LAMA THUBTEN YESHE
My personal Teacher and one of the greatest Buddhas of all time.

Lama Yeshe went out of his way to find me in Australia only a few months after my arrival
back from my first trip. Lama promptly invited me to return to
Kopan Monastery and so kindly offered me personal teachings and meditations.

Although given only months to live in the early 70s, Lama Yeshe went on benefiting other people right
up to his death in 1984!  He not only taught the meaning of permanent happiness, he showed it in
every word and action.

At that time, Lama Thubten Yeshe was the Abbot of Kopan Monastery and after his death at only 49 years of age in March, 1984,  Lama Zopa Rinpoche took his place as Abbot.  He said of Lama Yeshe: "Lama was always so incredibly busy, he never stopped working for others. At Kopan, for example, he would always look after everything. He would look after me, all the boys, even the kitchen, the library, right down to the dogs. He was so busy yet he even washed the dogs and looked after the puppies who were sick."  Lama Yeshe had a heart problem from rheumatic fever as a child and his heart was twice that of an ordinary person, yet he continued to help and care for others as if there were nothing wrong with him physically!
So it was that in September of 1977 I set out once more for Kopan Monastery.

This time I travelled via Singapore, Thailand and then stayed for a week (visas not permitting more) in Burma.  I loved Burma!  Staying in The Strand Hotel on the banks of the Irrawaddy River, where Somerset Maugham had once been sitting in the exact same large cane chairs, gazing out the tall windows onto the lazy river and then at night feasting on organically balanced foods in the Lake Park.


Young monk in Burma


A group of monks in Burma - becoming a monk in Burma is mandatory for three years before getting married. It was then, but perhaps things have changed now.

As much as I loved Burma, there was an eagerness within me to get to Kopan to be with Lama Yeshe.

I rented a brand new mud brick house just below Kopan and next to the water well. Life certainly was not boring and each day was filled with chores to do - carry water from the well, go shopping all the way to Boudhanath or Kathmandu, walk and scramble up the steep cliff to the Monastery and talk with Lama Pasang, who I found did speak English!  Lama Yeshe had not arrived at that time.




This is the only photo I have of the house! All you can see is one side wall, but I am so pleased
that this wonderful Saddhu or wandering Holy Man seemed to make it through the fire. He came
begging for some food and I gave him some and some money as well, but he didn't care what he
got as long as he could return to his cave and continue meditating.


 

When Lama Yeshe arrived I moved from the house up the hill to the Monastery.
Rooms were pretty basic back then!  There was a straw mattresses on the floor, but I was
prepared this time and I had brought 6" thick rubber mattresses so that I could sleep in comfort
and warmth.

Westerners were arriving daily now as they came from all over the world to do the
"Course at Kopan" which was held by another Lama.  Approximately 200 people were there by mid November when the Course began.

Nearly every day Lama Yeshe would tell me to come to his room above the main Gompa and he would teach me.


Each morning at dawn I was up and would sit on this ledge that looked down over the Kathmandu
Valley, sipping a 'coffee like' substance.

I noticed the absence of the Lhasa Apsos, but not the Tibetan Mastiffs. One Lama told me that
the Apsos were removed when westerners came to Kopan.

After returning to Australia early the following year, I found my first Lhasa Apsos! Tashi was to
become a major part of my life.

1984

At dawn in March of 1984, Lama Thubten Yeshe left his body at only 49 years of age.
I thought I would never survive and it has only been recently that I have begun to heal from this devastation in my life.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested that I return once more to Nepal and India, but I have no idea why.

I stayed in HH Dalai Lama's mother's house in Dharamsala during the rainy season and took great delight in the Dalai Lama's sister-in-laws Apsos. Unfortunately I do not have any photos of these dogs, due to the fact that my camera was stolen and what was not stolen was lost during the house fire of 1990.


This is the road to the Dalai Lama's residence, taken from above. The house I lived in was in this fir tree forest.

After the rains I returned to Nepal and lived in a large house where I could see the Stupa at Boudanath from my bedroom window. I was quite ill the whole time I was there and if it had not been for the kindness of my Kargyupa Lama friends across the road, this trip would not have been pleasant at all!

Lama Ganden (one of the Kargyupa Lamas) presented me with the gift of a beautiful little female Lhasa Apso, but it turned out she had cancer of the stomach and was quickly taken back to the Monastery.