Independently Spacious: Radiance Sutras Verse 105

During this session, we discuss Verse 105 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

So today we are reading from the Radiant Sutras. This is a beautiful book by Lauren Roche who interpreted and translated the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. This beautiful book that's all about accessing the true wisdom of what life's all about. In the first word, It's funny, I've been just playing with how you're supposed to actually pronounce this word. I always pronounce it Vijnana because I heard a teacher do that at Kripalu once, This big teaching center. And lately I've been thinking I've been saying it wrong that it's actually Vignana with a hard G not a soft J. Anyway, And what that means is wisdom. And it's kind of like it's beyond knowledge. It's something you know in your being. This is wisdom. And Bhairava is a word for the essence of life. If we ever wonder where we come from, What we're all about, What is the essence of reality, Consciousness, This is Bhairava. And Tantra in this meaning just means book or study. So the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra is essentially how to access the wisdom of true life. And so today we're going to read verse 105. So we're quite a ways in to the journey. And if you're new, It's all good. We can jump in anytime. But a lot of the previous sutras really looked at the stuff of life, Passion, Pain, Joy, Relationships, The elements, Sight, Sound, Our senses, All those kind of things, Right? So there was, We've really gone into a lot of those depths. And so now in the later part of the book, We're a lot more ethereal. We're a lot more focused on, Okay, So those are the things of life. Now what about everything else? What else is in the universe? And so in today's class, We're going to read the sutra. And then we're going to have a contemplation or reflection on what it meant to you. And then we'll have a discussion about it. And then a meditation at the end. So let's close our eyes for a minute. Let's just breathe deeply. Let's just enter that part of our body that feels still, That feels eternal. Maybe it's in your heart center. Maybe it's your spine that feels quiet. Maybe it's where you're sitting. All right, Here we go. When you gaze in wonder at the stars, Become enthralled with the vast spaciousness between them. Space is an incomprehensible being, An invisible presence, Independent, Independently wealthy, Without beginning or end, And giving. Space bestows an unbounded theater for suns, Planets, Constellations to dance their graceful orbits. Space offers you an infinite arena to play, Explore, And experience. Receive this gift of freedom. What comes to you when you hear that? What thoughts or emotions? What phrases stand out for you? Experience, Explore, Divinely held, Wonder, Infinite possibilities in space, Infinite arena. Expand and receive this gift of freedom. An invisible presence with unbounded freedom, Infinite possibilities. So this is a very interesting sutra. Essentially, We've all done this meditation before. Anytime we've ever laid out on the grass or a sunny beach and gazed up at the blue sky and we allowed ourselves to become absorbed in that spaciousness, That's this meditation. Or maybe you lay outside under a starry night sky, And you know that feeling that you just, You're different after you've been gazing at the sky. There's like a peace inside of us. We're changed by that experience of the spaciousness of the sky. The infinite can touch each of us by space. I feel confused, Filled with hope, Wanting to explore the unknown, Realizing how absurdly bigger the unknown is than the known. I hear you, But you know how I imagine it? Because I really believe that where we're going, Like sometimes we talk about that we're living in a time of ascension, Which I genuinely believe. I do believe we are coming out of a very dark period of history, Whether it's the Indian idea of Kali Yuga going into Sat Yuga, Or whether it's shifting from the age of Pisces to the age of Aquarius, Or maybe we're simply moving into the golden age that many talk about. But there's an expansiveness in this new consciousness. It's almost like we're loving the infinite space. And I think the challenge comes that in the old world, In that Piscean world, In that even that patriarchal domination paradigm, And again that's not against men, That's just that energy that we've lived within, We felt safe the more we knew, The more we could create a system and say, Okay, I've put everything I know into a system, I can name it, I can explain it, So now I feel safe. But this assumes a very limited world, And it makes our lives very small. And so the idea of going from that limited space, Where I know the rules, I know what's right and wrong, I know what to expect, Whether even if I don't like it, I know what to expect, To then suddenly release all those ideas, Judgments, Limitations, Constructs, And just enter infinity. It's like, I don't like it. So how I feel it, It's like, It brings me inside myself. And I become like this little spaceship. You know, This little spaceship called Katrina. And there's a spaceship called Davy and a spaceship called Griffin. And inside that spaceship, All I need to know is how