Detached & Devoted: Radiance Sutras Verse 98

During this session, we discuss Verse 98 of the Yukti Verses from the 'Radiance Sutras', a translation of the Vijanana Bhairava Tantra by Lorin Loche. A meditation follows our discussion.

These sessions are recorded on a weekly basis and all are welcome.

Transcript

Today we are reading from the Radiant Sutras and this is a interpretation translation of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra which is one of the most important texts of Kashmir Shaivism which is a beautiful tantric school of thought.

And Lauren takes the Sanskrit which can be a little bit tough to grasp and he puts it in beautiful poetic language so that our hearts can hear it.

So what we're going to do today is we're going to read number 98 because I know some of you guys have the book and then we're going to have a discussion about it.

And if we have time we'll do a meditation.

I'm not sure we're going to have time today but that's okay.

I love this one that's why I was a little late for class because I was so deep into studying it I was like ah I'm running out of time.

All right you guys ready?

So let's close our eyes and let's breathe deeply.

Just release all the thoughts we were just having.

Anything going on in life.

And let's just allow ourselves to drop into that eternal center in our heart.

That quiet space.

Let's listen from that place.

Be wildly devoted to someone or something.

Cherish every perception.

At the same time forget about control.

Allow the beloved to be herself and to change.

Passion and compassion.

Holding and letting go.

This ache in your heart is holy.

Accept it as the rise of intimacy with life's secret ways.

Devotion is the divine streaming through you from that place in you before time.

Love's energy flows through your body toward a body and into eternity again.

Surrender to this current of devotion and become one with the body of love.

What rolls through your mind when you hear that?

Anything at all.

An emotion,

A thought,

A word or a phrase that got stuck inside your mind.

Become one with the body of love.

The current of devotion is fascinating.

I will read it again but I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through it a little slower.

Freedom,

Love,

Bliss.

Love beyond conditions or thoughts.

There is nothing more beautiful.

We can release expectation with others and watch them grow.

That brought tears to my eyes.

It resonates so much with this new situation with my mom.

One love carrying through time.

Diving in.

Ah,

A big sigh of contentment.

I am loving the part about letting go of control and allowing others to be themselves and change.

Releasing control brings to mind the discussion of change we just had.

I didn't even plan that.

The universe is amazing.

Devotion is the divine streaming through you.

Feeling and trusting love's energy.

Ultimate path to surrender.

I'm going to read them one stanza at a time.

It's the third time in a separate context that growing into newness is the Aquarian Age.

It is happening now.

So here's the first part.

Be wildly devoted to someone or something.

Cherish every perception at the same time.

Forget about control.

Allow the beloved to be herself and to change.

Isn't that something?

So the beloved,

Anything that you choose to love,

Anyone you choose to love.

Imagine what it feels like.

Imagine,

Let's put it this way.

Let's imagine on the one hand,

Imagine loving someone,

But you require them to be a certain way.

Or you require them to never change because you are dependent on them staying in this way.

So feel what that feels like in your heart center.

You love this person.

You love this thing.

You love this situation,

Whatever it is.

But it has to stay the same.

I need it to stay the same.

I need it to act a certain way.

And now imagine loving them,

It,

For whatever it is.

High,

Low,

Blue,

Green,

Fat,

Thin,

Tall,

Short,

Everything.

Imagine just looking at this other divine being and observing them incarnate here on earth.

Imagine observing them and knowing that they too,

Just like you,

Are this infinite being,

Trying to understand how their soul flows through this physical being,

Through this physical life.

You know that every person that we encounter is just like us,

Trying to match up our own infinite with our own finite.

Sometimes it looks good,

Sometimes it doesn't.

So now imagine this love inside of you,

Loving this person this way.

What does that feel like?

Wildly devoted.

It says someone or something makes me think of my art as creativity,

Now letting go of control so deep,

Totally.

It feels infinite.

Exactly.

So here's the next,

The next stanza.

Passion and compassion,

Holding and letting go.

This ache in your heart is holy.

Accept it as the rise of intimacy with life's secret ways.

Passion and compassion,

Holding and letting go.

That passion for something,

That passion for wanting something.

And there is a sense of wanting to hold.

I want this so much.

I love you so much.

And you can't help it,

Like as I use my hands and my hands want to grasp,

But I want that thing so much.

