Dön Season: A Time of Obstacles

I’ll never forget the morning in early 2012 I woke up and read an email from someone I had never met. It began, “Dear Lordo — you are a hipster f*ggot b*tch.”

The gentleman went on to say that I should “take off the f*cking rimmed glasses, put on an orange robe and stop f*cking girls.” This raised many questions at the time, such as, “How would I see?” “Can my robe be a bath robe?” “Will my girlfriend be okay with a sexless life together?” This email, while largely bizarre and misinformed, caught my eye. More importantly, it reminded me that I was smack dab in the middle of dön, or obstacle, season.

Dön season is an annual occurrence, and while this email is my go-to example, I’m guessing you have some of your own from the past week (I’d love to see them in the comments). From a Tibetan Buddhist point of view, we are entering the New Year on February 24th. For a period prior to the New Year there is a time that is traditionally known for being a rough patch — a time of obstacles. In 2020 it began on February 13th and continues until February 22nd.

The Tibetan Buddhist teacher Lodro Dorje once wrote on the topic:

“Just as the motion of the earth and the cycle of the seasons take place, there may be also a cycle of the karmic forces on a psychic level. Traditionally the end of the old year is seen as a time of the ripening of karmic tendencies.”

This dön season is a time where the accumulated karma from the past year rises up and, at times, feels like it’s…