05 July 2025

On the Importance of Reflection and Observation

On this Guru Rinpoche day, Phakchok Rinpoche talks about the importance of continuously applying reflection and observation as a means to find balance in our lives. This is crucial to find both mundane happiness and spiritual progress. Rinpoche further explains how through reflection and observation, balance, change, and improvement are achieved.

Dear friends near and far,

As always, I hope this message finds you well, healthy and happy. On today’s Guru Rinpoche day, I would like to talk to you about the importance of reflection and observation. Specifically, we need to be continuously applying reflection and observation to finding balance in our lives, identifying areas for change, and checking on our progress.

A balanced life is key to both mundane happiness and spiritual progress. Because our physical bodies support all our endeavors, we first need to find physical balance with the right amounts of rest, work, and attention to our health. Next, our relationships, which are so essential to human life, also need to be balanced: our relationship to ourselves, to our families, our friends, our work… Finally, we also need to strike the right balance between our mundane lives and our spiritual lives. Such balance requires reflection and observation to find and maintain.

Through our reflection and observation, we will necessarily also find things to change and room for improvement. Reflection will guide us in identifying what we should change in our lives, and where we can improve. Through observation, we can make sure we stay the course and progressively transform and get better.

For instance, if you want to ride a motorbike, getting on the bike and riding off is only the first step. If you want to stay on the motorbike without falling off, you need balance: you can’t go too fast or too slow, nor slant too much to the right or the left. Once you have balance, you can direct the motorbike to wherever you want to go, change scenery, and eventually reach your destination. In the same way, in life, we need to find balance between all areas of our lives in order to effect real change and make lasting improvements.

Therefore, on today’s Guru Rinpoche day, I wanted to remind you all that balance, change, and improvement are all key to living a meaningful life, and that these three can only be achieved through reflection and observation.

With all my love and prayers,

Sarva Mangalam.