Clean-Clear

By Lama Thubten Yeshe
Forthcoming from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in April 2025

Clean-Clear: Refuge and Bodhicitta is the second volume in a series of Lama Yeshe’s collected teachings. This book contains introductory teachings given in England in 1976 and Holland in 1980. Edited by Nick Ribush. Read the Preface by Nick Ribush below. You can also find an excerpt from the book in our January 2025 eletter.

Lama Yeshe at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, 1982.  Photo: Jorge Zontal.
Preface

This book is the second volume of what we expect to be a series of Lama Yeshe’s collected teachings, the first volume being Knowledge-Wisdom: The Peaceful Path to Liberation. It contains teachings on refuge and bodhicitta given in England in 1976 and Holland in 1980. Since the topics are similar there is a little repetition, but according to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, repetition never hurts.

As Rinpoche used to say, the way Tibetan lamas would listen to teachings was as a mirror for the mind. As a discourse was being given they would meditate, asking themselves, “Have I realized this teaching or not?” If they found they had, they would experience a feeling of great joy. If they found they had not, they would know that they needed to hear it again and again until they had. So they would never get bored, thinking, “I’ve heard this before; why doesn’t he teach something different?” So please, don’t get bored.

Editing Lama Yeshe’s teachings is a bit of a challenge because of what he called his “breaking English.” So, while we try to maintain his words and style, we also keep in mind his admonition, “When you prepare my teachings for publication, don’t make me sound like a Himalayan gorilla!” Personally, I find it somewhat akin to translation. Listen to what Lama says, try to understand what he means, express it in standard English.

Everybody loved attending Lama’s teachings. Even though they were profound, he presented them very lightly, with pertinent contemporary examples, a lot of laughter and frequent jokes. And every now and then he would remind us, “I’m not joking when I say I’m joking!”

Anyway, this is not an academic work but essentially an introduction to a couple of fundamental Tibetan Buddhist teachings—refuge and bodhicitta—for basically new students. Nevertheless, we have thrown in a few footnotes and a little Wylie in case the odd professor happens to read this book. And for some of that I would like to thank Kurukulla Center’s excellent interpreter, the former Kopan monk Thubten Damchoe, and the great translator, Artemus Engle. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Sandra Smith and Jennifer Barlow for their excellent editorial suggestions and Charmaine Hughes for so kindly sponsoring the production of this book in her dear mother’s memory.

Finally, as Vasubandhu wrote at the end of his Abhidharmakosha commentary, “Whatever errors are found here are my fault. In the supreme system of Dharma, only the buddhas and bodhisattvas are perfectly reliable.”

Nicholas Ribush
Lincoln, Massachusetts
1 January 2025