So this is my first class back.

Thought I would do it on an unusual topic for me, which is the Bardo.

This is unusual for a number of reasons.

One, I'm an empowered This is unusual for a number of reasons.

One, I'm an empowered teacher in the Taravitan

tradition, which is Southeast Asian Buddhism.

And my background is also in my academic background is in psychology.

Tonight's talk though really focuses on concepts that have been

elaborated on primarily in Tibetan Buddhism. have been

familiar with familiar with Tibetan Buddhism. So while I've been familiar with Bardo

and the text associated with it for quite a long time.

It is still outside of my most familiar stomping grounds,

but I'll do the best I can to at least introduce some of the basic concepts and hopefully

make it not just something that's interesting, but something that can be employed in our day-to-day life, the ideas that animate this rich and profound body of work.

So the Bardo is an idea somewhat in some ways I'd say thinly similar to the

G. W Christian concept of limbo a transitional state and in-between stage after the end of one phase before another stage of existence begins.

This of course plays into the Buddhist idea of rebirth, which is that we are in the

traditional teachings of the darma, we are in specific births that are animated by craving and fueled by a kind of

lust for central pleasures to distract us from the underlying stresses of existence and it's when we become aware

the nature of craving and let go of craving, we can relax into each moment without trying to get to another moment where we believe

will be happier or have more stuff and when we get to this place where we can relax into

existence we can essentially achieve nibana which is a kind of

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