Self As Infinite Space: Radiance Sutras Verse 69

During this session, we discuss Verse 69 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.

The Radiant Sutras is a beautiful translation,

Interpretation of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra.

And this is a book written by Lauren Roche,

A really wonderful man who lives in the United States.

And every week we read one sutra and dive deeply into it.

I particularly love this tantric journey.

You know when people ask me like I really want to study tantra,

This is the journey I recommend.

If you really want to do it,

Consider the tantric ideas and very slowly try to blend them into your life in a very organic way.

Very often the only reason we don't live in a tantric reality right now is due to a thousand paper cuts or a thousand little ideas that were given to us as children or maybe in many lifetimes.

But all these tiny little things create these limitations within us that make us believe that we are not incarnate divinity.

And it's very subtle.

The tantric path isn't like here read this book,

Do this meditation,

And you'll be tantric or have this initiation,

Learn these seven things.

Because the tantric path is real.

What we really want is to get back to our true nature,

Our true,

Eternal,

Undivided,

Infinite,

Finite nature.

So the key So the key is to take a very gentle path,

To take one thing and really meditate upon it.

And what I mean by that is if you imagine meditation is like concentration or awareness,

That you take this one idea and you add it to your awareness of being alive in every aspect of your life.

Imagine if you simply came to this class every Monday,

And for the following six days pondered whatever this topic was.

And then very gently,

It would start to unravel various start to unravel various tiny pieces of our consciousness that maybe aren't exactly us.

They're things we adopted.

But then we continue to think of these tiny things.

And it slowly shifts us.

For one,

The ego doesn't fight against it.

Because it's like we're bringing the ego closer to its true mission.

And it can feel that.

So there's not a pushback,

We don't rebel against it.

And it expands every experience we have.

So that's really the purpose of the Radiant Sutras,

Or reading the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra.

But the original Sanskrit is a little.

.

.

It's actually so literal.

Once it's translated into English,

It's hard to understand the depth of it.

Because Sanskrit is a very rich language.

So I was in this rock shop yesterday.

Rock meaning gem,

Not rock and roll.

She also had art up all over the place,

Beautiful art from local artisans.

For me,

I'm not a visual artist.

So I actually don't know anything about oil paint versus watercolor paint versus layered paint.

I don't know anything about it.

So I look at it.

And I go,

So I look at it.

And I go,

Well,

That's pretty.

Or it's very bright and lighter,

It makes me feel good or something.

I have a very simple version of a simple understanding of that piece of art I'm looking at.

Whereas an artist or even someone who is more into art than I am,

Would be able to stand and see the depth of the art piece.

They might even understand the techniques used and understand various things.

And there's a lot more depth to it.

When we don't understand Sanskrit,

And we read something that's an English transliteration of the Sanskrit,

We're kind of like me looking at a piece of art.

It's like,

Oh,

Like I almost can't go deep with it,

Because I just don't know enough.

Whereas what Lauren did here with the Radiant Sutras,

Is he wrote an interpretation of the Sanskrit so that everybody could understand it.

He sort of stood beside you,

While you were gazing at this beautiful piece of art and said,

Do you see this and that,

Allow this color to go into here and then feel it from that perspective.

And all of a sudden it lights up.

So in our class today,

I will read you the Radiant Sutras version,

But I'll also read you the original Sanskrit.

Because maybe there is something in that for you.

We all see the world very differently.

So here we go.

For anyone who has the book,

We're reading number 69.

But even if you have the book,

I invite you to at least for the first reading,

Close your eyes.

And let's just take a deep breath in.

Releasing the world around us.

Releasing the sounds and the thoughts and the intriguing constructs of the world.

And just coming into our breath and into our heart space.

And let's just receive it from that place.

Meditate on the self as being vast as the sky.

A body of energy extending forever in all directions.

Above,

Below,

All around.

In the embrace of infinite space,

Awaken to your true form.

Divine creative energy,

Revealing herself as you.

What does that feel like for you?

Are there words that float through your mind when you hear that?

Expansive,

Connected,

True essence,

Full,

Spacious,

Vast,

Divine space.

Let everything fall away.

Let the self be revealed.

Was the compliment my heart needed?

Was the compliment my heart needed?

Let everything fall away.

Let the self be revealed.

Was the compliment my heart needed?

Real awe,

But hard to stay with.

Physical freedom and infinity.

I am the result of divine creativity.

Reality check.

The rest is the rest.

We are so much more than our physical form and presence.

Safe surrender and receiving bliss.

So when we look up into the sky and we see no horizons,

No things,

No definitions,

No nothing,

Just endless sky.

