Your Body Of Bliss: Radiance Sutras Verse 42

During this session, we discuss Verse 42 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,

Which is a beautiful book by Lauren Roche,

And this is a translation of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra,

An ancient tantric text that comes out of Kashmir Shaivism.

It's a beautiful set of sutras that allow us to remember the truth.

It allows us to remember who we really are,

Because it's really easy to get caught up in the mind,

It's easy to get caught up in whatever's going on in our life,

And then suddenly that becomes our reality,

As opposed to really diving into who we really are.

It's like imagining a tiger.

How does a tiger act in the forest?

How does a tiger live?

How does a tiger understand itself?

And then imagine a tiger is found as a kitten,

Maybe it's abandoned or something,

And a human takes it in,

And the human teaches it to drink tea,

And it teaches it to be in the house,

And it teaches it to,

I don't know,

Wear diapers or something.

And I'm not saying this is a negative thing,

But what happens is eventually that tiger forgets what it is to be a tiger.

It forgets that instinct.

It forgets how to notice the world around itself.

It forgets its soul.

That's like us.

We've been heavily,

Air quote,

Civilized,

And we've forgotten who we are.

And so the point of these sutras is to read them,

And almost to read them with our soul,

With our eternal self,

So that every time we remember who we are,

It ripples out into the rest of us.

It ripples out into our life.

It doesn't have to change our life overnight.

We're very complex beings.

We have all kinds of things.

We have our physical lives that really matter.

We have a spiritual path.

We may have a dharmic path.

We may have karma that we're working through.

There's so many things going on.

So if we hear one thing,

And it ripples out into our consciousness in a very specific way,

That's pretty awesome.

Even the smallest thing counts.

And that's why I love this book,

Is that you can open it up,

And one little thing can just touch you in a certain way.

It can be medicine for that day,

And it can just heal things,

And we just become a little bit more clear about who we are.

And that's really the point.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to read a passage from this book.

Then we're going to contemplate how it speaks to each one of us,

Because it's really important how it speaks to each one of us,

Not just what I'm going to choose to discuss as we look at it.

So then I'm going to choose to look at certain aspects of this,

And then we're going to do a meditation.

And at the end of the meditation,

I'll read this in Sanskrit,

Which often speaks to us in a different way than the English does,

Even if we don't understand Sanskrit.

It's part of how Sanskrit is designed,

Or how it is received by our beings,

That our bodies actually understand the Sanskrit words more than we even understand English,

Or whatever our native language is.

You know,

For example,

The word ananda.

Ananda,

It means bliss.

But if you say this,

Ananda,

Ananda,

We know it means bliss.

Our bodies automatically know the feeling of ananda,

Because it doesn't actually mean bliss.

Bliss is one out of 500 English words that you might translate ananda into.

So the word means more than you think.

One of the words in the one we're going to read is amrita.

Amrita.

What does your body feel when it hears amrita?

You know what I'm going to do differently today?

I think I'll read the Sanskrit,

And then I'll read the English right away,

Just for fun.

And oftentimes,

Like if I say the word amrita,

It's not that an English word pops into our head to say,

Ah,

Yes,

This is what I feel.

Our bodies receive it,

You know,

Like in all the dimensions.

And that's all that matters.

Like we are so verbally focused,

We almost sometimes feel that if we can't describe it verbally,

Then I don't understand it.

When the truth is,

If I don't describe it verbally,

Or if I can't describe it verbally,

I probably understand it more than I know.

So that's what we're going to do.

For anyone reading along at home who has the book,

We're reading number 42 on page 77.

And you don't have to have the book.

But it's my favorite tantra book of all the books in the world.

If I wanted to own one about tantra,

This is it.

And one of the reasons for that is that we can study all kinds of theory about tantra.

But tantra is about the unfolding of you.

So at the unfolding of your consciousness.

And what I love about this book is it doesn't tell you,

Here's what tantra is,

Here are the steps you need to take to make yourself tantric or something like that.

