Awakening in the Bardo
— A Collective Shift
I was walking on the beach this morning, watching Sophie run into the waves, the seagulls diving for breakfast, and the fishermen dragging their boats out to sea with that radical faith that there would be a catch today.
The idea that we are in an “in-between place” ruminated in my mind. We are not where we were, nor where we are going. We are suspended on a bridge we must cross between the nostalgia of the past and the uncertainty of the future.
So much of our personal and collective story is dying, our illusions being ruthlessly swept away, revealing the shadow elements we’ve been hiding from.
The greatest illusion was that we actually had control.
This time of shattering of illusion holds pain and suffering at the dissolution of what we believed was true. Replacing the illusion is the creative potential of our lives if we stop resisting the flow of energy and release our attachment to the past.
“The presence of this life is like a single day. The presence of the bardo is like tonight’s dream. The presence of rebirth will come as quickly as tomorrow. Deal with life’s real meaning straight away”. — Longchenpa
I’m reminded of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the term bardo, or “intermediate state,” that refers to the space between the moment we die and the afterlife. But it also applies to an in-between state, a time of change and transition. We feel a loss of control, uncertainty, and a sense of groundlessness. We have lost our old reality but have not yet created a new one.
We can embrace this liminal space as an opportunity to reflect and recalibrate. We can enter the pause intending to reflect on what holds meaning.
This may stir unexpected emotions and discomfort, but it is also the birthplace of inspired creativity. All creation is born out of a void, an emptiness, a vastness before all that was and remains after our material self, our body, has expired.
Like the universe, it is an infinite consciousness that becomes available to us when we can sit with the discomfort, without judgment, open to whatever may arise as an expansion of our individual and collective selves.
This is where reflection births harmony, meaning, and purpose; when our inner essential nature aligns with our external world in action and deeds.
“First the shattering. Then the renaissance.”
In between is bardo, a non-space between what was and what will be. This transition may be obvious now, but it is not apparent that we live in a continuous bardo, forever suspended between past and future, although we seldom recognize it. We are in constant motion; life is (and we are) constantly changing and flowing, and we have far less control than we imagine.
YOU HAVE TWO CHOICES TODAY.
You can yearn for the comfort of what you knew in the past, resist what is happening, rail against the slowing of our society, stay attached to the trappings of success and materialism, and remain contracted and protected from anything you can still hold on to.
Or you can step into the flow of this mighty shift and move towards the challenge, joyfully creating a new chapter of your story based on different priorities, oriented around deeper values and aligning your internal essential nature with your ability to manifest in the external world through right action, conscious leadership, and a unitive purpose.
THIS IS A TIME OF SHATTERING THE ILLUSION OF WHAT WAS AND AWAKENING TO NEW POSSIBILITIES ORIENTED AROUND AN INCLUSIVE COLLECTIVE STORY AND SHARED MEANING.
Your invitation is to embrace this rich, generative space, honestly peering into your own shadow and the shadow of our systems and collective beliefs to redefine how you want to be from this point forward and choose where you want your energy to flow.
Nothing has ever been or will ever be permanent. Resisting what is in front of you now is futile and will cause suffering, like trying to grab a wave as it meets the beach. The seawater runs through your fingers and returns to the ocean, only to become a new wave that cannot be stopped.
Instead, choose to meet the tide, diving deep into the silence as you meet the you you are becoming and embrace what could be the birth of a new possibility for you and our global community.
