E-letter No. 261: March 2025
Dear Friends,
Thank you for taking the time to read our monthly e-letter! We invite you to share it with others who may find it meaningful. We are deeply grateful for the generous donations received during Chotrul Duchen, the Day of Miracles. Your support is invaluable and allows us to continue our mission and make a positive impact. In case you missed it!
Read on to explore two new multimedia presentations, a new video and podcast from the archives, the latest installment of the Big Love Audiobook project, and fresh advice added to Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Online Advice Book. Additionally, we’re excited to share an excerpt for this month’s teaching from the forthcoming Clean-Clear. Keep reading to learn more!
The Wisdom of Lama Yeshe: More Insights to Support Us in 2025
We are excited to announce that our next free publication, Clean Clear: Refuge, Bodhicitta and the Nature of the Mind, should be here by May! This volume contains teachings Lama Yeshe gave in England in 1976 and the Netherlands in 1980, focusing primarily on refuge and bodhicitta, as well as a public lecture on the nature of the mind. As always, the teachings are clear and profound.
Compiled and edited by Nicholas Ribush, this book is the second volume in Lama Yeshe’s collected teachings, following the first volume, Knowledge-Wisdom: The Peaceful Path to Liberation. You can find an excerpt from the book in this month's teaching below, and we’ve also posted additional excerpts on our website.
LYWA Multimedia: My Third Trip to Lawudo, Summer, 1977
We are happy to share the final multimedia presentation of Nick Ribush's journey with Lama Zopa Rinpoche back to Lawudo in the Solu Khumbu region of Nepal, for what would be his last trip. The presentation includes rare archival photos and highlights how Nick ingeniously engineered a toilet for a large nyung nä event and assisted Rinpoche in creating his guru mantra at the request of his students. Here's what Nick writes:
A while back I was invited by the Love Lawudo Newsletter to write about my trips there in 1973, 1974, and 1977. The first account was published in three parts, now combined here into one, as has been the story of my second trip in 1974 shared in this past January's eletter. And now, finally, here’s the short story of my third. I hope you enjoy it and feel inspired to visit the amazing, wonderful Lawudo yourself.
You can find LYWA's complete multimedia collection on our website. We are pleased to offer a growing collection of multimedia titles on a range of topics, presenting the teachings in all their multimedia aspects: transcripts enhanced with images, audio, and video from the teachings, as well as informal video, related advice, and other materials in the Archive.
From the Video Archive: The Benefits of Practicing Medicine Buddha
This month from the Video Archive, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how the practice of Medicine Buddha is the perfect practice for these degenerate times. These teachings were given at the Swedenborg Chapel in Cambridge, Massachusetts in November 1998 and hosted by FPMT’s Kurukulla Center.
To explore more teachings on Medicine Buddha by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, be sure to check out the free LYWA publication Teachings from the Medicine Buddha Retreat. You can order a free print copy, read the entire book online on our website, download a free PDF or get the ebook from your favourite ebook vendor. LYWA members can download the ebook for free from our Members' area.
Visit and subscribe to the LYWA YouTube channel to explore our complete video collection of teachings by Lama Yeshe and many from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, available from our archive. See the FPMT YouTube channel and the Rinpoche Available Now page on the FPMT website for many more videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings.
On the LYWA Podcast: Covering The Whole Earth
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.
Find more teachings from the Kopan Meditation Courses by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on our website, and learn more about the Kopan eBook Project. Our goal is to convert all the Kopan courses into eBooks, including both those already available on our website and those yet to be published.
The LYWA podcast contains hundreds of hours of audio, each with links to the accompanying lightly edited transcripts. See the LYWA podcast page to search or browse the entire collection by topic or date, and for easy instructions on how to subscribe.
