Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

When the subject of karma is missing, there’s no understanding that harming others means harming oneself. 

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche considers how Western psychology lacks an understanding of karma and discusses how it is not enough for a patient to attain superficial happiness if the deeper cause of suffering remains untreated. These teachings were given during a lamrim course led by Rinpoche at Maitreya Instituut, Emst, The Netherlands, in August 1990. You can also read along with the transcript on our website.

We have this negative karma collected on our mental continuum, and we have to do something to clean it, to purify it. If we do nothing, it piles up like mountains and we will experience life’s problems again and again, again and again, because the negative karma is still there.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche urges us to face the facts: our problems arise from our own karma. We must recognize it and then do something about it. It is not enough to feel regret, we must apply the treatment, the method that wi...

Ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, enlightenment, everything, all this happiness – the creator is your mind, not somebody outside. This gives you incredible freedom.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche encourages us to make the best use of our lives by realizing how the mind is the creator of all our happiness and suffering. Through the practice of thought transformation, we can find freedom. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. You can follow along with the transcript on our website.

The minute you accept your own karma, you cut the problem. You have to accept your own karma.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

As Lama Yeshe once said, “Once a situation has manifested, the best thing to do is to accept the fact and deal with it.” Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how we can use such challenging situations to develop compassion and to cut the root of concepts. These teachings were given at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000.

Please note: Personal safety and self-care are paramount, and if you or s...

Somebody who helps you to destroy your ego is so precious and shows you unbelievable kindness. This kindness you should feel deeply from bottom of your heart.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche illustrates the way that all suffering and happiness is created by the mind. Rinpoche then shares a story of how as a young monk, Rinpoche applied this wisdom to a teacher who had challenged his ego, thereby changing his view of the teacher from an enemy to one most kind. From teachings given at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan...

The meaning of blessings is transforming one’s own mind into the whole path to enlightenment of method and wisdom with the goal of transforming these into the Dharmakaya and the Rupakaya. So the meaning of blessing contains all this.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains what it means to receive the blessings of the guru, and then recites Lama Tsongkhapa’s lamrim prayer, the Foundation of All Good Qualities, in Tibetan. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. Read along with the tran...

All existence are condensed into two truths. MANI signifies the truth for all-obscuring mind, the dependent arising, and PADME is the truth for the absolute wisdom, the emptiness. Then HUM is the unification of dependent arising and emptiness.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

In this month’s podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the meaning of the mantra, OM MANI PADME HUM, and then offers an oral transmission of the Long Chenrezig Mantra. These teachings were given in Singapore, in January 1993. You can read along with the transcript on our website.

From our side, from us sentient beings, from our side, if we practice correctly, definitely, without doubt, definitely we’ll achieve the ultimate peace.  -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how to practice in order to achieve the ultimate peace for ourselves and all sentient beings. These teachings were given by Rinpoche in Singapore in January, 1993. You can read along with the transcript on our website.

Once your inner enemy of delusion is destroyed, it is the same as if all outside enemies have been destroyed in one instant.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how to protect ourselves from anger and expands upon the mind of loving kindness. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. You can follow along with the transcript on our website.

The way the ‘I’ and phenomena appear to us, to our hallucinated mind, is they are not merely labeled by mind. As long as these things appear to you that way – not merely labeled by mind – they don’t exist. They’re totally empty there.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how things appear to exist from their own side. These teachings were given at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. You can listen also along to the transcript on our website...

When you follow the ego, you become a disciple of the ego. You follow the ego day and night and listen what ego says all the time. Even if you have received all the sutra and tantra teachings and have heard them many times, when you follow the ego nothing happens in your mind. -Lama … Continue reading The Shortcomings of Self-Cherishing →

Through this way of meditating, you begin to realize it’s not the object that is disturbing. It’s your mind; it’s your concept. Your mind is making you unhappy; your mind is disturbing you. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how everything we experience comes from the mind. These teachings were given during the Thirty-third … Continue reading Everything Comes From The Mind →

Even if you find it very hard to understand the teachings on emptiness, you will leave positive imprints on the mind and remove the imprints of delusion. The benefits you receive just by listening is like the limitless sky. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche elaborates on the emptiness of the I, then  gives oral … Continue reading Listening Like the Limitless Sky →

