A four-module course with Andrew Holecek on the most famous guide to dying ever written, and what it can teach us about how to live.
4 modules · 2 meditations · 3 bonus talks · start any time
The Bardo Thödol, “liberation through hearing in the intermediate state,” is read aloud to the dying and the dead in Tibet. In the West it became known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and it has been a companion to seekers, psychologists and caregivers for a century.
It is, at heart, a meditation manual. It describes the bardos, the “intervals” that await us at the end of life, and it shows how practice now prepares us for them. Bardos are everywhere: every ending is a small death, and every small death is a chance to rehearse.
Death is something you can practice now. Its other name is letting go.
Andrew “translates” this ancient masterpiece into contemporary terms, without flattening it, and shows its immediate application in modern life.
Work directly with the fear of dying through teaching and guided meditation, rather than avoiding it.
The three death bardos and the stages of dissolution: a “GPS” for a journey that otherwise feels bewildering.
Dream yoga and lucid dreaming as a nightly rehearsal, and the small bardos of everyday life as daily practice.
How to accompany friends, family and patients as they die, with steadiness and care.
The course follows the journey through the Book itself: from its history, through the bardo of dying and the luminous bardo of reality, to the bardo of becoming.
Who wrote the Book, who discovered it, and for whom was it composed? The central narratives that hold it together, the best translations and what is lost in them, and the “death principle” at its heart. Why meditation is “death in slow motion” that lets you die before you die.
The three death bardos, beginning with the painful bardo of dying. The five stages of outer dissolution and three of inner dissolution, the subtle anatomy of death, and how this map can help you, and those you love, when the time comes.
The luminous bardo of dharmatā, where the nature of mind is revealed without the buffer of the body. Why its light frightens us, the role of projection, and who the peaceful and wrathful deities really are.
The karmic bardo of becoming, where most of the 49 days are spent. Karma and habit, how dream yoga prepares us for “the dream at the end of time,” and how this bardo plays out in the end of a job, a relationship, or anything that ends.
Andrew Holecek completed the traditional three-year Buddhist meditation retreat and teaches internationally on meditation, dream yoga and the art of dying. He is the author of Preparing to Die, Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep, The Power and the Pain and Meditation in the iGeneration.
A member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, his work has appeared in Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Parabola and Buddhadharma. He holds degrees in classical music and biology and a doctorate in dental surgery: a scholar-practitioner in every sense.
A course of this depth would usually be priced at $147. We offer it by donation so that anyone who wants to study these teachings can. If you’re in a more fluid financial position, you help subsidize those who aren’t. No one is turned away for lack of funds.
Covers your place and helps fund a scholarship for someone who needs it.
A meaningful offering that honors the exchange and keeps these teachings open.
Pay what you can, from $1. Your participation is the offering.
You’ll enter your amount at checkout. Every offering receives the full course and all three bonuses.
No. Andrew teaches the text from the ground up and translates its vocabulary into contemporary terms. Longtime practitioners will find plenty of depth; newcomers will not be left behind.
You get immediate access to all four modules, the meditations, readings and bonuses. Watch at your own pace; there are no live sessions to attend and access does not expire.
Choose the amount that fits your situation at checkout. The tiers are a guide: larger offerings help fund scholarships, and no one is turned away for lack of funds. Everyone receives the same course.
The Book was written as a guide for dying, but it is equally a guide for living. Its teachings apply to anything that ends: a relationship, a job, a stage of life, even each night’s sleep.
Yes. Module 2 in particular gives a detailed account of the dying process, and the course includes practical guidance on being present with others as they die.
You’ll receive an email right away with your access details. If anything goes wrong, reply to that email and our team will help.
Die before you die.
Four modules. Three bardos. One lifetime to practice.
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