How We Live Is How We Die

In this sage treatise, Buddhist nun Chödrön (Welcoming the Unwelcome) muses philosophically on life transitions. She suggests that “life is a bardo”—the Buddhist concept that describes the liminal state between death and rebirth—marked by continual change, and that accepting this constant transition is the path to spiritual enlightenment. Chödrön challenges the dualistic notion that bardos are either real places or metaphors for psychological experiences, instead positing they lie somewhere in between. She notes that the “end of one experience is the beginning of the next experience,” and urges readers to embrace this flow by confronting one’s emotions and accepting negative events as an inevitable part of life. Meditation is key to becoming attuned to the flow of consciousness, Chödrön contends, because it exposes the transience of one’s thoughts and feelings. “To be fully intimate with life, I feel we have to be fully intimate with death,” she writes, encouraging readers to “develop the capacity to stay in... uncomfortable, edgy places of uncertainty” so that one might someday approach death with grace rather than panic. Chödrön’s straightforward prose grounds the thoughtful examination of what the bardo can teach readers about meeting suffering with kindness and compassion. This wise volume shines. (Oct.)