Big Love. Yes, it’s finally happening. We have spent this summer putting the finishing touches to our mammoth project, in the works since 1992, Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe. The manuscript is now in the hands of our amazing designer, Gopa Campbell. At this point we are estimating two hardcover volumes, about 700 pages each, 7” x 10”, in a slipcase, with over 1,550 photos, full color throughout. Here are a couple of sample pages from the book.

 

This month's e-letter feature below is author Adele Hulse’s story of how she came to write this book. Here is a video of Adele reading from the book.

 

If you would like to contribute to this amazing (and very expensive) project, you can do so here. Thank you so much.

 

As always, you can see a list of all the newly-posted advices on our website.

 

Before the teachings began at Kurukulla Center last weekend, Wisdom Publications director Daniel Aitken and board chairman Tim McNeill offered Rinpoche two of the latest books they've published: Mahamudra: How to Discover Our True Nature, by Lama Yeshe and The Four Noble Truths: A Guide to Everyday Life, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, both of which were prepared for Wisdom by LYWA. If you are an LYWA Member, we will be happy to send these two books to you in print or ebook form. If you haven't heard about this from us, please send an email to [email protected] and let her know which books you'd like to receive.

 

We are so grateful to all of you who support our work and in doing so are partners in bringing these precious teachings to everyone everywhere.

 

Much love,

 

 

 

Nick Ribush
Director

When Lama Yeshe left his body in March, 1984, his close students were devastated. As time went on and the centers Lama created and envisioned sprang up all around the world, his name was said less often. This is the nature of things. However, his closest disciple, Kyabje Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, reveals his profound guru devotion every time he mentions “Lama.” Everyone knows “Lama” is Lama Yeshe. Rinpoche often hides his face when he mentions “Lama” because he is overcome. Every tiny detail Rinpoche reveals about his time with Lama Yeshe is a jewel beyond price. Rinpoche’s guru devotion is an inspiration and model for all his students and we are so grateful for his support of this book.

This story begins with the Chinese invasion of Tibet, which brought the ancient wisdom of the East to a generation of Westerners, of whom I was one. Lama Thubten Yeshe changed our lives. He taught us how to live, raise our children and die. He also introduced us to the unlimited potential of our mind and the value of being of service to others.

In 1976 Lama Yeshe called me to an interview and told me I was “a writer” and that I should write “for him.” At Lama’s request I immediately began editing one of his teachings.

While running a fashion import business for Lama Yeshe’s organization, The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), I made a connection with The Age, Melbourne’s broadsheet daily newspaper at that time. In 1984 I was offered a column. This was my chance to write “for Lama” because you can say anything in a column. I wrote under a pseudonym and channeled Buddhist teachings through the work. The column ran for twenty-five years. Since 2000 I have worked for Makor Publishing at the Lamm Jewish Library of Australia. Melbourne is remarkable for its high percentage of concentration camp survivors and it is not surprising that Makor is the world’s largest publisher of Holocaust memoirs in English. These two vehicles provided my experience and training for Lama’s biography.

In 1992 Peter Kedge approached me with the idea to write Lama’s biography. Peter and Nicole Kedge provided funding for me to travel the world and interview hundreds of Lama’s colleagues and students. Initially, we thought the work would take eighteen months, which turned out to be eighteen years and then more than nine years preparing to publish. There was a time when the work was so overwhelming I had to stop seeing friends for three years and kept up my strength with one thousand days of precepts.

Peter was a constant backstop, inspiration and support throughout the whole time. As a founding member of FPMT, and having spent many years as Lama Yeshe’s attendant, his insights are invaluable and his dedication extraordinary. Peter and Nicole Kedge were also instrumental in developing the archive of Lama’s and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings. Today, under Nick Ribush’s masterful leadership of many years, this is Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, the publisher of this book. Lama Yeshe’s biography would not exist without Peter and Nicole Kedge.

I am not a scholar. I have simply tried to present as clearly as I can, and through the voices of those who were there, the story of this extraordinary man. I conducted hundreds of interviews and this manuscript was reduced from a body of material three times the size. It provides a record, to the best of our knowledge, of Lama Yeshe’s life—where he went, what he did and what he said. There is much about him that remains private to his Western students, such as his conversations in Tibetan and the brief times he spent alone. Sadly, nearly all his passports, traveling and personal papers were lost.

This book is not a nam thar, a particular Tibetan genre of spiritual biography, in that it does not record all the teachings and initiations Lama Yeshe received and taught. Lama Yeshe is an appropriate subject for nam thar, but the author would have to read, write and speak Tibetan, which I don’t.

Lama Yeshe left instructions about the kind of biography he wanted written after his death: “My history, you should pool all information since Zina. All teachings, all ordinations, all refuge ceremonies. Where and how many people. All public lectures and question answer sessions, where and how many people. Also, I want historical what happened each center.

“First time hospital, Kopan, Shanta Bhawan, English doctor there—Anila Ann knows. He said, ‘Even you have one million dollars you never fix up your body, you can’t.’ Then in 1974 something with Nick in Madison. Geshe Sopa pushed for examination. All doctors freaked out. I want time, date, all history. I saw one famous Australian doctor, Yeshe Khadro knows. Then next year back in Madison he does not know why I am not dead.

“What I did in Western world with Western people—all teachings, all business. Give Universal Education history, first with Max Mathews years ago, finally Connie Miller did.

“Give history on all meditation courses, how many people, how did, where did, strict retreat etc. How many people have great experience.”

Lama Yeshe’s place in the establishment of Tibetan Buddhism in the West is unique. As several of his peers have said, no other monk of the Gelug lineage besides His Holiness the Dalai Lama has done more to spread the profound teachings and practices of Tibetan Buddhism.

From Adele Hulse’s introduction to Big Love, forthcoming from LYWA, 2018.

Adele Hulse
Author
Melbourne, 2018