Because you look at everything as empty, the strong selfish mind, the ego, doesn’t arise. When you think like this, it makes your life stable, filled with peace, happiness, contentment; it brings so much benefit. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how to practice mindfulness as we go through our day, and offers advice … Continue reading Using Everything to Practice Mindfulness →

Because we rely on the methods revealed by Buddha – the path to liberation and enlightenment – we naturally take refuge in the Buddha. – Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains why we take refuge in the Buddha. Rinpoche then chants a prayer asking for blessings of the lineage lamas, followed by recitation of The … Continue reading Relying on the Buddha →

The ego, this self-cherishing thought, the ego is much more harmful than all the atomic bombs that are in the world because atomic bomb even if it explodes, if you have bodhichitta it doesn’t cause you to be reborn in the hell realm, lower realm. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how Shakyamuni Buddha … Continue reading Change Your Attitude, Change Your Action →

By training the mind in patience, it leaves a positive imprint on your mind. Then later you find it easier for the mind to be patient and more and more difficult for the mind to get angry. It’s the same with self-cherishing or bodhicitta. Whichever way one trains the mind, one can become more easily … Continue reading Proof of Reincarnation by Habituation →

Happiness comes from a positive attitude and action motivated by that. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche answers a student’s question about the relationship between the mind and the heart when practicing bodhichitta, how to be authentic in the practice of compassion, and where to locate … Continue reading Where to Find Happiness →

The meditation practice is like the seed. The actual body of meditation, the practice, that is like the seed and purifying the hindrances and the accumulation of merit are like the soil and water. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains why we must prepare the ground of our mind with merit accumulation and karmic … Continue reading Our Practice Is Like A Seed →

Even giving just one single tiny grain of rice to one single sentient being will accumulate infinite merit when you are motivated to give by the precious wish to attain enlightenment to benefit numberless sentient beings. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the power and importance of the precious bodhicitta during teachings on Geshe … Continue reading The Loving Compassionate Precious Thought for Enlightenment →

Every single phenomena is like that. There’s merely gathered, the base to be labeled, then due to that, then mere imputation, then only after that, then you have that appearance. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche In these teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche given during a lamrim retreat held at Vajrapani Institute in Boulder Creek, California, from August … Continue reading How We Name the World →

Compassion should be at the heart of our life, at the center of all our relationships and in all our practices. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives the transmission of the mantra and dharani of Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion and explains why reciting these mantra helps us to develop compassion from the … Continue reading The Living Heart of Compassion →

If you don’t practice Dharma, don’t learn Dharma, don’t meditate, if you don’t pray to have realization of the path to enlightenment, at least even the path to liberation, if you don’t do that then so many sentient beings have to suffer for you to live, for your happiness, it is so unimaginable, unbearable, so … Continue reading The Power of the Object of Merit →

Manjushri bodhisattva is the highest manifestation of being, the embodiment of all knowledge. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche The Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti (Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri) consists of 160 verses and mantra sentences, condensing an enormous tantric lore. Listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting the Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti in Tibetan. Rinpoche recorded this recitation in 2006, and asked for the … Continue reading Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri →

On August 11th, 2019, Tenzin Ösel Hita participated in the ongoing series “Taste of Buddhism” offered by FPMT center Tse Chen Ling in San Francisco. Tse Chen Ling describes Ösel as “a radical free-thinker, former monk, filmmaker, and musician who is highly gifted at sharing the essence of the Dharma and how it can be … Continue reading My Life as a Tulku →

Tenzin Ösel Hita gives a talk on “How to overcome limitations to find our real potential” at the Center for Wisdom and Compassion in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 11, 2017. Read the talk at http://www.lamayeshe.com/article/how-find-our-real-potential Learn more about Ösel at http://www.lamayeshe.com/teacher/tenzin-osel-hita

Sometimes uncontrollable anger arises and uncontrollable self-cherishing thought arises, self-concern, anger, pride also, but then sometimes it makes you aware there’s choice. There’s choice. You can choose. Listen to a public talk by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on how to bring peace and happiness to oneself and others, given at Conway Hall, London, England on July … Continue reading Taking Care of the Mind →

