Creating Your Mind's Oasis
- Lama Yeshe's essential teachings on the Three Principal Aspects of the Path

During an FPMT-sponsored teaching tour of Europe in 1982, His Holiness the Dalai Lama manifested ill health and asked Lama Yeshe to fill in for him for the first day's teachings. The following teachings ensued at Institut Vajra Yogini, France.

Today I'm unfortunate. And today, you're unfortunate as well, because you have to put up with me, the garbage man - you have to put up with my garbage. Due to circumstance, His Holiness is experiencing some discomfort with His health, and therefore He has given me permission to baby-sit you.
Now His Holiness has chosen a particular text by Lama Je Tsong Khapa, which we call the Three Principal Aspects of the Path (to Liberation or Enlightenment). Historically, this book derives from Lama Je Tsong Khapa's direct, visual communication with Lord Manjushri. Manjushri gave Him this teaching and then He gave it to His disciples. This is a small text, but it contains the essence of the entire teaching of Lord Buddha. Also, while it is very simple and practical, it is a universal teaching that everyone can understand.
Now the three principles are renunciation, bodhicitta and the wisdom of shunyata; these three are called the principal, essential paths to liberation.
I want you to understand why they are called the three essential paths to liberation, because in the western world, the word 'renunciation' has a different connotation; people get scared that they will lose their pleasure. But without renunciation, there's no way out.

