Drenched In Freedom: Radiance Sutras Verse 23

During this session, we discuss Verse 22 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're reading Sutra number 23.

If you have the book.

If you don't have the book that's totally cool.

If you ever want the book in the land of daily practices that you can just open it up,

Read it and just contemplate it for the day.

Because to me that's how we actually become tantric.

It's a very gentle subtle shift as we live and then we just start to see the world really differently and we just experience everything differently.

So I'm going to read the Sutra today and then we'll have a discussion and then we'll do a meditation.

So let's all close our eyes and just breathe deeply and letting whatever thoughts are in our minds just let them float by like clouds on a sunny day.

Connect with a space inside around your heart center.

A stillness you know your divine self and let's listen from that place.

Forget all of your ideas about the body.

It's this way or it's that way.

Just be with any area of it.

This present body as permeated with limitless space drenched in freedom.

What does that feel like to you or what words are floating in your mind right now?

Acceptance,

Breath,

Be with the parts of the body we don't like.

Trees and stars,

Growth,

Drenched in freedom,

Letting go of all constructs and ideas.

Limitless.

So interesting as the body seems to be our earthly limit.

I'm going to read another translation of it.

This is out of this book called the Sri Vijnana Bhairava Tantra,

The Ascent and it says,

If one concentrates on the body as void even for a moment even for a moment with the mind free from thought then one attains thoughtlessness and verily becomes that form of void.

If one concentrates on the body as a void even for a moment with the mind free from thought then one attains thoughtlessness and verily becomes that form of void.

You know what does that bring up for you or what do you how does that make you feel?

The vessel of the divine.

I'm always confused with the placement of our heart,

Not left corner or where we see our heart chakra.

The heart chakra,

The heart center,

Is the place where if I was to say to you,

Who are you?

And you were to say,

I am Debu.

And you would point at that place.

That's the heart center.

And it's interesting how significant that is.

If you moved your hand up an inch,

It's wrong.

If you moved it over to the right,

It's wrong.

If you moved it down an inch,

It's wrong.

There's a point where your hand automatically says,

This is me.

This is who I am.

That's your heart center.

And that's very significant.

They say that in the Hindu belief that this is Atman.

This is like the divine living within us.

This is our divine self living within this beautiful center.

So this is me,

Which is really interesting considering what this sutra is about.

That it's about contemplating the void and that Anahat,

The heart chakra,

Is considered,

Anahat means unstruck cord.

That it's actually emptiness,

Nothingness,

Shunya,

Void.

But to again,

Hear this not with our Western mind,

But with the mind that understands that shunya,

Zen,

Nothingness,

Isn't nothing.

It's everything.

It's infinity.

It's the whole existence.

It's all potential.

So if you imagine and we point at ourselves and we say,

I am,

This is who we really are.

We are using this beautiful body,

This miraculous creation to experience this world.

But this is who we are right here in that heart chakra.

We are divine essence living in this beautiful chakra,

This unstruck cord.

So do we become our thoughts?

Yes.

You know when we say that we are creative,

I'm a creative being,

Or if we even think of creation,

Every thought we have creates something.

Whether it's a response in our own body,

Which then has ripple effects,

Whether it's a choice.

You know,

William and I were talking about this.

So William's my dude,

Lover,

Partner.

You know,

I don't know what to call him exactly.

But we've had a million incredible and bizarre and amazing experiences over the last,

I don't know,

14 months.

And we were lying in bed one day and he said,

Can you imagine,

Because we met each other on Tinder.

And he says,

Can you imagine if I had swiped left?

None of this would be happening.

The last 14 months would not,

It wouldn't have happened.

This is how powerful our thoughts are.

And it can be as simple as choosing to go to the grocery store today.

And then you just happen to talk to someone who happens to go home and tell their someone something.

And you get something and you run into whatever.

Every choice we make literally creates our life.

Every response we have in a discussion slightly changes the fabric of the relationship.

Every choice we make,

Everything we choose to do everything we choose to do changes everything.

We don't understand how powerful we are,

Whether we stay or whether we go.

Last night,

We went to this ecstatic dance in Toronto.

We talked to all kinds of people.

And now Tim has decided he's going to come to the Tantra Festival.

Like 100 things happened on that trip.

And if we hadn't gone on the trip,

They wouldn't have happened.

And it all begins with a thought.

Because it's almost like we don't understand how changeable the world is.

We just every choice we make turns a dial.

Every single choice,

Fluid,

But it's us that directs it.

And sure,

There might be people around us who are powerful personalities,

Who may override us.

But then we always,

You know,

In the immortal words of Viktor Frankl,

We have choice,

And those choices create our existence.

It's funny,

I've scheduled a new talk for Insight Timer in a few weeks.

I don't know if it's up yet.

And it's about this life we create,

Like to actually see our life as art,

That we literally get to paint the picture every day.

Like every day,

It doesn't even matter how many responsibilities we have.

We still have choice.

This is resonating with a thought I had the other day.

I don't regret many of the things I've done.

I regret many of the things I didn't do.

It's always interesting when,

Well,

Let's say,

You know,

I remember when I got divorced.

I was married for 20 years.

