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The Essence of Tibetan Buddhism (PDF) The Essence of Tibetan Buddhism This book is published by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive Bringing you the teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche This book is made possible by kind supporters of the Archive who, like you, appreciate how we make these teachings freely available in so many ways, including in our website for instant reading, listening or downloading, and as printed and electronic books. Our website offers immediate access to thousands of pages of teachings and hundreds of audio recordings by some of the greatest lamas of our time. Our photo gallery and our ever-popular books are also freely accessible there. Please help us increase our efforts to spread the Dharma for the happiness and benefit of all beings. You can find out more about becoming a supporter of the Archive and see all we have to offer by visiting our website at http://www.LamaYeshe.com. Thank you so much, and please enjoy this ebook. Previously Published by the LAMA YESHE WISDOM ARCHIVE Becoming Your Own Therapist, by Lama Yeshe Advice for Monks and Nuns, by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche Virtue and Reality, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Make Your Mind an Ocean, by Lama Yeshe Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche The Peaceful Stillness of the Silent Mind, by Lama Yeshe Daily Purification: A Short Vajrasattva Practice, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Making Life Meaningful, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Teachings from the Mani Retreat, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche The Direct and Unmistaken Method, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche The Yoga of Offering Food, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Teachings from Tibet, by various great lamas The Joy of Compassion, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche The Kindness of Others, by Geshe Jampa Tegchok Ego, Attachment and Liberation, by Lama Yeshe How Things Exist, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Universal Love, by Lama Yeshe The Heart of the Path, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Teachings from the Medicine Buddha Retreat, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Freedom Through Understanding, by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche Kadampa Teachings, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Life, Death and After Death, by Lama Yeshe Bodhisattva Attitude, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche How to Practice Dharma, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche For Initiates Only: A Teaching on Heruka, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche A Teaching on Yamantaka, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche In Association with TDL Publications, Los Angeles: Mirror of Wisdom, by Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama Lama Yeshe DVDs The Three Principal Aspects of the Path • Introduction to Tantra • Offering Tsok to Heruka Vajrasattva • Anxiety in the Nuclear Age • Bringing Dharma to the West • Lama Yeshe at Disneyland • Freedom Through Understanding • Life, Death and After Death May whoever sees, touches, reads, remembers, or talks or thinks about these books never be reborn in unfortunate circumstances, receive only rebirths in situations conducive to the perfect practice of Dharma, meet only perfectly qualified spiritual guides, quickly develop bodhicitta and immediately attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. Lama Yeshe The Essence of Tibetan Buddhism The Three Principal Aspects of the Path and An Introduction to Tantra Edited by Nicholas Ribush Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive • Boston www.LamaYeshe.com A non-profit charitable organization for the benefit of all sentient beings and an affiliate of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition www.fpmt.org First published 2001 15,000 copies for free distribution Second printing 2003, 15,000 copies Third printing 2006, 10,000 copies Fourth printing 2008, 10,000 copies Fifth printing 2010, 10,000 copies Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive PO Box 636, Lincoln, MA 01773, USA © Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche 2001, 2010 Please do not reproduce any part of this book by any means whatsoever without our permission Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Thubten Yeshe, 1935–1984. The essence of Tibetan Buddhism : the three principal aspects of the path and introduction to Tantra / Lama Yeshe ; edited by Nicholas Ribush. p. cm. Summary: “In this book, Lama Yeshe, one of the pioneers of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, presents the fundamental teachings of the tradition, the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment—renunciation, bodhicitta and the right view of emptiness—and an overview of tantra, to which the basic teachings lead”—Provided by publisher. isbn 978-1-891868-08-5 (alk. paper) 1. Buddhism—China—Tibet—Doctrines. I. Ribush, Nicholas. II. Title. bq7634.t48 2008 294.3’923—dc22 2008033742 10 9 8 7 6 5 Cover, unknown photographer • Cover line