Julian of Norwich and Other Tibetan Lamas

After this the over part of my body began to die, so farforth that unneth I had any feeling. My most paine was shortnes of winde and failing of life. Then wened I sothly to have passed. And sodenly all my paine was taken from me and I was as hole, and namely in the over parte of my body, as ever I was before. I merveyled of this sodeyn change, for methought that it was prevy working of God, and not of kind. And yet by the feeling of this ease I trusted never the more to have lived, ne the feeling of this ease I trusted never the more to have lived, ne the feeling of this ease was no full ease to me. For me thought I had lever have ben delivered of this world, for my hart was wilfully set therto. ₁

Here Julian describes the dying of the upper part of her body, the very part of her body that she would seem to have wanted to make more open and available for meditation on God when she asked to be “set upright.” The experience is both numbing, causing a scarcity of feeling, and painful, stemming from the struggle to breathe and the process of dying itself. Editors Edmund Colledge and James Walsh capture well the moment and the anchorite’s report of it:

[T]here is a clinical exactness in Julian’s recollection … At the end of the third night of her sickness, she had lost all sensation from the waist downwards. Her sight began to fail, she lost all feeling in the upper part of her body, and now she experiences difficulty in breathing, and a conviction that her life is ebbing. ₂

After describing the grave and seemingly mortal character of her cascading decline, Julian then writes that all her pain was taken from her and that she was as “whole,” especially in the upper part of her body, as she had ever been before. And while there may be no noticeable textual space between “Then wened I sothly to have passed” and “And sodenly all my paine was taken from me …,” a space of consequence is indeed present. It is like the almost imperceptible space between inhalation and exhalation, as the body quite automatically draws in a breath to a particular point and then quite naturally releases it – thousands and thousands of times each day. For Julian, it is the space between dying and resuming the journey of living, and it is quite disorienting for her. Indeed, while acknowledging that dying and pain have given way suddenly to a substantial degree of wholeness and ease, she is not ready to trust the change. And, as marvelous as this turn of events is, Julian acknowledges she also grieves it, for she would rather have been “delivred of this world” – that is what her heart had come to be “set” on. And yet, while she discerns and names her sense of loss, Julian also senses the presence of the divine in the change and the sacred in the space that has opened up: “I merveyled of this sodeyn change, for methought that it was prevy working of God, and not of kind.” ₃

The space that emerges without warning between “wened I sothly to have passed” and “And sodenly” is indeed an “in-between” or liminal space. In Chapter Two of her A Revelation, Julian had prayed for a sickness that would bring her, with all the accompanying physical and spiritual pain, to the point of death. She prayed to die without dying, as TM observed, and now that experience is upon her. And as a consequence of this, she encounters a space that opens up the capacity for more expansive vision.

In Tibetan Buddhism, the period immediately following death is called the “bardo,” an intermediate state. Indeed, the actual title of the book which is known in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead is Bardo Thodol, which can be rendered in English as Liberation in the Intermediate State through Hearing. ₄ And it is in this “in-between” space that the drama of death and rebirth, with its many possibilities, both blissful and tragic, unfolds. It has been described as “momentous … rich with many vivid experiences and offering crucial opportunities for determining one’s future existence.” ₅ Scholar David Germano introduces the notion of the bardo and its role in Tantric Buddhism in a manner which offers a helpful perspective on the in-between state to which Julian’s text points – and the visionary experiences she will soon begin to report:

The history of the notion of an ‘intermediate state’ … a prolonged postmortem intermediary period between life and rebirth, has ancient roots in Indian Buddhism … The rise of tantrism in India encouraged renewed attention to the intermediate state, given tantra’s overall focus on liminal states, death and inversion. Thus tantric groups began to articulate contemplative techniques mimicking the process of dying, death, and rebirth so as not only to prepare themselves for the opportunities that actual death offered, but also to take advantage of these opportunities in the ritual re-creation of dying and death within life itself, to see the other side of life, and hence life itself, more clearly. ₆   

Endnotes

1. Julian of Norwich, The Writings of Julian of Norwich, Eds, Nicholas Watson and Jacqueline Jenkins. University Park, The Pennsylvania State University Press, Chapter 3, lines 28-35, page 133.
2. A Book of Showings of the Anchoress Julian of Norwich. Part Two: The Long Text, Appendix, Bibliography, Glossary, Index. Edited by Edmund Colledge, O.S.A and James Walsh, S.J. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1978, page 291.
3. As editors Nicholas Watson and Jacqueline Jenkins note, regarding Julian’s use of the word “sodenly” – and by implication “sodeyn” – to describe the “change,” it is a “recurrent word in this part of the work, suggesting direct intervention by God.” (Julian of Norwich, The Writings of Julian of Norwich, Eds, Nicholas Watson and Jacqueline Jenkins. University Park, The Pennsylvania State University Press, page 132.
4. Donald S. Lopez, The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Biography. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011, page 2.
5. Tulku Thondup, Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth: A Tibetan Buddhist Guidebook. Edited by Harold Talbot. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006, page 5. Tulku Thondup worked closely with Harold Talbott, and of him he writes: “Harold Talbott was born into a highly respected old family from New York and Pennsylvania, in the land of freedom and opportunity – America. He has fulfilled his unique lifelong mission of serving spiritual causes selflessly. Harold has been instrumental in preserving Tibetan Buddhism abroad at a crucial time in its life and in welcoming it into the culture of American society. He has been a great patron of Buddhadharma and a beloved friend to many Tibetan Buddhists and Buddhist communities, both in India and in the West. All the publications that Harold and I have produced in English are the fruits of his unstinting support and erudite editing.” (“Preface,” Harold Talbott, Tendrel: A Memoir of New York and the Buddhist Himalayas. Marion, Massachusetts: Buddhayana Foundation, 2019, page ix).
6. (Emphasis mine.) David F. Germano, “Dying, Death and Other Opportunities.” In Religions of Tibet in Practice. Editor Donald Lopez. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1997, page 459. Regarding “tantra,” Thupten Jinpa writes: “Literally, ‘continuum,” tantra refers to a highly advanced system of thought and meditative practice wherein the very aspects of the resultant states of Buddhahood are brought into the path right from the start. Unlike the practices of general Mahayana, the engagement in the mediative practices of tantra requires prior initiation into the teachings. The term tantra can also refer to the literature or tantric texts that expound these systems of thought and practice. Often the term is used as a shorthand for Tantrayana, the ‘vehicle of tantra,’ or Vajrayana, the Diamond Vehicle …” (“Glossary,” The Book of Kadam: The Core Texts. Attributed to Atisa and Dromtönpa. Translated by Thupten Jinpa. Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 2008, pages 675).