Weaponizing the Dzogchen View

For everyone who feels they should be handling this better by now

I’m posting this essay as we approach the Thanksgiving weekend, when many of us are away from normal routines, seated across from relatives who activate old circuitry, reaching for wine or dessert to dull the edge. The holidays compress everything this essay is about: the gap between how we imagine we should be handling things and how we’re actually handling them. If you find yourself needing support through the shorter days and frequent gatherings of winter, we designed the Deep Rest course for exactly this territory. I’ll be joined by Andrew Holecek, Lopön Chandra Easton, Jonny Miller, Bruce Tift, Lama Karma Wall, Michael Taft, Emma Treharne, and Stephen Zerfas.

I took this photo of the flags at Tashi Gomang Stupa in Crestone, the woven colors, naked and vulnerable, surrendered to wind and weather. Wholly exposed to the elements that will fade and fray them. Pulsing and breathing in harmony with the flux of the sky.

My life sometimes feels less like this effortless surrender and more …