Thubten Yeshe

Infobox Buddhist biography
name = Thubten Yeshe


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birth_date = 1935
birth_place = Tolung Dechen, Tibet
death_date = 1984
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denomination = Tibetan Buddhism
school = Gelugpa
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workplace = Kopan Monastery
Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition
education = Sera Monastery
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reincarnation = Tenzin Ösel Rinpoche
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Thubten Yeshe (1935–1984) was a Tibetan lama who, while exiled in Nepal, co-founded Kopan Monastery (1969) and the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (1975). He followed the Gelugpa tradition, and was considered unconventional in his teaching style.

Lama Yeshe was born near the Tibetan town of Tolung Dechen, but was sent to Sera Monastery in Lhasa at the age of six. He received full ordination at the age of 28 from Kyabje Ling Rinpoche. Jeffrey Paine reports that Lama Yeshe deliberately refused the geshe degree, despite having studied for it:

Sera Monastery did award him an honorary geshe degree in the early 80s. He also used to joke that he was a Tibetan hippie: "I dropped out!" Fact|date=March 2008

Teaching western students

With the Chinese invasion in 1959 Lama Yeshe made his way to Bhutan and thence to the Tibetan refugee camp at Buxaduar, India. There his teacher Geshe Rabten entrusted to his care a younger monk, Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. The two would work together throughout Lama Yeshe's life.

In 1965 Lama Yeshe began teaching Western students, beginning with Zina Rachevsky, who sought him out at the Ghum Monastery in Darjeeling. The number of students continued to grow, eventually resulting in the founding of the several institutions mentioned above. At this time, the Tibetan religious community considered the teaching of Westerners to be undesirable. Paine reports criticism from other Tibetans calling Lama Yeshe a "paisa" lama," i.e., one interested primarily in money. [ Paine, p. 74 ]

Lecture-based published books

A number of books have been compiled from Lama Yeshe's lectures. His books include "Introduction to Tantra," "Wisdom Energy," "The Bliss of Inner Fire," "Becoming Vajrasattva: The Tantric Path of Purification," and "Becoming the Compassion Buddha," all of which are available from Wisdom Publications. Wisdom will also be publishing an extensive biography of Lama Yeshe that has been compiled by Adele Hulse. Some free transcripts of his teachings are available from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, [http://www.LamaYeshe.com] including "Becoming Your Own Therapist," "Advice for Monks and Nuns" (with Lama Zopa), "Make Your Mind an Ocean." The LYWA also offers videos of Lama Yeshe teaching.

Personal

In 1981 Lama Yeshe married an Australian disciple, apparently for the purpose of obtaining an Australian passport which, it was thought, might have allowed him to visit Tibet. [ Paul Croucher, "A History of Buddhism in Australia, 1948-1988"; New South Wales UP, 1989; p. 93.] Their marriage is said to have been a celibate one (though this would still have constituted a serious violation of the vinaya).

Reincarnation

In 1986 his reincarnation was identified in the person of a Spanish boy now called Tenzin Ösel Rinpoche (born 1985). This despite the fact that Lama Yeshe was never identified as a tulku during his own life.

References

Bibliography

*The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. [http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/jointbio.asp A Joint Biography of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1935 to 1974] .

*Paine, Jeffrey. "Re-Enchantment: Tibetan Buddhism Comes to the West." Norton, 2004. Chapter two discusses the influence of Lama Yeshe and the FPMT.

External links

* [http://www.lamayeshe.com/lamayeshe/index.shtml Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive]
* [http://www.wisdompubs.org/index.lasso Lama Yeshe's books at Wisdom Publications]