The Body Of Ecstasy: Radiance Sutras Verse 88

During this session, we discuss Verse 88 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 and the Radiant Sutras is a beautiful translation interpretation of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra.

This is an ancient text which I think comes from Kashmir Shaivism like it's used in Kashmir Shaivism but it could be older than that.

I don't know.

What we've been doing is every week we've been reading one sutra out of it and then we dive deeply into it and ponder it and normally we do a meditation at the end but I don't know that we can replicate this one as a meditation.

I may have to send you guys out to do it on your own because it's quite a physical meditation.

It's a beautiful text to begin at the beginning and work your way through but you don't have to and in fact it's actually a beautiful book to just simply open and read a sutra like a hukam you know that you just sort of allow that to be today's meditation so it's lovely for that.

So today we're reading number 88 and if you have the book awesome if you don't have the book also awesome but regardless I invite you to just close your eyes and just connect with your breath connect with your breath feel your belly expand as you inhale and contract as you exhale just allow all other thoughts of the day to go away okay all right here we go wander and wander to the point of exhaustion whirl until you lose control dance until you are ready to drop and then drop fall to the earth surrender to the swirl of sensations surging through your form dissolve in awe as rising energies continue the dance in your inner world beyond motion and commotion become the body of ecstasy what comes up for you when you hear that what thoughts or emotions or feelings inner child joy flow into yourself wow that's a lively one the dance till you drop part really got my attention good memories dancing joy after suffering kundalini activation kundalini activation give it all you got enjoy the dance outer and inner dance I was reflecting on how little time and focus is spent in the western world on ecstasy yeah ecstasy ecstasy so there's a few different ways that I want us to look at this today and one of them is this really interesting potential to experience ecstasy but of course this is a really difficult thing to imagine like our lives are so kind of one foot in front of the other so sometimes when we think about ecstasy it's hard to fathom right because our lives are just sort of you get up you have your coffee you get to work you do the thing blah blah like where is this ecstasy where is this infinite power where is this infinite joy flowing through our systems sounds great but how would I ever get there so now imagine this particular meditation imagine this particular sutra or even just imagine this yourself so you're walking along and you see this big open field and you just walk out into the field you kick your shoes off you spread your arms out wide and you start whirling you just start spinning in circles and circles and circles and you're not going to stop you're not whatever age you are right now whatever infirmity you may have whatever issues you may have you don't have it today you don't have vertigo you don't have nothing you are fine and you are spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning and you're going to go until you drop you're not going to stop yourself you're going to spin so hard you're going to go until you drop so you spin and spin and spin and spin and spin and spin now what's happening to the energy inside of you your thoughts you can't think about anything else all you can think about is whirling your brain is a hundred percent connected to your feet your arms your body and you're whirling and this energy is literally spiraling inside of you until all of a sudden you fall to the ground what do you feel whirling energy inside ecstasy the true nature of the energy that makes us up but the thrill is that it's concentrated so the nature of the world or the nature of nature is movement everything's always moving which is why we're always moving we're always doing stuff doing stuff but the energy is dissipated into all these different things which is fine like this isn't a negative thing it allows us to get all these wonderful things done and manifest things and care for people and all that kind of thing but it doesn't tend to feel ecstatic unless we are fully engaged if every single channel of our energy is doing exactly what we're doing then it can be ecstatic if we're paying attention but normally in a day-to-day life you might have you know 14 things you want to do today so this energy goes here and there and there and there and there and there but in this case all that energy all 14 things are in one place and they're building on each other they're going and going and going and going and going and going and going and then you go until you can't go any longer you fall to the ground and it's like physically you feel that energy swirling but the second part that's so important is the mind becomes still and when the mind becomes still there's this opening to experience what they would call in this writing Bhairava,

