The Dissolution Of Patterns: Radiance Sutras Verse 59

During this session, we discuss Verse 59 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

Well,

Today we are reading from the Radiant Sutras and this is a beautiful book written by Lauren Roche and it's a translation of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra.

So the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra is a beautiful tantric text.

One of the things I love about this book is that,

You know,

People often ask things like,

How do you practice Tantra?

How do you get started?

Because of course people think it's about sex and they think it's about positions or it's about having an exalted seventh chakra awakening or something.

But the reality is,

Is there's all these very subtle exercises that we can do.

Sometimes it's just the path of Tantra,

It's just an idea.

Like for example,

Understanding that we are both divine and physical.

Sometimes that's all we need is to actually understand something differently.

So then as we walk through our physical life,

We almost observe our life through the eyes of an infinite being.

And it isn't that we don't care about our life and it doesn't mean that we look at the troubles in our life or the struggles with the people around us or our own personal growth.

It's not that we don't take it seriously,

But we understand that it's not everything.

It's not the whole of our being,

It's just an experience we're having.

And like anything,

It'd be like imagining you wanting to play soccer or football if you're in England.

And you went out and you wanted to play soccer.

Well,

Soccer is not your whole life.

It's just a game you're playing right now.

So you put your whole self into the soccer game.

And when you're finished,

Whether you won or lost,

You know,

That might have been a goal of playing the game was to win.

But if you lose,

You still have an entire life.

You still have family and friends and work and joys and singing and chocolate and fun things to do.

The game isn't everything.

And that's a lot like knowing that we're fully divine and physical.

We still play the game all in,

You know,

You don't leave anything on the field,

Or you leave everything on the field.

But you also know that there's more.

So that's one thing.

And then in this book,

In the Radiant Sutras,

They give all kinds of practices of meditations that help us shift our consciousness.

And that's what today's reading is.

It's a practice.

It's a tantric practice to help us become tantric to help us fully engage with that divine self here on earth.

So what we're going to do is I'm going to read a sutra.

Then we're going to have a little discussion about it.

And then we're going to do a meditation to play with it.

And then beyond that,

You know,

I invite you to play with this during your day.

It could even be a practice that you do every day,

Just to see how it helps to alleviate the burden of being caught believing that I have no choice,

That I'm in a prison of some kind,

That my circumstances are my entire life,

And I can't change anything.

That's when we have suffering.

So we do these practices to help us alleviate that suffering,

By understanding that we always have choice,

And we always have power.

So let's close our eyes for a moment.

Let's breathe deeply.

Sitting on a soft seat,

Or lying on your mat,

Experience the space below as offering no support.

You are simply suspended,

Floating in space.

Structures of the mind release,

The reservoir of habits dissolve.

In an instant,

Lifetimes of patterns vanish.

What feelings or thoughts rise when you hear that?

Medicine for my soul.

Complete surrender.

So much hope within my heart.

Freedom.

Floating in the moment.

I feel especially connected to my crown.

The top of my head lightens significantly.

Dissolving.

Interesting stretching of thought patterns.

A lot of practices ask us to feel the support below.

This feels very empowering.

I feel a lightness and connection.

Let go.

Don't get hooked by the situations around me.

I love doing that in meditation.

It's like I'm floating in space.

My loved ones often come and dive into me and through me and surround me.

The release of bodily tension.

So it's a very interesting idea.

And for some people,

It might feel unnerving to let go of that support.

Like did anybody feel like that?

That would be a scary thing to do.

An uncomfortable thing to do.

I've been thinking a lot about my definition of support.

Why do I feel the need to be supported?

Yes,

A trust issue.

Totally.

I've been loving this language of repatterning rather than reprogramming.

Oh,

That's cool.

So it's interesting that this passage includes that specific word.

Well,

It's really nice that you brought that up because that's what we're going to talk about.

It was so different to the grounding and leaning into the support and feeling the ground connection.

Wonderful and light.

This sutra is interestingly very similar to the direct translation of it.

I'm going to read you a direct translation of it.

Seated on a soft seat or bed,

One should contemplate one's body as without support.

By this contemplation,

When all props of one's thoughts vanish,

For example,

When one's mind becomes free of thought constructs,

Then in an instant,

All this old undesirable mental dispositions lying in the unconscious will also vanish.

And I'm just going to mention in the notes in this book,

This is called Vijnana Bhairava or Divine Consciousness by J.

D.

Vasingh.

And what he says is,

In this way,

His mind will become free of thought constructs,

Which act like props.

And when his mind becomes thought free,

Then his habitual tendencies of thought,

Vasana,

Lying in the unconscious will also vanish.

Now,

Avasana,

And this is just spelt V-A-S-A-N-A.

V-A-S-A-N-A.

I thought about the letting go of the past and the weight it has on us.

Letting go of it allows for me to be able to live in the present moment much more.

Exactly.

Now,

We've all heard of samskaras.

And a samskara is essentially an impression in the mind that's created by action.

So every time you do something,

It creates an impression in the mind.

And there's no judgment about this.

It could be that you create a new pattern in your life that's very life-giving for you.

