The Interval Between Opposition: Radiance Sutras Verse 38

During this session, we discuss Verse 38 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,

Beautiful translation of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra by Lauren Roche.

There's a lot of ideas about what Tantra is and in the West there's a lot of neo-tantric practices which probably the tantric massage and things like that that we were talking about is definitely in the neo-tantric realm.

But the classical Tantra,

It asks us to access the parts of us that are eternal.

It's almost like I want to still fully engage in life.

We aren't withdrawing to a monastery.

We're not withdrawing from people,

The community,

Jobs,

Children.

We're not withdrawing.

We want to fully engage but we want to remember who we are also.

You know we have that idea that there's a lot of theories around that,

That the intention of even coming to earth in order to have the human experience is we have to actually forget our divinity.

We have to forget the feeling of oneness and very often that is how we live.

We live almost like we're in a pinball machine going from one idea to the next to one crisis to the next to one from one decision to the next and we're very attached to the things.

We're very attached to the ideas and the things and the accomplishments or the traumas or the losses and that's sort of the point right?

That's kind of the point of being here is to have all those experiences.

But Tantra says what if you could dive into all those experiences and remember and remember your infinite self which is a bit of a challenge.

So that's really the point of these sutras and it's actually specifically the point of the sutra we're going to read today.

To actually experience our infinity while we're here on earth and it's almost like if we can develop a visceral experience of that expansive cosmic self,

How much easier is life then?

It's not that we don't care about what's going on.

It's not that we don't love people or enjoy wonderful things but we're not bound to it.

We're not enslaved by the idea because we feel all of it.

We feel the duality and the joy of the duality and we feel the expansiveness of oneness and that's really the goal of Tantra and that's the goal of this beautiful text.

So that's what we're gonna do.

Let's just close our eyes.

Let's just breathe deeply,

Expanding your belly as you inhale,

Contracting as you exhale and within your body,

Maybe around your heart center,

The place within you that if I was to say who are you,

The place you would point to.

Perhaps you allow your attention to go in there where everything is still.

There's no left and right.

There's no right and wrong and just breathe into that stillness right in the center of your being.

Then from that place,

Let's listen to this verse.

Watch for a moment in which two opposing perceptions occur.

Wanting to go and not going.

Knowing and simultaneously not knowing.

In the midst of this dilemma,

Let go of both perceptions and jump into the interval between.

Reality flashes forth.

Your being is the shining field of awareness.

The continuum in which the opposites play.

I'm gonna read it again.

Watch for the moment in which two opposing perceptions occur.

Wanting to go and not going.

Knowing and simultaneously not knowing.

In the midst of this dilemma,

Let go of both perceptions and jump into the interval between.

Reality flashes forth.

Your being is the shining field of awareness.

The continuum in which the opposites play.

Well,

Let's talk about it for a moment.

Actually,

I'm gonna read you another translation of it.

So this is a.

.

.

We don't have to be this or that,

Right or wrong,

But we can be both and neither.

Freedom from not having to exert energy into the opposing perceptions.

Giving and receiving at the same time.

I recall the field beyond judgment.

Rumi.

This is a literal translation from this book,

The Vijnana Bhairava or Divine Consciousness by J.

Deva Singh.

So this is a literal one.

At the moment when one has perception or knowledge of two objects or ideas,

One should simultaneously banish both perceptions or ideas and apprehending the gap or interval between the two should mentally stick to it.

The gap.

In that gap will reality flash forth suddenly.

I want to unpack my bags but I'm not doing it.

It feels very freeing.

Finding balance within to accept the outcome.

Between wanting and not wanting.

Knowing and not knowing.

Between.

We get really attached to things.

When we're in the duality,

We may want to make a decision.

Should I do this or should I do that?

And we get really caught up in is it this way or this way?

Which is the right way?

And our mind becomes preoccupied with the options.

And it becomes so preoccupied with the options we kind of forget why we're here.

So what they're saying is right now for all of us,

Imagine there's a decision you want to make.

Especially if it's a big decision you want to make.

Or it's a little one if you don't have a big one.

And now imagine the one option.

Now imagine another option.

Let's just stick with two.

And you can feel all the energy between both of them.

And now discard both of them and feel the space in between.

What does that feel like?

What does it feel like to feel this?

You've just discarded both options.

What does that feel like?

Free.

What does it feel like in your body?

Stillness.

Peace.

Open.

Spacious.

Intuitive.

Hopeful.

Energizing.

Not wasting energy on the conflict.

Connected and relieved.

Embodied.

Our true self.

Isn't that interesting that by releasing the two things we feel like ourselves.

Being okay with not knowing.

