Live In Radiant Bliss: Radiance Sutras Verse 150

During this session, we discuss Verse 150 of the Insight Verses from the 'Radiance Sutras', a translation of the Vijanana Bhairava Tantra by Lorin Loche. A meditation follows our discussion.

These sessions are recorded every week, and all are welcome.

Transcript

We are reading from the Radiant Sutras today.

Today we are reading verse 150.

The goal of this book is for all of us who are living in maya,

Living in the third dimension,

Living in our physical bodies,

Loving,

Hurting,

Pleasuring,

Doing all the things that humans do,

And the goal of it is to help us remember that we are also divine,

That the very cells of our being are divine light,

And to somehow dance in our days knowing both,

Being completely,

Having fully dived in to all the complexities and joys and struggles of life,

With this divine awareness that there is also so much more.

So it's not about transcending the world and it's not about,

You know,

Living in this pious,

Aloof place,

You know,

As we walk through the world.

It's about being fully in both,

And it's like the more fully we can live and understand our divine self,

The easier it is to dive into all the experiences of life.

It's sort of like if we don't know the divinity aspect of ourselves,

We still live all the pleasure and pain of life,

But we do it from a contracted state,

Like from a fearful state,

And it's interesting because when we're in a fearful state,

We don't really experience what we're experiencing the same,

Because we're like hiding,

Waiting for it to pass kind of idea.

Whereas if we deeply know that we are also everything everything here,

It's almost like we have the courage,

This expanded courage,

And whatever it is we're experiencing,

We dive in.

Positive or negative,

Painful or pleasurable,

We dive in,

And that this is the real goal.

And so the sutras are individual teachings,

Meditations,

Contemplations that help us turn these little dials in our consciousness,

So that these two aspects of ourselves,

That the veil between them becomes a little bit lesser.

So let's close our eyes for a moment.

Let's breathe deeply.

And here we go.

The real sacrifice is to let your sins be destroyed by the vast power of the universe.

It is to live in radiant bliss.

Senses dissolve,

The mind dissolves,

The objects of sense dissolve,

Even the void is dissolved.

This is transcendence.

I'm going to read it again,

But I want to give some context of where this is coming from.

Devi,

Our human self,

Is talking to Bhairava,

Our divine self.

We've listened and practiced all of these 112 contemplations and meditations and everything.

All these little dials have turned inside of us,

And we've come to the realization that if I am God consciousness,

Who do I worship and who do I give alms to,

And what do I sacrifice to God?

Because this is what we've been taught,

Is that in a lot of religions,

That in order to achieve God's praise and grace,

You need to give up things.

You need to,

And so sort of from that perspective,

That we all have.

We all have these old trainings and patterns,

You know,

That we've believed are normal and just part of who we are.

So she's like,

Well then how do I worship?

What do I do?

And so this is part of that answer.

The real sacrifice is to let your sins be destroyed by the vast power of the universe.

It is to live in radiant bliss.

Senses dissolve.

Mind dissolves.

The objects of sense dissolve.

Even the void is dissolved.

This is transcendence.

What comes to you when you hear that?

Or what emotions rise?

Or what thoughts come?

Living in radiant bliss is a sacrifice,

Question mark.

It made me very emotional.

Tears came and a sense of completion.

Even the void is dissolved.

No glory and martyrdom.

We are to sacrifice our sense of self.

I'm going to read another translation of it.

So this is a more literal translation.

Oh supreme goddess,

Here the sacrifice characterized by bliss and satisfaction becomes the savior of all by the destruction of all sins.

I'm going to read you one more.

This one's by pretty convoluted.

Oh supreme goddess,

Sacrifice in this system simply means spiritual satisfaction characterized by bliss.

The absorption into the shakti of rudras is alone real kshetra in as much as this absorption destroys all sins.

So it sounds like a collapse,

Like a black hole.

Oh interesting.

To achieve transcendence we have to let go of all emptiness,

Nothingness,

Bliss.

I love looking at it as a sacrifice.

I'm struggling with forgiving myself.

So it's an interesting question that living in bliss is a sacrifice.

What this is saying is we have a choice.