Shiva Shakti,

God,

Infinity,

Infinite potential,

The quantum field,

Whatever you want to call it that's what we're feeling in that moment the mind is open it's not analyzing anything the vikulpas that we've studied before which are just thought constructs are gone and now our consciousness can experience something else and of course what our body is feeling is this whirling energy can you guys imagine that like what that would feel like I'd love for you guys to put a emoji in the chat that describes what that would feel like to spin and spin and spin whirling and then falling to the ground like what would that feel like like melting into oblivion yeah isn't that cool this isn't how I was going to teach this I was this is we're going backwards so I'm always intrigued by that heart pounding because this what we're talking about is the because this what we're talking about is the actual ultimate teaching of this sutra the five tibetan rites includes revolution spins I yeah exactly so what's interesting is a few other aspects of this that I want to mention like a top watch out guys funny I always love the Tasmanian devil and animal a little ADHD hyperactive challenging our vestibular system is this similar to endorphins I don't know does anybody know what endorphins do I have adrenaline in my head which it's it's not adrenaline but I don't remember what endorphins do some of my friends when we are out we take hold of each other's hands and we spin and spin I almost pee myself laughing now I get those whirling dervishes feel good hormones after exercise oh it's funny how many things you can once know in your life and then have forgotten them I'm sure at some point I knew this I don't know if they're the same I'm sure they are like I'm sure like endorphins are part of it so what's interesting about this one specifically is that it's a I think runner's high I wonder about that I want to say yes that it's the same thing as runner's high but I'm not sure so for example let's think this through this is an example of concentrated divine energy every one of us is filled with divine energy every one of us that's that's what we are that's prana that's what makes us up every single one of us but like I said before it's normally out out in the world doing whatever but in this case it's almost like we take the energy and we dam it like you know um with water water's going along and then you put a dam in the water and you collect that energy from that water so imagine there's a place inside of you that the energy is going to gather so you have all of this epic pranic energy chi jing whatever you want to call it and it is gathering inside of you and so for example you look at the Sufis who do the whirling and whirling is very interesting I had a friend once come up to my train station and teach us how to whirl it was very interesting imagine whirling you're in the center and your arms are out to the side and you actually you don't look at a ping on the wall you actually train to do it by looking at your hand that's going with you so your hand is out here and you act as you turn you keep your eye on your hand and you let the world out there just do whatever it's doing you don't actually care about what's going on out in the world you just watch your hand while you turn and obviously true Sufi mystics don't have to look at their hand they were just teaching us how to do it and then eventually you can kind of move the hand in closer or you can picture the end of your nose and you kind of visualize the end of your nose and you spin there but let's imagine you have a hand and you're focusing here so what you're doing is you're creating this little area this circle and your body's spinning but all the energy is just going into this inner circle so now imagine we bring the attention into the nose and you look at your nose while you're spinning and all that kinetic energy all that energy of the spinning is literally like drilling into the center of you and you're like doing this inner spin inside of you imagine what that could feel like just imagine here you are in the center and you're happy you're content you're not falling over anything you are balanced you've learned how to do this and you are now in your center your arms are way out and you're spinning and all of this energy is coming into your center and it's creating this I don't want to call it a whirlpool but you can imagine it like this whirlpool energy of divine energy flowing inside of you your mind is still because it's very meditative and you can't think about things like you can imagine if you thought about things how you would lose your balance so you train yourself to stay centered you imagine what that would feel like like it looks like the dance is way out in the body but the point is that you are generating this energy inside so you're essentially feeling the ecstasy of the divine so is this the same as runner's high I don't know if there's anybody here who are runners and who experience runner's high I would love to know your thoughts on it because maybe it is the same that's why I was wanting to not call it a whirlpool energy because I don't feel like the runner's high is the same but I feel like the runner's high your mind is not thinking about the running your mind has gotten into the meditative movement of the running your body is just moving and creating all this beautiful kinetic energy with the earth and the air around you and you are now this inner stillness and all this energy is flowing through you that's why I wonder if it's the same so Jen mentions that there's more exhaustion in this example the dervish whirling is different than this meditation the whirling dervish is a controlled example once we get the idea of what this feels like but in this example they're asking us to go until we're exhausted go right to the edge of yourself now let's think about this what would that do for you one of the things that really struck me when I was reading this was depression apathy feeling stuck and what really struck me about that because a lot of people suffer from depression coming to kind of also an apathetic state about life the world themselves everything I'm not saying those are the same I'm just saying it's another example of what happens and we end up in a very stagnant place and when I was reading this and they were talking about how nature is all about movement imagine if you were depressed and I've been I've been depressed it's not like this