Reminds me of my favorite thing I learned in couples therapy.

It's neither person's fault.

No one is to blame.

Neither has to be right.

Both can be right.

Because again it's so interesting.

Like it's a beautiful example.

In a couple it's really easy to look at that one thing that was almost the tipping point.

But the reality is there's a relationship.

And when we can actually release that we can feel the spirit of the relationship.

Let's imagine a feeling.

Let's say you're feeling really happy.

Just really feel happiness.

And then feel sadness.

And then let both of those go.

Feel neither happy nor sad.

Or try feeling really angry.

Really angry.

Like allow it.

Allow anger to like rise up your spine.

Then feel gratitude.

And you can even picture these on a field.

Imagine over here is on the right side is anger.

And look at the anger.

Like look at it.

Own it.

Feel it.

We've all got it.

And on the left over there is gratitude.

Feel that.

And then kind of gaze between them and let them both fall away.

Imagine thoughts.

Imagine you have a really strong opinion about something.

Something important.

A really strong opinion about it.

Put that over on the right.

And then take the opposing idea.

Put that over on the left.

Really look at them.

Then let them dissolve.

What's left?

It's interesting.

They say that you know at first you look into the space.

Maybe it feels like nothing.

Maybe it just feels like the lack of anything.

Like let's go back to this thought.

Here's my opinion on the right.

And here's the counter opinion on the left.

What do you feel in between them?

What do you feel?

If you really feel into the subtlety.

It feels like one feeling is stronger than the other.

Equanimity.

You might even feel a magnetism.

This world,

This duality is based in magnetism.

There's that opposing force.

There's like a magnetism between them.

So if you release those pieces you're left with a field of magnetism.

Can you feel that inside of you?

Can you feel that magnetism inside?

And then all of a sudden bring one of those opinions into you.

Into your mind.

Where's the magnetism gone?

Can you feel that?

It's like the magnetism just left.

Suddenly it all just went into that one idea.

Then we bring the opposite idea in.

And then we release them both out to the world.

And you're left with this magnetism.

And what this Sutra is saying is that magnetism is reality.

That's the real world.

That's our actual reality.

Whether we choose this or we choose that.

Whether we have that or we have this.

Whether we feel this or we feel that.

Those are all just the transient parts of life.

We move through them.

We move down this path,

That path,

Whatever.

But what our real life is,

Is this field.

An equanimity.

Imagine living there.

Imagine living in this perpetual,

Potential,

Magnetic place.

Preserving your energy versus giving it to thoughts.

Can you feel how generative that energy is?

It's almost like that magnetism is flowing inside of our heart chakra.

Going,

Yes I can feel.

I can feel the universe.

I can feel the earth.

I can feel reality.

For me personally,

I'm feeling this right now.

And it's almost overwhelming.

It's like,

Wow,

My body feels so full of energy.

I can't feel the magnetism.

One of the feelings is stronger and it seems to stick with me.

It doesn't want to release.

So what if you feel,

So there's the one opinion or the one feeling on the right and the other one on the other side.

Imagine the people who feel the opposite as strongly as you feel your opinion.

Outside of judgment,

Imagine the people's souls,

The people's thoughts and emotions that are in that opposite camp.

And I'm with you.

I don't like thinking about that.

I like thinking about the way I see things.

But really think about how charged that is.

The interesting thing about opposing ideas is that they are opposing.

So then let's imagine something a little bit different.

Let's imagine that you're lying on the grass and you're looking up at the sky and you see two clouds in the sky.

You see one cloud and then you see another one over there.

And then just gaze at the sky in between them.

These kind of exercises are very subtle.

The exercise is to release our thoughts and feel the space in between the clouds.

Or to imagine,

I just got back from the dog park,

So imagine two dogs are playing.

We can see the two dogs but imagine they play and then they kind of run away and they come back together and they play and they run away and they chase each other and then they catch each other and they wrestle on the ground for a while.

I have a husky so they wrestle a lot.

Can you feel the space in between them?

The space in between the dogs?

There's this one beautiful piece that in one of the books and it said,

The split moment between two equal and opposite forces is an extremely significant point on which we concentrate in order to catapult our awareness into a higher dimension.

The split moment between two equal and opposite forces is an extremely significant point on which we concentrate in order to catapult our awareness into a higher dimension.

The other interesting part of this is that reality,

You know it's like if we try to imagine,

If we try to describe oneness it's impossible.

It's outside of our mind,

It's outside of our mental capacity because our brain has been created for duality.

Our brain has been created to navigate this world.

So to conceptualize oneness is actually beyond our waking mind's ability.

So you can't actually take reality as an object and look at it.

You can't look directly at it but you can feel it.