Most of us have lived our lives deeply knowing the satisfaction or interpreting the world based on whether or not we are happy or sad,

Satisfied,

Unsatisfied,

Pleasure or pain.

We see the world that our experience of the world is all about that.

Is it good?

Is it bad?

Is it pleasurable?

Is it painful?

So we interpret the world through our senses,

Through our physical beings.

And this is what we deeply know to be our life experience.

But what this teaching is saying is that there's another way of experiencing this world.

And this is through experiencing the world through oneness.

But of course oneness,

Which we might interpret as God,

Brahman,

Shiva Shakti,

Atman,

Whatever.

Oneness is everything.

Literally,

The good,

The bad,

The ugly.

It's everything.

It's not just goodness.

It's everything.

So that means that as we walk through life,

If in this world we do good things or we do bad things,

It's all part of oneness.

These are just things we've done.

They're just actions in the world of maya.

They're actions in the world of causation and karma.

You know,

They talk about liberation.

Like every single thing we do,

There's a cause and effect,

Right?

We do something,

This happens.

We think this,

This happens.

We have this emotion,

This happens.

But the person,

You as a being,

Are oneness.

Whether you do something right or wrong doesn't affect oneness.

And I'm not saying that you should just go out and do whatever you want because it doesn't matter.

Of course it matters.

If we go out and hurt people in this three-dimensional world of maya,

We live in the world of cause and effect.

We do live in a world of pleasure and pain and satisfaction.

That is the third dimension.

That's the world of the senses.

So our quality of life,

The quality of life of the people around us,

Is of course affected by our actions.

But the question is,

What do you carry in your heart?

And this is this word,

Sin,

Which I recognize has been heavily used in Christianity.

I'm not actually sure if it's used much in other religions.

Someone once defined the word sin as missing the mark.

Imagine a sin is something that turns the wheel of karma.

If you do something in a sense of,

And I'm going to say purity,

But I don't mean this in some puritanical way.

But if you do something out of the goodness of your heart,

There is no karma.

It doesn't turn the wheel of cause and effect.

It's just something sort of like a flower blossoming,

Right?

It doesn't change anything.

It's just life.

A tree is born and a hummingbird feeds off of nectar.

It's just life.

But as soon as we do something that's sort of out of that turn for some reason,

Due to thoughts,

Emotions,

Teachings,

Trainings,

Whatever,

It creates something extra in the system.

And we can call that a sin.

But what benefit is it to us to carry that on our hearts?

If there is something from our past that we just can't forgive ourselves,

Like someone mentioned a moment ago.

There is a point that perhaps we have to pray about it and ask,

Do we need to make amends?

Do we need to address this?

You know what I mean?

Like we don't have to walk around not talking to people about things we've done,

You know,

If needed.

Kind of like in Alcoholics Anonymous,

One of the steps is to go and make amends unless it would cause harm to someone to do that.

But if we can,

Then we do it.

But if we can't,

Then what?

So now you imagine these two ways of living life.

One way,

You live in that and you carry that sin in your heart your whole life.

Why?

I don't know.

And we all do it.

But it's a deep training,

Right?

That you need to carry this.

And I think it's all woven into the keeping the karmic wheels turning,

Right?

To keep you learning and sorting and,

You know,

Whatever.

So then this teaching says,

But what if you sacrificed that and you let that go?

When you truly stopped carrying it,

What's left?

If right now you released everything about yourself that you judge,

What's left?

Bliss?

Joy?

Love?

But what a sacrifice.

When you really think about how difficult that is.

Like it's no small,

It's so easy to say,

You know what,

You're right.

I'm just going to let all that go and I'm just going to be happy.

But then there's all these weird programs that say,

Well,

You can't just be happy.

You've got to think about it.

You've got to,

You know,

And what if and whatever all those things are.

So it's a real journey to let that go.

I'm going to read the convoluted one here for a moment,

Because there's some interesting tidbits in this.

O Supreme Goddess,

Sacrifice in this system simply means spiritual satisfaction characterized by bliss.

So what they're saying is the sacrifice is to choose bliss,

Let go of all the sins.