to fly. And all I need to know is, What is my next question? What do I want to know? What do I want to experience in life? What? And then my spaceship will go there. And this is different. Like our lives have often been conditioned to what we can't do. Well, Here are all the things I can't do. So I'm just sort of stuck with this now. And for generations, We've been, I don't know, There has been a lot of victimization that we've been forced to be very small. So then we have to make the best of whatever we've got. And so now all of a sudden, It's like, Instead of controlling kind of, Let's say here's me, And I live in a town. So I'm going to extend my understanding out 20 kilometers all around me. And I'm going to say that within this system, I feel safe. I know everything. I know enough. I know what I like. I know what I don't like. I know what I you know, Whatever. Well, Now imagine taking all of that and saying, Okay, Everything's changing. So I'm going to then bring all of that awareness into myself and deeply understand myself. And then from that place, I'm going to navigate the infinite world. You know, It's kind of the difference between, It's like, For centuries, We've all been on a tour bus, Exploring Europe. And we've all been on the tour bus, But we can only go so far because the bus driver only wants to go here, Or maybe we only paid for this much of the trip, Or, And maybe there's annoying people sitting in the seats beside us. So we have to figure out how to deal with that. And then, You know, And they can only go on common roads, You know, That a tour bus can go on, You know, We kind of are like, Okay, I get it. I know how to navigate my tour bus life. Then one day, You say, You know what? I think there's more to life than the places this tour bus can go. So I leave all my extra baggage on the bus. I pack a little backpack of my essentials. I step off the bus. And I just start to explore whatever town I'm in. From me, From Katrina's perspective, Not the bus driver, Not the collective agreement of everyone on the bus, Just me. And I am safe because I know me. And I'm going to climb that mountain, Or I'm going to go over there and go to that cafe. Or I'm going to go through that museum. Or I'm just going to sit here and feel the sunshine. So it's really an interesting thing to feel that mastery within that we really know me. And from here, I can go anywhere. So it kind of takes all the onus off of the world around of controlling the world around me to actually coming inside and liking this. But that's a real journey. That's no small thing and a lot bigger than the context of our class today. But thank you for saying that, Devi. Yes, It brings you inside yourself because it's unlimited, 100%. So what's really interesting is when they talk about this space, They call it Akasha. They call it void. They call it Brahman, Bhairava. And what this space is, Is it's on the one hand, And again, There's the language doesn't do it justice. But in one way, It's the vehicle or the space that everything can happen in. We need like a medium. That's right, Not vehicle. We need a medium for everything to have a place to happen. But it's also the stuff of life. It's where if we actually want to get the materials to create things, The materials appear out of the Akasha, Out of the void, Out of the space. And I love this one line in it. When it says, Space is an incomprehensible being, An invisible presence, Independent, Independently wealthy, Without beginning or end, And giving. I love that he calls it independently wealthy. This is the ultimate example of abundance. To imagine that here I am, And I am surrounded by space. I am surrounded by ether, Akasha, Whatever you want to call it. The potential, Infinite potential. And it is infinite. And no matter how much I desire, It's independently wealthy, Wealth comes from within it, And it just keeps exploding, You know, And I think of mathematical fractals. And a fractal is basically if you took a pattern, And then that pattern repeats itself, And it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, Bigger, But it just keeps self-replicating. It's not needing more material, It just keeps replicating itself. Imagine what life would be like if we really deeply embodied the idea that all this space, This ether that surrounds us all the time, Is infinite abundance for us to create with. It's like being a crafter, And walking into the biggest crafting store you've ever seen, And every time you take some cool thing off the shelf to make something awesome, It just replaces itself. And you have infinite materials to create anything you want. When we talk about becoming tantric, When we talk about living in a tantric way, This is living in a tantric way. Imagine living in a way that you knew that you have infinite resources at your fingertips. And this is not dependent on how much money we have, The job we have, How many kids we have, Whether we live in a huge family, Or we have our own place, It doesn't matter. This is the energy of of God, Of Bhairava, Of consciousness. Everyone has equal access to this huge crafting store. Imagine. So Sally mentions space and incomprehensible being and invisible presence giving the plenum. This is exactly where I was going to go next. Thanks Sally. So