Sometimes we're,

You know,

We can be in awe of that.

But the idea that this is the nature of our true reality can be very unsettling.

The only reason we enjoy looking at the sky in comfort is because we can feel the ground underneath us.

Is because we can feel the ground underneath us.

And we can see the trees.

We still have our foundation of things around us.

But this sutra asks us to imagine that this is actually our real essence.

Unending.

No definitions.

No reference points.

And in many ways this is really a challenge.

Like I was talking to someone on the weekend who,

You know,

Was raised in a very deeply religious upbringing.

Since then they've sort of been like,

They've left that idea,

Those ideas,

But now they feel quite lost.

Because,

But I had all the answers before.

Everything was explained before.

It was all like written out for me.

And now suddenly I don't know what the truth is.

I don't know what reality is.

I don't understand what happens.

I don't understand what happens anymore.

I don't know what happens before we live,

Or after we die,

Or what are we even made of,

And what is the purpose.

And it's a funny thing,

And even if we haven't been raised in a deeply religious space,

Even our education and the science we're taught in school makes us think,

Ah yes,

We understand all of this.

Like we have names for them,

And we observe this.

And then we start down a spiritual path,

And we start to question all of this,

And we're like,

What do you mean it's not real?

What do you mean maya is an illusion?

Yeah,

But I mean,

It's sort of like when we talk about non-attachment.

It's like,

Well,

I still can love people,

Right?

Which you can.

But it's very unsettling.

And so what often happens is we sort of reach for a new construct.

A new way of understanding the world.

A new system.

Okay,

So I can't use that system,

So I need another system though,

Right?

Like I can't just embrace myself as endless sky.

You know,

I can't.

My mind wants a system.

A couple years ago,

I've told a lot of you guys,

I got to study with the friends and colleagues of David Bohm,

My favorite quantum physicist,

Who has passed like decades ago.

But a movie came out about him called The Infinite Potential,

The Life and Work of David Bohm.

And to launch that,

And of course,

This was during all the lockdowns,

So there was a lot of like Zoom calls sort of happening to connect people.

And I got to be a part of these Zoom calls.

Because I signed up,

Not because I'm interesting.

And so the cool thing is one of the men continued on in an interesting journey on one aspect of his teaching,

And I continued with that.

And the first thing he said,

Because we were trying to understand the universe in a very different way,

Like to try to really understand some of the aspects that David Bohm was trying to teach,

That were really beyond our comprehension,

So we had to intuit it almost.

And he said,

I would like to have this discussion with,

I don't know,

Maybe 30 people there.

But I don't want us to discuss it within any of the constructs that we believe in.

So if you understand the world in terms of chakras,

I don't want to talk about chakras.

If you understand the world in terms of whatever,

I just have chakras in my head.

But you know,

Whatever that system is that,

You know,

Maybe you believe in Ayurveda,

Or maybe you understand this system over here,

Or whatever,

Or even systems in metaphysics,

Or whatever,

Whatever that system is,

Let's discuss it without any of those constructs.

It just changed everything.

It changed the whole conversation,

Because we are so accustomed to applying constructs to any idea.

But of course,

As soon as we apply a construct to an idea,

We limit the possible exploration of that idea.

So in many ways,

Embracing this sutra,

Embracing reality as this endless sky,

Asks us to release all the constructs.

So what's interesting is,

What this sutra specifically is asking us is to embrace the element of ether,

Or akasha.

So if you imagine experiencing the world,

If we talk about chakras and elements,

Speaking of systems,

If you look at the earth,

And your first chakra,

The first chakra is connected with the earth element.

And imagine all the things in the world you identify with the earth element.

All the things in the world you identify with as things,

Earth,

And it could be even trees,

Or cars,

Or anything that's solid like that.

These are the things that I navigate around,

I navigate with,

I'm very comfortable as long as there are things that I can touch,

Earth,

Made of earth.

So imagine we just let that go.

We just let go of everything we understand to be about earth,

The manifest things.

And then we move into the second chakra,

And we think of all the watery things,

The oceans,

The rivers,

The lakes,

The blood flowing through us,

The rain coming down.

It's a whole different element of earth.

Let's say we let that go too.

And then we imagine fire,

The third chakra.

We think of all the fiery things,

And the live things,

And the sunshine,

And digestion,

And whatever it is that you see as fire,

It could be even emotions,

Or all kinds of things.

And then you come into the heart center,

Which is air.

So here's the air we're breathing,

And the flowing,

And the wind,

And all these things,

And we let that go too.

And what are we left with?

Ether,

Space,

The space that all of this stuff is manifest within.

