2022 | H140 X W140CM | SHIBORI INDIGO-DYED COTTON, BAMBOO, LEATHER

 

The secret of Zen is just two words: not always so.
—Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

The Tibetan term bardo, meaning “intermediate state, transitional process, or in between”, is not just a reference to the afterlife; it also refers more generally to these moments when gaps appear, interrupting the continuity that we otherwise project onto our lives. These ruptures are happening all the time to dismantle the conditional who-I-am-ness. Sogyal Rinpoche says, to live in the modern world is to live in what is clearly a bardo realm; you don’t have to die to experience one.