It allows us to unfold organically from our own truth,

Which I think is the real way to study tantra.

So let's close our eyes.

Let's breathe deeply.

And let's just listen.

With one sweep of attention,

Gather in the whole universe and remember it as your body of bliss.

The deep rhythms of life pulsating,

Stir an ambrosia flowing and overflowing everywhere.

Drink the nectar of all pervading joy from the radiant cup that is this very body.

What comes to you when you hear that?

Or what feelings arise?

Or what words continue to play in your mind?

The whole universe,

Your body of bliss.

Be still and vibrate with sources,

Ripples of connection and oneness.

Drink from the radiant cup.

The universe is within all of us.

I am energy overflowing.

My life is a delicious ambrosia.

It's interesting this morning.

This morning I woke up and I was feeling pretty good,

A little tired.

But the funny thing is,

Last night Tim was over and he mentioned to me that maybe I should go on town council again because there's an open spot because the mayor died and they're calling for people to see if they want to be on council.

And he's the second person that day that messaged me and talked to me about saying that I should get on council.

And I take that seriously when people mention things,

People I trust mention that.

And yet I have this massive block up to it,

A huge block to it.

But now of course what it's doing is it's causing me to question what do I do for a living?

What do I do?

And so I'm doing my work today.

And so on Mondays I figure out what I do for the week.

I map out the whole week,

All the things,

The classes,

Study,

Teaching,

Recording,

Whatever.

And I suddenly hit this weird dark night of the soul almost.

Not a real one,

Just a mini one.

And I suddenly don't know what I want to do and I don't know what I should be doing and I get caught in the,

Oh I don't know,

Oh I don't know,

I don't know.

And it was almost like a dementor attack.

Like I suddenly was like,

I don't like anything then.

And it was so interesting that this was the reading today,

Fill your mind with ambrosia,

Fill it with the nectar of bliss.

And where I was in this moment,

And am in this moment to a point,

It was like that felt so far away,

That idea of filling my cup with ambrosia.

So in this book Sri Vijnana Bhairava Tantra,

The Ascent,

They tell a very interesting story because they talk about how the imagination within us creates our world.

That within our imagination we can create an entire universe.

So sometimes we think that,

Oh when I'm thinking something or I'm imagining something,

It's just a little slice of my life.

Everything else that's out there is still there.

But I'm just thinking about this one thing right now.

But is that true?

When we think about something,

It's actually all we're thinking about.

It actually is taking our entire consciousness.

So they talk about how our imagination creates our life.

It creates either heaven or hell.

We can choose to fill our beings with bliss and joy and ambrosia,

Or we can fill it with something else.

And so they talk about how in Tantra the mind is described as a Kalpa Vrishka.

And what Kalpa Vrishka is,

Is a wish-fulfilling tree.

That whatever we think about,

Whatever we imagine,

Will happen.

And don't get me wrong,

The problem with this idea,

Because we've heard it before,

Right?

The power of attraction,

What you think about expands.

It's not new in the spiritual conscious movement because sometimes that turns into blame.

Oh,

Like I created this life.

I created this.

All that kind of thing.

And that's never the point.

So if we go there,

Don't go there.

What this is,

Is a seed of possibility.

It's a seed for our consciousness to say,

You know,

I actually do have choice what I choose to think about.

And if I keep thinking about this other thing that's filled with fear and concern and struggle,

Then I'm going to take that really seriously.

I'm going to really look at that.

I'm not going to just poo-poo it.

I'm not just going to ignore it.

It's important,

But it's really important that we don't go into a shame thing about this.

So I'm going to read a story from this book that they used to illustrate this.

One day,

A poor old villager was returning home after a hard day at the market.

None of his wares had been sold that day.

And he was feeling weary and dejected.

Halfway home,

He decided to stop for a while and rest under a shady tree.

He did not know that he had settled under the mythical Kalpa Vrishka,

Or wish-fulfilling tree.

