Tantra The Supreme Understanding Session (7) Part-1

Join us for a series of talks, focusing on the greatest position- Tantra. Commentary on the book by Shree Rajneesh written in 1975. Don't miss it! (The recordings of the first meetings are available on my Insightimer page). Please listen and join us for this 7th session. In this session, we discuss what happens when you transcend beyond the intellect's tendency to split reality into duality. How the present moment is experienced when there are no more: Like/dislike, craving, aversion, good/bad. Don't miss it. This is part 1/2 of the talk.

Transcript

Let us start with a short ceremony. Just to make sure that we are all aligned. So let's close everything that might beep or disturb us in the next few minutes. And sit comfortably on your chair. Let us take a deep breath in. Let go. Let's close our eyes and take another deep breath in. And let go. And the next breath in we keep in, We don't breathe out. And slowly breathe out. And let go of all your thoughts. Let go of everything that already happened in the past. Let go of everything that may happen in the future. And allow your breath to guide your attention back to the present moment. Become fully aware of whatever is happening now around you. Any voices. Anyway here. Become aware of the presence of your own body within that environment. And the space it takes. Become aware of your body, The posture that is in front of you. The energy, The posture that is sitting in. Without changing anything, Just observe. Become aware of the weight of your body upon its seat. You may lay the entire weight of your body upon its seat. As you observe your body, Make sure there is no tension hiding in any area in your body. And if you found a place that is more contracted, You may guide your breath to that area. And fill it up with oxygen, With life. And as you breathe out, Allow that tension to leave your body. Until the entire body is free from stress and contraction. Another deep breath in. And let go. Let go more and more. Become aware of your own thoughts. What are you thinking of right now? As you observe your thoughts, Do not get attached to any specific thought. If you found that you've been carried away by a thought to a different reality, A different time, Never mind. Once you observe that, Come back to your breath. And with the breath of the present moment, Allow the thoughts to fly by like clouds in the sky. Become fully aware to everything that is happening around you and within you. And as that stream of events keeps on flowing, Allow your attention to turn away and face itself. The origin of awareness. The origin of being. The origin of being. The origin of being. That space within that observes before and beyond any event. Where there is no movement, There is only silence. And for a moment, Become that silence. Gently allow your attention to come back to your body that is seated here upon its seat. A part of our virtual circle. A part of our virtual circle. Let's unite our individual intentions into one unified intention. The intention to grow, To develop, To evolve. With a smile, Let's take another deep breath in. And when you feel comfortable, You may open your eyes. So, Welcome everybody once again to this opportunity that we give ourselves every week to stop the rush and walk the path together. Welcome. We are in chapter seven of our journey under the title Tantra, The Supreme Understanding. I'm going to briefly review what we've done so far. But I do recommend that if you haven't, Go back to the recordings and listen to the previous chapters. It will give you a more holistic view of what we're doing here. So, The first session describes a conversation between a teacher called Tilopa and his disciple called Niropa that took place 800 years ago in the northern parts of India. Tilopa experienced a very unique state of consciousness and he was searching for a disciple that would be ready to receive the knowledge that he was about to give, Unsuccessfully. As much as he looked, He couldn't find somebody ripe enough until he basically gave up. And then, Just before he died, He found Niropa. And in this conversation, The first sentence that Tilopa is saying is that they are about to embark on an impossible journey because what he is experiencing is beyond words, Beyond symbols. It's not something that he can actually describe or explain. It's not an intellectual process. It's pointless. It's bound to fail. And this is the beginning of the song that Tilopa is singing. He's saying that his experience is so beautiful and beyond words that the only way to convey it is to sing it. So, He's been singing this in the past seven weeks. The second session was about the root problem as described by Tilopa. He says, Instead of trying to fix small problems in your life, You need to understand that the problem is your own mind and the way you perceive life. So, If you really want to walk on the path of Tantra, You need to you need to learn about the nature of your own mind, Its limitations, And the way it plays tricks on you to grab your attention again and again. In the third session, Tilopa is saying that he's talking about the difference between darkness and light. He says that most of us are focused on fighting darkness. And that is futile because darkness is a non-entity. It's not a thing. It's just lack of light. So, Once you try to fight darkness, You are bound to lose because there is nothing to win. So, Tilopa is saying, You just add more light to your path and you'll see darkness will go away. And then on the fourth session, He started explaining the practice and in four words is do not observe not. Instead of being focused on the doing and the objects of your observation, Tantra is inviting you to refocus and observe the not instead of observing something. And having a relationship with it. The tantric practice is all about being able to see the gap between events and recognizing yourself as that background. And then in the fifth session, He's talking about the various types of teachings and paths and that the Tantra is like no other path. Tilopa is saying, There is no practice that can help you attain a tantric consciousness. There is no set of rules and regulations like any other spiritual