We get to experience the space we live in.

Now what's interesting about it,

On a very deep level,

We can identify with that.

We can identify with ether.

It isn't nothingness.

It's ether.

This is the realm of intuition.

This is the realm of sight,

Of insight.

This is the realm where we connect with our spidey senses.

You know when something happens and your body kind of goes,

What?

What?

That's not right.

Or,

Oh,

That is so right.

It's not nothing.

It is a very palpable part of our essence.

And so,

If it feels uncomfortable to release all the things,

Earth,

Air,

Water,

Fire,

And all that go,

To embrace this ether,

Akashic space,

Think of your psychic self.

Think of your soul.

Think of your soul.

This is soul space.

And kind of close your eyes and realize,

Wow,

I have this beautiful soul that perhaps lives beyond the elements that I can see,

Feel,

Touch,

Hear,

Smell.

And you can feel it,

Even if you can't describe it.

So,

Lots of you guys probably already know this,

But within the body,

We have our organs and muscles and ligaments and bones and blood cells and all that good stuff.

There is a system in the body called the fascia.

And the fascia is one of the most,

I don't want to say misunderstood,

It's like not understood elements of our body.

It is this continuous,

It's like a body suit on the inside of our bodies.

And it's continuous.

It is a single organism or a single system that literally,

It's this stretchy,

Interesting,

Sticky material that can become more liquid or more solid depending on what's needed,

Which scientists have no idea how it does this.

And it flows through our entire being.

It touches every single organ,

Bone,

Muscle,

Nerve,

Everything.

And it runs through our entire body.

And it is a continuous system.

What's fascinating about the fascia is that that is where the energy meridians of Chinese medicine run.

They also come a bit up to the surface of the skin,

But they mostly run through the fascia.

Isn't that interesting?

So,

In some ways,

I imagine ether to be very much like the fascia that runs through our system.

We don't really think about it,

Do we?

We think about the physical organs.

We think about the liquid.

We think about the fire.

We think about the air flowing through our lungs.

Where does the energy flow?

What ties it all together?

The fascia is magical.

And it's so amazing,

Like,

No matter what we do in the day,

One of the most healthy things we can do is stretch our fascia,

Stretch our bodies.

It's not just whether you do it in a gymnastic-y way or a yogic way,

Or you simply just stand up in the morning and you stretch up and you stretch your fingers.

You don't even do that.

Even if you're with me now,

To stretch up and feel how you can keep stretching,

Stretch your fingertips and keep stretching and keep stretching.

It's like you can just keep on going.

And then when you're finished stretching,

You're like,

All we did is stretch the fascia,

Which sort of went quiet while we were sleeping.

It's morning for me here.

Maybe you've already been running around all day,

Depending on where you are.

But for me,

It's morning.

And so you sort of stretch out the fascia.

It's one of the greatest things we can do for our bodies and our energy and everything.

It's just to make sure we get all that beautiful fascia stretched out.

And I mention this because sometimes when we study spirituality like this,

We can feel very ungrounded.

And so it's a little frightening almost to consider space.

I just don't know where to hold on.

So whether it's the fascia or your intuitive sense,

Like your sixth sense,

There's actually lots to hold on to.

It's interesting,

One of the parts of this is it says,

In the embrace of infinite space,

Awaken to your true form,

Divine creative energy,

Revealing herself as you.

I'm going to read another version of it.

So this is a more literal version.

When one meditates on one's own self in the form of unlimited space in all directions,

The mind is suspended and Shakti in the form of consciousness is revealed as the form of one's own self.

If you're into yoga and Sanskrit,

They call it Chitta Shakti.

When one concentrates on oneself in the form of a vast firmament,

Sky,

Unlimited in any direction whatsoever,

Then the Chitta Shakti,

Freed of all props,

Reveals herself,

Which is the essential self of the aspirant.

I'm going to just read another little note they say here.

So what they're saying is,

In such a frame of mind,

The Chitta Shakti,

Now the Chitta Shakti is the divine power of consciousness.

It's like we talk about how Shiva Shakti is oneness.

This is the oneness that is then separated,

And Shiva stays as consciousness and Shakti becomes our manifest beings.

So what we're saying is,

Shakti can exist as earth,

Air,

Water,

Fire,

But Shakti can also exist as consciousness,

Just pure consciousness.

It's funny.

Last night,

We re-watched The Matrix,

Which is hilarious.

I mean,

You figure this movie's been out for 25 years.

I've watched it at least 50 times.

But for whatever we were,

We were talking about these kind of topics.

And I was like,

Do you want to watch The Matrix again?

