Thubten Yeshe (1935–1984)

[Wisdom Energy: Basic Buddhist Teachings] by [[Lama Yeshe]] and [[Lama Zopa Rinpoche]]
Finished 7/19/12

This book is a collection of talks given by these two lamas on a tour of the U.S. in the 1970s. Although the teachings in the book are much the same as what I am learning in my Buddhism classes here at Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Nepal, the way they are presented is very different. Lamas Yeshe and Zopa tend to keep a lot of the more technical terms and lists of practice aspects out of the show more book and focus more on the basics: learning how to train the mind, how to deal with attachment and grasping, how to approach studying the dharma.

What I find most important about the dharma to me now is looking at how many of the thoughts and concepts we create about ourselves and the world around us are really reified delusions - things we invent but think are real. So we dislike another person for 'their' traits when in fact we project those traits onto them. We feel like we're unable to do something because we create a self-definition based on our inability. Seeing how this process of delusion creates and recreates itself in the mind is fundamental to being free from ignorant thoughts. Most importantly, the dharma is something to be taken in, internalized, reflected and lived out, not just memorized once and mastered in a formulaic way.

Overall, a useful book. Too bad Lama Yeshe has passed.

Rating: 5/5 show less

Relish these direct, experiential meditation instructions from the author of the bestselling Introduction to Tantra.

Lama Yeshe tells us that mahamudra is “the universal reality of emptiness, of nonduality” and its unique characteristic is its emphasis on meditation: “With mahamudra meditation there is no doctrine, no theology, no philosophy, no God, no Buddha. Mahamudra is only experience.”

He relies on the First Panchen Lama’s well-known Root Text of Genden Mahamudra, which in a show more few short pages provides the pith instructions for, first, overcoming distraction and resting in meditative stillness on the clarity of one’s own mind, and then, with subtle awareness, penetrating its ultimate nature, its emptiness.

As always, Lama Yeshe’s words are direct, funny, and incredibly encouraging. He gets us to go beyond ego’s addiction to a limited sense of self and to taste the lightness and expansiveness of our own true nature. show less

Relish these direct, experiential meditation instructions from the author of the bestselling Introduction to Tantra.

Lama Yeshe tells us that mahamudra is “the universal reality of emptiness, of nonduality” and its unique characteristic is its emphasis on meditation: “With mahamudra meditation there is no doctrine, no theology, no philosophy, no God, no Buddha. Mahamudra is only experience.”

He relies on the First Panchen Lama’s well-known Root Text of Genden Mahamudra, which in a show more few short pages provides the pith instructions for, first, overcoming distraction and resting in meditative stillness on the clarity of one’s own mind, and then, with subtle awareness, penetrating its ultimate nature, its emptiness.

As always, Lama Yeshe’s words are direct, funny, and incredibly encouraging. He gets us to go beyond ego’s addiction to a limited sense of self and to taste the lightness and expansiveness of our own true nature. show less

Richard Blackwell, aka Lama Yeshe (which is awkward because there is a legit Lama Yeshe out there!), purported to have found secret diaries and materials from Usui and that Reiki is a lay form of Medicine Buddha practise. After many assurances of providing documents were never fulfilled, Paula Horan and her partner disowned and disavowed any connection to this material. There may be some good information about buddhism within this book but sinc the basic premise has never been adequately show more proved, the book must not be relied upon. show less