path or religion. Tantra is beyond all rules and regulations. Last week he spoke about the fact that sin is impossible. If you are walking on the tantric path, You realize there is no sin. You cannot sin. Because sin can only be committed when you have that intention. Consciously doing the wrong thing. But because you according to Tilopa, Because you live in a dream world and you're not fully awakened, It's like blaming a sleepwalker for committing a crime. You cannot blame a sleepwalker for committing a crime because he's not aware of his actions. Same. In the tantric view, You cannot sin. You cannot build karma that you need later to fix. So this is a very brief review of what we've discussed so far. And which brings us to the teachings of today, The seventh chapter. But before we read it, I would like to encourage you to remember two things. First is this is not an intellectual academic lecture. Tantric experience is emotional. It's the journey of the heart, Not of the brain, Not of your intellect. So the point is not getting the point, But opening your heart. And the more involved you are in this conversation, The more questions you ask, The more relevant this journey will be for you and more enriched it will be for everyone else. So I do encourage you to share your questions. Even though you already know that what is about to be explained is beyond understanding. Share your questions. So listen to these words with an open heart. Chapter 7. The path lists path. And the song continues. To transcend duality is the kingly view. To conquer distractions is the royal practice. The path of no practice is the way of all Buddhas. He who treads that path reaches Buddhahood. Transient is this world like phantoms and dreams. Substance it has none. Renounce it. Cut the strings of lust and hatred and meditate in woods and mountains. If without effort you remain loosely in the natural state, Soon, You will win and attain the non-attainment. There is a lot to see here. But before we go into the text, We need to realize that there are two ways, Two paths that one can go. There is the path of the warrior and there is the path of the king. The path of the warrior is all about having a target and striving to achieve it. Believing that through effort and intention you can progress on your path and maybe, Hopefully, One day be free. If you do some market research and learn about the various spiritual paths and religions out there, Promising salvation of any kind, Of any sort, You will see there is always a path laid by that religion or spiritual path. And a set of recommendations do's and don'ts. This is the path of the warrior. The soldier is there fighting evil, Promoting goodness. This has been since ever and ever. Every path has its own interpretation but all of them have that aspect of we have found the right way to do it and if you commit to our path, We can teach you how to do it. And it's always about what you should do and what you should avoid doing. What you should believe, What you should renounce. Right? You can say in the same breath that all of these cultural clashes throughout human history was based on those conflicting ideas between one group and another. I believe that my path is better than you, My God is stronger than yours, Etc. , Etc. If you learn about the history of conflict, It's always the case. This is the path of the warrior. You need to put effort and you need to practice and train yourself, Dedicate yourself and eventually you will reach what you are longing for. Tilopa says, No, No, No, Forget about it. This is nonsense. The other way is the way of the king, The kingly way. Imagine a king, A great king. It's a metaphor for abundance. Right? A king doesn't need anything. It has everything. So he's not motivated by lack, Like the warrior. The kingly way allows you to remain loose in any situation. And natural. You are not threatened by changing events, By life circumstances. You are available. You are making the shots. Right? This is the kingly way. There is no reason to fight against something or for something. So keeping that in mind, Let's go back to the text. To transcend duality is the kingly view. What is transcend? Transcend is not about conquering or winning over. Right? Transcend is a natural, Spontaneous event. It's not something you do deliberately because you choose to. It's a natural outcome of your own evolution. You reach a point where you just transcend beyond your old habits. For example, You know those blankets that those kids have when they are two or three years old? They walk with this blanket and they won't let go. Everywhere they go, They have this blanket. You know this? How do you call this blanket? Blinky. But then a day comes where the child is simply not interested anymore. And he leaves that blanket in the side of the room and he's not interested. And in a few days, The mom comes and puts it aside and he never asks about it again. Because he reached that maturity. And it transcended the need for the blanket. So in the same way, On your path, Transcendence is not a result of your effort. You don't try to win, To conquer your faults. You simply come to a state where you transcend beyond them. So transcending duality, What does it mean? What is duality? Duality is an illusion. Duality is the way we split our experience into two. Artificially. This is this and not that. This is what I expected as a surprise. This is good, This is bad. This is helping, This is disturbing. There is always a set of preconceptions and opinions about the object of your observation. And it splits reality into two. Even the fact that you observe reality is already a duality. There are two playing with each other. The observer and the object of observation. Even if you try to stay completely neutral and ignore any idea or preconception you have about whatever you are watching, Observing, There is still that sense of me and what I observe. And that separation is artificial. Transcending duality is a very special state of consciousness where there is no two anymore. There is no observer and object of observation and there is no intellect that slices reality into two, Deciding if it's good or bad, Useful or hurtful. Tantric consciousness does not split reality at all. That's the