The Bardo

Embracing the Space Between

Tibetan Buddhists speak of the Bardo as the intermediate state; the space between death and rebirth. But it is more than a moment at the end of life. The bardo is the in-between, the threshold between what has been and what is yet to come. It is the pause, the transitional phase where all possibilities converge.

At its essence, the bardo is neutral. It is neither here nor there, neither this nor that. And yet, in its neutrality lies opportunity. It is a place to transform, to awaken, to enlighten oneself, if one is willing to stay present and meet it fully.

I don’t often dwell on the bardo of dying, perhaps I should, or rather I could, but I notice the bardos of life significant, sometimes more so than others. the spaces between endings and beginnings, the moments between a door closing and the next one opening. A moment waiting to be acknowledged.

I think of the butterfly in its cocoon. It is not yet the birdlike, winged creature it will become, but it is not the caterpillar it once was either. In the cocoon, it exists in the bardo, neither what it was, nor yet what it will be. It must inhabit this space fully, surrendering to transformation without rushing, without knowing the precise shape it will take. Only in the stillness and vulnerability of that pause does the miracle of becoming occur.

The practice of noticing the bardo is simple in its form but profound in its depth. It is the pause between one breath and the next: the silent, full moment after the inhale and just before the release of the exhale. It is the stillness that exists just after the exhale, before the body draws in air again. In these pauses, the world softens, the self softens, and the potential of what could arise becomes palpable.

The bardo, then, is not only about death. It is about presence in transition, about recognizing that the space between is fertile. In life, we move from relationship to relationship, from work to work, from one stage of being to the next. Each shift carries the same opportunity: to observe, to release, and to cultivate awareness. To inhabit the pause fully.

To enter the bardo is to be awake to possibility, to meet the threshold with awareness. It is a moment of pure presence, where the ordinary patterns of thought and identity mellow, and the subtle currents of existence can be seen and felt. It is in these spaces that transformation becomes possible, without force, without rushing, without resistance, like the butterfly, emerging in its own time, in its own perfect way.

So perhaps the question is not whether we will encounter the bardo at the end of life, but whether we are willing to welcome it in the spaces in between. to notice the pauses, to dwell in the transitional, to breathe fully into the uncertainty and the potential that the in-between holds.

The bardo is not a place to fear, Rather, its essence is an invitation. it is a reminder that life is always unfolding in thresholds, that every ending carries the seed of a beginning, and that awakening lives not in what has ended, nor in what is yet to come, but in the subtle space that exists between. And so I embrace it, i encourage it, and I silently witness the bardos of existence, knowing that, like the butterfly, transformation is always subtly taking place.