| Most of us find periods of explicit uncertainty very | | | | So bardo is both the gap between moments and the |
| difficult to handle with equanimity. Indeed, the urgent | | | | much larger intervals that punctuate all our experience |
| desire to 'know' the way forward -- to escape that | | | | of waking, sleeping, meditating, being born and dying. |
| uncertainty -- or change the scenario, can feel quite | | | | Freedom in accepting uncertainty |
| overwhelming. It is this desire for it to be different that | | | | Pema Chodron, a wise North American Buddhist nun |
| causes the extreme suffering associated with the | | | | and spiritual teacher, tells us that "nothing to hold on to" |
| times when we know we don't know. I'm thinking of | | | | is the root of happiness! She points to the sense of |
| times that we may be waiting for medical or academic | | | | freedom that comes from acceptance that we are |
| test results. Or you are awaiting news from a loved | | | | not in control and we don't "know." |
| one or waiting for your estranged partner's decision to | | | | Generally we don't want to stay in that middle place of |
| return home or set up house elsewhere. There are so | | | | "unknowing" because it makes us feel vulnerable and |
| many times when we know we have no control over | | | | uneasy. However, it is by staying open and flexible, |
| what comes next! | | | | explicitly acknowledging our uncertainty, that we begin |
| As the Buddha said, "suffering is wanting things to be | | | | to access our inner strength, a strength that is based |
| different!" We yearn to be able to fix things; to be able | | | | on compassion, wisdom and loving acceptance, or |
| to turn the clock backwards or forwards! | | | | equanimity. |
| Impermanence ensures uncertainty | | | | As Pema Chodron says, our practice is "to stay with |
| However, if we look carefully, we can see the | | | | the uneasiness and not solidify into a view. We can |
| impermanent nature of all things, resulting in | | | | meditate, do tonglen (the mental practice of |
| moment-to-moment uncertainty! Everything we can | | | | exchanging the suffering of others for our happiness), |
| experience, on any level of being, is constantly | | | | or simply look at the open sky--anything that |
| changing. In order to feel more comfortable, we have | | | | encourages us to stay on the brink and not solidify into |
| a strong tendency to think and act as though we can | | | | a view." |
| predict at least some of the more mundane aspects | | | | Working with paradox |
| of our day to day life. The authority figures in our | | | | As time goes on and my awareness of |
| particular culture play on this desire for 'certainty' when | | | | impermanence deepens as I watch my body -- and |
| they issue their directions and their predictions of how | | | | the bodies and circumstances of my family and friends |
| things will be. The problem is that it is a delusion to | | | | -- age and change, I find myself thinking more and |
| believe we - or the authorities - can accurately predict | | | | more in terms of paradox, rather than right or wrong; |
| even the next moment! | | | | this or that! Interestingly, allowing paradox (the |
| Yesterday I heard that a friend had died. He felt he | | | | co-existence of opposite ideas) to more frequently |
| had a touch of 'flu one night and lay down on the living | | | | replace my learned tendency to make 'statements', as |
| room couch. His wife decided to leave him there for | | | | though I know things, has indeed brought with it a |
| the night. In the morning he was dead! He was a few | | | | sense of spaciousness and possibility that feels joyful |
| years short of 50 and thought to be healthy. | | | | and hopeful. |
| 'Bardo' -- the in-between state | | | | On those rare occasions that I allow myself to watch |
| This in-between period, between knowing and | | | | the (generally bad) news of global warming, disasters, |
| not-knowing; between one perception and the next; | | | | war and terrorism, I am tested to maintain this open |
| between feeling good and learning you have lost | | | | view. I notice the definiteness with which the news and |
| something precious; or between learning of the death | | | | predicted dire consequences are pronounced and it is |
| of a loved person and the grieving period prior to | | | | indeed a challenge to remember how peace follows |
| accepting this loss, is known in Buddhist terms as | | | | war and disasters can bring out the best in people, as |
| 'bardo'. The term 'bardo' is often seen as the period | | | | well as causing enormous suffering. |
| between birth and death and death and the next life | | | | Hopefully, I remember that I don't know, and 'they' don't |
| but, more accurately, it is the gap between this | | | | know what comes next. Hopefully I remember to keep |
| moment and the next unknown moment. | | | | my heart open and hold the aspiration for courage, |
| In Buddha Dharma, the larger bardos are (1) the bardo | | | | support and skilful resolution of the challenges each of |
| of this life; (2) the bardo of dream (the gap between | | | | us face, moment to moment, in our unknowing. |
| going to sleep and waking up); (3) the bardo of | | | | The goal is to maintain a state of non-clinging |
| meditation; (4) the bardo of dying; (5) the bardo of | | | | awareness and equanimity. In this state we are free, |
| dharmata (in plain language dharmata is the seeing as | | | | open and happy! This is an ultimate form of stress |
| it really is) and (6) the bardo of existence (or | | | | management. |
| becoming). | | | | |