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All upside down ...

Jaya Härtlein

You might remember Alices Adventures in Wonderland - a lovely read for children by Lewis Carroll, and yet the characters and metaphors seem to come alive in less comforting ways: the bullying and cruel Queen of Hearts, the ineffectual King of Hearts, and then even the Very Scary Jabberwocky might be real and living not so far away!


In our 'real life' world what seemed solid is slipping away, and 'up' becomes 'down'. Politics and elections bring crazy results; news have become propaganda; values, even human rights, have become optional extras for a few. The world appears unfamiliar – similar to living in Alice's looking glass, where the world is still recognizable and yet turned inside-out.


How can we proceed in such a world, and how can we practice? Beyond Carrolls wonderful insights, we can also turn to the Buddhist teachings on the bardos - the in-between states. The bardos are a guide beyond this life, beyond the physical death of this body. They are also a teaching for any moment when we are in transition, when the ground we had stood on is slipping away, and we don't know where and if firm land can be found. So it is a teaching that could be most helpful for us, now.


The bardos describe in detail various stages of a process of change. The three main ones are:

  • experiencing death

  • being no-one

  • becoming new


All of those have their challenges, and the opportunity for awakening. In the second one, for instance 'being no-one', we have lost the 'me' that is familiar, and we wander without any idea who we are or what is up or down - everything is unknown - and everything is open!


It is the stage where, according to Tibetan Buddhist teaching, the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities appear: beautiful or terrifying. We see them and we yearn for what we hope to gain, or run from what we fear ... we fall into grasping & aversion. - Yet also, the opportunity these moments offer are to stay open: to recognise those appearances as our own mind. How can we practice that in our highly charged world? How can we experience what is terrifying us, without blocking and othering people - without becoming part of the splitting that is also a root of the problems?


This is relevant not just at the moment of death, but many times, every day in our lives - it is the basic ground of our practice - and can be a charnel ground.


'Let’s say you have some plans, and something can’t happen, you get a little bit of a shock. ... It’s a little bit of a gap, a little bit of a nonconceptual state of mind. In that moment, we are really close to our true nature, who we are. ... (B)e with the moment. First you feel the uncertainty or fear—and there’s not only fear there. There is a sense of being, of who we are, but sometimes there’s something more there within yourself. Greater possibility, potential, awareness, compassion, wisdom. There are skills that you never thought of before. Once you let go of that death concept, you will see new opportunities.' (Mingyur Rinpoche) *1


I would like to offer a course where we can explore those opportunities together. It will be called Living with Uncertainty: exploring the Bardos. We will meet together online, every 2 weeks on Thursdays from 13 March (for six sessions plus one day retreat) and in between support each other as a community of practice. We will be meditating, talking and dancing - who is to say you cannot dance in a charnel ground? You are welcome to join, with or without previous experience - please see here for more details, and register here.


We will try to directly experience those moments of transition: when the old (me) dies - we will look at how we can grieve and honour what is passing. And then enquire how is it to be no-one? To be confused, lost, to wish for bearings, yet nothing is in sight. Can we be present there, directly, and notice the openness within it? Notice, that, even if it feels fearful, here I am, experiencing fear. And yes: here I am! Who is this 'I' that is present, even without bearings like name, identity or clarity? Notice: here I am!..... And finally we will look at becoming: how can we let the new me be revealed, continuously fresh, rather than being something we grasp at and cling to?


'The person I refer to as ‘me’ is movement. ‘I’ am moving, arising and vanishing moment by moment: pattern after pattern of presence free of enduring substance. Generally this goes unnoticed as I try to stabilize myself as something, to formulate my identity so that I can reliably present myself as always being the same. However, this is a lie, a fabrication, a self-deception. Ignorance is the fictional creator of fictions. What we take to be the self, arises from deception and is itself self-deceiving and other-deceiving. Posture, gesture, gait are all inseparable from specific environments. Our body is not a fixed thing but it is part of the ongoing conversation. Like rainbows, like clouds, like birds flying across the sky, events are arising and passing moment by moment.' (James Low) *2


Please get in touch if you have questions, and I hope you can join me from March onwards.



Comtemplative Clowning (May, Portugal) - early bird price until end of February

Stillness & Movement (June, Holland)

Der Tanz der Elemente (September, Deutschland)

The Feast of India - a Journey for Senses & Spirit (22 Nov - 14 Dec 2025)


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