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Thubten Yeshe

Thubten Yeshe Books

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“If the religious theory that you learn does not serve to bring happiness and joy into your everyday life, what’s the point? Even though you say, “I’m a practitioner of this or that religion,” check what you’ve done, how you’ve acted, and what you’ve discovered since you’ve been following it […] If your path teaches you to act and exert yourself correctly and leads to spiritual realizations such as love, compassion and wisdom, then obviously it’s worthwhile. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time.”

LoveWisdomJoyCompassionBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningSpiritual TransformationMindtrainingSpiritual Realization
Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“When Lord Buddha spoke about suffering, he wasn’t referring simply to superficial problems like illness and injury, but to the fact that the dissatisfied nature of the mind itself is suffering. No matter how much of something you get, it never satisfies your desire for better or more. This unceasing desire is suffering; its nature is emotional frustration.”

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Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“True love does not depend on physical expression. You should realize this. True love is a feeling deep within you. It is not just a matter of wearing a smile on your face and looking happy. Rather, it arises from a heartfelt understanding of every other being’s suffering and radiates out to all of them indiscriminately. It does not favor a chosen few to the exclusion of everyone else. This is true love.”

BuddhismEnlightenmentTrue LoveAwakening
Book:Silent Mind, Holy Mind
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“Q: What is nirvana and do many people attain it? Lama: When you develop your powers of concentration such that you can integrate your mind into single-pointed concentration, you will gradually diminish your ego’s emotional reactions until they disappear altogether. At that point, you transcend your ego and discover an everlasting, blissful, peaceful state of mind. That is what we call nirvana. Many people have attained this state and many more are well on their way to it.”

FreedomBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningPeace Of MindNirvanaMindtrainingHappines
Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“Whether you get up one morning with a foggy mind and the world around you appears to be dark and foggy, or you awaken with a clear mind and your world seems beautiful and light, understand that these different impressions are coming from your own mind rather than from changes in the external environment. Instead of misinterpreting whatever you experience in life through wrong conceptions, realize that it’s not outer reality, but only mind.”

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Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“The mind is very powerful. Therefore, it requires firm guidance. A powerful jet plane needs a good pilot; the pilot of your mind should be the wisdom that understands its nature. In that way, you can direct your powerful mental energy to benefit your life instead of letting it run about uncontrollably like a mad elephant, destroying yourself and others.”

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Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“Problems exist in the minds of individuals. You have to solve your own problems, no matter what kind of society you live in—socialist, communist or capitalist. You must check your own mind. Your problem is not society’s problem, not my problem. You are responsible for your own problems just as you’re responsible for your own liberation or enlightenment.”

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Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“If you have a completely positive attitude about yourself and touch the pure nature of your fundamental reality, your negative projections disappear, and the world improves. Your environment becomes positive, more beautiful, and attractive. So instead of projecting a dangerous world beset by pollution, radiation, and poisoned resources, you project an incredibly beautiful landscape of trees and water and gentle human beings all helping one another, which gives you great pleasure. If you can interpret the world in that way, it will really become a pure land for you.”

BuddhismMindtrainingBuddha DharmaLama Yeshe
Book:Becoming Vajrasattva: The Tantric Path of Purification
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“It is important to be conscious in your everyday life. The nature of conscious awareness and wisdom is peace and joy. You don’t need to grasp at some future resultant joy. As long as you follow the path of right understanding and right action to the best of your ability, the result will be immediate, simultaneous with the action. You don’t have to think, “If I spend my lifetime acting right, perhaps I’ll get some good result in my next life.” You don’t need to obsess over the attainment of future realizations. As long as you act in the present with as much understanding as you possibly can, you’ll realize everlasting peace in no time at all.”

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Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“When the powerful wisdom that understands the nature of the mind arises, the dark clouds of ego disappear. Beyond the ego—the agitated, uncontrolled mind—lie everlasting peace and satisfaction. That’s why Lord Buddha prescribed penetrative analysis of both your positive and your negative sides. In particular, when your negative mind arises, instead of being afraid, you should examine it more closely.”

