Living and Dying: Navigating the Bardos

What if you could face the future without anxiety? What if you could accept endings with greater ease? What if you could relate to death as an opportunity? Join author and renowned guide Andrew Holecek for a six-part online course that will show you how to live with joy through spiritual preparation for life transitions, death, and beyond.

Program

This is a 6-unit course. You are entirely free to study at your own pace. Each lesson will offer roughly 90 minutes of material to work with, including video teachings, prompts for reflection, optional quizzes, and a communal discussion board. There will also be suggested take-home practices, including guided meditations, for you to explore. You will retain access to the course for as long as you need.

Unit 1 | The Death Principle

Everything ends. We know this abstractly but tend to brush it under the carpet in our day-to-day lives. However, ignoring impermanence means that we miss out on a greater freedom: the freedom to live with ease and face endings big and small with equanimity. In this unit, Andrew shows us a healthier way of relating to our time-bound lives.

Unit 2 | The Importance of View

How we look at the world changes what we see. "View" is the starting place and it is a strong determinant of our success. Here, Andrew describes useful viewpoints for understanding life and death. We'll see that how we live affects our experience of the bardos after death.

Unit 3 | The Three Bodies

What is it that continues after we die? Andrew explains the Tibetan Buddhist teaching on the three bodies. These are increasingly subtle manifestations that can cause us varying degrees of suffering should we cling to them. Fortunately, as our experience and acceptance of impermanence deepen, we cling less and less.

Unit 4 | Transcending Fear

Fear is perhaps the central obstacle on the spiritual path. We fear endings. We fear death. Counter-intuitively, we need to understand and befriend fear if we are to transcend it. Andrew helps us to understand the origins of fear and how to keep it close to us so that we can learn and benefit from it, without being ruled by it.

Unit 5 | The Death of Death: Emptiness

The true release of fear and suffering is to realize first-hand that there is no-one who suffers, no-one who dies. Understanding these teachings at the deepest level brings a radical openness and connectedness that leaves us at peace with whatever happens. In meditation, Andrew points the way towards an awareness that can rely on itself instead of any external form.

Unit 6 | Voluntary Rebirth

The bardo teachings are not just about death, they are equally about birth. Endings always lead to a beginning. The knowledge and experiential understanding we have accumulated so far gives us an opportunity to shape our futures with wisdom and compassion. We'll learn powerful techniques that prepare us for death, understand more about who and what we are, and what awaits us after the end.