As he sat there,

He began to wish he could have food and drink as he was feeling hungry and thirsty.

Instantly,

The most sumptuous meal appeared before him.

After he finished his meal,

He wanted to sleep,

So he thought of a bed,

And immediately a bed appeared.

In this way,

Whatever he wished for appeared before him instantaneously.

By now,

Night had descended,

And this poor old man had not thought of returning home,

As he was completely engrossed in this affair of wishing.

Suddenly,

A fear descended on him,

And he thought,

It is night,

And I am in a lonely place.

What if a tiger or lion appears and devours me?

As soon as he thought it,

A tiger appeared,

Pounced on him,

And ate him.

Which isn't funny.

But that is what our mind is like.

If I'm sitting here,

And I am chewing on this,

This idea of going on counsel or not,

Or what am I even doing?

Should I be doing this?

Should I be doing that?

It isn't just a sliver of my reality.

It actually is everything I'm thinking about right now.

So in this moment,

It actually is my entire universe.

That's how poignant and important our minds are.

And it's so interesting,

Because it's not that we need to throw away all of our thoughts,

But within those thoughts,

Within that quandary,

Within that struggle,

We can add in things.

For example,

When I was chatting with Tim last night,

There was something in his sobriety about it that really touched me.

It made me think,

You have to think about this,

Katrina.

And again,

Understand,

I have to think about it,

Not because maybe I have to go on counsel,

Or I have to apply to go on counsel.

But maybe I have to think about it,

Because it's going to straighten my road in other ways of my life.

The very process of thinking about it is important for some reason.

And it really stressed me out.

And so I said to him,

I said,

You know what,

If one of the members on counsel approach me and ask me,

Then I'll take it seriously.

And I send that out to the universe.

And so it's interesting this morning,

How fears of not doing the right thing,

Of missing the call,

Is plaguing me.

I'm not doing what I meant to be doing.

Am I off path?

This is one of my greatest fears in life.

And it started to overwhelm me this morning.

And then of course,

As the universe has it,

This is our reading today.

It's an amazing universe.

And I can't even just disregard it,

Because I'm here to discuss it with you guys.

Our greatest fear is our greatest freedom.

So it's very interesting to think about,

What is it that you are flooding your body with in every minute,

Right now?

And it's not right or wrong.

The right answer isn't the ambrosia of life.

That's not the right answer.

We are alive here on earth.

Tantra isn't about escaping our life.

That's not it.

But what if in my situation,

I have this struggle?

But what if I can add to it?

What if I can add to it,

Wow,

My life just got a little richer.

My thoughts just got a little bit more interesting.

Wow,

I really need to focus on what's really important in my work.

Because perhaps this is on my path.

How would my workday streamline if I was to add this in?

What would that look like?

I can have the same discussion.

I can have the same quandary.

But I can have it filled with bliss.

And the nectar of life.

You know,

They talk about that bliss is a quality of the self.

Bliss isn't out there.

It isn't something that we need to attain.

It's actually a quality of the soul.

Amrita is the nectar of life.

It's actually a healing elixir.

In Sanskrit,

It's called the nectar.

It's called all kinds of things.

But it's also considered an antidote for poison.

It's considered medicine.

And the Amrita is within us.

All the time,

No matter how stressed out we are,

No matter how lost we are,

No matter how empty we're feeling,

That Amrita is always within us.

So the antidote to the poison is within us.

And all we have to do is close our eyes,

Breathe into our heart center,

And feel that Amrita flowing out,

Allowing it to permeate our thoughts,

Allowing it to permeate our worries and our concerns.

The reality is,

We live here on earth.

What's happening here on earth matters,

Or else we wouldn't be here.

The angst we feel when making a choice,

The angst we feel when we're doing something,

The excitement and the worry we feel when we're doing something new,

This is part of being alive.

So how do we bring this elixir into our lives?

How do we feel that bliss state,

Even within concern and worry?