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Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“These days, people study and train to become psychologists. Lord Buddha’s idea is that everybody should become a psychologist. Each of you should know your own mind; you should become your own psychologist. This is definitely possible; every human being has the ability to understand his or her own mind. When you understand your own mind, control follows naturally.”

MeditationBuddhismAwakeningContemplationMindtraining
Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“You can see from your own life experiences how the environment can affect you. When you’re among peaceful, generous, happy people, you’re inclined to feel happy and peaceful yourself. When you’re among angry, aggressive people, you tend to become like them. The human mind is like a mirror. A mirror does not discriminate but simply reflects whatever’s before it, no matter whether it’s horrible or wonderful. Similarly, your mind takes on the aspect of your surroundings, and if you’re not aware of what’s going on, your mind can fill with garbage. Therefore, it is very important to be conscious of your surroundings and how they affect your mind.”

BuddhismMindfulnessAwakeningMindtraining
Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“There’s a very strong connection between the body and the mind. In Tibetan tantric yoga, we take advantage of that strong connection: by concentrating strongly on the body’s psychic channels we can affect the mind accordingly. Therefore, even in everyday life, the food you eat and the other things your body touches have an effect on your mind.”

BuddhismAwakeningMind And BodyMindtraining
Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“Buddhism is a method for controlling the undisciplined mind in order to lead it from suffering to happiness. At the moment, we all have undisciplined minds, but if we can develop a correct understanding of its characteristic nature, control will follow naturally and we’ll be able to release emotional ignorance and the suffering it brings automatically. Therefore, no matter whether you are a believer or a nonbeliever, religious or not religious, a Christian, a Hindu, or a scientist, black or white, an Easterner or a Westerner, the most important thing to know is your own mind and how it works.”

MeditationBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningMindtraining
Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“Like modern science, Buddhism talks about the existence of billions and billions of galaxies. The consciousness of a person born on earth may have come from a galaxy far away, drawn here by the force of karma, which connects that person’s mental energy to this planet. On the other hand, the consciousness of a person dying on this earth may at the time of death be karmically directed to a rebirth in another galaxy, far from here. If more minds are being drawn to earth, the population increases; if fewer, it declines. That does not mean that brand new minds are coming into existence. Each mind taking rebirth here on earth has come from its previous life—perhaps in another galaxy, perhaps on earth itself, but not from nowhere.”

BuddhismReincarnationCosmic ConsciousnessPrevious LifeLife On Other Planets
Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“The fact is that when you are in a clean, clear state of mind you will be free to pay full attention to what you are doing and you will therefore naturally do it well. Problems come when you are not living in a natural state of mind. Then, no matter what you are doing your mind will be on something else.”

MindWellsMatterStatesFactsProblemNaturalPayAttentionClearNo Matter WhatCleanState Of Mind
Book:Introduction to Tantra: The Transformation of Desire
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“Our normal tendency is to feel dissatisfied and to criticize our body, speech, and mind - My body is out of shape; my voice is unpleasant; my mind is confused. - We are so caught up in this pointless, neurotic habit of criticism that we disparage others as well as ourselves. This is extremely damaging.”

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Book:Introduction to Tantra: The Transformation of Desire
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“Meditation does not imply only the development of single-pointed concentration, sitting in some corner doing nothing. Meditation is an alert state of mind, the opposite of sluggishness; meditation is wisdom. You should remain aware every moment of your daily life, fully conscious of what you are doing and how you are doing it.”

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Author:Thubten Yeshe
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“Learning to say prayers in a foreign language...is not in itself the way to fulfill our highest human potential; there is nothing of transcending value to be gained from substituting one set of cultural conventions for another. People whose practice remains on this superficial level end up with nothing but confusion, not knowing who they are or what they should do.”

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Author:Thubten Yeshe
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“As human beings we have the capacity to enjoy limitless, blissful happiness...there is nothing wrong with having pleasures and enjoyments. What is wrong is the confused way we grasp onto these pleasures, turning them from a source of happiness into a source of pain and dissatisfaction. It is grasping and attachment that is the problem, not the pleasure themselves.”

WayHumansProblemPainEnjoyHuman BeingsPleasureSourceCapacityEnjoymentConfusedAttachmentLimitlessDissatisfactionGraspingSource Of Happiness
Author:Thubten Yeshe
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