Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

How do you liberate yourself and others from constant suffering? You use this precious human body to cherish others more than yourself. That’s the method, that’s the practice, that’s the solution. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche reminds us that being born into this precious human body affords us incredible opportunities to practice the Dharma and how we should feel incredible, unbelievable joy and bliss as if we had won the lottery. These teachings were given at Root Institute, Bodh gaya, in December 2003. Read along with the transcript on our website .

Your mind should be doing retreat in emptiness, retreating away from ignorance, the hallucinated mind, the worldly dharmas, the king of the delusions. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche offers vast and profound retreat advice to participants present during the Thousand-Arm Chenrezig Retreat in Taiwan in 2001. You can read along with the transcript on the LYWA website.

It’s unbelievable what you can accomplish with this incredible human body. There is no greater joy than this. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche encourages us to take advantage of the power of our human rebirth. Rinpoche gave these teachings during a commentary on Eight Verses of Thought Transformation , an essential mind training text composed by Kadampa Geshe Langri Tangpa, given at Tse Chen Ling Center, in San Francisco, California, USA, in November 2003. You can read along with the transcript on our website .

There are many different kinds of Dharma practice— hundreds of different mantras to recite, all kinds of meditation—but the most important of them all is the practice of compassion. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses how no matter how you lead your daily life—in retreat, studying Dharma, chanting sadhanas, reciting mantras or putting in long hours at the office—if you never let compassion leave your mind, if you constantly keep in mind the thought of benefiting others, everything you do becomes work for the welfare of others. These teachings were given during a four-day course at Tilopa Center, Decatur, Illinois, in August, 1997 and published in the LYWA free book, Virtue and Reality , edited by Nicholas Ribush.

When you read different teachings, you might get confused because they look contradictory. One teaching says you must never do something, then another teaching says you must do that. The difference is in the level of development of the mind. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how karma becomes negative or positive based not on the action but on the mind. A bodhisattva whose mind cherishes others can take actions that appear negative because they are motivated by the mind of enlightenment. But when we are motivated by self-cherishing, we must abandon such negative actions. Rinpoche gave these teachings during a lamrim course at Maitreya Instituut, Emst, in August 1990. You can read along with the transcript on our website .

As you listen to the oral transmission think, “May I be able to reveal each word to every sentient being and may they be able to actualize the path immediately in their mind when they hear it.” -Lama Zopa Rinpoche This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives teachings on guru devotion and a brief commentary on Pabongka Rinpoche’s Calling the Guru from Afar during an oral transmission of the text in Singapore in April 1992. You can read along with the transcript on the LYWA website.

Compassion makes everything sweet, rich, meaningful, worthwhile, and the cause of enlightenment. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the all-pervasive importance of compassion. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at Deer Park Buddhist Center in Madison, Wisconsin, July, 1999. You can also listen along with the transcript on our website .

How can I practice patience if no one gets angry with me? How will I find the opportunity to develop my mind in patience? The opportunity is completely due to the kindness of this person who is angry at me. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains in detail why it is so important to practice patience with those who wish to harm us and with those who are angry with us. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. You can listen along with the transcript on our website .

It is extremely important to reflect, to meditate, to think deeply about karma so that it does not become just a word. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche leads a recitation of the Heart Sutra , the Foundation of All Good Qualities by Lama Tsong Khapa, and Shakyamuni Buddha’s mantra, before describing the importance of karma in everyday life. These teachings were given during a lamrim course led by Rinpoche at Maitreya Instituut, the Netherlands, in August 1990. You can also listen along with the transcript on our website .

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 … <!-- more-link --><a href="https://lamayeshewisdomarchive.blubrry.com/2025/10/26/just-do-it/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Just Do It</span> <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

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 … <!-- more-link --><a href="https://lamayeshewisdomarchive.blubrry.com/2025/09/25/the-best-use-of-your-life/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">The Best Use of Your Life</span> <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

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 … <!-- more-link --><a href="https://lamayeshewisdomarchive.blubrry.com/2025/08/26/how-to-deal-with-difficult-situations/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">How to Deal with Difficult Situations</span> <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

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 … <!-- more-link --><a href="https://lamayeshewisdomarchive.blubrry.com/2025/07/28/your-problem-is-coming-from-inside-your-mind/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">The Problem Is Coming From Inside Your Mind</span> <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

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 … <!-- more-link --><a href="https://lamayeshewisdomarchive.blubrry.com/2025/06/25/the-meaning-of-blessing/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">The Meaning of Blessing</span> <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

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 … <!-- more-link --><a href="https://lamayeshewisdomarchive.blubrry.com/2025/05/26/the-meaning-of-om-mani-padme-hum/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">The Meaning of OM MANI PADME HUM</span> <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

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 … <!-- more-link --><a href="https://lamayeshewisdomarchive.blubrry.com/2025/04/26/to-achieve-the-ultimate-peace/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">To Achieve the Ultimate Peace</span> <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

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 … <!-- more-link --><a href="https://lamayeshewisdomarchive.blubrry.com/2025/03/25/coveringthewholeearth/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Covering The Whole Earth</span> <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

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 … <!-- more-link --><a href="https://lamayeshewisdomarchive.blubrry.com/2025/02/25/how-things-appear-to-exist-from-their-own-side/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">How Things Appear to Exist from their Own Side</span> <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

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 … <!-- more-link --><a href="https://lamayeshewisdomarchive.blubrry.com/2025/01/27/the-shortcomings-of-self-cherishing/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">The Shortcomings of Self-Cherishing</span> <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>