Many years ago, when we first moved to Colorado, Dzigar Kongrul Rinpoche and I were driving on a winding mountain pass in the Rockies. It was September, and the aspens were turning. You don’t see a lot of yellow, orange, and red in the arid climate of the Rockies—except in autumn. In the autumn, the sunlight hits the leaves and they shimmer. I felt so overwhelmed by this beauty, I was almost agitated by it. I kept saying, “How beautiful it is, how beautiful, how beautiful…” Rinpoche turned to me and asked: “Is it too beautiful for you?” This got me thinking … even beauty can cause us pain when we objectify it. – Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel, The Power of an Open Question
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