Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Listen to teachings from great Tibetan Buddhist masters Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Visit our website (www.LamaYeshe.com) to read teachings from many of the greatest teachers of our time and to order our free books.

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21 episodes
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Wednesday · 21 min
Like Winning the Lottery
How do you liberate yourself and others from constant suffering? You use this precious human body to cherish others more than yourself. That’s the method, that’s the practice, that’s the solution. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche reminds us that being born into this precious human body affords us incredible opportunities to practice the Dharma and how we should feel incredible, unbelievable joy and bliss as if we had won the lottery. These teachings were given at Root Institute, Bodh gaya, in December 2003. Read along with the transcript on our website.
July 27 · 26 min
The Mind of Retreat
Your mind should be doing retreat in emptiness, retreating away from ignorance, the hallucinated mind, the worldly dharmas, the king of the delusions. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche offers vast and profound retreat advice to participants present during the Thousand-Arm Chenrezig Retreat in Taiwan in 2001. You can read along with the transcript on the LYWA website.
June 24 · 16 min
Help Yourself and Liberate the World
It’s unbelievable what you can accomplish with this incredible human body. There is no greater joy than this. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche encourages us to take advantage of the power of our human rebirth. Rinpoche gave these teachings during a commentary on Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, an essential mind training text composed by Kadampa Geshe Langri Tangpa, given at Tse Chen Ling Center, in San Francisco, California, USA, in November 2003. You can read along with the transcript on our website.
May 26 · 19 min
The Importance of Compassion
There are many different kinds of Dharma practice— hundreds of different mantras to recite, all kinds of meditation—but the most important of them all is the practice of compassion. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses how no matter how you lead your daily life—in retreat, studying Dharma, chanting sadhanas, reciting mantras or putting in long hours at the office—if you never let compassion leave your mind, if you constantly keep in mind the thought of benefiting others, everything you do becomes work for the welfare of others. These teachings were given during a four-day course at Tilopa Center, Decatur, Illinois, in August, 1997 and published in the LYWA free book, Virtue and Reality, edited by Nicholas Ribush.
April 27 · 21 min
Why Are There Different Instructions?
When you read different teachings, you might get confused because they look contradictory. One teaching says you must never do something, then another teaching says you must do that. The difference is in the level of development of the mind. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how karma becomes negative or positive based not on the action but on the mind. A bodhisattva whose mind cherishes others can take actions that appear negative because they are motivated by the mind of enlightenment. But when we are motivated by self-cherishing, we must abandon such negative actions. Rinpoche gave these teachings during a lamrim course at Maitreya Instituut, Emst, in August 1990. You can read along with the transcript on our website.
March 25 · 37 min
Calling the Guru From Afar
As you listen to the oral transmission think, “May I be able to reveal each word to every sentient being and may they be able to actualize the path immediately in their mind when they hear it.” -Lama Zopa Rinpoche This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives teachings on guru devotion and a brief commentary on Pabongka Rinpoche’s Calling the Guru from Afar during an oral transmission of the text in Singapore in April 1992. You can read along with the transcript on the LYWA website.
February 24 · 18 min
Practicing Compassion
Compassion makes everything sweet, rich, meaningful, worthwhile, and the cause of enlightenment. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the all-pervasive importance of compassion. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at Deer Park Buddhist Center in Madison, Wisconsin, July, 1999. You can also listen along with the transcript on our website.
January 27 · 51 min
The Enemy is the Kindest Person
How can I practice patience if no one gets angry with me? How will I find the opportunity to develop my mind in patience? The opportunity is completely due to the kindness of this person who is angry at me. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains in detail why it is so important to practice patience with those who wish to harm us and with those who are angry with us. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. You can listen along with the transcript on our website.
Dec 29, 2025 · 19 min
Karma in Everyday Life
It is extremely important to reflect, to meditate, to think deeply about karma so that it does not become just a word. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche leads a recitation of the Heart Sutra, the Foundation of All Good Qualities by Lama Tsong Khapa, and Shakyamuni Buddha’s mantra, before describing the importance of karma in everyday life. These teachings were given during a lamrim course led by Rinpoche at Maitreya Instituut, the Netherlands, in August 1990. You can also listen along with the transcript on our website.
Nov 24, 2025 · 22 min
Ignore Karma at Your Own Peril
When the subject of karma is missing, there’s no understanding that harming others means harming oneself. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche considers how Western psychology lacks an understanding of karma and discusses how it is not enough for a patient to attain superficial happiness if the deeper cause of suffering remains untreated. These teachings were given during a lamrim course led by Rinpoche at Maitreya Instituut, Emst, The Netherlands, in August 1990. You can also read along with the transcript on our website.