The BIG LOVE AUDIOBOOK HEART PROJECT
We are happy to share the latest audiobook installment of Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe, written by Adele Hulse. Organized by Janet Brooke, this heart project comprises narrations recorded by personal friends of the late Åge Delbanco (Babaji), one of Lama Yeshe's earliest students. This is a unique opportunity to hear this extraordinary account of Lama Yeshe’s life read by those who were there as the story unfolded—especially valuable if you don’t have a copy.
This month the Big Love Heart Project brings you Chapter 18: 1980: The Teachings Are All About You, read by Wanda Sisnroy. Chapter 18 includes stories about the second Council for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (CPMT) meeting, Lama Yeshe's extensive travels in Asia, California, and Europe, his advice on business matters, the challenges faced by students, and a description of the Thirteenth Kopan meditation course.
What's New On Our Website
This month we posted a new Russian translation of Silent Mind, Holy Mind by Lama Yeshe on our website. The translation, done by Anton Muskin, is available for free download in both PDF and ePub formats. We partner with foreign publishers worldwide to translate LYWA publications. Currently, our titles have been translated from English into 19 different languages.
We’ve also added new entries to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book. Each year, we include over 100 new pieces of advice on various topics, bringing the total to more than 2,600 entries now available on our website.
- Life Practices for Retiree: Rinpoche advised lamrim study and practice, along with several preliminaries, including tsa tsas, for a student who had retired.
- Tonglen and Recovery from Cancer: Rinpoche wrote this letter to a student who had overcome cancer through practicing tonglen.
- Dedications for Prayer Wheel in Thame: This extensive dedication prayer for a large prayer wheel constructed in Thame, Solu Khumbu, was composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
You can always find a list of all the newly posted advices from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on our website.
Almost here: Rinpoche's Animal Friends
As many of you know, our latest free publication, Rinpoche's Animal Friends, is making its way via cargo ship from Latvia, where it was printed, to Boston, USA, where we will be distributing it from our main office. It will be available for order on our website by mid-April. We have also printed a Singapore edition, which should be available from the FPMT Amitabha Buddhist Centre (ABC) in a week or two.
In the meantime, we’ve created a multimedia presentation to give you a sense of the joy this book offers!
As always, thanks for all your love and support, and don't miss out on reading an excerpt from Clean-Clear below.
Big love,
Nick Ribush
Director, and the LYWA team
THIS MONTH'S TEACHING: An object that will never cheat us
We are very fortunate. Somehow we find ourselves with the positive mental attitude that leads us to take refuge and to rely absolutely forever upon an object that will never cheat us. Relying, instead, on material-level happiness, which is so transitory and empty, is of little value. Dharma refuge, on the other hand, is so worthwhile.
Of course, in the regular sense, here in England people are living the good life according to their ability to manage the material world. Compare life here to that in Nepal, for example. Even samsarically speaking, people there are living in very poor conditions. Like they can die from even a minor ailment that here you can easily cure by going to a doctor and taking medicine. With closed minds, they say, “God is my only medicine; I rely solely on God.” When you guys get sick you just go to the doctor. You’re prepared.
As you now know, the principal cause of disease is delusion, mental disorder, which manifests at the physical level as some kind of sickness. But we can cure that cooperative cause by countering it with another physical energy: medicine. In the East, Westerners often contract hepatitis or something like that. It would be stupid if they were to say, “I’m sick, but this is my karma. I don’t want to see a doctor. I’m not hungry so I’m just not going to eat. Let whatever happens happen.” I think that’s stupid. Yes, we have the principal cause within us, but we can apply an antidote to the cooperative cause that’s making us sick. That will fix the problem, at least for a little while.
At the moment we’re all healthy, aren’t we? We’re not crazy. We’re OK. But still, the seed of madness is within us. All it takes is one small thing to change and we can become crazy. That can happen, can’t it? The principal cause, the seed, of hepatitis and all other kinds of horrible disease is within us right now. We’re healthy at the moment because we have not yet contacted the cooperative cause to bring it out. But the potential is there. If I touch this candle I’ll get burnt. Once the cooperative cause and the seed are in apposition, pam!—I get sick.
