About this episode
For many of us, this past year has felt like an in-between state, as our usual routines and realities have been upended. Tricycle contributing editor and writer Ann Tashi Slater likens this suspension to the bardo journey, the transitional path between death and rebirth outlined in "The Tibetan Book of the Dead." Born in Andalusia, Spain to an American father and a Tibetan mother, Slater, who was raised in the US, is no stranger to navigating in-between spaces. In her writing, Slater explores themes of ancestral pilgrimage and the bardo journey, and her connection to the bardos has deepened in recent years through personal encounters with illness and loss. In today’s episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle editor-in-chief James Shaheen and co-host Sharon Salzberg sit down with Slater to discuss near-death experiences, end-of-life rituals, and what the living can learn from "The Tibetan Book of the Dead."