G R A D U A T E A L U M N I PROFILE
Faces of LIFE
Lobsang Yeshi From
HELP to LIFE:
A Monk’s Journey
Students travel from far and wide, and for
many different reasons, to attend Life University.
Lobsang Yeshi was no different when he decided
to attend LIFE after he completed his Bachelor’s
degree in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. However,
Yeshi is quite different from most students who
attended LIFE in that he is a Buddhist monk
who was born in a remote part of northern
India — where the culture is much more like that
of Tibet. Although he grew up on a farm and was
expected to follow in his father’s footsteps there,
he decided instead to join a south Indian Buddhist
monastery called Drepung Loselling in 1988.
Yeshi’s normal routine in the monastery was
to wake up at 5:30 a.m., go to prayers, then to
classes and then debate sessions — which was his
main avenue of study. “You read about a subject
then pair with someone to debate the subject to
have a deeper understanding of it.” He says that
most of the time his day did not end until 11:00
p.m. or later.
In 2005, Yeshi completed his monastic studies
and was prepared to follow the usual course of
a monk’s life by soliciting foreign sponsorship so
that he could continue spreading the Buddhist
philosophies that he had learned.
“Through this process, I got a sponsor from
Malaysia and moved there. I also wanted to
improve my English, so I took English language
courses. As a result, I met a CEO of a private
university, and she suggested that I obtain a
Master’s degree in counseling.”
That idea was unusual for Yeshi since a
monastery education is unconventional in
that you do not receive credentials as you
do in conventional education. However, since
Yeshi was interested in pursuing a career
in professional counseling, he thought he
should get a Bachelor’s degree in psychology.
He considers himself very fortunate to have
obtained a scholarship to HELP University in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“However, while I was taking my classes,
things did not go as I had planned since I soon
realized that counseling was not my cup of tea
after all,” Yeshi muses. “It was at that time that
I decided instead that coaching and mentoring
was for me because, instead of focusing on
the past, you focus on the present with a ‘let’s
just see what we can do from here’ mentality. I
realized that this is all coming from the positive
psychology philosophy, which focuses on our
future potential instead of our past. There are
so many commonalities and parallels between
positive psychology and the Buddhist philosophy
that it was an easy switch in educational focus
for me, so why not focus on that instead!”
When Yeshi was first exposed to the concept
of positive psychology at HELP University, he
also became familiar with noted psychologist
Martin Seligman’s philosophy. After graduating in
2016, he started looking for a master’s program
in positive psychology that would help him
pursue his newly developed career interest.
“Unfortunately, I found that none of the
universities in Malaysia offer one, and even in
America there are only three, but Life University
is one of those three! I then had the good
fortune to speak with former Life University
professor Dr. Brendan Ozawa-de Silva over
Skype, and after a lot of emails back and forth
and a tremendous amount of coordination on
LIFE’s part, I was able to enroll.”
Yeshi says that now that he is living in
the United States, he maintains some of the
practices that he learned in the monastery. “I still
meditate for 30 to 45 minutes each day, but now
I’ve even started to do mindfulness meditation,
which is used to maintain your focus on the here
and now and teaches you to observe and live
in the present moment. If a negative thought
about your past comes up, you acknowledge it
and then let it go so that you feel relaxed and
less stressed.”
When asked about his future goals, Yeshi says,
“My focus is to share my knowledge of positive
psychology. Since I came from a Buddhist
background, I know that positive psychology
principles are similar to what I already studied
in the monastery. However, people don’t want to
be a part of that since it would be coming from a
religious perspective, but with the degree I now
have from LIFE, I can present the principles in a
scientific way.”
He says that it’s the same message, but
people may be more open to it without the
religious aspect, and it is this philosophy that he
wants to share with younger generations. “As a
Buddhist monk, this would be a very meaningful
practice for me, so I think I will go back to
Malaysia and get a lecturer’s post. Also, because
I am a monk, I am often asked to give talks, so I
hope that my mode of delivery may be enhanced
by my education so that I can bring in some
positive psychology terms and appeal to more
people in that way.”
Being grateful and focusing on the
positive — positive human functioning, happiness,
life satisfaction, meaning in life, compassion and
forgiveness — Yeshi, monk, alumnus and future
teacher, will continue to shine a light on these
principles and share his philosophy with the
world in hopes of changing it for the better.
Alumni.LIFE.edu | 2018
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