Pulsating Particles: Radiance Sutras Verse 31

During this session, we discuss Verse 31 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're reading from this book called the Radiant Sutras and this is a translation of the Vijnana by Rava Tantra which is an ancient tantric text that Vijnana has many meanings but one of the meanings is wisdom and wisdom beyond here's what I've learned, Here's what I know but the wisdom of our soul. You know that when we walk through the world it's almost like we can consciously get involved in the drama of life. Even here we had our pride festival on Saturday and there were fears of protests, There was all the hubbub of organizing and the volunteers and making sure everyone's where they are and everything's going well and everything's going on time. So there's sort of a natural stress of living because we apply ourselves to life, We're doing these things but inside there is a wisdom that knows ah this is all for a greater good, This is all important. There's something very powerful about what we're doing even if during that time there might be low times and stressful times and high times and all that there's a wisdom inside of it all. By Rava has many meanings but one meaning is that it's the unity that can happen in duality. So we live in duality, We live in a positive negative world where we are doing and we are being, We are masculine, We are feminine, We are active, We are passive, All these lovely things. When these things come together, When they actually dance, They create a magnetism and they build on each other to the point that they almost become one and when we can experience that oneness we experience bliss and this is by Rava. It can also be within ourselves, It can be the merging of our spiritual self and our physical self which is a huge part of this particular journey we're talking about. So as we're listening to the sutra and as we're having our conversation and as we have our meditation at the end, The goal is to really experience that divine infinite self as it merges with this very physical life, This body, This personality, This job that I have or this place that I live, All that kind of thing. So to be able to merge those things together, That is bliss. Like you imagine walking down the street and feeling the wonder and infinity of the divine flowing through your cells as you feel the sunshine or you feel the rain or you feel whatever. This is a bliss state, This is by Rava and Tantra in this instance really just means book. It just means that. This is the group of teachings about this wisdom unity state. So I'm going to read a passage. Today we're reading number 31. So let's close our eyes and breathe deeply. Relax your shoulders. Maybe you're lying in bed, Maybe you're lying in a bathtub, Maybe you're sitting at work or maybe you're just relaxing at home. Just relax your whole body. Expanding the belly as we inhale. Contracting as we exhale. Experience the substance of the body and the world as made up of vibrating particles. And these particles made up of even finer energies. Drifting more deeply, Feel into the pulse of energy as it condenses from infinity and dissolves back into it continuously. Noticing this, Breathe easily with infinity dancing everywhere. What rules through your mind when you hear that? What feeling rises? A great reminder that we are infinite beings. Beautiful light, Beautiful light feeling wonder. This life is but a vapor. To hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour by William Blake. That we are all we see is energy, Particles. Feeling the vibration of the tiniest particles. I practice asanas while listening on Mondays to embody the sutras. Perfect today. Your breath is the foundation and it is enough for inner peace. We are the universe. Infinite folding and unfolding. Distillation, Concentrated pockets of energy. We are both whole and part. This sutra is very interesting. So it's all about, It's all about everything you guys have said. The literal translation asks us to look at the constituents of the body. Actually look at what exactly are we made of? So in yoga they call it tatva. We might call it the five elements. And you could use any system you wanted. You could use the five elements, You could use any system you wanted. So for example, You might take water. And so we might think about physically, Alright where does water appear in my body? And so we connect with maybe the blood flowing through our bodies. We connect with the lymphatic fluid flowing through. We might connect with the fluid on the eyeball. Or the fluid in our nasal passages. Or the fluid we feel in our mouth right now. Or our kidneys. Or our bladder. You could even think of like the oil, Sebum in our skin. Like when you think of all the places where there's fluid. So now if we imagine, We think about all of this. And then we go within. And what is water? Well water is H2O. It's hydrogen and oxygen held together. So now you imagine every single place where there's fluid in our body, There are these tiny molecules of H2O. And then we look within the hydrogen atom or the oxygen atom. And we think, Well what's that? Well it's actually just electrons flying around. Hydrogen has a certain number of electrons floating around. Oxygen has a certain number floating around. It's vibrating energy. And they come together. These vibrating atoms come together to create