It could be getting up every morning and going for a walk.

And you do it every morning.

And this creates an imprint in your mind after a time,

After repeating that.

It's like,

As children,

We brushed our teeth once a day,

Twice a day.

And that created an imprint in our mind to the point that it's hard to fathom not brushing your teeth because it's now a pattern in our mind.

And of course,

If we have a pattern,

To understand that a samskara is based on actions taken.

It's not just a thought.

They are created by the actions we've done in the past.

And of course,

You know,

In Hindu thought,

Where we have reincarnation or Buddhist thought,

These samskaras can come from lifetimes of repeated action,

Creating an imprint in our mind.

So let's say we have all these patterns that are in our minds based on past actions.

Once those patterns start to almost triangulate together,

They start to intersect with each other,

They say it's like where these samskaras come together and weave together,

They actually start to color in our mind.

They start to change our intellect.

This is called a vasana.

So it's a vasana is like a samskara that's become powerful.

Because when samskaras combine to obscure our intellect and perceptions,

That makes our minds colored.

The vasana of the samskaras obscure our intellect and our perceptions.

So these are the curious patterns living in our mind that actually don't even allow us to perceive our lives clearly.

We are actually seeing the world through a filter,

Through a pattern,

Which doesn't allow us to be objective about anything in our life right now.

Now,

The beautiful thing about samskaras and vasana is that there's one way to change it.

And it's taking different action.

It's not about thinking about it.

It's about taking new action.

Because especially if you have patterns in your life,

And if we call them negative,

It just means that they take us down a road that we don't want to go down.

Maybe we have had patterns that we took action on in the past.

And if we believe that there's nothing we can do to change our lives,

Then that is exactly where our life will go.

Our life will be completely created.

Our life will be created by these past patterns called samskaras,

Called vasana.

If we accept inertia,

This is why it's so important to know we have choice.

It's the whole thing that no matter what our circumstances are right now,

No matter what patterns we are caught in right now,

We always have choice.

And in that choice,

All we have to do is take action.

Again,

We can't just think about the choice.

To change the impressions in our minds,

We have to take action.

Now let's just look at this sutra again for a moment.

So this is what they're saying.

Structures of the mind release.

The reservoir of habits dissolves.

In an instant,

Lifetimes of patterns vanish.

So when I read this,

It was interesting to imagine,

To realize in my mind,

I had some resistance to that.

I had some resistance to all my patterns vanishing.

That's when we realized that I may have attachments even to some of my bad habits,

Even to some of the habits that take me down roads I don't want to go.

It's just interesting.

And again,

It doesn't matter.

It's just something to be aware of.

It's always interesting when we do a meditation to just be aware that we might have some pushback inside.

It doesn't have to change anything.

It's just good to know.

So we can take new action.

But what if that's hard?

What if for whatever reason there's something in us that just has been in a pattern for so long we can't imagine shifting?

Well,

That's where a meditation like this comes in.

And through the mind,

We actually shift.

We shift our attachment to those old patterns.

So right now,

Wherever you're sitting or lying down,

Your physical body is supported by the ground,

By the bed,

By the chair that you're sitting in.

Every thought in our mind is supported by a pattern.

Every thought has a seat somewhere in our brain.

Have you ever had that?

That you're learning something new,

And it's like,

You don't have anywhere for it to go.

There's no seat for this new idea in your brain.

You don't have a context to remember this.

You know that I'm not going to be able to remember this because there's nowhere for it to go in my brain.

So you have to go out and you have to study something else.

I find that a lot when I'm studying the ancient tantric texts.

I read something and it's almost like my current philosophy doesn't have a place for this idea.

So I have to go away and I have to do other study or I have to have other experiences or I have to do something else to expand my philosophy to allow for this new idea.

So now imagine that today,

Ever since you got up this morning,

Every thought you've had is based in some kind of samskara from the past.

Everything.

Your happy feelings,

Because understand these aren't all negative.

Your happy feelings,

Your troubled feelings,

Thoughts,

They all fit somewhere.

So this meditation releases all the things that they're sitting on.

Because what's beautiful is the body and the mind are connected.

And if we can imagine the body without supports and we're comfortable and we still exist and we're happy,

Instantly the mind also goes without supports and all the samskaras and vasanas are released.

If only for a moment.

If only for the tiniest second.

I want to read to you what Lauren Roche wrote about this.

So again,

This is out of our Radiant Sutras book.

And in the back,

Under number 59,

This is what he wrote.

This is an afternoon nap type of practice or shavasana in which you lie down and give in to gravity so completely that it feels like you are suspended in space.

At first you feel the earth,

The floor or your mat or your bed beneath you.

Then that feeling dissolves and you are simply floating.

This sensation can happen in an instant and it is to be cherished.

There is a shift of perception inside this paradox.

You lie down,

Give in to gravity,

Let your weight drop,

And the instant you surrender into the weight,

You become light.

In the twinkling of an eye,

The sensation shifts to a feeling of boundlessness.

When the moment is right,

Something liberating can happen effortlessly.

It feels so good it must be a sin.

This moment of leisure becomes an inner festival,

A celebration.

Isn't that lovely?

