His Holiness the 43rd Sakya Trizin, Gyana Vajra Rinpoche, graciously bestowed the White Tara initiation online at the request of Sakya Friends on January 25, 2023. Before and after the empowerment, His Holiness offered guidance and counsel to the practitioners.
Life is unfolding right now—but how often do we truly notice it? Day after day, we make choices and pursue goals, moving through life as if on autopilot, assuming that our thoughts and actions are simply “the way things are.” Yet beneath this surface, a subtle unease often lingers, quietly resurfacing as we move from one goal to the next.
In this text, His Holiness the 43rd Sakya Trizin invites us to turn toward this unease and examine its source. Drawing on the Buddha’s teachings, he points out how habitual thinking, mental imprints, and the labels we place on things silently shape the world we experience. This is not an invitation to memorize doctrine or remain in abstract philosophy, but to observe the mind directly—to see how suffering arises in ordinary life, and how it can gradually loosen through clear understanding.
These reflections are offered to anyone willing to face their own experience honestly. They point to the Buddha’s central insight: awakening is not the acquisition of something new, but the recognition of what has always been at work. Through careful inquiry, sustained awareness, and right meditation, what once seemed solid can be seen clearly—and the attachments, confusion, and suffering that once bound us can begin to loosen and lose their grip.
Source: This teaching was obtained from the Sakya Friends Youtube.
Before we habitually rush into new undertakings, it may be more necessary to pause—deliberately—and observe the mind in this very moment. What is it being drawn toward? Why are we here, and where are we headed?
This text does not offer ready-made conclusions. Rather, His Holiness the 43rd Sakya Trizin guides readers back to the immediacy of experience, inviting reflection on the most fundamental questions of saṃsāra, the practice of the Dharma, and awakening.
What unfolds in these pages is not a theoretical roadmap, but a sustained inquiry grounded in lived experience—one that encourages readers to turn inward and, through that process, develop a clearer understanding of their own minds.
This Dharma teachings e-library is made possible by a grant from Sachen Foundation, and the generous donations of the Yueh Family Charitable Fund, and the Chan Family.