It's a sacrifice.

Which one do you want to choose?

Then the absorption into the Shakti of Rudras is alone real Kshetra,

Place of pilgrimage,

In as much as this absorption destroys all sins.

So there's two parts there.

The Shakti of Rudras Now Rudras is one name for Shiva.

And this Shakti,

So Shiva and Shakti,

Masculine and feminine,

Oneness,

God consciousness,

That's what this is.

So imagine Rudras or Shiva is this great power,

And it's within all of us,

This great masculine power of clarity,

Consciousness,

And Shakti in this Shakti of Rudras is the manifest power when we actually bring that power of Shiva into the world.

So for us to actually release all this,

This stuff,

This takes effort.

This isn't something that we're just going to come to in meditation.

This actually means we have to actually dig into our masculine divine self and find a new power,

Find a new energy and harness that to help us.

It's not a small thing.

And then it says when we harness the Shakti of Rudras,

This alone,

Real Kshetra,

Place of pilgrimage,

Doesn't this feel like a pilgrimage?

It's not an overnight thing.

It's a pilgrimage.

And we are going to go there.

And all we have to do is just set the goal.

Like when someone says,

I want to make a pilgrimage to this place,

We just simply start the journey.

And you know that the minute you begin the journey,

The process of transformation has begun.

The pilgrimage is a reason we don't fly there.

There's a reason we walk because with every step we learn,

We grow,

We suffer,

We love,

We do all the things.

But first,

We have to choose this as the destination.

That's the most important part.

Because what if right now,

We don't want to choose that.

We want to choose to continue to beat ourselves up about stuff.

Like if I say,

The goal is to give up,

To destroy your sins,

What say you?

Do you say,

Well,

That's impossible.

I shouldn't do that.

I can't do that.

It's not right.

Well,

Awesome possible.

But what if somewhere inside of you says,

Okay,

I'll take that journey.

I'm in,

Right?

That's the question.

And it's a question that each one of us gets to choose.

And there's no wrong answer.

To be really clear,

Everybody gets to take their journey.

There's no right or wrong.

And maybe one person's like,

I'm not ready for that.

Perfect.

The journey will continue.

So the second part of this,

Which is why I want to talk about Joan of Arc,

Is,

Oh,

Supreme goddess,

Here,

The sacrifice characterized by bliss and satisfaction becomes the savior of all by the destruction of all sins.

Now,

Some interpretations say the destruction of your sins,

But what the literal,

So Lauren's translation said,

Our sins,

Because first we have to at least be able to release our own,

Right?

That's the first step.

Because the literal translation is all sins.

And that means everybody else too.

Now there's a challenge,

Right?

Like if we thought it was hard to forgive our own,

Well,

I don't know about everybody else,

But that's the real teaching.

Because when you think,

If you want to live in bliss,

Can you do it carrying the sins of other people in your heart?

Any more than you could do it carrying the sins of your own in your heart?

I don't think so.

I can't.

So this is where this interesting teaching comes,

Where oneness,

God consciousness,

This goal we have,

We have to deeply understand that it isn't only the good.

It's everything.

All the things that we call good,

Bad,

Pleasurable,

Unpleasurable,

Painful,

Whatever,

Everything is oneness.

This is why we can have this curious separation only for the sake of the discussion between the oneness that each one of us is and the actions in the 3D realm.

Right,

Wrong,

Good,

Bad,

Kind,

Cruel.

They are just actions in the plane,

In the world of doing.

And in the world of doing,

Each have consequences and action and karmic wheels turning and all that.

But does it belong in your heart?

Is that where you want to carry it?

Does it need to affect your happiness?

It doesn't change anything.

If someone wronged us or wronged that person or many people,

Whether we carry that sin in our heart or not,

Does it change anything?

Then why do we carry it?

Why do we tell the stories?

Why do we do that?

And again,

Why is not really the right question.

It's just a habit.

It's generations of believing this is normal.

And it's being raised that right and wrong judgment gives us power.

That if I can say that you,

You are wrong,

You have done me a disservice,

You have harmed me,

It makes us feel very powerful.