Anyway, I’m just speaking conventionally, but I think it’s a fact that in general, Western people live better and healthier lives than a lot of people in Nepal and Africa, for example. You can see that. It’s small wisdom, but wisdom nonetheless. It does take a certain kind of wisdom to know how to live a better life. Similarly, taking refuge in the preeminent qualities of Buddha and Dharma also comes from the wisdom that thinks, “It’s completely stupid to rely on material things for happiness. There’s no way they can lead to profound, lasting happiness, especially with the kind of grasping, reactive mind I have, which just leads to confusion and restlessness.” So taking Dharma refuge is extremely worthwhile. Also, taking refuge in the superior qualities of the Buddha doesn’t mean some impossible thing happens, like your body becomes that of the Buddha. That is impossible. It means that your inner qualities become like those of the Buddha; ultimately, you become Dharma. Those are not external attributes.
Perhaps before meeting the Dharma you thought that there wasn’t much you could control, but now, with even your small experience of Dharma, you find that you do have some control. You can explain to yourself what’s going on, and that lifts your spirits. You know that it’s Dharma wisdom that brings you up. By developing your understanding, by developing your wisdom, your Dharma knowledge, you can see how you can develop your tranquil, peaceful mind infinitely.
What you really need to understand is that the true savior, the true liberator, is the light of wisdom, not material possessions. When you acknowledge this, when you understand clean clear that it’s your superstitions regarding the sense world, looking at things with a dissatisfied mind, thinking, searching continuously, day and night, “What will make me happy? What will make me happy? I’m unhappy; what can make me happy?” you will recognize how ridiculous the I-grasping mind is. I’m talking psychology here. This is not a physical explanation. The never-ending searching, “I’m lost, I’m lost,” grasping at things, always feeling empty, “I want,” constantly feeling that you are nothing but that up there somewhere is something special, totally comes from the ridiculous I-grasping mind. That’s what you have to understand.
I explain the ridiculous mind as one that is always thinking, “I’m nothing; I’m nothing. I want something special.” So you’re constantly seeking something special, which you can never find; searching the sense world for something that will bring you satisfaction, which is impossible. But it’s the ego’s nature to be looking for something outside. It’s really painful. That produces superstition; that produces delusion. When you find that something within, your superstitions decrease automatically; there’s less dissatisfaction and less desperate external seeking. Life becomes much simpler.
Your life is complicated because of superstition and your grasping attitude. When you understand this, have some insight into the nature of your own mind and put your energy into right livelihood, you’re automatically led in the direction of everlasting, peaceful realization.
As I said just before, we need an object that will not cheat us. What does “cheat” mean? It means we interact with objects in the external world with the great expectation that they will bring us lasting happiness, but sooner or later, contrary to our expectations, they automatically separate from us. There’s no choice. They are transitory by nature.
Let’s say we have a close friend or we’re in a relationship with someone we’ve chosen. Out of the billions of people on earth, we’ve chosen this one person, feeling, “Oh, he’s so good for me; he’s this, this, this; she’s so good for me; she’s that, that, that,” whatever it may be. Things are good for a while but then something comes along that strains the relationship and it disappears. That’s the nature of relationships. They break up, and it’s painful. That’s the material world. No matter how much you love your dear friend or your material possessions, they’re so transitory. When you don’t need them, they’re there; when you need them, they’re not.
Wisdom, on the other hand, is always with you, day and night, throughout this life, the intermediate state and your next life, irrespective of the conditions you’re in. When you’re having a horrible time, even your dear friend might not want to come near you, but even if you’re really miserable, wisdom will always be right there.
Lama Yeshe gave this teaching prior to offering a refuge ceremony at Manjushri Institute, England, in 1976. Excerpted from LYWA’s forthcoming Clean-Clear: Refuge, Bodhicitta and the Nature of the Mind. Edited by Nicholas Ribush.