by James Low

In Everything As It Is, James Low makes the esoteric teachings of Dzogchen&mdash;a non-dual contemplative tradition from Tibet&mdash;profoundly accessible. Low speaks with striking clarity and originality, combining a precise use of language, accessible examples from everyday life, and lighthearted humor. 
He points us toward letting go of our desire for control and, instead, resting in the openness of awareness itself, so that we may &ldquo;move more gently and with more connection in the world with others."

Everything As It Is

Full Lesson

Introduction

We discover more ease and richness by being open to others, and to life itself.

Available for Life

Our experience of the world isn't a given—it's an act of constant construction.

The Creativity of Perception

It is the stories we tell that form the world we experience.

The Mind Reveals the World

Learn how our minds give rise to the transient objects of our existence.

Beyond Interpretation

We try to hold on to our existence—which is, at its core, ungraspable.

The Inexpressibility of Life

We take ourselves and everything around us to be “things”—and ignore the dynamism of it all.

The World Is Communication

We get lost in dark states of mind because we forget the bigger context.

Ignoring the Good

Like actors appear on a stage, thoughts appear in the space of awareness.

The Spaciousness of the Mind

Practice seeing how everything, including us, fluidly changes moment to moment.

Constellations of Thought

We are never simply one thing, but rather a dynamic display of many different potentials.

Our Ever-Changing Selves

Underneath our "patterning" of the world is pure, ungraspable openness.

Naked Awareness

This present moment, whatever its character, bears the richness of life.

The Flavors of Experience

We define objects in the world with concepts, but awareness itself is unstructured.

The Space of Subjectivity 

“Allow whatever is arising to come as it comes and to go as it goes.”

Allowing Every Thought

Truly understand how being here now is all there is.

The Field of Experience

Identifying with—and resisting—fleeting thoughts and sensations gives rise to suffering.

The Nature of Aversion

Our likes and dislikes show us our own subjectivity, not objective facts about the world.

What Preferences Reveal

“Our lives are intimately intermingled with and dependent on so many other people.”

Our Debts of Gratitude

Release the fixation on rote mental construction.

The Mind Itself

Our actions and desires vary over time, yet we imagine a self that remains constant. 

We Are Ungraspable

Relax the urge to try—simply be in the tumbling stream of experience.

There Is No Error

There is no central self—just patterns, which are perennially in flux. 

Colors on the Palette of Life

We tend to fixate on movement, and ignore what's all around it.

The Background Stillness

We cling to items we own, spaces we inhabit, routines we repeat, and identities we construct.

What Is Attachment?

Instead of trying to "own" your experience, simply be open to what is.

Beyond Attachment

"You are the open, empty site of a ceaseless display of an infinite variety of experience."

The Mind Is Dynamic 

Our addiction to concepts keeps us disconnected from the moment. 

The Seeds of Alienation

Trying to grasp the ungraspable removes us from whatever is actually emerging. 

The Immediacy of Full Contact

Past, present, and future are concepts—and mask the freshness of experience.

The Three Times

Let go of your concepts and directly experience each passing instant.

The Ungraspable Moment

Rather than try to define people and things, simply open to the flow of changing experience.