Spontaneous Becoming

Fear of death cripples us all. We fear the death of all form we cherish, and in each moment we attempt to protract that form in to the next moment in order to maintain security and comfort. But still change happens. Birth, death, getting old, marriage, menopause, redundancy, retirement, relationship breakdown, winning the lottery, and going on holiday – these form the rich tapestry of life’s ups and downs - which we experience through the fabric of our own particular conditioning.

This day of teaching will explore how we can understand and experience life-changes, whether joyous, painful or confusing, through the Aro teaching of the Nine Bardos. Every moment of experience is the bardo between what has gone before and what will come next and these in-between moments are classified in various ways according to the nature of one’s awareness of them. We will introduce the bardo of instantaneous recognition—as the means by which we abandon the illusions of our own continuity and discontinuity through time. This bardo, Thamal-gyi shépa, explodes us into the dimension of who we are. Then we discover – that this is precisely where we have always been.

“Thamal-gyi shépa is the extraordinary dimension of the ordinary instant which is discovered through practising the bardo of the changing moment. The nature of time is transcended in the indivisibility of continuity and discontinuity. They are the creative play of existence, which move within the womb of Space. Death happens. It is not a terrible juncture. It simply happens. Birth simply happens. Birth and death take place magically within every moment. When one discovers birth and death within every moment, it is no longer possible to live a pallid half-hearted life, haunted by morbid fears of visceral recycling.” Ngak’chang Rinpoche

Saturday 23 April

10.30 to 4.30