molecules. Those molecules come together to create water. And then all of a sudden we have all of this flowing experience in our bodies. But it's just actually a vibration at its very core. The greatest thing about atoms is they have to have a certain charge. And there has to be a magnetic charge that lines them up, That allows the magnetism to hold. And I have this weird thing going on in my life right now that's making me very uncomfortable. Because I'm saying things that I don't normally say. And then I have to chew about it later because I can't believe I said it. So we change. Everyday chemistry changes. Because that's exactly true. Because it's not to say that it couldn't change. But in the current state, Something's amok. Sometimes our charge isn't there for some reason. Sometimes people are very neutral. And you actually can't connect with them. And sometimes they're a free radical and they don't connect to anything either. So anything's possible. I watched that video that was recommended in one of your classes. And the guy on there was talking about the fluid in the spinal cord having seawater present in it. All physiological fluids are a little salty. So let's imagine another element in the body. Let's imagine fire. Where does fire exist in the body? Well what's wild is like last week we talked about how every cell in the body is actually combustion. Every cell. This is how we actually create energy. We take raw material and we combust it in every cell of our body to create life energy. It isn't just the fire in our belly or the passion in our heart and all that. We literally are combusting things all the time. There's fire throughout our whole body. Imagine the earth element in our body. This physical body, This hair, The skin, Our eyeballs, Our teeth, This earth element all through our body. We are literally the earth put together like a Mr. Potato Head. Just take all the things out in the earth and just stick it into us and that's us as a human. Volcanoes created our atmosphere. It's easier to experience fire out in the world, Eh? To feel fire, Like just imagine a campfire, To feel fire in a stove or a pilot light of a furnace or a volcano. That's easier to resonate with, For me anyway, Than my body feels too watery. You know what I mean? Like it's hard to feel fire necessarily in my body. I can feel it outside of me. And stardust. Yes. Or to feel air within our system. Again, Curious to feel. To feel air. We can certainly feel it in our lungs. We can feel the air coming through our nose and exhaling. Maybe it's even more interesting to inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth to feel the passage of air. And then to imagine the constituents of the air. Well, We are inhaling oxygen. So in many ways, That oxygen we're inhaling is going into our lungs, Being infused into the blood, And the water is actually carrying the air throughout the body. So it's like there's concentrated pockets of energy flowing through the blood system, Nourishing the body. And then to imagine ether, The space that it all is held in. The intuition that flows through our body, The energy flowing through the nadis, The Chinese meridians. What if birds are singing because they want to tell us how lucky we are to be here? They survived extinctions. Fusion, Fission, Symbiosis. We are quite a bit of carbon. I always think carbon is a molten element. And when you think of how all of these elements play into each other, How the fire needs the air, And we need the carbon in the body to create fire, That all the elements are interchanging inside of us. What's interesting about that, And I'm going to read you a literal translation of this sutra, Because the final part of it talks about the Pada Devi, The ultimate goddess. They talk about how this was sort of the ultimate mixing bowl. So the fire part in the body, Like Pixie was mentioning, That we're all carbon, And that's interesting. When you think of every cell of the body, Every cell of the body is actually combusting. We think of something called fire. We were brought up and we would see a fire, And you see wood and then there's a match and you light a fire. This phenomenon we call fire. But essentially when you think about what's happening in fire, You have raw elements like wood. Something is happening to the wood that is turning it into energy. That's what fire is. It's the process that turns raw elements into energy. So when you think of every cell of our body is constantly bringing in nutrients, Combusting it and then creating energy. Every cell, Trillions of cells in our body, In constant combustion. So a lot of what this is all about is sort of the transcendental experience of realizing the miracle of what we are. We are beautiful and magical. So I just want to read you a little bit about what our friend Lauren says about this. Para or Paradevi is the universal soul and in practicing this yukti, You are asking her to take you into her kitchen and let you see how bodies and planets are whipped out of nothing following the cookbook of creation. The fire and the mitochondrias. Fire equals oxygen and fuel. So I just want to read you one translation and then we're going to do a meditation. So this is a literal translation of it. Dharana, So dharana is focus. Dharana on those constituents which comprise one's own body and the whole universe such as the tatvas and the tanmatras