some of you guys have been here when we talked about one of my favorite quantum physicists, David Bohm. He had this idea that when we look around us, So like for example, If you look up into the starry night, What we see are the stars. We see the stars and then we go, Oh and then there's space in between the stars. And he said, What if we have it backwards? What if the space in between the stars is actually full and the stars are the empty spaces? There's just like a liner around them and that's why we can see them. It's kind of like if you were swimming through the water and like let's say you had goggles and you were looking, You wouldn't see the water you were swimming in. You can't see the water but you can see the bubbles. You can see the spaces where there's holes in the water. What if that's the plenum? What if everything around us is like the water and it's full and all the things in it are actually the space. So now imagine the plenum is independently wealthy and giving. Imagine, You know, You barely have to ask. Just put it out to the universe and see how it returns. Imagine. And so then I want to touch on something because a lot of us will have heard about the Akashic records. Now the Akashic records is actually, It's used in many, Many different traditions but and there's a lot of different perspectives on it. But essentially the Akashic records are like a record of everything we've ever done in all of our lifetimes and they even go as far as to say world history and all that kind of thing. But for our discussion, Let's just imagine our own history throughout lifetimes and who knows millennia. And so this is all the patterns we've experienced which we could call karma. All the patterns that we just seem to keep repeating or we repeat them in a slightly different way as we learn and grow throughout our lives. They say that the Akashic records live in the Akasha, In the space, In the ether. So now, And I don't know if this is true. This is just, It's not exactly how people interpret it but you know what? We can think about something and wonder if it's true. So let's go there. What if each one of us has a very specific vibration and on that vibration holds our history. Our past, Our future, Maybe even who knows how it works. So when we are incarnated we basically read those records in the ether all around us and that's how we create the lives to create the patterns so that we can learn the lessons that we need to learn. Imagine you close your eyes and all the world is a stage but it's empty. There's nothing there. This is the Akasha. This is the the emptiness and in our mind we think what would I like to create? Well if we have old patterns especially if they're running in our unconscious, If we haven't brought them to consciousness, What will our unconscious do? They will put people on the stage and all around us to reflect the karmic stories that we have lived before. And again this isn't like an evil thing. This isn't like, Darn it all look at you repeating that pattern. This is just how it is. This is this is how we all learn. If you want to learn to play the piano you start off it's rough and then you keep learning and you keep learning and you keep learning. That's what we're doing. It's not a negative thing to keep practicing until you figure it out. So we sort of come into this life and our unconscious mind goes into that huge craft store and pulls out everything it needs and now we play out this play on the stage. Now what's cool about this and why I think this Sutra is so interesting is the Sutra says, Remember the space that everything is being created in. Anytime the stage is full and you don't like the way the drama is unfolding, Close your eyes and remember the empty stage. Remember that that is that is also true. And so then how would that change how we live? How would that change how we interpret everything around us? It doesn't make the struggle unreal. It doesn't make our pain unreal. But this is a big and statement. Here's everything that's going on in my life which is important. And I also know that there is a blank space that is also reality. And remember maybe this lifetime we came to change directions all together and that is okay. There is infinite possibilities. Exactly because this is the power of consciousness. So now imagine you actually step back like I know maybe we're doing yoga, We're meditating, We're practicing having this witness mind. Now the witness mind is neutral to whatever drama is going on in our life. And so the witness mind suddenly says, Wait a minute, I've seen this before. Why do I keep repeating this? That's weird. So it steps back and says, You know what, Let's bring this pattern into my conscious mind. Let's bring it out of the unconscious where it's almost like you're walking through the craft store and your unconscious is creating things behind your back and you don't even know it's doing it. And you're like, I swear I didn't make this. There's no way I would have created that thing. That doesn't make any sense because it's in our unconscious. So then all of a sudden we take it from our unconscious, We bring it into consciousness. Whether it's through journaling, Whether it's through discussion, Who knows how we do it. But we just simply say, You know what, I