How do we expand into that?

I'm just going to read your comments for a second.

It's so poignant this morning as I have felt empty all weekend.

Empty in a good way,

Ready to fill up with joy and bliss after releasing a huge looping ball of negative on Friday.

The most important decision we make is whether we believe in a friendly or hostile universe.

Well,

Exactly like you imagine this beautiful quote by Einstein.

If I imagine that this curious question has come across my path again,

But I believe in a friendly universe,

Then I will trust that the pondering of this question,

The angst that could rise out of it is somehow straightening my road.

If I believe it's a hostile universe,

I may believe that I have to take it and it's going to be really hard and it's going to throw my whole life out of balance and when am I ever going to study Tantra and do all the things that I love to do?

I just took a month to figure out my true plan and desire.

Is this an opportunity or a test of are you sure you know who you are?

Exactly.

Those thoughts exactly have been going through my head like am I just being tested?

But I don't know what the answer is.

It's interesting that it's coming up again.

Faith that we are exactly where we're meant to be.

I have the same issue right now.

The anti-venom is in the venom.

This is so wild divine timing.

You've lived so many lives even in this just in this one and have done so many good things besides raising children.

I don't think I don't think he missed any marks,

But I get that feeling struggles real till we deal feel and heal.

The world would benefit from a bodhisattva on council.

Yesterday while driving I saw fall colors that filled me with joy bliss that made me feel like weeping at the sight.

It was so beautiful.

This was the ambrosia flowing everywhere.

I'm going to read you one more interpretation of this.

So I wanted to address the negative side of this because again for some reason that's where I was in moments before reading this.

I'm not saying I never have bad moments because I do but it's not always and it's definitely not always when I'm coming on to chat with you guys.

So I do think it's interesting to see the opposite but what this sutra really says is imagine we take all of that universal thought and fill ourselves with the nectar of life.

So this is the direct translation.

This is the literal translation of this.

One should contemplate simultaneously on the entire universe or on one's own body filled with the bliss of the self.

Then through one's own nectar one becomes alive with the supreme bliss.

One should contemplate simultaneously on the entire universe or on one's own body filled with the bliss of the self.

Then through one's own nectar one becomes alive with the supreme bliss.

Here's another translation.

This is from Vijnana Bhairava or Divine Consciousness by J.

David Singh.

The yogi should contemplate the entire universe or his own body simultaneously in its totality as filled with his essential spiritual bliss.

Then through his own ambrosia-like bliss he will become identified with supreme bliss.

So again this is an interesting thing.

It comes back to the question of feeling the bliss in the universe.

Do we believe that?

Can we close our eyes and feel bliss in the whole universe?

And it's an important question because if we can't then we need to look at that.

Then that becomes part of our journey,

Part of our path.

But then the question is maybe it's hard to feel the bliss of the universe because I'm not connected to the nectar,

The ambrosia that lives within me right now.

And so through meditating on that divine bliss,

That nectar that is within me right now,

I then will know what bliss feels like.

And therefore I will get to feel the bliss,

The divine bliss in the universe.

It's kind of like in Taoism they talk about chi,

The energy within.

And they'll often talk about like a small chi and a big chi.

That small chi is what is flowing through our bodies and our aura.

This is sort of our personalized universal energy.

Big Chi is the entire chi of the universe.

So you can sort of feel the universal energy flowing and that macrocosm is the same within us as a microcosm with small chi flowing.

But if I don't feel the chi inside of me,

Am I even able to feel the chi in the universe?

Which is so cool because what it means is we get to focus on us,

Which is the only place we can actually affect.

And as soon as we start to feel it within us,

Then we'll start to feel it outside of us.

So let's come into a meditative position.

If you're sitting,

Sit upright.

With your spine straight,

Chin tucked in,

Shoulders relaxed.

If you're lying down,

Then feel free to lie down and enjoy.

Close your eyes.

Let your hands rest in your lap,

Palms facing up.