And people would ask me,

Well,

Do you regret marrying Wayne?

I said,

Well,

No.

There's a million things that happened because we got married,

Not to mention children and just everything.

Like there was just so many things that happened because I married Wayne and moved to the farm and moved to this area.

And if I hadn't married him,

My life would have taken a completely different track.

Like it's so,

It's really fascinating when you think about how creative we really are.

And so then let's,

If we come back to this Sutra,

What's really interesting is when we consider our body.

So right now,

So they have a term called Vikalpa and basically it means thought construct.

So right now,

Consider your body and allow the thought constructs to come into your mind that you have about your body.

And they can be positive or negative.

They can be,

I like this,

I don't like that,

I have pain,

I'm proud of my body,

I'm happy and thankful.

It can be anything.

Like it's just a thought construct.

There's no judgment about thought constructs.

It's not,

Whether it's a good thought or a bad thought,

It makes no difference.

It's still a thought construct.

Every thought construct limits us in some way.

So just consider all the thought constructs you have about your body.

Then imagine letting all those go.

Just imagine like a wind came in and blew them through.

Just blew them right out.

And then consider your body as a void,

As the energy that it really is.

That every cell in our body is just whirling energy.

It's not good,

It's not bad.

And if you look at an atom,

They'll say like that 99% of it is what they call dark matter or nothingness.

Or we could call it shunya,

Void.

So this body that we are living in is the void,

The quantum field,

Infinite space,

With energy,

Charged particles,

Which we don't really understand.

We don't understand what electrons are.

All we know is that it's light,

Whatever light is.

So it's charged light,

Flying,

Orbiting.

And this creates this interesting illusion of physicality.

So when you really think about that,

And you imagine yourself as space or void,

This is science.

Not pseudoscience.

This is science.

This isn't even just quantum physics.

Under an electron microscope,

We are just space.

And so what this sutra says is if you can imagine yourself as void,

If you can enter the void that you are,

Even for a moment,

It will change you.

Just a moment.

I'm going to read this one again.

If one concentrates on the body as a void,

Even for a moment,

With the mind free from thought,

Then one attains thoughtlessness and verily becomes that form of void.

Can you imagine experiencing ourselves as void?

So yesterday,

We went to Toronto,

Which is about three hours from here,

And went to this ecstatic dance.

And it was so interesting.

One,

I got there and of course,

I've got a million wild and new things going on in my life right now that are really blowing my mind.

And as the dance began,

I realized I was so disembodied.

I was not in my body at all.

And even as I was dancing,

It was like my brain was moving my body.

And then I have all these other issues that because I'm a teacher at the festival,

And then all is not even people pleasing.

It's like I'm supposed to look a certain way,

I'm supposed to act a certain way.

I have all these shoulds.

Anyway,

So my head was like heavy in the game.

So I just closed my eyes.

And I forced myself to not move until I was in my body.

And I would move so slowly until my body was moving me.

Well,

The wild thing is,

The more I connected with my body,

It's like the more I experienced the void.

And all of a sudden,

My body started moving me.

And I was just flowing in it.

There were no thoughts,

There was no thought forms.

And then at one point,

They put this tribal song on.

And I don't even know who was dancing inside of me.

But I had no thought forms and it was very interesting as thoughts would come in,

I would have to let them go and let them go and let them go and let them go.

So it's an interesting idea that to experience the void doesn't mean leaving our bodies.

It doesn't mean getting into our heads or focusing on our seventh chakra.

We experience it in the body,

Because the body's a void.

The body isn't physical.

I mean,

It's appearing physical,

Whatever we I guess we imagine physical to be.

So just interesting that this isn't an intellectual concept.

This is actually feeling into our bodies and experiencing the void that they are.

I'm going to read you one other translation of it.

This is from a book called Vijnana Bhairava,

Or Divine Consciousness by Jai Dev Singh.

This guy's a little bit more wordy in his translation.

It's pretty thick.

If a yogi contemplates over his body,

Believed to be the limited empirical subject,

As void,

Even for a while,

With an attention freed of all thought constructs,

He becomes liberated from thought constructs and finally acquires the state of Bhairava,

Who is above all thought constructs.

And so they talk about,

In that translation,

They talk about how there's three different stages of this.

You know,

That first,

We simply imagine ourselves as void.

And that's a big deal to actually get our head around that.

Because as much as we may not like the thought constructs we have about our body,

Somehow we're more comfortable with thought constructs about our body and life and mind.

We're more comfortable with them,

Even if they're crappy,

Than the idea of just considering it a void.

That's very unnerving.

So that's a big deal to simply be able to contemplate our bodies as void.

And then the second step is when you're walking down the street,

And you're continuing to imagine it,

Not just doing it in meditation.

You're actually walking down the street and experiencing this magical void,

Perambulating down the street,

Walking into a store.

And you are this energy being who is 99% void,

Buying some carrots,

Which are also 99% void.

And then,

If you continue that,

The third stage is that you actually transcend all thought constructs.

You know that it's an illusion,

But you like it.

You enjoy it.

Just because maya means illusion,

Just because this world that we live in may be 99% void,

We get to be here.

