Until now, we have been holding on to the idea of an inherent continuity in our lives, creating a false sense of comfort for ourselves on artificial ground. But to be precise, bardo refers to that state in which we have lost our old reality and it is no longer available to us. These interruptions in our normal sense of certainty are what is being referred to by the term bardo. In American culture, we sometimes refer to this as having the rug pulled out from under us, or feeling ungrounded.
It also refers more generally to these moments when gaps appear, interrupting the continuity that we otherwise project onto our lives. The Tibetan term bardo, or “intermediate state,” is not just a reference to the afterlife. In bereavement, we come to appreciate at the deepest, most felt level exactly what it means to die while we are still alive. There is a total rupture in our who-I-am-ness, and we are forced to undergo a great and difficult transformation. We are not given options, there is no room for negotiation, and the situation cannot be rationalized away or covered up by pretense. We feel the death of loved ones most acutely-there is something radical about the change in our reality. We are always experiencing successive births and deaths.
Earth, rabbit skin glue, and black pigment on paper. “Home & the Underworld,” by Antony Gormley, 1989.
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