from subtle to subtlest leads to the source of existence. In this way, Paradevi, The supreme goddess is revealed at the end of the meditation. Dharana on those constituents which comprise one's own body and the whole universe such as the tatvas which are the elements and the tanmatras which are, They're actually how the elements combine to allow us to see, Hear, Taste, Smell. From the subtle to the subtlest leads to the source of existence. In this way, Paradevi, The supreme goddess is revealed at the end of the meditation. So this is the real goal, Is to actually go within and you could take any singular element and just go so deep into it, Down to its very core and feel it vibrating. And then imagine walking through the world like that. Like suddenly you'll just see it everywhere. You'll just see this miracle, This vibratory miracle everywhere we go. This is true tantric living. So let's sit nice and tall or lie down on a bed or wherever you are and let's just close our eyes. Breathing deeply, Expanding the belly as we inhale and contracting as we exhale. Be aware of anywhere in your body that's uncomfortable. Allow all of your focus to go there. Be aware of your knees, Your hips, Your feet, Your back. Anywhere at all that's uncomfortable. Bring all of your breath there. And allow your body to release any tension. Then feel your body like a tree sitting perfectly upright, Rooted down into the earth. And feel that earth element flowing up from those roots into your body. Up through your first chakra, Into the muscles, Into the spine, Into your bones. Feel your bones and your muscles connected to those roots which are connected into the earth. Feel how solid that is all the way up to your skull, The bones in your fingers, The bones in your toes. And then let's go a little deeper inside those bones and see the molecules that make them up. And then imagine let's go inside the molecules and see the atoms, Tiny whirling universes of energy being held together by magnetism, Creating this strong earth body. And then imagine the rains come and the earth is wet and the roots draw moisture and water up into the body. And we're aware of the water now flowing through our body. The lymphatic system, Our blood, The moisture in our mouth, Our sweat, Our tears, Our kidneys, Our bladder, Our sexual organs. Being aware of this water flowing through our whole body. Feeling it flowing down to our fingertips, Down to our toes. And imagining ourself inside the flow, Inside the rivers inside. And seeing the individual water droplets, The water molecules. Going even deeper, Seeing the hydrogen element, The oxygen element, The atoms that appear like water flowing through our bodies. And water simply becomes another way of flowing in the universe. Then within the body, We feel this fire, This fire in our belly, A fire in our heart, A fire in our organs. As we digest food, As the oxygen that we breathe in combusts and creates energy. To feel the heat in your body. To feel the heat in your digestive system. To even in this moment, Imagine heat in your body. Can you raise the temperature of your body right now? And feel that aliveness, This amazing transformational energy of the physical world into a fire and energy and thought. Then to be aware of the breath coming in your nostrils. Allow it to come out your mouth. Be aware of this breath, This air flowing through your whole body. The oxygen and all the elements of air. As you inhale, Feeling them diffuse into the cells flowing into every part of your body. And to know that this breath also is just energy. We are inhaling vibrating atoms into our body, Which are then speeding up or slowing down other atoms and having chemical reactions within us. And within all of this happening, This solid earth self, Our flowing watery self, The fire in our chakras, In our organs, In our cells, The air flowing through us. And then there is ether, Consciousness, Intuition, Spirit, Permeating every cell. Awareness. Let's just breathe for a moment, Feeling this awareness of all the miraculous things happening within us right now. Swadhey Jagatah Vaapi Sukshma Sukshma Tarani Cha Tatvani Jani Nilaayam Dayatva Anti Vyayajatye Para Experience the substance of the body and the world as made up of vibrating particles. And these particles made up of even finer energies. Drifting more deeply, Feel into each pulse of energy as it condenses from infinity and dissolves back into it continuously. Noticing this, Breathe easily with infinity dancing everywhere. Experience the substance of the body and the world as made up of vibrating particles. And these particles made up of even finer energies. Drifting more deeply, Feel into each pulse of energy as it condenses from infinity and dissolves back into it continuously. Noticing this, Breathe easily with infinity dancing everywhere. Let's take a deep breath in together. Exhale. And gently release our body. Stretch out your legs, Stretch out your arms, Your chest, Your face. And let's come back together. Thank you so much for being here and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Reviews

May our breathe lead us into our infinity dance. What a beautiful verse! Thank you Katrina for sharing with us the wisdom of the mystery of oneness and separation. Please let me know when your book about the feminine and masculine is out. I can wait to learn more about that aspect of polarity.