Bardo Café

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21/08/2026

:
Hot to not.
Now to was.
Crema gleams,
then leaves because—

the bitter bit
is gripping what’s slipping.

But the drift makes space:
no fade, no bloom.
No change, no strange new beautiful.

Sip and let slip.
Wake and ride the pour.

~ The Bardo Bard

📷: Santiago Tomas Nogueras

10/08/2026

Fellow Bardo Beings,

Life is rarely built in the grand cinematic moments.
It is assembled in the tiny repetitions.
The thought rehearsed again.
The message sent in anger.
The pause before speaking.
The resentment watered.
The forgiveness practised.
The thing we reach for when something aches.

Repeat a reaction and it becomes a habit.
Repeat a habit and it becomes a tendency.
Repeat a tendency long enough and—presto—you start calling it me.
Cause and effect isn’t cosmic punishment.

It’s simply this:
What we cultivate, grows.
What we practise, we become practised at.

Which leaves one rather inconvenient question:
What are you practising all day long?

This September, Ben Isbel will guide a two-day exploration of the contemplations traditionally known as the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind—alongside refuge, bodhicitta, meditation, and the curious business of becoming an actual spiritual practitioner.

A map for checking whether the road beneath your feet is taking you where your heart intended.

Because one can walk very enthusiastically in entirely the wrong direction.

°⌘•°⋆⋅∞︎︎⋅⋆°•⌘°

࿇ BECOMING A SPIRITUAL PRACTITIONER ࿇
🗓 5–6 September 2026
🕰 9:00 am–4:30 pm AEST
📍 Lapis, Mullumbimby, NSW
🌐 Or online via Zoom
🎟️ $150 AUD
👨🏻‍🚀 Facilitator: Ben Isbel

No previous Buddhist or meditation experience required.

Come inspect the map.

Maybe turn the mind.

Maybe change the road.

࿌ For more info and to register, check the link in bio ࿌

~ The Bardo Bard

08/08/2026

:
Nothing stays
In this blazing play.
What’s come is gone.
But when a wakeful gaze
Doesn’t stray,
The Great Eastern Sun
Dawns on and on.

Stay Wakeful
~ The Bardo Bard

📷 : Santiago Tomas Nogueras
🖋️: Shankara Kunga

30/07/2026

The trouble is, we think we have time.

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We know everything changes, yet we keep waiting for life to settle down before we begin paying attention.

It will not settle down.

The tea cools. The body ages. Another week disappears.

Impermanence is not bad news. It is what makes transformation possible. Our habits are not solid. Our confusion is not permanent. This life matters because it does not last.

This September, Ben Isbel will guide a two-day exploration of The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind to Dharma—precious human life, death and impermanence, the patterns that perpetuate dissatisfaction, and cause and effect.

This is not about collecting spiritual ideas.
It is about waking up while there is still time.

Becoming a Spiritual Practitioner
5–6 September 2026
9:00 am–4:30 pm AEST
Lapis, Mullumbimby, NSW + online

No previous experience required.

Link in bio for more info and to register

°✧•°⋆⋅༗⋅⋆°•✧°

From the café where the moment pours itself,
The Bardoristas

26/07/2026

: You know,

change has no handrail,
no timetable,
no respect for your carefully folded plans.
So plunge into the shimmering commotion,
move with the marvelous mess,
and let impermanence whirl you awake.

~ The Bardo Bard

25/07/2026

The small Bardo Café shop of shifting things: wakeful wares, melty merch, bardo ephemera.

Shirts that remind us to mind the gap, tote bags that beckon us to hold space, notebooks for notching the Wow of Now...

Not simply possessions—provocations: pocket-portals, reminder-relics for the roaming mind.

Carry them lightly as you wander this wobbly world of anicca (everything flickers), anatta (no solid owner), dukkha (the sweet-sour ache of it all).

Little signals saying: look… listen… loosen.

࿇ You may take a gander and buy from our website and shop!
It‘ll support our vision of bringing just a few buddhafully transformative brews to you!

https://www.thebardocafe.com/wakefulwares

14/07/2026

Bardo Café joyfully presents ‚Becoming a Spiritual Practitioner‘ with Ben Isbel on 5th & 6th of September 2026🪷✨

We know, intellectually, that everything changes. We have watched seasons turn, relationships shift, bodies age, plans collapse, and carefully arranged lives wander off-script. Yet somewhere beneath all that evidence, we continue to conceptualize and concretize our lives, behaving as though the furniture of our world has been bolted to the floor😉

Impermanence is also what makes change possible.