Renunciation
First of all, all of us consider that we would like to be free from ego mind and the bondage of samsara. But what binds us to samsara and makes us unhappy is not having renunciation. Now, what is renunciation? What makes us renounced?
The reason we are unhappy is because we have extreme craving for sense objects, samsaric objects, and we grasp at them. We are seeking to solve our problems but we are not seeking in the right place. The right place is our own ego grasping; we have to loosen that tightness, that's all.
According to the Buddhist point of view, monks and nuns are supposed to hold renunciation vows. The meaning of monks and nuns renouncing the world is that they have less craving for and grasping at sense objects. But you cannot say that they have already given up samsara, because monks and nuns still have stomachs! The thing is that the English word 'renounce' is linguistically tricky. You can say that monks and nuns renounce their stomachs, but that does not necessarily mean they actually throw their stomachs away.
So I want you to understand that renouncing sensory pleasure does not mean throwing nice things away. Even if you do, it doesn't mean you have renounced them. Renunciation is a totally inner experience. Renunciation of samsara does not mean you throw samsara away because your body and your nose are samsara. How can you throw your nose away? Your mind and body are samsara - well, at least mine are. So I cannot throw them away. Therefore renunciation means less craving; it means being more reasonable instead of putting too much psychological pressure on yourself and acting crazy.
The important point for us to know, then, is that we should have less grasping at sense pleasures, because most of the time our grasping at and craving desire for worldly pleasure does not give us satisfaction. That is the main point. It leads to more dissatisfaction and to psychologically crazier reactions. That is the main point.
If you have the wisdom and method to handle objects of the five senses perfectly such that they do not bring negative reactions, it's alright for you to touch them. And as human beings, we should be capable of judging for ourselves how far we can go into the experience of sense pleasure without getting mixed up and confused. We should judge for ourselves; it is completely up to individual experience. It's like French wine - some people cannot take it at all. Even though they would like to, the constitution of their nervous system does not allow it. But other people can take a little; others can take a bit more, and some can take a lot.
I want you to understand why Buddhist scriptures completely forbid monks and nuns from drinking wine. It is not because wine is bad; grapes are bad. Grapes and vines are beautiful; the color of red wine is fantastic. But because we are ordinarily beginners on the path to liberation, we can easily get caught up in negative energy. That's the reason. It is not that wine itself is bad. This is a good example of renunciation.
Who was the great Indian saint who drank wine?… I don't recall who it was, but this saint went into a bar and drank and drank until the bartender finally asked him, "How are you going to pay?" The saint replied, "I'll pay when the sun sets." But the sun didn't set and the saint just kept on drinking. The bartender wanted his money but somehow he controlled the sunset. These kinds of higher realization - we can call them miraculous or esoteric realizations - are beyond the comprehension of ordinary people like us, but this saint was able to control the sun and drank perhaps thirty gallons of wine. And he didn't even have to make pee-pee!
Now, my point is that renunciation of samsara is not only the business of monks and nuns. Whoever is seeking liberation or enlightenment needs renunciation of samsara. If you check your own life, your own daily experiences, you will see that you are caught up in small pleasures - we [Buddhists] consider such grasping to be a tremendous hang-up and not of much value. However, the Western way of thinking -- "I should have the best; the biggest" - is similar to our Buddhist attitude that we should have the best, most lasting, perfect pleasure rather than spending our lives fighting for the pleasure of a glass of wine.
Therefore, the grasping attitude and useless actions have to be abandoned and things that make your life meaningful and liberated have to be actualized.
But I don't want you to understand only the philosophical point of view. We are capable of examining our own minds and comprehending what kind of mind brings everyday problems and is not worthwhile, both objectively and subjectively. This is the way that meditation allows us to correct our attitudes and actions. Don't think, "My attitudes and actions come from my previous karma, therefore I can't do anything." That is a misunderstanding of karma. Don't think, "I'm powerless." Human beings do have power. We have the power to change our lifestyles, change our attitudes, change our habits. We can call that capacity Buddha potential, God potential or whatever you want to call it. That's why Buddhism is simple. It is a universal teaching that can be understood by all people, religious or non-religious.
The opposite of renunciation of samsara - to put what I'm saying another way - is the extreme mind that we have most of the time: the grasping, craving mind that gives us an overestimated projection of objects, which has nothing to do with the reality of those objects.
However, I want you to understand that Buddhism is not saying that objects have no beauty whatsoever. They do have beauty - a flower, or an elegant young lady has a certain beauty, but that beauty is only conventional, or relative. The craving mind, however, projects onto an object something that is beyond the relative level, which has nothing to do with that object, that hypnotizes us. That mind is hallucinating, deluded and holding the wrong entity.
Without intensive observation or introspective wisdom, we cannot discover this. For that reason, Buddhist meditation includes checking. We call checking in this way analytical meditation. It involves logic; it involves philosophy. So Buddhist philosophy and psychology help us see things better. Therefore, analytical meditation is a scientific way of analyzing our own experience.
Finally, I also want you to understand that monks and nuns may not be renounced at all. It's true, isn't it? In Buddhism, we talk about superficial structure and universal structure. So when we say monks and nuns renounce, it means we are trying, that's all. Westerners sometimes think monks and nuns are holy. We are not holy; we are just trying. That's reasonable. Don't overestimate again, on that. Lay people, monks and nuns - we are all members of the Buddhist community. We should understand each other well and then let go; leave things are they are. It's unhealthy to have overestimated expectations of each other.
Ok, now I think that is enough of an introduction to renunciation.