Like we get to play here.

We get to have amazing experiences here.

We get to do wonderful things.

Just because it's mostly nothingness doesn't matter.

The key is the thought forms that we have about our body,

Which extends to our lives,

Are what limit us.

That's the only reason we want to get rid of the thought forms.

If I believe something about my body,

That limits me,

Because I'll make all my choices based on that.

But what if I have no thought forms?

There's no aspect of my body that's good or bad.

It just is what it is.

Well,

Then anything's possible.

Anything.

Let's say you've always wrestled with weight,

Or joint pain,

Or something like that.

And someone said,

Do you want to run a 5k with me?

Oh,

I could never do that.

I'm not a runner.

Oh,

I'm too heavy.

These are thought forms.

The reality is that person,

Regardless of body type,

Is just void.

Like any marathon runner,

Just void.

And what they could say is,

Huh,

Interesting.

This void that I live within is malleable.

Anything's possible.

And if the little spirit inside says,

Wow,

That would be,

I would enjoy that.

Then we make it happen.

We shift the body,

And we train,

And we do what we need to do.

And it just happens.

That's how creative we are.

It doesn't matter.

When we get rid of all those thought forms,

It's the same thing as,

Well,

I'll always look like this.

Or even like,

Oh,

Well,

I'm getting older,

And this is normal for the body.

These are thought forms.

It's not normal.

Thousands and thousands of people in the world live active lives,

And they move like 20-year-olds,

Late into their lives.

These are thought forms placed within us from the society we were raised in.

No matter whether we're 80 years old,

Or we're six years old,

We're still just quantum field walking around,

Creating with every thought,

With every movement.

So then we transcend all these thoughts,

And we live in the state of Bhairava,

Which is a state where oneness and duality meet,

And we feel bliss all the time.

That's the part of the name of this book,

The Vijnana,

Which means wisdom,

Bhairava Tantra.

This is the goal of this entire tantric text,

Is to experience this world,

Like in its reality.

And this isn't like a weird idea,

Because when we consider the body the void,

That's reality.

It's not flaky.

It's sober,

Sober mind.

Within tantric texts and yoga practice,

Bhairava Mudra is considered the ultimate mudra,

Where individual awareness is unified in the mind and body.

Both the inward and outward self are one.

I just started reading a book called Thought Forms yesterday.

It was published in the early 1900s originally.

They have illustrations of feelings that they call thought forms.

It inspired Kudinski and other artists and came from the spiritualist movement.

An intuitive would see the color and shape of a thought,

And then an artist would paint it as best they could.

Now let's do a meditation.

So we're going to do a meditation,

And then I will re-read the sutra in Sanskrit and then in English.

So let's sit nice and tall.

Let's close our eyes and really press your sit bones into the ground,

Into the chair,

Wherever you're sitting.

Press your lower back forward.

Let your shoulders drop.

Tuck your chin in a little bit,

Just enough to straighten the back of the neck.

Just breathe deeply.

Let's come into our body.

Where in your body do you feel something?

Maybe you feel pain or discomfort or heat.

Maybe you feel parts of your body touching each other if you're sitting cross-legged.

Allow all of your attention to go to that spot.

Breathe deeply into that space.

Then allow your attention to flow somewhere else in the body.

Maybe another joint or another organ or another part of your body that maybe feels discomfort.

Allow all of your attention to go there.

Then imagine your body like a tree,

Feeling your body as the trunk,

The roots going down into the earth.

Feeling those roots kind of digging their way down into the ground,

Getting a foothold.

Feeling the branches rising up out of your shoulders,

Up into the sky.

And feeling the stillness of the tree.

And then imagine your body with all of its atoms.

And imagine how each atom is actually empty.

You could imagine it as a globe,

Each atom.

And inside the globe is empty.

And there's a little light particle going around in a circle,

Defining the space.

But there's nothing in that space.

Moving through your whole body,

Being aware of every cell as this nothingness with this magical light flowing around in an orbit,

Creating our form.

And then allow even the form of the little globes to fall away,

Because there really is no form.

It's just nothingness beside nothingness.

But now infuse that nothingness,

Knowing that it's everything.

Shunya,

Quantum field,

The galaxy.

Feel the edges of your body melting away,

Realizing that all the air around you is also this beautiful void.

Breathe deeply.

Feel this infinite potential that we are made of.

This void,

This is the building block of everything we create.

Anything is possible from this state.

Shunya,

Matram.

Forget all the ideas about the body.

It's this way or it's that way.

Just be with any area of it.

This present body as permeated with limitless space,

Drenched in freedom.

Forget all of your ideas about the body.

It's this way or it's that way.

Just be with any area of it.

This present body as permeated with limitless space,

Drenched in freedom.

So thank you so much for being here.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Reviews

Really wonderful.

Thank you so kindly❣️⚛️⚘️☄️
Namaste🙏🏼✨️♾️☯️☮️⚛️⚘️☄️

Being in my body. No thoughts. Void, vastness, Union. I love meditating, focusing on one part of my body or the other. Breathing deeply until I no longer “know” the difference between my body and the universe. Freedom. This verse expresses so well my addiction of being in the void of my body!