art by Robert Beer Photos of Lama Yeshe at University of Santa Cruz, California, 1978, by Jon Landaw • Designed by Gopa & Ted2 Inc. ♻Printed in the USA with environmental mindfulness on 30% PCW recycled paper. As a result we have saved the following resources: 11 trees, 304 lbs. of solid waste, 5,010 gallons of water, 1,040 lbs. of greenhouse gases and 3 million BTUs of energy. This paper is also FSC certified. For more information please visit www.fscus.org Please contact the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive for more copies of this and our other free books ... Contents ... Editor’s Preface 11 The Three Principal Aspects of the Path First Teaching 15 Second Teaching 31 Introduction to Tantra First Teaching 47 Second Teaching 61 Glossary 79 ... Publisher’s Acknowledgments ... e are extremely grateful to our friends and support- Wers who have made it possible for the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive to both exist and function: to Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, whose kindness is impossible to repay; to Peter and Ni- cole Kedge and Venerable Ailsa Cameron for their initial work on the Archive; to Venerable Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa’s tireless as- sistant, for his kindness and consideration; and to our sustaining supporters: Barry and Connie Hershey, Joan Halsall, Tony Steel, Vajrayana Institute, Claire Atkins, Thubten Yeshe, Roger and Claire Ash-Wheeler, Hawk Furman, Richard Gere, Lily Chang Wu, Ther- ese Miller, Janet Hintermann, Tom and Suzanne Castles, Doren and Mary Harper, and other anonymous benefactors. In particular, we would like to express our appreciation to Doss McDavid for so kindly sponsoring the reprint of this book and for his appreciation of and enthusiasm for the teachings of Lama Thubten Yeshe. We have many more of Lama’s teachings available for sponsorship, so please contact us if you would like to help bring them to others. We are also deeply grateful to all those who have become mem- bers of the Archive over the past few years. Details of our member- ship program may be found at the back of this book, and if you are 8 ... the essence of tibetan buddhism ... not a member, please do consider joining up. Due to the kindness of those who have, we now have several editors working on our vast collection of teachings for the benefit of all. We have posted our list of individual and corporate members on our website, www. LamaYeshe.com. Furthermore, we would like to express our appreciation for the kindness and compassion of all those other generous benefactors who have contributed funds to our work since we began publishing free books. Thankfully, you are too numerous to mention individu- ally in this book, but we value highly each and every donation made to spreading the Dharma for the sake of the kind mother sentient beings and now pay tribute to you all on our website. Thank you so much. Finally, I would like to thank the many other kind people who have asked that their donations be kept anonymous; my wife, Wendy Cook, for her constant help and support; our dedicated office staff, Jennifer Barlow and Ven. Ani Tenzin Desal; Ven. Ailsa Cameron for her decades of meticulous editing; Ven. Connie Miller, Gordon McDougall, Michelle Bernard and our other editors; Ven. Kunsang for his tireless work recording Lama Zopa Rinpoche; Ven. Thubten Labdron, Ven. Thubten Munsel and Dr. Su Hung for their help with transcribing; Sandy Smith and our team of volunteer web editors; Ven. Bob Alcorn for his incredible work on our Lama Yeshe DVDs; David Zinn for his digital imaging expertise; Jonathan Steyn for his help with our audio work; Mandala Books and Wisdom Books for their help with our distribution in Australia and Europe and Am- itabha Buddhist Centre and Losang Dragpa Centre for their help ... publisher’s acknowledgment ... 9 with our distribution in Singapore and Malaysia respectively; and everybody else who helps us in so many ways. Thank you all. If you, dear reader, would like to join this noble group of open- hearted altruists by contributing to the production of more books by Lama Yeshe or Lama Zopa Rinpoche or to any other aspect of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s work, please contact us to find out how. —Dr. Nicholas Ribush Through the merit of having contributed to the spread of the Buddha’s teachings for the sake of all sentient beings, may our benefactors and their families and friends have long and healthy lives, all happiness, and may all their Dharma wishes be instantly fulfilled. ...... Benefactor’s Dedication It is a privilege to have an opportunity to help spread the teachings of the Buddha. May these transcripts of Lama Yeshe’s talks help many seekers to find the way to liberation and perfect enlightenment. —Doss McDavid ... Editor’s Preface ... his publication is the third in our series of free books by TLama Yeshe, following the extremely popular and well re- ceived Becoming Your Own Therapist and Make Your Mind an Ocean. It differs, however, in that the material contained herein is also on video, which we have put onto DVD (see the back pages of this book for details), so that you can now see and hear Lama Yeshe giv- ing these teachings.
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