Andrea Vazques (Yeshe)

Born in Southern California and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, Andrea began her Buddhist journey when she was 21 after a severe burn accident. Her accident inspired a deep shift in her outlook on her life and her mission in the world, motivating her to plunge into the study and practice of Buddhism in order to uncover the true causes of happiness and suffering. Her studies and practice have been focused in the Gelug and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism; she has studied with master teachers in the US, Mexico, Australia, India, and Nepal. She has also engaged in numerous meditation retreats and Buddhist pilgrimages around the world.

Andrea met Dr. B. Alan Wallace in 2014 in Guadalajara, Mexico, and has continued to study and practice his teachings, finding in them a true and clear path to personal fulfillment. She has seen the real-world benefits of her dedication to practice within her own mind and in her relationships with others. This has inspired her to deepen her practice even further and share the wisdom of Buddhist teachings with the world. It has been Andrea’s aspiration to engage in long-term retreat since the age of 23, and so it is with great joy and gratitude that, along with serving the CCR mission as a volunteer, she has now entered full-time retreat alongside her precious teachers and fellow practitioners as part of the first group of retreatants at Miyo Samten Ling.

Andrea is also proud to represent the Latinx community at the CCR. In addition to her aspiration to bring greater insights into the nature of mind and consciousness to the world, Andrea is also inspired to explore the hypothesis that, even amid the mental and social fragmentation of the 21^st century, all human beings – including women of color – have the potential to realize genuine awakening in this very life.