Lama Thubten Yeshe

Essential Education

	In Buddhism we have an incredible arrangement, universal education from the beginning at birth up until death, as an old man. I feel these things could be put into a universal language. Give up religion, give up Buddhism. Go beyond Buddhism. Put the essential aspect of the philosophy into scientific language. This is my aim.
–Lama Thubten Yeshe, January 1983

Essential Education takes forward the vision of its founder, Lama Thubten Yeshe. He envisioned an educational system that presents the profound wisdom of all religions in a way that transcends individual countries, philosophies and regions and contains both scientific and spiritual dimensions without compromising either; an education in techniques to develop love and compassion in everyone, including people averse to the world ‘religion’.

Thus, the aim of Essential Education is to empower children, youth and adults to make a positive difference in the world through developing their innate capacity to be kind and wise, and to live in a way that will bring peace and wellbeing to themselves and the people around them.

This is the ‘essential’ education traditionally passed down from elder to child, teacher to pupil, and in places of worship. In a world beset by economic downturn, a severely damaged natural environment, religious fundamentalism and ethnic conflict, it is needed more than ever – especially in a fresh, contemporary and universal form that will inspire and draw people together rather than divide them.

Essential Education is a UK-based NGO established in 2005 under the title “The Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom.” Its patron is His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa is its Honorary President.