WISDOM CENTER
OF SANTA CRUZ
creative
resilience
A Transformational Journey through the Five Elements
Facilitated by Naljor Dawa Drakpa
5 Thursdays, Oct 8-Nov.5 , 2026
6:30-8 pm pacific time
In person
With the idea that difficult times demand fresh and evolving resources, teacher Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche tasked an international group of psychologists, writers, teachers and artists to create a platform that offers a suite of flexible tools to bolster our own innate creativity and resilience and also to transform difficulties in a truly unique way.
Join us in exploring this collection of simple and practical methods of transforming habits and emotional states that no longer serve us. Many cultures have recognized the importance of the five elements and have used them as a key to unlocking self-mastery, healing, and balancing disruptive circumstances. Join Dawa Drakpa in this simple program to examine the major qualities of the element, looking at how we limit or nourish each, and transform our minds in the process for greater balance and awareness.
Earth: Nourishing yourself with kindness. Watching your self-compassion, self-confidence, and inner strength increase. Quieting Inner Critics: inner messages erode our confidence and dignity and can limit our ability to give and to love.
Water: Becoming Fluid. Develop your own flexibility through the art of listening. Find flexibility.
Wind: Becoming free. Overcoming procrastination; changing inaction to action. Creating new pathways in the brain. Activating positive-emotion circuits. Changing moods.
Fire: Becoming passionate. Stopping obsessive thinking. Dissolving anger. Finding inner fire and life force.
SKY/ SPACE: Becoming spacious. Making more mental space. Sky eating.
This course is a hands-on, integrative experience using journaling and group discussion.
Registration: $90 full tuition; $60 fixed income
Naljor Dawa Drakpa was one of the first western students of the great Tibetan lamas Penor Rinpoche, Gangteng Rinpoche of Bhutan, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche. He is the founder of the Jang Ter Cho Gar, the Northern Treasures Buddhist Society.