Ven Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche
Lama Yeshe Losal is Abbot
of Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre, Director of the internationally
acclaimed Holy Island Project and the Retreat and Meditation Master for a
host of students from around
the world. He is also a much loved and respected teacher whose wisdom, compassion,
warmth and humour reveal him as a living example of the Buddha's teaching,
but this was not always the case. As he says himself,
"If the teachings can benefit me, they can benefit anyone!" Self
depreciating though that remark may be, it is nonetheless true to say that
Lama Yeshe Losal was not always the revered holy man he is now.
Such is his modesty and openness of heart that he quite happily shares his
past history as an example of how the base metal of one's impure character
can be transformed into gold by strenuously applying the alchemy of Buddhist
wisdom and skilful means. His Holiness the 16th Karmapa himself often described
Lama Yeshe Losal as living proof of how Buddha Dharma can effect positive
change in someone's life. For while many Tibetan monks in exile gave up their
robes in foreign lands, Lama Yeshe Losal did the opposite by leaving Tibet
as a lay person, then becoming immersed in Buddhism and taking full ordination
in the West. Not having his own monastery in Tibet to consider Lama Yeshe
Losal is now able to devote himself to the preservation and propagation of
Buddhism in the West through his Monastery of Kagyu Samye Ling in Scotland
and its many associated Centres around the world.
With his profound insight, acquired through many years of meditation in solitary
retreat, and his personal experience of a broad spectrum of people from both
the East and West, Lama Yeshe Losal is able to demystify and illuminate the
Buddha's teachings in a simple yet inspiring way. His humour and direct, down
to earth approach crosses continents and cultures enabling him to give both
personal advice and meditation instruction that goes straight to the heart.
It is these unique qualities that make him a Lama of and for our time.
