Dharma Teachings

At the request of Maitripa College, His Holiness the 42nd Sakya Trizin, Ratna Vajra Rinpoche, delivered this teaching at the Jokhang Meditation Hall in Portland, Oregon, on July 27, 2024.

What if the very things that frustrate, humiliate, and disappoint you were actually your greatest teachers? That is the radical proposition at the heart of the Eight Verses of Mind Training—a short but transformative text that has guided Tibetan Buddhist practitioners for nearly a thousand years. Written by Geshe Langri Tangpa in the eleventh century, its eight verses offer a complete reorientation of the mind: away from self-obsession, toward an expansive care for all beings. This is the practice of lojong, or mind training—not passive acceptance, but a courageous, deliberate rewiring of how we see ourselves and the world. In this commentary, His Holiness the 42nd Sakya Trizin, Ratna Vajra Rinpoche, brings these ancient teachings to life with rare clarity and warmth, showing how even the most ordinary moments of daily life can become the ground for genuine inner transformation.

Source: This teaching was obtained from The Sakya Tradition.

No matter how much we try to fix the world around us, we are often caught off guard by a sudden flash of anger. These Eight Verses of Mind Training by the great master Geshe Langri Tangpa are not meant to soothe our emotions; they are a practical manual for systematically re-programming the way our minds operate.

They challenge us to shed the brittle armor of our ego and cultivate a humility that is a true "core strength"—a resilience that transforms every insult and every obstacle into an essential path toward inner peace.

Consider this: Could those who cause us pain actually be the most important teachers in our lives? And is it possible that true calm never comes from changing our circumstances, but from the wisdom of stilling the storms within?