Dear FriendsIn this episode of Gateways to Awakening, Yasmeen Turayhi sits down with writer and teacher Ann Tashi Slater—a Tibetan-American author whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Paris Review, and more. Ann joins us from Tokyo to explore her new book, Traveling in Bardo: The Art of Living in an Impermanent World, a Next Big Idea Club “Must-Read,” and to unpack one of the most powerful spiritual frameworks for this moment in history: the bardo. Bardo, in Tibetan Buddhism, means “between state.” It can refer to the space between death and rebirth, but it also describes the in-between moments we all live through—career transitions, identity shifts, endings, new beginnings, illness, loss, and the quiet uncertainty of not knowing what comes next. Together, Yasmeen and Ann explore how accepting impermanence is not passive at all—it is the turning point that restores agency, clarity, and forward movement. Ann shares personal stories from her Tibetan family lineage in Darjeeling, including the fascinating ancestral connection between her great-grandfather and the early Western translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. “Acceptance is not giving up. Acceptance is the moment where we stop fighting reality and finally regain the ability to move forward.” - Ann Tashi SlaterIn this episode, we explore:1. What bardo actually means, and why it is not only about death but also about everyday life transitions.2. Why the only real certainty is change, and how accepting that can reduce anxiety rather than increase it.3. How “acceptance” creates calm because it helps the mind stop fighting reality and start seeing options clearly.4. A powerful Buddhist framing of agency: action of body, speech, and mind, including the choice to take no action.5. How victim narratives can subtly remove our power, and how the bardo teachings help bring responsibility back in a grounding way.6. Why karma means action, not fate, and how small daily choices create “forks in the road” over time.7. How to “practice impermanence” through everyday endings—the end of a day, a season, a trip, a conversation—so you are more resilient when bigger transitions arrive.Ann Tashi Slater’s book is Traveling in Bardo: The Art of Living in an Impermanent World, and you can learn more at anntashislater.com.If this episode resonated, please share it with someone who is navigating a transition, facing uncertainty, or standing in the in-between—and needs language for how to move through it with more clarity, grace, and power.Tune in to Gateways to Awakening for more conversations with leading thinkers, creators, and spiritual pioneers shaping the future of consciousness. For more from me: follow my writing on Substack (substack.com/@therealyasmeent), find me on Instagram @TheRealYasmeenT, or visit InnerKnowingSchool.com.