So I'd love for you to find the most comfortable place for you to sit or lie down.

And you could have pillows and blankets and whatever,

But the idea is that whatever you're sitting on or lying on is very comfortable and soft.

Let's close our eyes and let's breathe deeply.

Just for a moment,

Let's inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth.

And then just close your mouth and allow your breath to be through your nose.

So in your mind's eye,

I'd like you to picture yourself sitting or lying,

However you actually are.

I want you to visualize it.

And we feel gravity pulling us down.

With every breath,

As you exhale,

Feel your breath going down into the earth.

Feel the weight of your body with every exhale,

Letting your body be a little heavier.

And all of a sudden,

Realize that what you're sitting on and what you're lying on doesn't exist.

And you are still perfectly where you are.

It's like realizing that what you're lying on,

What you're sitting on,

Is made of energy,

Which is true.

Energy waves appearing as physical,

But you actually don't even need it.

You too are energy waves,

Consciousness,

Awareness.

And perhaps we allow ourselves to float in space.

And as we float,

We feel this beautiful love inside of us.

This beautiful warmth filling our torso,

Our heart,

Our lungs.

And we feel so warm inside.

We can feel the whole world all around us.

And it's so peaceful.

Feeling your breath expanding and contracting.

Seeing your aura all around you,

Gently expanding with every inhale,

Contracting with every exhale.

We can go on a little flight.

Maybe we float over our town.

And we look around.

And we see the trees.

We see the lake.

We see the houses and dogs and people.

And as we breathe deeper,

Maybe we rise up.

And we see our town in the context of other towns,

And cities,

And farmers fields,

And forests.

We just float wherever we would like to go.

What would you like to see?

Or maybe you just rest in one spot,

Feeling this beautiful expansiveness.

Sitting on a soft seat,

Or lying on your mat.

Experience the space below as offering no support.

You are simply suspended,

Floating in space.

Structures of the mind release,

The reservoir of habits dissolves,

And in an instant,

Lifetimes of patterns vanish.

And then gently,

Wherever you are,

In your mind's eye,

Coming back to your point where you're sitting or lying.

Feeling the earth below you re-manifest.

I have this vision of,

I don't know,

Something from Star Trek,

Where you're on the holodeck,

And it appears,

And then it disappears,

And then it appears.

It's like being aware of the illusion,

But enjoying it.

And allowing it to become manifest.

And opening your eyes.

Let's take a deep breath in together.

And exhale.

I'd love to know what thoughts run through your mind or how you feel.

Or what that was like for you.

Whether it was easy or difficult.

I felt an inverse support,

Cradled by the divine.

Free yet held.

How do we integrate that feeling into the reality?

That's a great question.

So this practice is called a Shaktopaya.

And what that means is there's three different kinds of practices in tantra,

Or in Kashmir Shaivism school of tantra.

One is Shambhava Paya,

One is Shaktopaya,

And one is Anavapaya.

And those aren't important right now.

But Shaktopaya are all practices where using the mind,

You return to the mind.

You return to your true self.

So when we do this visualization,

Which definitely if you liked it,

I would recommend fitting it into your day even for five minutes.

It's not something that you even need to be guided.

The sutra is enough to sit on a soft seat,

Breathe deeply,

And then imagine the seat dissolves.

And you're floating in space.

Because what that does is it not only frees our body from its supports,

It instantly frees our thoughts from our supports.

It frees our thoughts from all of those samskaras,

Vasanas.

So in that way,

It returns us to ourself.

So first,

If you do the meditation,

It's almost like it works in the fabric of your mind.

Every time you do the right meditation,

It just releases little ties to old belief systems,

And old patterns that are perhaps clouding your current vision.

So the meditation itself strengthens our connection to our true self,

Releasing the connections to the old thought patterns.

That was one thing that this guy said,

In this book,

Sri Vijnana Bhairava Tantra.

So he calls it this dharana,

This focus,

This concentration,

Is an extremely effective way of clearing out the reservoir of old and useless samskaras,

Or mental dispositions that bind the mind,

Enabling the consciousness to experience its own essential nature.

So that's the first step,

That you just do the practice,

And slowly let that reservoir release.

Then,

All day long,

To just observe your thoughts.

Let's say,

You know,

You're having a struggle in a relationship.

And you look at the thought,

And you ask yourself,

What pattern inside of me supports this thought?

There's a support system for me to have this thought,

Or to have this worry.

Or what if I was to say to you,

But you can change your situation?

And you say,

Yeah,

No,

I can't.

You don't understand.

To look at that and say,

All right,

So what pattern is supporting that belief system?

We just experienced in the meditation,

That I don't need any support,

Physically,

Mentally,

Emotionally.

And yet I am whole,

I am complete,

Without any supports,

Any crutches,

Any props.

And that changes things.

Suddenly,

We see life differently.

And we ask ourselves,

Wait a minute,

Am I seeing this clearly?

Yes or no?

And to me,

That's the best thing to do,

Is these sutras have to live in our lives.

We have to actually use them.

They will change our life,

They'll change how we see the world.

So thank you so much for being here.

And I hope you have a wonderful day.