He stayed at Sera until he was twenty-five years old. There he received spiritual instruction based on the educational traditions brought from India to Tibet over a thousand years ago. From Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, the Junior Tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he received teachings on the Lam-rim graded course to enlightenment, which outlines the entire sutra path to buddhahood. In addition he received many tantric initiations and discourses from both the Junior Tutor and the Senior Tutor, Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, as well as from Drag-ri Dorje-Chang Rinpoche, Song Rinpoche, Lhatzun Dorje-chang Rinpoche and many other great gurus and meditation masters.

This phase of his education came to an end in 1959. As Lama Yeshe himself has said, "In that year the Chinese kindly told us that it was time to leave Tibet and meet the outside world." Escaping through Bhutan, he eventually reached Northeast India. In India his education proceeded with courses in the vinaya rules of discipline and the abbidharma system of metaphysics. At the age of twenty-eight, Lama received full monk's ordination from Kyabje Ling Rinpoche.

One of Lama Yeshe's gurus in both Tibet and Buxaduar was Geshe Rabten, a highly learned practitioner famous for his single-minded concentration and powers of logic. This compassionate guru had a disciple named Thubten Zopa Rinpoche and, at Geshe Rabten's suggestion, Zopa Rinpoche began to receive additional instruction from Lama Yeshe. Zopa Rinpoche was a young boy at the time and the servant caring for him wanted very much to entrust him permanently to Lama Yeshe. Upon consultation with Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, this arrangement was decided upon and they have been together ever since.

On March 3rd, 1984, Lama Yeshe passed away in Los Angeles, USA, at the age of forty-nine. He had suffered from chronic rheumatic heart disease for many years but despite this and against doctors' recommendations, he spent the last years of his life working tirelessly and without interruption for the benefit of others. Lama Yeshe was a living example of the path that he taught and he moved the hearts of thousands of people during the fifteen brief years that he lived among Westerners. As he himself said,

"We should develop the Mahayana mind, the inner, universal vehicle: respect others as we respect ourselves, put others in our place and share our time and energy with them, actually give ourselves to others. The ability to do this is our greatest gift and the highest human potential. Infinite kindness and sensitivity to the immediate and ultimate needs of others bring human totality - something that each of us can definitely achieve."

(An excerpt taken from the Introduction of Wisdom Energy.)

Lama Yeshe's reincarnation, Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche, was born to a Spanish family in 1985. Lama Osel is now studying in Sera Jhe Monastery, one of the main Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in South India. He will again soon help Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche to run the FPMT Organisation once he finishes his formal monastic studies.