So that's passion.

And then you have compassion,

The ability to let go.

I have compassion for you.

I understand that you need to live your life,

Whatever that is,

However that looks,

With or without me,

Or whatever.

This ache in your heart is holy.

So this distance between the passion of wanting something and loving something so much,

And then the compassion of releasing it,

This distance between this.

Accept it as the rise of intimacy with life's secret ways.

What they're saying is this,

Is the juiciness of life.

Like this is the passion of being human and the infinite knowledge of being divine.

And this,

This tension between the two things,

This is the intimate ways of the true world.

I've been so impatient with the world lately.

I do have love for humanity,

But I'm just hurt when things feel hopeless in ways.

But this is challenging me to release more and just accept that it's love deep down.

Exactly.

Thank you.

It's right to feel strongly.

This is the human end of the spectrum.

We have this amazing breadth of human experience.

And what's really cool is the wider that continuum is,

The deeper you experience life.

So when you can fully feel passionate about something,

Fully feel passionate about this person,

This experience,

This situation,

Whatever it is,

And then on the other end of the spectrum,

You can fully release it in faith,

In understanding.

The wider that distance can be,

The deeper our human experiences.

If we're only on one end of the spectrum and we are completely obsessed with fury and passion and holding on and all that stuff,

Our experience of life and our depth of life is very,

Very small.

Similarly,

If we're way on the other end of the spectrum,

And I have completely detached everything in the world,

And I don't care about you,

And I don't care about politics,

And I don't care about the world,

And I don't care about that dog.

I don't care about,

You know,

I don't care.

I am above that.

I am a guru.

I'm ready to ascend.

Their experience of life is very,

Very,

Very limited.

This is not a deep experience of life.

So now imagine you can do it all.

What would it take in your inner understanding,

In your inner philosophy,

To be able to stretch that continuum all the time,

Love more,

Release more,

Care more,

Release more,

And just keep expanding and expanding?

This is the tantric journey.

We aren't meant to not care.

We aren't meant to not be concerned.

And we are meant to understand something else.

Okay,

I'm going to go on to the final point.

Devotion is the divine streaming through you from that place in you before time.

Love's energy flows through your body,

Toward a body,

And into eternity again.

Surrender to this current of devotion and become one with the body of love.

Devotion is the divine streaming through you from that place in you before time.

Love's energy flows through your body,

Toward a body,

And into eternity again.

Surrender to this current of devotion and become one with the body of love.

Makes me think of the necessity of polarizing forces to bring the tension and expansion that ultimately brings us to our center,

Which is why I love Kundalini Yoga so much.

So,

This is the interpretation of Lauren Roche's poetic version of the Sanskrit.

But I'd like to take us on a little bit of a journey into the original Sanskrit,

Which is very different and yet brings us full circle back to what Lauren's done here.

Okay,

So the original Sanskrit,

To understand that Lauren's,

What we just read,

Is his mystical poetic interpretation of something beautiful,

So that our hearts can hear it.

This is the actual translation of the Sanskrit,

And I will explain it.

The sort of intuition,

Mati,

That emerges through the intensity of devotion in one who is perfectly detached is known as the Shakti of Shankara.

One should contemplate on it perpetually,

Then he becomes Shiva himself.

This is the original Sanskrit,

And I promise we will circle back to the original that we read.

Okay,

So I'm just going to reread this translation.

The sort of intuition,

Mati,

That emerges through the intensity of devotion in one who is perfectly detached is known as the Shakti of Shankara.

One should contemplate on it perpetually,

Then he becomes Shiva himself.

It feels less radiant to hear it like that,

I know,

But it's very interesting.

Oh,

You know what,

I want to read you another translation,

Because that translation's kind of hard and less radiant.

Here's another translation.

The intuition which emerges from intense devotion of one who is perfectly detached is known as the Shakti of Shankara.

By contemplating regularly on that Shakti,

Shiva is revealed there.

So this sutra is all about the connection between loving devotion and intuition,

Which is interesting.

And it's a really interesting thing,

Too,

Because we often say,

I want to be more intuitive.

How do I develop my intuition?

And what's interesting is,

In this sutra,

They're saying you actually develop intuition through loving devotion.

The first step of truly experiencing loving devotion is non-attachment.

Otherwise,

It's not actually love.

It's something else.