It doesn't change the damage,

Doesn't change anything.

It doesn't actually make us feel better.

It doesn't help us heal.

It doesn't help them become better people.

We've been taught that holding this judgment is always a good idea.

So this particular teaching says,

What if you just let that go?

Let the judgment go.

And again,

It doesn't mean you don't have to take action in life.

It doesn't mean you don't rise up against things.

It doesn't matter.

None of that matters.

So before we started class,

I mentioned that I read this book called Joan of Arc,

Written by Mark Twain on the weekend.

And in it,

Obviously they tell the story of Joan of Arc.

So Joan of Arc was a peasant girl born in France in the 1400s.

And somewhere around,

I think,

Age 13,

She started hearing voices.

And she started having visions of angels talking to her.

And at this time,

France was in its 90th year of the Hundred Year War with England.

And the British had just destroyed France.

And the people of France were very disheartened.

It was pretty cruel,

Cruel time.

And so here she is in this fallen France,

Most of it occupied by the British and other groups.

And these voices told her that she must go to the King of France and lead the armies against the English.

And she couldn't even read or write.

She was a true peasant girl in the country.

And eventually,

She realized that this is what she had to do.

And the voices were so,

She called them the voices.

And they were so clear.

And the story of Joan of Arc,

As she won by,

Like,

Trusted the voices,

First you have to go to this person and get a letter.

And of course,

They looked at this little girl,

You know,

Of 14,

By the time she started sort of the journey,

And just laughed at her.

And she continued.

And she said,

On this date,

This will happen,

And you will give me men at arms,

And I will ride and go see the king.

And it's this amazingly epic story.

And eventually she did.

And eventually she did,

A million things happened.

And eventually she did see the king.

And he,

She convinced him,

The voices helped her convince him to make her the chief general of the French armies.

And she did ride and eventually overthrew the British.

And so the whole country loved her.

They'd absolutely,

She was this,

Not a second coming.

It wasn't like that.

It was just that she had breathed so much hope,

And joy,

And strength,

And fierceness,

And courage into this whole country.

She was beloved.

To this day,

600 years later,

They still have a Joan of Arc day in May,

Where they celebrate her,

Because she was just such an epic figure.

But one of the things that I love about Joan of Arc is that she always wanted to keep a pure heart.

She was raised,

You know,

Very Catholic,

And,

You know,

But,

And so her language would be very religious.

But it was this pure of heart,

Even,

Even the armies that she brought.

I mean,

You've got to imagine how straggly and lost the armies were when she suddenly took over,

And they had to follow this 16-year-old girl into battle.

And of course,

Some of them,

Like she went into this one,

Where they were all like drinking,

And carousing,

And women,

And this and that,

And swearing,

And everything.

And she basically told them that you have to quit drinking,

You have to send the women out of the camp,

You have to stop swearing,

And you have to go to mass twice a day.

And they did it.

They did it.

And they followed her.

So the crazy thing is,

At the end,

She was eventually captured.

It's a very,

Very sad story in the end.

And she was sold by this group to the British.

And they interrogated her,

And it was very awful and cruel.

And eventually she was,

She was killed.

And the King of France,

Who she basically crowned,

Like she opened this,

Opened the country,

And got rid of the British enough so he could march to this one place in Reims,

Where there was this sacred oil that had to be used to crown the king,

And blah,

Blah,

Blah.

And she manifested all of this,

Crowned him.

And then,

Of course,

One drove back all the British,

And he actually was able to have France again.

And here she was,

In a dungeon,

Kept by the British.

And the king never came for her.

He didn't rally the troops.

He didn't fight for her.

And he let a horrific final year happen to her.

And do you know that throughout the trials that are all well documented,

They would try to diss the king,

Or to try to get her to say something against it?

And she said,

I will always honour my king.

I will say nothing against him.

He is pure of heart.

People have to follow him.

She never once said anything negative about him,

Because it wasn't in her heart.

She never once said anything negative about anybody.

Even there was this one guy during the trials who was really horrible to her.

Bad.

I just don't want to get into all the details.

