By Gelong Loden Nyima // Originally published September 22, 2020. I’m writing this article from a friend’s spare room in Longmont, Colorado.  I’ve evacuated from my home at Shambhala Mountain Center (SMC) due to a wildfire that has blazed over 100,000 acres in the same week as an unseasonal snowstorm.  Earlier today, I spoke by phone with a friend in California—a conversation delayed by days due to blackouts they’re having in relation to record heat waves and millions of acres of fire.  Afterwards, I prepared notes for a class I’m teaching online due to a pandemic which has killed nearly 200,000 Americans, hospitalized several of my friends, and is preventing live gatherings in shrine rooms.  Our national news is filled with violence and political strife.  This is life in 2020, another day in America. Cosmic Context We’re living in what’s known as a kaliyuga or a dark age in Buddhism.  These are times in which the mass amalgamations of many years of actions arising from greed and over-consumption, ignorance, and aggression have co-created a world …