see a pattern. You know what? I'd like to understand this pattern and I'd like to heal it. That's all we have to do. There's no magic. We don't have to say, You know, Bibbidi-boop. We just say, I'm aware of it now. All right, Now we'll look at it. So then all of a sudden, That person in our life, They say this thing that normally would have triggered us into some kind of circular rabbit hole. And we see it and we say, Aha, I know this part of the play. I've seen it before. So then if I do this, You're going to do that. And I'm going to do this and you're going to do that. And you're going to, Okay. So then maybe I'm going to do this instead. And the whole play changes. It may not resolve everything, But the play changes. And then from then on, Every single aspect of our life is different. I am thinking about this so much these days because I'm really fascinated with relaxation. I'm fascinated with relaxation in life, In intimacy, In communication, And in our health, In our eating, In everything. And the one place that I have a particular interest in is this frontal cortex behind our forehead where our imagination lives. And this is our ability to have abstract thought. So essentially, If you're thinking about anything that is not in the present moment, If it's not being interpreted by something I feel, Taste, Touch, Smell, Or hear, Then you are thinking in the frontal cortex. You are chewing on something. So for all intents and purposes, What you're thinking about is imagination. And imagination isn't always a bad thing. But in this case, We're going to talk about when imagination is gone amok. And this is how our days are created. So if you actually imagine you wake up in the morning, What do you start thinking about? Whatever we start thinking about, It's the only thing our day can turn into. Sure, There's other people and other things in our lives that affect us. But even then, As Viktor Frankl would say, The one thing a human being always has is we have the choice as to how we respond to every single thing in our life. So the kids can wake us up early, And we're so tired. But it's up to us how we respond to that. We can freak out and get angry and, Oh my god, You know, Da da da. We can kind of take a deep breath and say, Well, Come on in, You know. Or we can read a book, Or we can hang out. Or we can say, You know, I need a bit more sleep. Can you guys just play quietly? But there are a hundred different options as to how we respond there. And that is actually our life. Not the kids waking us up. Not the boss at work. Not the traffic. Nothing. None of that. It's 100% our response to it. That is actually our life. Our life exists in our mind. Whether we think we have opportunities or not, They are all living in our frontal cortex. And I am really fascinated by this because my brain loves to swirl. I love to create things. I love to think about things. I love to ponder things. But more often than not, I hate to admit it, I'm having conversations with people in my head that aren't there. And I'm imagining this, And I'm imagining that, And I'm pontificating about this, And I'm thinking, You know. All of it just makes my whole body sad and tired. And it just puts my whole day into a funk if I go that way. I was really upset about something a couple days ago. And oh man, I was just spitting tacks about it. I was so angry. And then, You know, I called a friend, You know, And I'm like, You know, And I was just, Just telling all the story, You know, Oh, Where I am right. I am right. Self-righteous indignation is my favorite emotion. We all have a favorite emotion that gets us twisty. And I just couldn't get out of it. And it was kind of ruining my day. And I kind of asked for help. I'm like, I don't, I don't want to feel like this. And then all of a sudden, This thought came through my mind of gratitude. It was connected to what was going on, But it was more like in my own life, A gratitude of what isn't in my life compared to this situation. And I'll tell you the whole thing diffused. My whole day changed. All the situation, The circumstances are exactly the same. Nothing changed externally, But inside everything changed. And my whole day changed. We are so powerful. So now when we come back to this Sutra, And we imagine spaciousness, The space all around us, We gaze up at the sky, And we see this infinite space. We gaze up at the starry night, We see this infinite space above us. And we take that awareness, Like just so for example, If you imagine lying outside and you look up at the sky, And you take that in, You take in that infinity, Spaciousness, Empty, Just the word empty, Eternal. And you kind of soak that up. You feel that in the sky. And then you bring it inside your heart, Inside your mind, And experience that emptiness inside. Inside. Experience the eternal nature inside. How does that change everything? It's like, It all still exists. All of our life exists. Tantra is not about transcending our life. It's not about going and living in a monastery and not being a part of the the world. But imagine you could remember all the time the spaciousness. And then when we bring old patterns to light, And we bring them into consciousness, It's like there's space around them. It's almost like we have that beautiful stage, And