but are two attributes of the same process.”

—His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Buddhism: One Teacher, Many Traditions

08/23/2025

The Angulimala Sutra mentions the following : Taking the meat of killed beings is akin to robbing and snatching the life and body of sentient beings. In addition to the act of killing, one also generates the negative karma associated with stealing [their life]. The true owner of the body of those sentient beings is solely that sentient being itself.

A similar story can be found in the life of the Bodhisattva Siddhartha, who saved the life of a swan. When Devadatta shot an arrow at the swan, causing it to fall to the ground, the bodhisattva intervened to save it. Devadatta argued, "The swan belongs to me; I shot it with my bow and arrow, and it fell to the ground." In response, the Bodhisattva Siddhartha said, "The swan is the true owner of itself; how can you claim ownership? You are the enemy of the swan because you shot it down."

In one of his public talks, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama mentioned that while we have the right to seek happiness and enjoyment in life, we do not have the right to pursue our happiness by deceiving others, stealing, abusing others, or harming living beings.

- Geshe Thubten Soepa

from *The Melody of Willows Bending in the Wind*

The Melody of Willows Bending in the Wind Author TFTblogPublished on July 28, 2025July 29, 2025 This teaching by Geshe Thubten Soepa was translated by Geshe Tenzin Namdak. Read Geshe Soepa's biography here. Click here to find out more about FPMT’s Animal Liberation Sanctuary. Visit Enlightenment f...

08/22/2025

Think, “If everybody loved me, if nobody ever got angry at me, I would never be able to develop patience, that precious and essential quality of mind on the path to enlightenment. Therefore, I need somebody to be angry at me. I really need this in my life. It’s so important that somebody be angry at me.”

That person’s anger is not precious to that person, but it is for you. For the other person, his anger is torture. It throws him into the lower realms. “For that person, his anger is terrible, but for me, his being angry at me is so precious, so essential.”

Normally, you say you need somebody to love you. You feel that need so deeply inside. But in the same way, think that you need somebody to hate you—having somebody dislike you is even more important than having somebody love you.

Why? Because somebody loving you does not help you actualize the path to enlightenment, does not help you cultivate the qualities needed to benefit all sentient beings. But if somebody harms you and you use that experience to transform your mind into patience, the path to enlightenment lies open in front of you.

If you practice patience, your anger evaporates and other sentient beings do not receive harm from you. Through your great patience, they receive only peace and happiness from you.

Thus, the angry person is most kind because he gives you the precious opportunity to do this. His being mad at you is like a wish-fulfilling jewel.

- Lama Zopa Rinpoche

from "A Teaching on Heruka" https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/chapter-five-practicing-patience 🙏 Image of Rinpoche while teaching online, Kopan Monastery, 2021. Lobsang Sherab (photographer)

08/22/2025

Remember that you can be better, and then attempt the method to be better.

𝙇𝙄𝙁𝙀 𝙄𝙎 𝙁𝙐𝙇𝙇 𝙊𝙁 𝙃𝙊𝙋𝙀 :: There's a big difference between those who have met Dharma and those who have not met Dharma. By having met Dharma, you are full of inspiration. It's a question of thinking, a question of meditating. Life is full of hope. Rather than feeling very down and hopeless, you feel your life is full of inspiration.

Even if you are experiencing very heavy karma—you are missing limbs or something like that—even if in your mind you want to do something else but due to karma you don't have the freedom to do it now, even if your life is not what you want, even if there is such a big problem, think, "This is temporary. What is happening to me won't last forever. This is a causative phenomenon; it happened in dependence upon cause and conditions. This difficulty in my life happened due to cause and conditions, and due to another cause and conditions it will go away."

No matter how heavy the karma in your life is, no matter how much heavy karma you have created; even if you have created some negative action that means you will be born in the hells for many billions of eons—according to their time, not human time, which is an incredible length of time—don't just be sad about it. Just being sad about any problem or mistake that happens in your life is of no use. Remember your buddha nature, which is pure, which is not oneness with the mistakes. Remember that, and that you have all the potential, all the hope to develop your mind. Remember that you can be better, and then attempt the method to be better.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

☸️ from 𝙇𝙄𝙁𝙀 𝙄𝙎 𝙁𝙐𝙇𝙇 𝙊𝙁 𝙃𝙊𝙋𝙀 ⤵️
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/ultimate-nature-mind
☀️ Image of Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the way to gompa for Palden Lhamo puja and also Lama Chopa on the first day of the new year, Losar morning, February 12, 2021. Photo by Venerable Roger Kunsang.

08/21/2025

Ven. Roger Kunsang shares personal stories and reflections on the extraordinary life of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

✨Join us for a special evening of heartfelt remembrance and inspiration as Ven. Roger Kunsang shares personal stories and reflections on the extraordinary life of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. As Rinpoche’s long-time attendant, Ven. Roger offers rare and intimate insight into Rinpoche’s boundless compassion, profound wisdom, and vast vision.

🗓️ Wednesday, August 27, 2025
🕒 7:00pm – 8:30pm PDT (Pacific Daylight Time)
📍 in-person at Ocean of Compassion Buddhist Center, and online

👇Register Here
https://www.gyalwagyatso.org/events/2025-08-27-ven-roger-kunsang-lzr/

08/21/2025

THE UNSTABLE NATURE OF MIND
wisdompubs.org/book/door-satisfaction

You may be able to recite by heart and brilliantly explain teachings on emptiness. But in daily life, if someone says something a little negative or a little positive, offers a little criticism or a little praise, immediately the mind becomes emotional. There is no stability; immediately there is like and dislike. If this is what happens to our mind in daily life, there is not even a particle of practice of right view.

—Lama Zopa Rinpoche, The Door to Satisfaction

Read more: wisdompubs.org/book/door-satisfaction

08/21/2025

And then when we get those things, we use them not for ourselves but for serving others.

LAMA ZOPA ON WHY WE SHOULD HELP OTHERS

Helping others subdues our own mind, making it softer and softer, more and more patient, more and more tolerant, more and more compassionate, more and more loving and kind. Thus everything we do for others becomes a cause for our own happiness. Without expectation or desire for it, we effortlessly achieve whatever we need in this life: comfort, health, leisure, protection, money—what normal people fight for all their lives. And then when we get those things, we use them not for ourselves but for serving others. —Lama Zopa Rinpoche, How to Enjoy Death

Get the book: wisdompubs.org/book/how-to-enjoy-death

08/20/2025

If you cultivate your mind in meditation, it becomes sharp and clean clear. - Lama Yeshe

by Lama Yeshe

08/18/2025

You can also follow LYWA on Instagram to for more liberation by seeing.

08/18/2025

Thinking of karma is putting into practice the basic Buddhist philosophy that there is no creator other than your mind. You need to apply that philosophy in your life. You shouldn’t just leave it as philosophy, written in a notebook that you keep on the top shelf of your bookcase, but remember and apply it in your daily life, especially when you have problems.

- Lama Zopa Rinpoche

From *A Teaching on Heruka* https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/chapter-five-practicing-patience ☸️ Image of Rinpoche offering mandala in Missoula, Montana, 1997. Photo by Lilian Evans.