Quote Archives: Lama Yeshe

The business of your meditation ~ Lama Yeshe

Meditation is not on the level of the object, but on that of the subject. You are the business of your meditation. Lama Yeshe

The pursuit of self-realization ~ Lama Yeshe

True religion should be the pursuit of self-realization, not an exercise in the accumulation of facts. Lama Yeshe

The will to totally open our hearts to others ~ Lama Yeshe

Why are we bored, lonely and lazy? Because we don’t have the will to totally open our hearts to others. If you have the strength of will to totally open your heart to others, you will eliminate laziness, selfishness and loneliness. Actually, the reason you get lonely is that you are not doing anything. If […]

The benefits of meditation ~ Lama Yeshe

Through meditation, you learn about the nature of your mind rather than the sense world of desire and attachment. Why is this important? We think that worldly things are very useful, but the enjoyment they bring is minimal and transient. Meditation, on the other hand, has so much more to offer – joy, understanding, higher […]

Understanding what our mind is and how it works ~ Lama Yeshe

Why is it so important to know the nature of our own mind? Since we all want happiness, enjoyment, peace and satisfaction and these things do not come from ice-cream but from wisdom and the mind, we have to understand what our mind is and how it works. Lama Yeshe

Discipline and openness ~ Lama Yeshe

Some people think that having self-discipline prevents you from being open and natural. They think you should just relax and let everything flow freely. But to do so is not contradictory to being disciplined. In fact, you can be truly open only if you are disciplined. Lama Yeshe

Hallucinating mind ~ Lama Yeshe

Buddhism is not saying that objects have no beauty whatsoever. They do have beauty. The craving mind, however, projects onto an object something that is beyond the relative level, which has nothing to do with that object. That mind is hallucinating, deluded and holding the wrong entity. Lama Yeshe

True love ~ Lama Yeshe

True love does not depend on physical expression. You should realize this. True love is a feeling deep within you. It is not just a matter of wearing a smile on your face and looking happy. Rather, it arises from a heartfelt understanding of every other being’s suffering and radiates out to all of them […]

The foggy mind ~ Lama Yeshe

It’s the foggy mind, the mind that’s attracted to an object and paints a distorted projection onto it, that makes you suffer. That’s all. It’s really quite simple. Lama Yeshe

The right way to enter the spiritual path ~ Lama Yeshe

Religion is not just some dry intellectual idea but rather your basic philosophy of life: you hear a teaching that makes sense to you, find through experience that it relates positively with your psychological makeup, get a real taste of it through practice, and adopt it as your spiritual path. That’s the right way to […]

The essence of the guru ~ Lama Yeshe

The essence of the guru is wisdom: the perfectly clear and radiant state of mind in which bliss and the realization of emptiness are inseparably unified. Lama Yeshe

Guru ~ Lama Yeshe

A guru is a person who can really show you the true nature of your mind and who knows the perfect remedies for your psychological problems. Someone who doesn’t know his own mind can never know others’ minds and therefore cannot be a guru. Lama Yeshe

Individual path ~ Lama Yeshe

One of the hallmarks of buddhism is that you can’t say that everybody should do this, everybody should be like that; it depends on the individual. Lama Yeshe

Non-duality ~ Lama Yeshe

All existing phenomena, whether deemed good or bad, are by nature beyond duality, beyond our false discriminations. Nothing that exists does so outside of non-duality. In other words, every existing energy is born within non-duality, functions within non-duality, and finally disappears into the nature of non-duality. We are born on this earth, live our lives […]

The practice of karma ~ Lama Yeshe

Karma is not something complicated or philosophical. Karma means watching your body, watching your mouth, and watching your mind. Trying to keep these three doors as pure as possible is the practice of karma. Lama Yeshe

Chocolate all the way ~ Lama Yeshe

Enlightenment is not just chocolate at the end, in a lump. It is chocolate, chocolate, chocolate all the way! Lama Yeshe

The dark clouds of ego ~ Lama Yeshe

When a strong wind blows, the clouds vanish and blue sky appears. Similarly, when the powerful wisdom that understand the nature of the mind arises, the dark clouds of ego disappear. Lama Yeshe

Plenty of space for thoughts and emotions ~ Lama Yeshe

We should train ourselves not to become engrossed in any of the thoughts continuously arising in our mind. Our consciousness is like a vast ocean with plenty of space for thoughts and emotions to swim about and we should not allow our attention to be distracted by any of them. Lama Yeshe

Checking your motivation ~ Lama Yeshe

Don’t bring your materialistic way of life to your Dharma practice. It doesn’t work. Before meditating, check and correct your motivation. If you do this, your meditation will become much easier and more worthwhile, and your right action will bring realizations. You don’t need to be hungry for realizations, grasping, “Oh, if I do this, […]

The actual nature of the mind ~ Lama Yeshe

Don’t think of Buddhism as some kind of narrow, closed-minded belief system. It isn’t. Buddhist doctrine is not a historical fabrication derived through imagination and mental speculation, but an accurate psychological explanation of the actual nature of the mind. Lama Yeshe