Oct 26, 2025 · 22 min
Just Do It
We have this negative karma collected on our mental continuum, and we have to do something to clean it, to purify it. If we do nothing, it piles up like mountains and we will experience life’s problems again and again, again and again, because the negative karma is still there. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche urges us to face the facts: our problems arise from our own karma. We must recognize it and then do something about it. It is not enough to feel regret, we must apply the treatment, the method that will serve as an antidote to this poisonous karma piling up in our mind stream. Rinpoche gave these teachings on karma during a lamrim course at Maitreya Instituut, The Netherlands, in August 1990. You can follow along with the transcript on our website.
Sep 25, 2025 · 19 min
The Best Use of Your Life
Ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, enlightenment, everything, all this happiness – the creator is your mind, not somebody outside. This gives you incredible freedom. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche encourages us to make the best use of our lives by realizing how the mind is the creator of all our happiness and suffering. Through the practice of thought transformation, we can find freedom. 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.
Aug 26, 2025 · 26 min
How to Deal with Difficult Situations
The minute you accept your own karma, you cut the problem. You have to accept your own karma. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche As Lama Yeshe once said, “Once a situation has manifested, the best thing to do is to accept the fact and deal with it.” Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how we can use such challenging situations to develop compassion and to cut the root of concepts. These teachings were given at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. Please note: Personal safety and self-care are paramount, and if you or someone you know is experiencing any form of violence and abuse, please seek help from a suitable service in your region to develop a safety plan. If engagement with these teachings brings underlying issues in relation to past abuse to the surface, we recommend that you seek professional support.
Jul 28, 2025 · 16 min
The Problem Is Coming From Inside Your Mind
Somebody who helps you to destroy your ego is so precious and shows you unbelievable kindness. This kindness you should feel deeply from bottom of your heart. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche illustrates the way that all suffering and happiness is created by the mind. Rinpoche then shares a story of how as a young monk, Rinpoche applied this wisdom to a teacher who had challenged his ego, thereby changing his view of the teacher from an enemy to one most kind. From teachings given at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. You can read along with the transcript on our website.
Jun 25, 2025 · 20 min
The Meaning of Blessing
The meaning of blessings is transforming one’s own mind into the whole path to enlightenment of method and wisdom with the goal of transforming these into the Dharmakaya and the Rupakaya. So the meaning of blessing contains all this. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains what it means to receive the blessings of the guru, and then recites Lama Tsongkhapa’s lamrim prayer, the Foundation of All Good Qualities, in Tibetan. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. Read along with the transcript on our website.
May 26, 2025 · 35 min
The Meaning of OM MANI PADME HUM
All existence are condensed into two truths. MANI signifies the truth for all-obscuring mind, the dependent arising, and PADME is the truth for the absolute wisdom, the emptiness. Then HUM is the unification of dependent arising and emptiness. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche In this month’s podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the meaning of the mantra, OM MANI PADME HUM, and then offers an oral transmission of the Long Chenrezig Mantra. These teachings were given in Singapore, in January 1993. You can read along with the transcript on our website.
Apr 26, 2025 · 29 min
To Achieve the Ultimate Peace
From our side, from us sentient beings, from our side, if we practice correctly, definitely, without doubt, definitely we’ll achieve the ultimate peace. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how to practice in order to achieve the ultimate peace for ourselves and all sentient beings. These teachings were given by Rinpoche in Singapore in January, 1993. You can read along with the transcript on our website.
Mar 25, 2025 · 13 min
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.
Feb 25, 2025 · 17 min
How Things Appear to Exist from their Own Side
The way the ‘I’ and phenomena appear to us, to our hallucinated mind, is they are not merely labeled by mind. As long as these things appear to you that way – not merely labeled by mind – they don’t exist. They’re totally empty there. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how things appear to exist from their own side. These teachings were given at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. You can listen also along to the transcript on our website.
Jan 27, 2025 · 37 min
The Shortcomings of Self-Cherishing
When you follow the ego, you become a disciple of the ego. You follow the ego day and night and listen what ego says all the time. Even if you have received all the sutra and tantra teachings and have heard them many times, when you follow the ego nothing happens in your mind. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the many shortcomings of following the self-cherishing mind, and encourages us to abandon it without delay. These teachings were given at at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. Read along with the transcript on our website.

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