On March 12, 2014, Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche ascended Vulture’s Peak, Rajgir, India, to give a transmission of the Vajra Cutter Sutra to a group of students. Rinpoche began by reading out a Dedication Prayer by Mipham Dawa Rinpoche, then, after the sutra transmission, Rinpoche led students in a meditation on emptiness. Read along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/meditation-emptiness-vultures-peak-audio-and-transcript

Tenzin Ösel Hita, the recognized reincarnation of Lama Yeshe, gave this talk during the 45th Kopan Lamrim Course at Kopan Monastery in 2012. Ösel covers many lamrim topics such as guru devotion, Dharma, the sufferings of samsara, our five senses and love, all from a contemporary viewpoint. You can also read along to the transcript … Continue reading You have to find your own truth →

The incredible, unbelievable, most unbelievable, no words, how most important to generate bodhicitta, can you imagine? -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche celebrates the power of bodhicitta during teachings given by Rinpoche at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive home office in October 2012. Rinpoche was in town to attend the visit of His Holiness the … Continue reading Imagine the Power of Bodhicitta →

Practicing Dharma is just a question of changing, you know, your own mind, changing, from self-cherishing thought into cherishing others, from anger, those violent, harmful mind, into loving-kindness, compassion to others, so, basically like that. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Enjoy this profound excerpt from a series of teachings given prior to a chöd initiation by Kyabje Lama … Continue reading Chöd: Slaying the Ego →

It is amazing how even within a minute, even in each second, eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, wow, what you can do with this precious human body by understanding and practicing the Dharma. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche celebrates our perfect human rebirth and encourages us to bring every single moment in our life into … Continue reading This Precious Human Rebirth →

Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this Dharma talk in Madrid, Spain on June 10, 2009 and explains how compassion is our best and most reliable friend and will never cheat us, that compassion is the most powerful purification we can practice and that compassion should be our practice in every moment of our everyday life.  Read … Continue reading Compassion Creates the Cause for Success →

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this talk in Madrid, Spain on June 10, 2009. The teaching includes a commentary on the visualization of Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara), the Buddha of Compassion, and group chanting of OM MANI PADME HUM mantra. Rinpoche also explained the benefits of compassion and the laws of karma. Read along with the transcript at http://www.lamayeshe.com/article/compassion-real-answer-audio-and-unedited-transcripts

So whatever happens, whatever is happening around, around you, your heart has peace. Lama Zopa Rinpoche In this month’s podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche leads us in the vajra practice of Chenrezig. Rinpoche begins by chanting Om Mani Padme Hum slowly and powerfully. Within that resonance Rinpoche teaches on how to maintain the vajra visualization of … Continue reading Making Your Mind Vajrayana →

When you look at people, when you relate with them, if you look at their mind and how their life is motivated, you can see how much they’re suffering and you feel unbearable. Lama Zopa Rinpoche Please enjoy another extract from a series of teachings prior to a chöd initiation given by Kyabje Lama Zopa … Continue reading Dharma in Daily Life →

So now you have to understand, purified completely one negative karma. What does it mean? What does it mean? Now, it means a lot to you. Do you understand? Unbelievable. The four suffering results. You don’t experience at all. Wow! Can imagine? So, like that we have to understand what it means. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche … Continue reading How to Purify Negative Karma →

An excerpt from a series of teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche given in 2009 in Singapore. Follow along with the unedited transcript and listen to more of this teaching at lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/inspiration-kopan-courses.

Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this Dharma talk prior to a refuge ceremony at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, on January 18, 2009. Rinpoche discusses the kindness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in taking responsibility for preserving and spreading the Buddhadharma. Other topics in this teaching include the kindness of all sentient beings, the benefits … Continue reading The Kindness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama →

This teaching is excerpted from Lecture 10 of the 41st Kopan Course held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in December 2008. In this section of the teaching, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the great meaning of the precious human rebirth, with reference to a verse from Calling the Guru From Afar, and the story of Milarepa, who achieved enlightenment … Continue reading Basic Philosophy of Buddhism →