And the wild thing,

Of course,

Is that Chitta Shakti,

The consciousness within us is what creates our entire life.

The awareness of that is everything.

Do we really have to have something to hold on to?

Couldn't we just flow?

No,

You can 100% just flow.

Totally.

Fascia fascinates me.

And I just noticed that the word is in fascinate.

Yeah,

I think there's probably a deep rabbit hole we can go down there.

The only reason I mentioned the whole flowing in,

Or being able to identify with it,

Is that it's often difficult.

It's difficult to contemplate.

So for example,

Here,

So she talks about how the Chitta Shakti is the divine power of consciousness.

When we do this,

When we contemplate ourselves as infinite sky,

This beautiful divine power of consciousness is freed of all thought constructs and shines in this state.

And this is the essential nature of the self.

So what's really interesting is when we can release all the thought constructs,

We just experience life.

No opinions,

No judgment,

No nothing.

We just experience the nature of life.

All right,

Let's do a meditation.

So wherever you are,

Sitting upright,

Lying down,

It's all good.

But let's close our eyes.

We're just going to breathe naturally through the nose,

If you can.

And right where you are,

I'd like you to focus on the physical parts of your body.

Notice anywhere that you feel discomfort,

Whether you feel heat or coolness.

Notice your right foot,

Ankle,

Calf,

Knee,

Thigh.

Knee,

Thigh.

Really focus on your right leg.

What does it feel like?

All the little corners,

The skin.

And then focus on your left leg.

Your knee,

Your calf,

Your thigh,

Your quad,

Your heel,

Your instep,

Your toes.

Be really aware of that left leg.

And then think about your hips.

What do they feel like?

And then think about your hips.

What do they feel like?

Where the legs insert into the hips,

The buttocks,

The lower back,

The lower belly.

And then moving up into the torso,

The intestines and the stomach,

The belly button,

All the organs in that soft place in the belly.

And being aware of your spine,

All of these vertebrae going up,

Up to the base of the head.

Be super aware of the spine.

Let it be still.

Be aware of the lungs,

Moving the chest.

Then be aware of your right arm,

Your shoulder,

Your bicep,

Elbow,

Forearm,

Hand.

Your bicep,

Elbow,

Forearm,

Hand,

Fingertips.

Then your left arm,

Fingertips,

Palm,

Wrist,

Forearm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Armpit.

And be aware of your shoulders,

Your neck,

And then up into your head.

The skull,

The bridge of your nose,

Your chin,

Your jaw.

Be aware of your whole physical body.

And then we're slowly just going to let that go.

Just let it dissolve out of our consciousness.

We're going to feel the flowing fluid through our being,

The blood,

The lymphatic system,

The fluid around our eyes,

In our mouth.

And just visualize it flowing through your whole body.

The saliva in the back of your throat.

And then we're going to release that awareness.

And then feel the heart pumping,

The energy,

Feel the fire in the belly,

The fire of digestion.

The fire of digestion.

Feel emotions,

Happy,

Anger,

Sad.

Feel this energy that lights us up.

Then we release that.

Then let's feel the air flowing through our nostrils or our mouth.

Be deeply aware of this air,

Prana,

Flowing in and out of your lungs.

This oxygen being carried to every cell of your body through this air.

Flowing through your nostrils.

And then let's let that go as well.

So now what do we feel?

This beautiful space.

In our mind's eye,

If we were to look around,

We would see space all around us.

And we floated through that space at one with the whole universe.

Remembering who we truly are.

Who we truly are.

Knowing that we are part of the world,

But we are also this infinite,

Wonderful energy.

Meditate on the self as being vast as the sky.

A body of energy extending forever in all directions.

Above,

Below,

All around.

In the embrace of infinite space,

Awaken to your true form.

Divine creative energy revealing herself as you.

Let's just breathe in this space for a few more breaths.

And then as we float,

Begin to feel yourself bringing air back into your being.

Feel the warmth of fire.

Feel the movement and flow of water.

And then eventually,

Feeling our physical body here on the earth.

All back together.

And as we move back into our day to day,

Loving all the elements,

But always remembering this beautiful,

Infinite ether that we also are a part of.

Let's take a deep breath in together.

And exhale.

Let's open our eyes.

Thank you so much for being here.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Reviews

I so love this series. The wisdom in the sutras of that book is so … tantric. Being ethereal. Experiencing something different from being grounded (earth), flowing (water), freedom (air), passion (fire) or is it experiencing all of it combined in one vastness? This practice of opening my meridians into the infinite provides me with so much healing, ease and bliss. I love the poetry of these writings how they describe something I experience but don’t always know how to explain in words.