It's a need for something to satisfy us.

It's a need for someone else to make us feel safe,

To make us feel loved,

To keep us company.

That's not actually love.

It's something.

It's some kind of connection,

But it's not love.

Love just pours out of us into another human without attachment.

And this is a very interesting thing to practice in our day-to-day life.

And that's why they say you want to practice this by contemplating regularly on that Shakti.

Shiva is revealed there.

We can practice this focused on others.

We can practice loving other people without attachment.

So why would we do that?

What does this have to do with the Tantric journey?

Well,

The goal is actually developing a love of God.

And if that word is loaded for you,

Just replace it with consciousness,

Divine essence,

Spirit,

Whatever the word is right for you.

But Tantra is all about that connection to God,

To whatever you call it.

But that's hard.

It's hard to just release ourselves to God.

That's not an easy thing.

It's easy to say,

But it's not easy to do.

And one of the reasons is that we have attachment to what we perceive God having done for us or not having done for us.

Like,

It's kind of like that,

Well,

How can I love God when all these horrible things have happened to me?

We've personified God.

And I can't begin to describe what this is either.

Describing Bhairava,

God,

Brahman,

Whatever you want to call it,

Whatever you want to name it,

It isn't within our descriptive abilities.

So I can't actually describe it anyway.

It's something you feel.

And so it's not easy to just simply release and love this life,

Love God,

Love our divine,

Our divinity without attachment.

Like that is not an easy thing to do.

So we practice it with people.

We practice it with our art.

We practice it with everything around us.

Can I pour my love into everything around me without attachment and live this way?

When we can do that,

Just imagine how much easier we can hear our intuition.

Or if instead,

Imagine the contrast that I look around the world and I'm like,

Well,

I don't like that.

And I do like that.

I don't like that.

I wish you would stop doing that.

And this,

And this,

And this,

And this.

And then you start asking for guidance.

How easy is it going to be to hear guidance?

When we have so much attached to how the world should be,

Or how this relationship should be,

Or how this should be,

Or how my art should be,

Or however,

We aren't even going to be able to hear the guidance because it won't be in with our expectations.

It won't be in line with our attachments.

And if it isn't in line with our attachments,

We'll accept it.

And we're like,

Oh no,

I totally followed my intuition on that.

It's like,

No,

You just followed it because it was already in line with what you needed.

But what if your intuition was saying something else?

That's where then we become challenged to look at why can't I follow this intuition?

Why can't I let this person just be the way they are?

Why?

And this is our journey.

This is our journey of,

Of releasing that.

Let's take a romantic relationship.

If you can actually love another person without attachment to how they are,

And don't get me wrong,

I'm not talking about staying in a relationship that's loveless or empty or abusive or boring or whatever.

Like if,

If I don't believe in relationships till death do you part anymore,

I believe we're meant to be together for our journeys,

Whatever that looks like.

And we change and grow and why not change and grow with whoever is right for you in that moment.

So I'm not talking about staying in a relationship forever.

I'm talking about you're in a relationship.

It's juicy and interesting.

Can you let this other person be their full self and just let your love pour into them?

And now imagine something is a muck.

And you're not sure what to do next.

You're not sure how to find the words to bridge back together.

And you close your eyes and you ask for guidance.

It's so much easier to follow your guidance when you don't have attachment as to what it has to look like in the end.

You know that,

But if I say that,

What if they get pissed off and leave?

But if I say that,

What if they don't love me anymore?

Well,

Then they don't,

Or they do,

Or whatever.

So all of a sudden,

If we're worried about what other people are going to,

How other people are going to respond,

Or that kind of thing,

Well,

We won't listen to our intuition and we'll block it.

So this is our practice in our day-to-day life.

But what this sutra is actually pointing to is having that kind of relationship with God,

With the universe.

So they talk about how there's different levels of perception as a human being.

So let's first assume that we want to have this beautiful intuition and have it guide us through life.

Inside of us,

Our first basic level of perception is our instinct.

This is built into us.

It's connected to our senses.

We learn by instinct without our brain.

You know,

Oh,

That's hot,

I'm not going to touch that.

Oh,

They're scary.

Oh,

That dog bites.

Oh,

That doesn't feel right to me.

This is instinct.

It's very much in the body.

The next level of perception is intelligence,

Where we've learned things,

We understand things,

And we perceive things through this understanding of the world.