The weekend will explore a series of contemplations designed to bring us into a more direct and honest
relationship with our lives. Together, we will examine the opportunity we have right now to move toward greater freedom; the reality of death and impermanence;
the habitual and often uncontrolled patterns that keep dissatisfaction turning; and the role of cause and effect in shaping who we become.

The purpose is not to collect more spiritual information or decorate the mind with impressive ideas. It is to let
these reflections touch something real—to discover whether they can loosen our assumptions, clarify our priorities, and awaken a genuine wish to be free from dukkha, the dissatisfaction and suffering woven through ordinary experience.

From that foundation, Ben will introduce refuge and bodhicitta—the mind of enlightenment, rooted in the wish
for freedom and compassion for ourselves and others.

No previous experience with Buddhism or meditation is needed. You only need some curiosity about your own life—and perhaps the suspicion that it is too fleeting and extraordinary to keep postponing.

Dates: Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September 2026

Time: 9:00 am–4:30 pm AEST each day

Location: Lapis, Mullumbimby, NSW & Online

Facilitator: Ben Isbel

For more information and to register click here:

https://events.humanitix.com/becoming-a-spiritual-practioner

Much Love from us 💙

18/06/2026

Happy Birthday to our guiding light, fearless leader, and inspiration!!

As Rinpoche reminds us in *Living Is Dying*: “It is because everything is impermanent that we can change our lives for the better. But before any improvements can be made, we must first understand and accept the impermanent nature of phenomena.”

Because of your guidance, wisdom, and blessings, this little ephemeral place called Bardo Café has been able to appear at all — a brief, shimmering gathering in the great flow of change, offered with the wish to benefit beings.

With deep gratitude and devotion, we pray that you live long, that your activities flourish without obstacle, and that your wisdom continues to spread in all directions for the benefit of all.

03/06/2026

Entering Basic Goodness weekend🌟

Once again we had an awesome time at this weekend course..seeing the value of caring for our own mind..

We practiced and learned about Vipassana (insight meditation), opening the possibility to lasting happiness. .isbel Thank you for your clear, direct and relaxed teaching style!!

We are looking forward to next time!

PS: If you would like to support Bardo Cafe’s activities check out the ‘Wakeful Ware’ on our new website. You won’t be disappointed😉 Items are available to order online!

www.thebardocafe.com

31/05/2026

༓ THE DOORS HAVE SWUNG OPEN ༓
and somewhere in the digital fog, a little purple train has pulled into the station with coffee in its veins and stars in its pockets.

Bardonauts, the new Bardo Café website is live!

www.thebardocafe.com

We’re opening the doors today on Sangye & Nyangde Düchen — the Great Day of Awakening & Letting Go — a day that remembers the Buddha’s enlightenment and passing beyond clinging. So this little launch arrives not just as a website, but as an offering: may it be useful, may it gather goodness, may it help a few wandering hearts remember the gap beneath the noise.

Inside the café you’ll find:
༒ workshops for curious minds and wandering nervous systems
༒ a book club for slow readers, soft listeners, and philosophical loiterers
༒ interviews with teachers, wanderers, wisdom-weavers, and fellow gap-gazers
༒ wakeful wares: shirts, totes, notebooks, and other small relics for remembering the obvious miracle
༒ a place to connect, subscribe, and stay tuned as the kettle begins its next cosmic burble

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And truly—if you choose to pick up something from the new site, please know how much we appreciate it. Your support helps keep the kettle singing, the pixels shimmering, and this strange little café available for the community we’re so grateful to gather with.

So come poke around. Open a few doors. Click the glowing buttons. Let the strange little café pour you something warm from the great ungraspable thermos of Now.

°✧•°⋆⋅༗⋅⋆°•✧°

From the café where the moment pours itself,
The Bardoristas

P.S.
Much thanks to for making building this website!

Address

Mullumbimby, NSW
2482

Website

http://www.thebardocafe.com/

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