very essence of the tantric consciousness. The fact that you and the object of your observation melt into each other. And it's not something that you can deliberately achieve. It's just a matter of transcending as you grow. Transcending beyond that illusion of duality. To conquer destruction is the royal practice. Destructions are always there. Just waiting to steal your awareness. Even today when we meditated in the beginning of our session, How easy was it for your thoughts to run away and steal your attention from whatever is happening right now to a different reality in the future or in the past. How easy was it? Or there is a fly flying around my head. How easy it is to be distracted and just put your focus on the changing events that is happening around you all the time. I remember there was a video of my teacher Sri Sri Ravishankar when he was quite young. He gave a talk about half an hour. And throughout that talk there was a fly around him. In India there are many flies sitting here, Sitting there, Always. And from time to time while he was talking he would see you do something like this. And he just gracefully continued his talk. Until one moment he smiled and he gave attention to that fly. And that fly flew away and never returned. Destructions are always there. It is very easy to be carried away. To remain silent and still and observe all those distractions without being carried away. That is the royal practice. While you sit, While you meditate everything is happening. Pleasant, Unpleasant, What you expected or a surprise, Doesn't matter. It may be an emotion, A sensation, A thought or an event that is happening around you. The ability to just be observed without being carried away and distracted allows you to stay centered. And see, There is no practice here. It's not a mantra that you need to keep on chanting or any other yogic technique that you need to observe. This is just very natural observation of things as they happen. While they happen but without getting carried away and distracted by them. Barbara is finally asking, The word conqueror seems like effort to me. Can you say more about how to understand what he means by conqueror? Yeah, This chapter Tilopa is doing, You will see. He is going to do a few how to say he would do a few flips like that. We will get to it but you can take it literally conqueror like an effort. I agree, It sounds like an effort, Something that you it sounds more like it sounds more like the path of the warrior rather than the path of the king, Right? To conquer something. Or you can take it as a metaphor and not literally. So this is the first of many ways he contradicts himself during this session. So the path of no practice is the way of all Buddhas. There is no practice here, There is no specific path to follow, Rules, Regulations or practice. He says all Buddhas follow a path that has no rules. You know, What's the idea behind practice? It's to train yourself like you train a dog, Right? Train yourself to act a certain way in a certain situation but the idea behind the path of no practice is that you remain completely spontaneous. There is no right way to do anything that you need to practice again and again so when the time comes you are ready to react in a certain way. No, No, No, No. Consciousness is always fresh and loose. It's not tensed. Waiting to see what happened and will I react according to my expectations or training. It's always loose. Do you see that? He who treads that path reaches Buddhahood. Transient is the world Transient is the world like phantoms and dreams. Substance, It has none. So here Tilopa is saying you need to stop putting so much attention on the world and the reality that you are falling. It has no substance. It's like trying to fight a dream. Tilopa says as long as you are not an expression of tantric consciousness, Anything you experience is as good as a dream. And there is no point in fighting a dream. Right? Because it's not real. Same when you experience the world from the context of duality that is not real. And there is no point in fighting or objecting or trying to hold on to a dream. Instead of clinging to that Tilopa is calling us to wake up and see that the world around us is just a metaphor. It has no substance. And you know the more advanced we are as a culture the more advanced is the science that we develop. We see that matter is it has no substance. If you go deep into the subatomic level of any matter you realize that there is no substance to it. There is much more empty space than matter in any object of observation. You don't it's like diving into nothingness. Substance it has none. So don't cling to the physical realm so much. And then he says something which is really problematic. He says renounce it. Renounce the world. Renounce it and forsake your kin. Cut the string of lust and hatred and meditate in woods and mountains. This is a sentence that doesn't sound like Tilopa at all. You see because renouncing something can only happen when you believe it is real. You cannot renounce a dream. What's the point? Right? So it's almost as if Tilopa is having a laugh here. Being cynical about all the other teachings that actually encourages you to leave your family, Renounce your children and go and meditate in the forest and the woods. You can take it literally. Many did throughout the years but this also can be interpreted as a metaphor. Any situation that you experience pleasant or unpleasant if experienced through the context of tantric consciousness is like meditating in woods and mountains. You don't physically need to be there in order to have that tranquility. The background of all events, The idea that you need to go and be somewhere else and do something else in order to achieve Buddhahood is based on an illusion that these things are real and they and your happiness is a result of your experience. If your happiness is the result of your experience then definitely you need to run and look for the right experience for you. Right? But when you realize happiness is what you are, Regardless of the experience, Then the race is done. There is no point in keep on running. Do you see that? So you can take it literally but you can also see it as a kind of a joke Tilopa is saying. Yeah, Yeah, You