Let's just breathe deeply.

Expanding the belly as we inhale.

Contracting as we exhale.

Just connecting with your lungs.

Just breathing for a moment.

I'm going to tell you a very short story.

Last night I was watching Breeze Anatomy and they had taken lungs out of somebody who had passed and they were feeding blood and whatever into it and they thought the lungs had died.

And then all of a sudden they looked over and the lungs were breathing on their own.

They were actually animated.

And I was so struck by this sight of these lungs breathing on their own.

I want you to imagine that right now within you,

That your lungs are breathing on their own.

The fact that your lungs are connected to your heart,

Your blood,

Your chi,

Your prana.

You are not breathing your lungs.

Your lungs are expanding and contracting with the flow of life.

That's flowing through you right now with all that beautiful stardust,

Prana,

Life force.

Our lungs are breathing all on their own.

I want you to bring your attention to your first chakra.

The area between your legs where you're sitting and feel this energy swirling there.

Swirling down into the earth.

And if you're lying down just visualize yourself sitting on the earth.

Feeling your root resonate with the earth's energy.

Feeling that quiet earth,

That powerful earth resonating at your perineum.

And feeling that energy flow up into your second chakra below your navel.

Feeling it swirling like water from side to side in a figure eight.

Through the kidneys,

Through the bladder,

Through the sexual organs.

Feel this earth powerful stardust manifest energy effortlessly flowing through you.

And then feeling it flow up to the third chakra above the navel.

Feel all that sparkly stardust merging with your sense of who you are.

Your understanding of who you are,

Why you are manifest.

Maybe you picture your chakra like a ball of light or even a colored ball.

And feel this earth energy flowing through that ball making it sparkly and alive.

And being aware of these lower three chakras.

Who we are,

How we interact with each other,

How we connect with the earth,

With the village.

These are all of our thoughts and our imagination about being alive here.

Why we're here.

Security,

Fears,

All these things.

Our lower triangle,

Our manifest self.

And as we gently travel through the body up to the crown.

Feel the crown of your head opening to the galaxy,

To the universe,

To God,

To infinite consciousness.

Feel the crown of your head swirling in that radiant energy.

That it is a part of you too.

Feel that energy flowing down into your third eye.

As it streams into your mind and your brain and your consciousness.

Making us aware,

Making us alive.

Feeling that stardust flowing through our brain.

Our responses,

Our emotions,

Our wisdom.

And then feel that flow down to our throat chakra.

Our words,

Our chanting,

Our singing,

Our connecting with each other.

Our upper triangle,

Our divine selves within us.

And between these two triangles is our heart center.

The place where we point when I say,

I am Katrina.

The seat of our soul,

Atman.

And feel how perfect it is.

Feel the Amrita that flows within.

And allow that Amrita,

This holy nectar,

To flow from your heart center up and down through the triangles,

Up into our throat,

Our mind,

And down into our lives.

Into our thoughts,

Our relationships.

Feel this Amrita flowing through our physical bodies.

Through our arms,

Down to our fingertips.

Throughout our organs and down our legs and into our feet.

What does this nectar look like for you?

What color is it?

How does it look?

That it fills you up and nourishes you.

They also call it ambrosia.

Feel ambrosia in every atom,

Every cell of your being.

There's a beautiful Sanskrit phrase in the sutra,

In the sutra.

Sva-ananda-paritam.

Which means,

I am nourished and filled with the bliss of my soul.

I am nourished and filled with the bliss of my soul.

Sva-ananda-paritam.

Another phrase,

Sva-amritam.

I am suffused with the nectar essence of life.

I am filled with the nectar essence of life.

Sva-amritam.

So let's just breathe deeply and feel this nectar flowing through our bodies and minds.

Then let's take a deep breath in.

Exhale.

Take another deep breath in.

And as we exhale,

Feel the Amrita flowing through our bodies.

Now let's open our eyes.

Thank you so much for being here.

I hope you have a wonderful day.