what is the bardo?

(in Tibetan Buddhism) a state of existence between death and rebirth, varying in length according to a person's conduct in life and manner of, or age at, death. - Oxford Dictionary

I had begun reading Pema Chodran’s book, How We Live Is How We Die, last winter. It describes this beautiful and sacred space of limbo between death and rebirth.

In the year before, I read Lincoln In The Bardo, by George Saunders, which tells the story of Lincoln from the point of view - in a way - from the ghost of his son, after his death, as well as other ghosts in a cemetery.

Most recently, I read Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett, which also tells a story of life, love, and death, told from the voices of ghosts in the cemetary.

Why, how, are we in the Bardo now?

This is hard to explain. I feel like my mom has died and is in this strange precipice between a forever death - of body and soul - and rebirth into a new life, new form. This limbo, for her though, is full of pain and insecurity, fear, and isolation. I know that there is a world wherein she is reborn and can become free. What I don’t know of course, is if she will find her way there - through the cemetery, through the anguish, shame, fear. Like so many wise souls who came before her, she has to stand with her darkness, her greatest fears, and know peace - like the Buddha and the demons of Mara. Can she? Will she? Where is she now?