This winter, join me in a ritual reading of the Bardo Thodol (better known in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead). Composed by a Vajrayana master from India in 8th-century Tibet, this beloved Buddhist text serves as a guidebook of liberation to be read aloud to the dying. It is famous for articulating the process of death as a path to an enlightened life.
Over the course of these 14 weeks we will humbly study the 14 chapters of the Bardo Thodol (literally: “Liberation through Hearing during the Intermediate State”). What can we discover about the nature of our waking days by confronting the nature of our own imminent demise?
Can learning how to die teach us how to live?
We start in the dark depths of January and agree to meet each week until the beginning of spring. Together, we will keep each other warm through the long loneliness of winter by practicing how to read, write, pray, breathe, move, meditate, listen, share, serve, and surrender.
Through a committed semester of study, you will learn and test practical spiritual skills passed on through the ages that can accompany one for a lifetime (or several). In the second half of the program, each student will also experiment with how to practice their own unique form of monastic renunciation, observing a self-designed 49-days-in-the-Bardo disciplined period of personal transformation (think: Buddhist-flavored Lent).
Our aim will be to understand the fundamental teaching of the Bardo Thodol: that all beings are, in essence, as sublime and perfect as the Buddha, and that all beings have liberation and enlightenment as their natural birthright.
“O, Alas! Alas! Fortunate Child of Buddha Nature,
Do not be oppressed by the forces of ignorance and delusion!
But rise up now with resolve and courage!
Entranced by ignorance from beginningless time until now,
You have had more than enough time to sleep.
So do not slumber any longer, but strive after virtue with body, speech and mind!”
(Opening lines of the Bardo Thodol)
Your Investment
Make and honor a four-month commitment.
$49/month
for disciplines of divinity alums, current/former students, clients, and patrons
$108/month
for new students
*includes two 45-minute private 1-on-1 dharma talk sessions in Feb+Apr*
FULL PROGRAM
$444/month
*includes weekly dharma talks and private meditation instruction*
Students are strongly encouraged to source a tree-paged copy of the Penguin Classics edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead (translated by Gyurme Dorje, with introductory commentary by His Holiness The Dalai Lama).
I highly recommend holding the relic of a wise tree while you read, but you may also listen to the chapters via Audio Book (it’s free on Spotify Premium).
Anyone curious about this course/text should read this brief introduction:
“Guide to the classics: the Tibetan Book of the Dead” by professor Pema Düddul
And this great essay by Carl Jung:
“Psychological Commentary on the Tibetan Book of the Dead”
And listen to the full album, Songs from the Bardo, by Laurie Anderson, Tenzin Choegyal, and Jesse Paris Smith.
Home Devotions:
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Weekly Readings (~10-40 pages)
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Morning Pages Journal / Share 250-500 words of your writing each month in class discussion board
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Audio Letter Exchange with a partner in class (~8-10m voice memo recording)
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49-Days-in-the-Bardo Practice of Renunciation (to be determined by student)
Class Schedule:
1- Tuesday 1/14
READ CH. 1 - Natural Liberation of the Nature of Mind: The Four-session Yoga of the Preliminary Practice
2- Tuesday 1/21
READ CH. 2 - A Prayer for Union with the Spiritual Teacher, [entitled] Natural Liberation, without Renunciation of the Three Poisons
3 - Tuesday 1/28
READ CH. 3 - Root Verses of the Six Intermediate States
4- Tuesday 2/4
READ CH. 4 - The Introduction to Awareness: Natural Liberation through Naked Perception
5- Tuesday 2/11
READ CH. 5 - The Spiritual Practice entitled Natural Liberation of Habitual Tendencies
6- Tuesday 2/18
READ CH. 6 - Natural Liberation of Negativity and Obscuration through [Enactment of] Hundredfold Homage to the Sacred Enlightened Families
+ + + RECESS TO PREPARE 49-DAY-BARDO PROJECTS + + +
7- FAT Tuesday 3/4 - (Bardo/Lent begins…)
READ CH. 7 - Natural Liberation through Acts of Confession
8- Tuesday 3/11
READ CH.8 - Natural Liberation through Recognition of the Visual Indications and Signs of Death
9- Tuesday 3/18 (Spring Equinox)
READ CH. 9 - Natural Liberation of Fear through the Ritual Deception of Death
10- Tuesday 3/25
READ CH. 10 - Consciousness Transference: Natural Liberation through Recollection
11- Tuesday 4/1 (April Fools)
READ CH. 11 - The Great Liberation by Hearing
12- Tuesday 4/8
READ CH. 12 - Aspirational Prayers
13- Tuesday 4/15
READ CH. 13 - A Masked Drama of Rebirth
14- Tuesday 4/22 (RISEN/REBORN)
READ CH. 14 - Liberation by Wearing: Natural Liberation of the Psycho-physical Aggregates