is something I'm speaking about in theory theory getting up and just dancing until you're exhausted or whirling imagine doing this exercise when you are depressed and it would be hard because inertia is a real thing and if you haven't been moving and I mean mentally emotionally physically for a long time it takes a lot of energy to get that inertia happening but let's imagine maybe you're at a retreat and there's a hundred people doing it and you get up and the group energy helps you do it and you whirl and you whirl and you're not allowed to stop so those voices in your head that are like I don't want to do this anymore I'm getting tired you're not doing that you're actually going to keep whirling what do you think would happen and I'd really love to know your thoughts if it was you or you know someone who's depressed what do you think might happen whirling and I'm not simplifying what causes depression but the lack of movement I think is extremely hard on our mind what do you think would happen my fear says I would exhaust myself and hurt my body I'm really out of shape explosion of feelings negative or positive but maybe a cleansing process internal resistance it may spin out the inertia or the feeling state of depression stir up the stagnant energy in our body mind for me when I move it pulls me out for a bit then I can review my feelings I think the vagus nerve would nerve would get triggered and make it not fun fun the spinning would be dizzy and not fun let's know let's imagine for a moment that most humans living on planet earth right now are some percentage depressed based on their full potential let's imagine that's something that I believe I believe that we are meant to be these and I believe we all have the ability within us to be these fully actualized beings but I know in my own life I certainly have all kinds of funny I certainly have all kinds of funny programs that are rising that I work through and I sort out but it's almost like there's still parts of me that are depressed oppressed repressed whatever now let's imagine that that's true why then would you whirl to the point of exhaustion how would going to the point of exhaustion stimulate change within us I'd love to know what you think I'd love to know what you think exhaustion could allow for release a cleansing like shaping is shaking a snow globe a new perspective a regeneration this is why I ask you guys because you guys have such good stuff to experience your own strength getting away from overthinking to allow space for energy alignment exhaustion is a state that only allows you to feel one thing exhausted and nothing else when one is exhausted one can't think exactly exhaustion quiets the mind from the thoughts freedom empty the brain of the thoughts dragging us down release too exhausted to maintain the walls I built walls take a lot of effort wow that gives me chills when I'm exhausted I naturally let go of everything open to other answers the exact opposite of anxiety and depression presence yeah activate felt potential for bliss you know it's funny I teach kundalini yoga and kundalini yoga plays at that edge a lot because you do something and maybe you have to do breath of fire or you have to hold your arms in a certain position or you have to do a certain exercise and there's a point where the body says I don't want to do it anymore but there's actually no good reason why not there's some kind of block there's something that is moving through the meridians or something that says okay now this hurts it doesn't hurt holding your arms up it does hurt but holding your arms up isn't damaging it it's not like you're holding something and you're flexing a bicep that you would pull the muscle the muscle or something it's something else and it reminds me of what Tam said about too exhausted to maintain the walls I built that walls take a lot of effort that if my arms are up there's this point where I'm like if I stay up any longer I'm going to go beyond the place that are my comfort zone and our comfort zone can be a very beautiful thing in life in yoga in running in all the things but it also can be a stagnant zone because there is a joy in noticing are there walls here and to your point we think walls are just so awesome or whatever because they protect us but every day we're working hard on them we take an incredible amount of energy even yesterday so completely off topic maybe I don't know yesterday we had a meet and greet for William for my partner for his guitars he builds guitars and we had it at this local cider house and so the first couple that arrived the husband was really into the guitars but the woman she was just kind of lurking at the side so she and I got chatting well she her job she did she worked with the fascia and for anyone here who has ever done my yoga teacher training with me or discussed fascia I am fascinated with fascia because it's this amazing almost like an inner skin that runs through our entire body touching every single organ bone ligament blood vessel everything and it runs through our entire body as a singular organ the reason I got so interested is because I wanted to know where the energy meridians lay in the body we always hear about the meridians in Chinese medicine but where are they they're in the fascia so now imagine this you have this body and brain what's crazy is yesterday I had a really bad headache well the brain has no pain nerve endings like it has no it has it's all nerves but it has no pain receptors like our the rest of our body does so they say that the headache is actually in the fascia surrounding the brain so you have this inner skin that touches every single organ bone ligament blood vessel everything in the body the fascia shape shifts depending what the body needs it literally will shift from fluid to solid to whatever the body needs at any time like if that doesn't sound like the most amazing alien technology you've ever heard of I don't know what is this woman for 40 years she's been working in fascia but to her it's all about what story does the fascia hold what story does your fascia hold so like think about that imagine we have a story that is running through our fascia informing every cell of our body every organ what story does your fascia hold this is such an important question and now you imagine something like this whirling whirling not just whirling until you're comfortable because if we whirl until we're comfortable or we dance until we're comfortable or