And when she was finally being led to her death,

This really awful man,

Who was one of the people who persecuted her,

Dropped to his knees and asked for forgiveness.

And it wasn't even a question.

She'd never judged him to begin with.

And the reason I bring this up is that woman lived in bliss.

She lived in a blissful state.

This is what this teaching in Tantra is telling us,

That we have a choice.

We can live our life based on this world of judgment.

Well,

That's pleasurable,

And this is not,

And this is right,

And that's wrong,

And this is satisfying,

And that's not satisfying.

And we can carry that in our hearts,

But who suffers?

Only us.

But what if we didn't?

What if we allowed the divine power within us to clear that out?

What if we said to ourselves,

You know what?

I want something different,

And I want to let go of all this.

And then so now,

All of a sudden,

You look at,

So what are the steps?

Like,

How do we do it?

Well,

If what we're doing is the destruction of all sin,

And we look around at the people who are the players in our mind,

The players in the stories that are repeating,

What would happen if we absolved everyone of their actions?

Think of how much lighter your heart is.

And I know there's a big program that says,

Yeah,

But,

Yeah,

But,

Yeah,

But,

Yeah,

But.

But what if?

What if we chose that?

And then,

All of a sudden,

Let's say you make that choice,

And you say,

You know what?

I do want that.

And all that means is you have now,

It's almost like your North Star in life,

Has changed.

And you're just simply changing direction of where you're going.

So now you go,

And you have a meditation practice.

And now,

All of a sudden,

That meditation practice is now helping you towards the new goal.

Or maybe you practice yoga,

And now your yoga practice is helping you towards this new goal.

Or maybe you love to journal.

And that journaling now is helping you,

Whatever comes to you,

Is going to help you towards this.

Because if the goal is the other,

If the goal is to hold tight to all those transgressions that we've done or other people have done,

That's what our yoga will be about,

And that's what our journaling will be about,

And that's what our thoughts will be about.

Like,

It's really,

It's really up to us.

It's quite a thing.

Let's close our eyes for a moment.

Let's just breathe deeply.

Let's just imagine a beautiful scene.

And imagine,

In the middle of your beautiful scene,

There is a park bench.

Just allow whatever scenery that pops up,

Just allow it to be there.

Your soul knows what is peaceful.

And you're sitting on that park bench,

And you close your eyes.

You breathe deeply.

You hear the sounds around you.

You smell the smells.

And then you let all of those go,

And you dive into your heart,

Into the light,

Into the void.

And you feel this stillness.

And the stillness suddenly feels infinite,

And you are suspended in this wonderful,

Infinite space.

And in that space,

You gently open your eyes,

In your mind's eye,

And you look around the world.

And you see it,

For all that it is,

The wonderful play that we are all a part of.

And there's so much compassion for the struggles,

For the pleasure,

For the journeys,

For the souls.

There's an inner smile that comes.

And you close your eyes again,

Bringing all of this within,

Letting it be absorbed into that oneness inside.

YAGA ATRA PARAMA ISHANI TUSHTI YANANDA LAKSHANA KSHAP PANAT SARVA PAPANAM TRANAT SARVASYA PARVATI The real sacrifice is to let your sins be destroyed by the vast power of the universe.

It is to live in radiant bliss.

Senses dissolve,

Mind dissolves,

The objects of sense dissolve,

Even the void is dissolved.

This is transcendence.

Taking a deep breath in together.

Exhaling.

Thanks,

Everybody.

I'll see you in two weeks.

Reviews

Katrina this one blew me away. I have enjoyed the Radiance Sutras book for many years, just by myself in quiet moments. The Sutras speak to my essential nature so effortlessly - powerful and poetic.

When your readings of the Sutras came along I listened, not always in order, intuitively choosing a number. But this reading of 150 by you was so powerful for me. The idea that we are to forgive all the sins .. ..
it made sense immediately, but was also incomprehensible.

Upon reflection, this reading of 150 by you helped me understand the good/bad dichotomy (in terms of human behaviour), and allowed me to feel more deeply the love that radiates between us. Love and love, all love, only love, radiance within and all around.
🦋💗☀️✨🐚🌚🌝🦋