E-letter No. 272: February 2026

Dear Friends,

We hope you are safe and well, and thank you for all the wonderful Losar New Year wishes and donations! We are now well into the Fifteen Days of Miracles, the auspicious period when Shakyamuni Buddha displayed miraculous powers to subdue those without faith, culminating on the Day of Miracles on March 3.

In this issue, we're delighted to share an enhanced, subtitled video excerpt from an interview with Lama Yeshe on universal education and a new podcast with Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the practice of bodhicitta. You'll also find new teachings on our website, including one on the aims of universal education by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, plus fresh teaching excerpts from Big Love. We've added new advice to Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Online Advice Book and included updates about our website, a new part-time job opportunity, and upcoming Lawudo pilgrimages. Keep reading—you won't want to miss out!

 Deepen Your Connection with Lama Yeshe

As we know by now, Lama Yeshe passed away on Tibetan New Year’s Day, 1984. That was on March 3 of the Western calendar, so we especially remember Lama’s great kindness at this time of year. And in honor of that remembrance, we are offering Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe at a 50% discount through March 3, so don’t miss out!

Furthermore, as a subscriber to the LYWA monthly eletter, you’re probably already familiar with all our Lama Yeshe titles. This is a perfect time to take a closer look to see whether you have them all! We’d also like to draw your attention on this auspicious occasion to some of Lama’s other books published by Wisdom Publications, such as Introduction to Tantra, Bliss of Inner Fire, Becoming Vajrasattva, Becoming the Compassion Buddha, Mahamudra and When the Chocolate Runs Out. We encourage you to make sure these precious teachings have a place in your library as well! 

FROM THE VIDEO ARCHIVE: LAMA YESHE ON UNIVERSAL EDUCATION

Watch an interview with Lama Yeshe about universal education and his vision for “a new kind of education for the world.” The interview, conducted in 1983 at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Pomaia, Italy, by Venerable Connie Miller and videotaped by Robyn Brentano, has been enhanced and now includes subtitles for improved clarity and accessibility. You can also read a lightly edited version of this interview prepared by Nicholas Ribush, and find an excerpt in our monthly teaching below. Read more on this topic from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and see how it’s been applied in practice through the work of various FPMT organizations.

Visit and subscribe to the LYWA YouTube channel to explore our complete video collection of teachings by Lama Yeshe and many from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, available from our archive. For many more videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche's teachings, visit the FPMT YouTube channel.

ON THE LYWA PODCAST: PRACTICING BODHICITTA

Compassion makes everything sweet, rich, meaningful, worthwhile, and a 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, in July 1999. You can also read along with the transcript on our website.

The LYWA podcast contains hundreds of hours of audio, each with links to the accompanying lightly edited transcripts. See the LYWA podcast page to search or browse the entire collection by topic or date, and for easy instructions on how to subscribe.

What's New On the LYWA Website

This month we've posted a new teaching on our website, Essential Education: The Heart of Wisdom, which features Lama Zopa Rinpoche explaining that universal education aims to cultivate a good heart grounded in loving kindness and compassion to benefit others, with full videos and transcripts available through FPMT’s Rinpoche Available Now (RAN).

We’ve also added two new teachings from Lama Yeshe, excerpted from Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe. In our first excerpt, Three Ways of Taking Refuge, Lama Yeshe discusses the meaning of taking outer, inner and secret refuge so that practitioners can choose the method that best suits their level of mental development. In the second teaching, A Liberating Education, Lama Yeshe explains that when education provides an understanding of both the spiritual and scientific aspects of reality, then human beings become capable of complete physical and mental liberation.

Visit our new Big Love Teaching Excerpts webpage, where you’ll find a growing selection of teachings featured in the book. The teachings are organized by chapters, with easy navigation links. Be sure to check back often, as we’re adding new content every month!

Don't miss the new entries we’ve added this month to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book. With more than 100 new pieces of advice published each year, the collection has now grown to over 2,600 entries on our website. 

