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Make Your Mind an Ocean


By Lama Thubten Yeshe at Melbourne, Australia 1975 (Archive # 329, Last Updated Dec 16, 2008)

• Chapter
Make Your
One:Mind
YouranMind
Ocean:
is Your
Editor's
Religion
Introduction
• Chapter Two: A Buddhist Approach to Mental Illness
• Chapter Three: Everything Comes From the Mind
• Chapter Four: Make Your Mind an Ocean
• Foreign Translations (MYMO)

Make Your Mind an Ocean: Editor's Introduction

The talks in this booklet are on the general topic of the mind. Two were lunchtime lectures at Melbourne and
Latrobe Universities. One was an evening lecture given to the general public. Perhaps of greatest interest is a
talk to a group of psychiatrists at Prince Henry's Hospital who were delighted to meet and question Lama,
and this historic exchange underscores the difference between Western and Buddhist concepts of mental
health. This books is now published in a combined edition with Lama's Becoming Your Own Therapist.

In the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s first book, Lama Yeshe’s Becoming Your Own Therapist, I mentioned
the unique qualities of Lama Yeshe’s teachings. Make Your Mind an Ocean again makes evident just how
special Lama’s teachings were.

The talks in this section are on the general topic of the mind and were given during Lama Yeshe’s and Lama
Zopa Rinpoche’s second world tour, in 1975. I had the great honor of accompanying the Lamas on this tour
and was present at all these discourses. Most of the people who attended were new to Buddhism and had
never seen a Tibetan lama before, a situation quite different from what we find today. As ever, Lama’s
timeless wisdom shines through, and his teachings are as relevant today as they were back then.

Of greatest interest, perhaps, is “A Buddhist Approach to Mental Illness.” Here Lama met with a group of
psychiatrists at Prince Henry’s Hospital, which was at that time a teaching hospital connected with Monash
University Medical School. Prior to that it had been affiliated with Melbourne University, and Prince Henry’s
was where I studied my clinical medicine and worked for several years after graduation. Thus, several of the
psychiatrists with whom Lama met that afternoon were former teachers and colleagues of mine, and apart
from anything else, I was interested to observe their reaction to my outer transformation (I was in monk’s
robes at the time). The hospital was demolished a few years ago; the last time I drove by it was but a hole in
the ground, a symbol of how much has changed since those halcyon days. Anyway, these doctors were
delighted to meet and question Lama, and this historic exchange underscores the difference between
Western and Buddhist concepts of mental health.

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I would like to thank Rand Engel, Victoria Fremont, Christina Russo and Wendy Cook for their excellent
editorial input, which greatly improved the way these teachings read.

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