Bodhicitta
Bodhicitta is like this. First, you have to understand your own problems - craving, desire, anger, impatience; your own situation, your inability to cope, your own disasters - and feel compassion for yourself. Because of the situation you are in, start by becoming the object of your own compassion. It begins from there: "This situation I'm in, I'm not the only one with ego conflict and problems. In this world, some people are upper class, some middle and others low; some are extremely beautiful, some are medium and others are ugly. But just like me, everybody seeks happiness and does not desire to be miserable."
In this way, a feeling of equilibrium begins to come. Somehow, deep within you, from the bottom of your heart, equilibrium towards enemies, strangers and friends arises - it is not merely intellectual but something really sincere. Without a certain degree of equilibrium feeling with all universal living beings, it is impossible to say, "I want to give my life to others." Nor is it possible to develop bodhicitta. In order to have space for bodhicitta, you have to feel that all universal living beings are equal.
Buddhism considers that we should have realization of equilibrium because we need a healthy mind. Equalizing others is something to be done within my mind, not by changing human beings externally. My business is not to be bothered by mental projections of disliked enemy, grasped-at friend or forgettable stranger. These three categories of object are made by my own mind; they do not exist outside.
As long as you have as an object of hatred even one human being, as long as you have an overestimated object of craving desire, as long as you have an indifferent object of ignorance - someone you ignore and don't care about - as long as you have these attitudes in relation to these three objects, YOU have a problem. It is not the objects' problem.
Equilibrium is something to do with the inner experience. Forget about bodhicitta - we all have a long way to go. According to Tibetan Buddhism and Lama Tsongkhapa, equilibrium is most difficult to realize. So, it's worthwhile at least to try. Even though it is difficult, try to practice equilibrium in your daily life as much as you can. Try to have neither enemies nor objects of tremendous, exaggerated grasping. In this way, in the space of your equilibrium, you can grow bodhicitta - the attitude dedicated to all universal living beings.
Bodhicitta is an extremely high realization; it is the complete opposite of the self-cherishing attitude. You completely give yourself into the service of others. Our thoughts are extreme; we often put too much emphasis on and tremendous energy into activities from which we gain nothing. Look at certain athletes, for example; or people who put all their money and energy into motorcycle jumping and end up killing themselves. What for?
Bodhicitta is very practical, I tell you. With bodhicitta, from the moment you begin to open, you feel incredibly peaceful; you get tremendous pleasure and inexhaustible energy. Forget about enlightenment - as soon as you begin to open yourself to others, you gain tremendous pleasure and satisfaction. Working for others is very interesting; it's an infinite activity. Your life becomes continuously rich and interesting.
You can see how easily Western people get bored; as a result, they take drugs and so forth. They can't see what else to do. Many of these people are intelligent, but they don't know where to put their energy so that it is beneficial to society and themselves. They're blocked; they can't see. Therefore they destroy themselves.
Sometimes it's difficult to understand bodhicitta as an attitude dedicated to others, so then you can think of it as a selfish attitude. Why? Before you open yourself to others, you find that your heart is completely tied; your "I," or your ego, is tied. How do you loosen these bonds? When you begin to dedicate yourself to others, you yourself experience unbelievable peace, unbelievable relaxation. Therefore, with this selfish attitude [of wanting to experience that peace and relaxation], you can practice dedicating yourself to others.
What really matters is your attitude. If your attitude is one of openness and dedication to all universal living beings, it is enough to relax you. In my opinion, having an attitude of bodhicitta is much more powerful than squeezing yourself in meditation. Our twentieth century lives don't allow us time for meditation. Even if we try, we are sluggish. "I was up too late last night; yesterday I worked so hard…" I really believe that the strong, determined, dedicated attitude of "Every day, for the rest of my life, and especially today, I will dedicate myself to others as much as I possibly can," is very powerful.
Some people's attitude towards meditation is that they want some kind of concrete concentration right now. It's just not possible to develop concrete concentration in a short time without putting your own life together. This is logical: if you don't organize your life, how can you be a good meditator? How can you have good meditation if your life is in disorder?

Emptiness
Now, I will talk about the wisdom of shunyata, or emptiness. From the Buddhist point of view, having renunciation of samsara and loving kindness bodhicitta alone is not enough to cut the root of the ego or the root of the dualistic mind. By meditating on and practicing loving kindness bodhicitta, you can eliminate gross attachment and feelings of craving, but the root of craving desire and attachment are ego and the dualistic mind. Therefore, without understanding shunyata, or non-duality, it is not possible to cut the root of human problems.
It's like this example: if you have some boiling water and put cold water or ice into it, the boiling water calms down, but you haven't totally extinguished the water's potential to boil.
For example, all of us have a certain degree of loving kindness in our relationships, but many times our loving kindness is a mixture - half white, half black. This is very important. Many times we start with a white, loving kindness motivation but then slowly, slowly it gets mixed