we do the yoga until we're comfortable we stay inside the story that we're telling ourselves but imagine instead you go to the point of exhaustion you whirl to exhaustion you dance to exhaustion you hold your arms up and do breath of fire in kundalini yoga till exhaustion how does this change the story how does it force us outside of our story and therefore change all the energy flowing through our bodies and minds when the story disappears I began practicing kundalini yoga I reached that point you talked about when you're describing the pain of holding up your arms when that's really something that's been blocking you and afraid of being released well I've been able to go past that point and experience the bliss when the block is released now I'm finding myself in a place of not knowing what to do who to be where to go I've experienced freedom and I don't know what to do with freedom yet please offer me your wisdom so David Hawkins wrote a book called Power Versus Force Power Versus Force is an amazing book and in it he has this chart I think it's called the map of consciousness where he has all these different levels and states of being that we live in and at the very lowest one is when we live and we feel like we live in a state of shame shame next above that is guilt I can't remember all the order but maybe it's fear apathy anger desire pride all of these things and then we reach something called courage and at courage you realize that you are driving your own ship no matter where you've come from no matter what difficulties you've had no matter what difficulties you continue to have in your life you get to make choices right now this is courage the levels above courage are like acceptance love reason peace the challenge is is that we are so accustomed to running our lives below that line of courage that what is life if I'm not battling with someone if I'm not battling with myself if I'm not angry about something if I'm not pissed off about something if I'm not suffering shame or guilt or something like it's almost like below that line of courage we are still bound by karma and whatever it is that is unconsciously tormenting us and then someday something happens maybe it's a near-death experience it's an awakening and maybe it's doing kundalini yoga and you suddenly or not suddenly but you break through all that and you no longer are driven by these frustrations and you find yourself in a world where you can actually do anything and I call this living above the line living above the line of courage and I genuinely believe that this is where our world is going and it might take 100 years or 200 years but there will come a time and we are quickly rising in this we are quickly releasing all those levels of bondage and slowly rising out of them and we're coming to this point exactly where you're saying what would life look like if all I did was build an experience and seek joy and seek community what would my life look like no problems no worries and when I say no problems or no worries I don't mean there aren't any problems or worries stuff happens but your life isn't guided by them you know you don't wake up in the morning with all of yesterday's issues in your head and if you do have a challenge it's because you're building a new business and you're learning something new you know you're not haunted by yesterday's stuff what does that life look like imagine making choices and we talk about this all the time but it's so hard to grasp if we are struggling with anger if we are struggling with guilt and these are old programs like these aren't like some kind oh like I'm such a loser because I have guilt it's not that like we were trained to be guilty we were trained that you can't be happy because there's all these people suffering in the world and you've got to fix everybody and you've got you're responsible for this and you have to answer their questions and like we have a lot of training that keeps us spinning below that line so then someone comes along and they say oh well you should just follow your bliss you should just follow joy and you're like what are you talking about intellectually we might be able to understand it but we don't really get it because we can't the long story short the idea of actually fashioning our life around what brings us joy is a real thing that is a real way to live but we have to let go of everything else but it's a real thing and that's what happens when we break out of the cycles we suddenly don't know what to do with ourself because we're not complaining about anything it's a very interesting thing and then all your all your discussions your discussions become about growth and new ideas and exciting things let's just do a very short visualization because i really want to reread the sutra after our discussion so let's all close our eyes I want you to imagine yourself sitting in the middle of an open field the sky is blue you can feel the grass under your bare feet and you take a few nice deep breaths and you stand up if you're not already standing and you start to turn your body slowly and in this visualization you are in perfect health your body happily turns and as your hands reach out from the body you start to go a little quicker and you feel so happy inside and you spin and you spin and you spin and you spin and every so often a little thought jumps in and wants to say something and you just keep spinning and spinning and it disappears and then another thought jumps in and you just keep spinning and then that thought disappears and you spin and you spin and you spin and you start to go even faster you spin and spin and spin until all of a sudden your whole body can feel the earth and you gently lay down on the earth and you lay on your back spread equal open to the sun and the sky and you close your eyes and you feel this magic within yourself wander and wander to the point of exhaustion whirl until you lose all control dance until you are ready to drop then drop fall to the earth surrender to the swirl of sensations surging through your form dissolve in awe as arising energies continue the dance in your inner world beyond motion and commotion become the body of ecstasy let's just breathe that in for a minute well thank you guys so much for being here and we'll see you soon

Reviews

No wonder I love twirling so much at ecstatic dance! Dancing helps me live beyond the line of courage as you say Katrina. Sadness and loneliness dissipate, get replaced by ecstasy.