This is kind of our brain,

Kind of knowing how to drive a car and knowing how to speak Spanish or whatever.

The next level is the intellect.

And the intellect is different than the intelligence,

Because intellect in Tantra,

They call it buddhi,

B-U-D-D-H-I.

And this is discernment.

So this is beyond intellectual or this is beyond intelligence and understanding.

This is actually when you rise above that even,

And you discern things and you realize,

I see.

Oh,

You know,

And it's a higher level of understanding.

It's more subtle.

It's not based on information.

It's not based on knowledge.

It's based on something else where you can kind of see the truth.

Someone's talking to you.

And they're telling you a story and nothing they're saying is sounding right.

That's the intellect going.

Are you sure this is really what you want?

Well,

I don't know.

You know,

The intellect can kind of hear other things.

It's a more subtle perception.

Beyond intellect is intuition.

This is where you have now access to the subtle realms,

The infinite realms,

That this is not based on information.

This is not based in discernment.

This is not based on instinct or the senses or anything like that.

This is now you just know things.

Why would you do that?

I don't know.

It's just what I was meant to do.

And it's when you suddenly know things about what's going to happen,

Or you know the truth about situations that you have no reason to know the truth of,

Or that you understand things that you have no reason to understand.

You've never learned it.

You've never been there.

This is intuition.

How do we access intuition?

We must rid ourselves of all these attachments.

And I'm not saying don't love people.

I'm not saying don't love or want to do things.

I'm saying releasing the attachment to outcome so that we can actually release ourselves out of instinct,

Move up into intelligence,

Move up into intellect,

And then listen above.

This higher level of intuition,

Like living in that space,

Is called Shankara.

And they say that you can develop this intuition through devotion to a person.

This is the essence of bhakti yoga.

This is the essence of that.

It's through devotion you develop this intuition.

So now let's read the translation,

The literal translation.

That intuition,

Which emerges from the intense devotion of the one who is perfectly detached,

Is known as the Shakti of Shankara.

By contemplating regularly on that,

Shiva is revealed there.

When we are fully detached and we can allow love to flow through us without any attachment,

An intuition rises within us and we become one with that higher realm.

And therefore we become one with Shiva.

We become one with God.

Isn't that beautiful?

So let's close our eyes for a moment because I would love to just explore this just a little bit inside.

So let's close our eyes.

Let's just take some deep breaths,

Expanding the belly as we inhale,

Contracting as we exhale.

And in your mind's eye,

I would love for you to see yourself sitting cross-legged on the floor.

And in your mind's eye,

You're comfortable sitting.

And someone who you love unconditionally comes and sits before you.

This could be someone who you've known in your life or you know.

It could even be a hero of yours,

Someone you deeply respect.

But let them arrive in front of you,

Also sitting.

And in your mind's eye,

Your eyes are open,

Gazing at this other person.

And feel the breath flowing through your body.

Notice the breath moving through theirs.

And then feel a channel of love coming through your crown chakra from the heavens,

Down into your heart,

And out into this other person.

Feel this love going into them and then flowing out of them into eternity.

And envision this beautiful light flowing from the heavens through you,

Through your heart,

Filling this other person.

Seeing them smile.

Feeling your whole being smiling.

Feeling light.

Feeling this energy flowing through you.

Be wildly devoted to someone or something.

Cherish every perception.

At the same time,

Forget about control.

Allow the beloved to be herself and to change.

Passion and compassion.

Holding and letting go.

This ache in your heart is holy.

Accept it as the rise of intimacy with life's secret ways.

Devotion is the divine streaming through you from that place in you before time.

Love's energy flows through your body,

Toward a body,

And into eternity again.

Surrender to this current of devotion and become one with the body of love.

Let's just breathe together,

Allowing that love to flow through us.

And slowly coming back.

Thank you so much for being here.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Reviews

I love this tantric wisdom so much. My devotion to my son came up as well as my devotion to my deceased mom. Lettting go of attachment, control is so key when it comes to love. Accepting the changes, and they always are. The ways of life. I went to a dance show last night, Valentines night. Some duet dances were scripted, controlled. Others were improvised. The improvised ones felt like watching, experiencing life, watching devotion happening. So much for me to learn. Thank you for doing this with us, sharing the tantric.