• Animal Liberation for Life Obstacles: Rinpoche observed that a student had life obstacles and advised animal liberation as a remedy.
• The Nature of Life in Samsara: A student requested prayers after her mother had passed away. Rinpoche advised that all meetings end in separation until we become free from cyclic existence and recommended practices for the student to do.
• Important Practices for the Rest of Your Life: This advice was given to an elder student who asked Rinpoche whether they should continue their current practices or change their focus for whatever time remained in this life.

You can always find a list of all the newly posted advices from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on our website.

Website Upgrades

We’ve recently upgraded our website to a newer system, which improves the site’s performance, functionality and reliability. The upgrade ensures a smoother and more secure experience when accessing our online resources. Please let us know if you are having any difficulties following the upgrade.

You may occasionally see a brief Cloudflare security check when visiting the website. This simple step helps protect the site and keep it safe for everyone. Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

Join our team

LYWA is seeking a part-time Web Editor to manage and maintain our website content. This role requires a structured, detail-oriented approach and a strong commitment to accuracy and consistency. The successful candidate will have web editing experience and excellent organizational skills. Working closely with the team, the Web Editor will ensure content is current, follows established guidelines, and is aligned with our purpose of preserving and publishing the teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche across a range of multimedia formats.

You can see the full job description on our website. If you are interested, please submit a cover letter and resume to Jen Barlow, IT and Finance Director. Thank you!

Also, the FPMT North America Regional Office is seeking a part-time Regional Coordinator to support connection and collaboration among FPMT’s twenty-seven North American centers, projects, services, and study groups. You can find more information about this position here. 

2026 Lawudo Pilgrimages 

The Lawudo Gompa is organizing two pilgrimages in April and May this year, both in honor of the third anniversary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s parinirvana on April 13. The first is a 15-day Third Lawudo Anniversary Pilgrimage from April 16–30, during which Charok Lama Sherpa will teach The Door to Satisfaction, a Kadampa thought-training text that Lama Zopa Rinpoche said helped him understand the true meaning of the Dharma when he discovered it in the Lawudo cave many years ago.

The second is a new 21-day pilgrimage, In the Footsteps of the Lawudo Lamas, from May 22 to June 10. This journey will visit the sacred Oracle Lake in the valley above Thame, where Rinpoche was born. In 2019, it was Rinpoche’s wish to lead students on a special pilgrimage to this remote glacial lake blessed by Padmasambhava. For full details and itineraries, please write to [email protected].

Thanks so much for being part of the LYWA community and for all your support. Please let us know if you need anything.

Big love,

Nick Ribush, Director, and the LYWA team

Monthly Teaching: Universal imagination

With today’s education system, there’s a lot of knowledge and wisdom but the way it’s presented is too narrow. Students are taught too dogmatically. This dualistic reflection is what brings them into conflict with one another. We can counter this by teaching them the entire lamrim and even tantra without using any Buddhist terminology. I can do this. You can do it, too.

This new form of education would be free of categorization and, as a result, people would not create what I call a self-pity imagination of themselves, the sort of low self-esteem that we so often see. We would eliminate that and become free, universal beings. We would completely understand our own psychology and our own physical makeup. That’s why I call it universal education.

Buddhism definitely has this universal education quality within it, but we need to change our clothes—cut the Buddhist terminology. Don’t use religious Sanskrit words like nirvana, for example, but simple scientific language that is free from any religious connotation or association. We should develop some kind of neutral explanation.

Old, outdated concepts are what lie beneath the human symptoms we see. People project the way they do because they have a narrow connotation of things; they label things in a very narrow way. We have to get rid of people’s old concepts and give them a new imagination; a new, broad way of looking at themselves and the world. That’s what I mean by “universal.”

Excerpted from a transcript of an interview with Lama Yeshe on universal education. You can find it here on our website.