go and look for the right forest. Tilopa is saying if you are identified with your role then you are lost. Your role as a husband or a wife your role as a father or a mother if you are identified with that this is my kid this is my child, This is my responsibility, That I that identifies itself through the relationship with something, That is an illusion. So you don't need to forsake anything or anyone but transcend beyond your identification. If without effort you remain loosely in the natural state what does it mean natural state? First of all natural state is what you are without any idea about yourself. What you are before the story that you keep telling yourself about yourself. Natural state is what you are before identification. So when you start explaining your existence by identifying with this or that, Then you stop being natural. You become hooked to a specific point of view. Right? I'm Christian so I look at life from that perspective. Or I'm whatever. I live in Brazil so I identify with this culture, With this language, Portuguese, I identify with the people as opposed to people who live elsewhere. Right? So that identification creates conflict. It cannot be natural when you are identified with a certain point of view. So natural is basically what you are before the stories that you tell yourself about yourself and about life. You are remaining in the natural state. This is also so beautiful. You remain loosely in the natural state. You see it's not about getting there. It's not about a result of your efforts or what is waiting for you at the end of your journey. But just remain, Remain in the natural state. It's just about staying in the original point. Again and again in different words, Tilopa is saying, Let go. There is nowhere to go. There is nothing for you to do. Your efforts are meaningless and they are not helpful. If you really want to attain Buddhahood you need to relax. There is nowhere to go and there is nothing to do. Remaining in the natural state. You know, You existed before the stories that you tell yourself about yourself. Who were you before you started telling those stories? Remaining in that position loosely is all about the tantric consciousness. And again he is playing with you when he says, Mahamudra, You will win and attain the non-attainment. Who will win? Who is that you? How can you attain anything? So this chapter is very tricky. Tilopa is playing tricks with your mind. Trying to how do you say? Hook you. With all kinds of promises. You do this and you will attain that. And in the same sentence he says, No, No, No, No, Forget about it. It's not going to happen. It's not about what you do. More than anything else this chapter is all about shattering any illusion of understanding. Okay, I got it. Because he keeps saying one thing and then contradict himself. And again, And contradict himself. And he does that again and again. And there is a beautiful reason for that. Making sure that you don't dig yourself into a trench of a certain point of view, A certain belief. Okay, Got it. I think I understand now. If you think you understand, Then immediately drop it. Drop it, Because understanding is not the point of the game here. The point of the game is opening the heart and surrendering. Realizing that this is beyond understanding. The dodge and weave of this chapter seems almost beautiful. Exactly, I can see that as well. He's really playing with you. Promising you something and then he says, No, No, No, Forget it. It's not going to happen. Yeah, Yeah, Do this and you will attain Buddhahood. No, No, No, No, It's not going to happen. What is important to take from this is to remain loose, Unidentified. Remember, If you are identified, There is no way you can be natural and loose. Your object of identification will always be a source of misery. You either crave, Cling to it, Or you object it and you try to change it. Craving and aversion, Craving and aversion. Believing that your happiness has everything to do with that object, That position. But this is never the case. What do you say? Is it possible to heal that invitation Tilopa is suggesting today? Can you live your life free of identification, Free of any story, Of any position, Any agenda? What is the story? This is who I am. These are my capabilities. These are my weaknesses. This is what I want. This is what I don't want. This is what I recognize as good. This is what I recognize as bad. And the compilation of all that is who I am. So I'm asking you today. What will you be without all of these stories you tell yourself about yourself? What will you be with no agenda, With no position, With no preconception about anything? Tantric consciousness does not divide. It is all-inclusive. Everything is included within a tantric consciousness. Nothing is excluded. Everything is you, And you are everything. And then the same, The other side of the same coin is nothing of this world is of any substance. You can joyfully, Playfully experience it, But there is no need to identify with any of it. And specifically to have your freedom, Your happiness depend on anything that is happening out there. Nothing of that is of substance. You see what I'm saying? Sounds like freedom, But that is terrifying to my intellect. I know what you mean. That's why intellect is not helpful on the tantric path. Because intellect will give you endless reasons why to stop and not move forward and truly surrender. And all the reasons are good and valid. That's why it's so rare to find a disciple that is ripe enough to follow his own calling to follow his own master. Even though every inch of his ego is objecting, That devotion is very rare. That kind of devotion is very rare. So I would like to invite you to take this invitation and walk with it during this coming week until we meet again next week. Who will I be? What will I be without all the stories I tell myself about myself? What does it truly mean to remain in the natural state? How does it materialize? What is experienced when there is no story to describe me anymore? So I would like to thank you very much for your participation and I look forward to seeing you again next Wednesday for the eighth chapter on our journey. And in the meantime, Good night from me. Bye bye.