If you look at two other objects and allow your attention to relax and feel the space between the objects,

On a very subtle level you start to experience reality.

It feels expansive.

Anticipation.

Let's do a meditation.

Let's sit nice and tall.

I definitely,

Sometimes we can lay down to do this but today I'd ask that we sit and you can sit on a chair,

You can sit on the floor,

Sit on a mat.

So let's close our eyes.

Press your sit bones down into the earth like roots of a tree going straight down and as the roots reach down into the earth feel your spine become straight.

Let the crown of your head rise up out of your shoulders and let your shoulders relax down and your chin tuck in.

Breathing deeply.

Just be aware of anywhere in your body that's holding tension and allow your attention to go to that place.

Anywhere where there's pain or discomfort.

Really focus on those areas just for a moment.

Now we're going to come back to the breath.

I want you to imagine that you're sitting on a bench looking out at an open field and you suddenly see two dogs.

One coming in from the right and one coming in from the left.

The dog on the right is black and the dog on the left is brown and they're just sitting there,

You know,

Maybe six feet apart.

They're just looking at you and you're gazing from one dog to the other.

You're seeing these two dogs and you just gaze forward between the dogs and you can still see them but you're gazing into the field and then slowly the dogs dissolve away back into the dimension they came from.

Then a butterfly flies into the view.

Beautiful orange butterfly.

Then a green butterfly flies in from the other side and your eyes keep going back and forth between the butterflies.

Then you release the focus on the butterflies and gaze at the field again.

Watching the butterflies in your peripheral vision flying around,

Sometimes crisscrossing each other,

Sometimes doing their own thing and then feeling the butterflies return to their own dimension.

Then let's bring a decision into the field.

On the right you have one decision,

One choice,

One possibility.

Really stare at it.

Stare at that idea,

That choice and then over to the left of your vision is an alternate choice.

Really feel into that one too.

Really allow yourself to experience both options with your feelings,

With your heart,

With your mind,

With your fears,

With your hopes and keep allowing your mind to go back and forth.

Noticing how you feel in each one,

What you think of each one,

How each one fits into your life.

Then see those thought forms dissolve and feel the field where they live.

Imagine two opinions.

On the right you have your opinion that you feel very strong about.

It's your perception.

It's correct.

It is designed for you.

Then over on the left is a different opinion about the same topic.

To feel how many people perhaps believe that.

But to watch these like butterflies just existing in the field of reality and then letting them go.

Now keeping your eyes closed we're going to do something with our arms.

We're going to stretch our arms out into a big V as if you were going to give someone a big hug.

What I want you to do is I want you to inhale,

Hold the breath,

Stretch your fingertips out and tense all the muscles in your body.

Tense your fingertips,

Your wrists,

Your elbows,

Your shoulders,

Your upper arms,

Your chest,

Your face.

Hold the breath and now make fists with the hands.

Pull them towards your chest and as your fists hit the chest,

Exhale.

Inhale,

Expand the arms into a great V.

Extend the fingers,

Hold the breath and tense every muscle of your body,

Your face,

Your arms,

Everything.

Make fists with your hands,

Bring them towards your chest and as they come towards your chest,

Exhale.

One last time,

Inhale,

Open the arms into a great V,

Stretch the fingers,

Tense the whole body.

Feel these hands as these two things,

These opposite things,

These two dogs,

These two clouds,

These two opinions,

Both existing in reality.

Tense,

Tense,

Tense,

Tense,

Tense.

Make fists,

Bring your hands towards your chest and exhale.

And now without your hands touching,

You can open your eyes a little and just bring the palms towards each other and let them sit an inch apart in front of your heart center.

So your palms are facing each other,

Not touching,

An inch apart.

Relax your breath.

Relax your shoulders and allow your attention to be in the space between your hands.

And now without bringing your hands together,

Move your hands out just a little and then towards each other a little.

And see if you can feel the magnetism between your hands.

See if you can feel the energy in between the left and right,

The two sides of you.

You can even try pulling them out a little further and gently bringing your hands together into prayer pose.

Breathing deeply,

Keeping your eyes closed and releasing your hands down to your lap.

Watch for a moment in which two opposing perceptions occur.

Wanting to go and not going.

Knowing and simultaneously not knowing.

In the midst of this dilemma,

Let go of both perceptions and jump into the interval in between.

Reality flashes forth.

Your being is the shining field of awareness,

The continuum in which the opposites play.

Let's take a deep breath in together.

Exhale and let's open our eyes.

So thank you so much for being here and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Reviews

Wow, this was really wonderful 🙏. Appreciate you! 💗

Very good to see the results from this one ☝️ thanks 🙏