Lama Yeshe’s Wisdom: On Religion

Lama Yeshe taught that individuals must deeply investigate their reasons for pursuing a spiritual path before beginning any religious practice. In an extract from his 1975 visit to Australia, collected in the book The Peaceful Stillness of the Silent Mind, he cautioned that many people treat religion or meditation superficially by only changing physical habits like clothing or diet.

Lama Yeshe stated that spiritual life is a mental process rather than a physical one, requiring a change in mental attitude to develop wisdom. He compared starting a spiritual practice to planning a journey with a map, noting that adopting a religion simply to follow a friend or to mimic outward appearances is insufficient.