we say, Aha, I understand the players. I'm going to put the players on the stage for a little bit. I'm going to watch them interact. Aha, This is interesting. Now suddenly consciousness is driving the boat. And then when you understand all that, And you get it, And you look at the actors and say, You know what? Thank you so much for helping me to understand this. This has been wonderful. And then maybe you're clear enough that now you're walking through the great craft store, And you get to say, You know what? I'm going to grab some blocks of wood, Some yarn, A bit of paint. And now you're consciously choosing everything you're going to create in your life. You know what? And now I'm going to do this. And now I'm going to do that. Imagine. It's very, Very cool. We're going to do a meditation. But if anyone has any thoughts that you would love to share, That are rolling around in your mind or a question, I would love to hear it before we close our eyes. All is well. As far as my crazy mind, We're swirling. I honestly think we've all been living in a swirl for most of our lives. And the idea of just allowing ourselves to rest is, It's so foreign. It's like, Really? I'm writing an article, Either today or tomorrow. It's just a little one. It's called The Red Light Meditation. Because I'm so fascinated with relaxation right now. Like relaxation as a real tool for life, Not just chilling on the couch or something like living in a relaxed, Present, Embodied way. I'm so intrigued by this right now. And so now when I'm out driving my car, Anytime I come to a red light, I'm actually thankful. For the first time in my life, I come to that red light and I go, Nice. And I take a deep breath. My shoulders relax into the seat. And I'm so thankful that I get a minute or so to breathe before I continue driving. Can you imagine? Imagine living your life thankful for green lights and thankful for red lights. All right, You guys ready? Let's close our eyes. Let's just breathe deeply. Imagine breathing right down into your first chakra, Into the genitals. Allowing that breath to expand all the way up to the crown. And then exhaling and releasing from the crown all the way down to the first chakra. Imagine as you inhale, Imagine your body like a pear. And it expands at the bottom, Slowly up, Up, Up, Up, Up, All the way to the crown. And then just gently exhaling. And in your mind's eye, I'd like you to imagine that you're walking along a quiet country road. And as you're walking, Up ahead you see a bench. And you sit down at the bench only to discover that you are sitting at the edge of the most beautiful mountaintop. And as you look out, All you see is sky. As the sky touches all the hills and in the distance, The trees all around. You sort of feel like you're on top of the world. And as you sit there, Your breath becomes deeper. And you feel this expansiveness beginning to enter your body. Like the space around you is becoming space within you. And as you breathe deeper, Your body begins to feel light. And as you breathe deeper, That space enters the mind, And the mind becomes very quiet. And with every breath, The mind completely empties. And you suddenly feel this wonderful awareness that this space is potent and filled with possibilities. And imagine you envision something like a pink elephant. And there it is, A pink elephant in your mind. And then you let that elephant go. And you think about a red rose. And there it is, Created in your mind. And then you go back to spaciousness. Maybe you think of someone you love. And there they are. Their face appears. And then you release that back into spaciousness. And then holding this awareness, You stand up. And you walk back along the path again. Noticing the trees around you. Noticing the birds. And noticing all the space in between. And you start to realize that the trees and the birds are a part of the space. Just as we are part of the space. And you breathe a little bit deeper. And you start to smile as you see all this beauty around you. And you stand still and close your eyes. And you enter that space within. And we just breathe there for a moment. Nitya Narasraya Sunya Vyapake Kalana Ujjait Bayakashi Manakritva Nirakasham Samavishat When you gaze in wonder at the stars, Become enthralled with the vast spaciousness between them. Space is an incomprehensible being. An invisible presence. Independent, Independently wealthy, Without beginning or end, And giving. Space bestows an unbounded theater for suns, Planets, Constellations to dance their graceful orbits. Space offers you an infinite arena to play, Explore, And experience. Receive this gift of freedom. Let's take a deep breath in together. Exhale. So thank you so much for being here. And I hope you have a wonderful day.

Reviews

Thank you so much Katrina for sharing that fascinating interpretation and the ideas that we create our own reality. It is a track to return to and explore often. 🙏🏽

Thank you so much for creating and offering these talks. You/they have been super sweet. Now I have to get the book! You’re mindful threading of insights has been enjoyable 🌈

I’m also obsessed with relaxation as I live my life. Connecting with space allows me to shine my light freely from within. So much freedom in space to craft and create.