Welcome to this meditation,
Becoming Intimate with Reality,
Based on the view of non-dual Shaiva Tantra,
As translated by Christopher Wallace in his book Tantra Illuminated.
In the tradition of non-dual Shaiva Tantra,
Orienting and aligning oneself to the view of this spiritual path helps you to know if you're going in the right direction,
That is,
If you're moving towards awakening to the true nature of self and reality or not.
And just as wrong alignment in yogic postures will eventually lead to injury,
In the same way when your understanding of the spiritual path is out of alignment with the goal of the spiritual path,
Then your practice will feel like it's hit and miss at best,
And at worst it can lead to deep delusion.
As Wallace says,
If you know anyone who has practiced for years and is not a highly developed,
Stable,
Kind,
Clear,
Relaxed and open person,
It's because of a lack of alignment.
And this is why the spiritual practice of immersing oneself in the view is said to be one of the most powerful things that you can do,
And traditionally it was the very first thing that a student did when they stepped on the spiritual path.
In this contemplative meditation,
You will encounter what's referred to as the right view of the self and reality,
Where right refers to the most accurate view of self and reality that words can convey,
As words are only pointers to the truth,
Not the truth itself.
This view was originally transmitted orally and was later written in Sanskrit,
And the version that you will hear was translated from Sanskrit into English by Christopher Harish Wallace in his book Tantra Illuminated.
As you listen to the meditation,
I invite you to engage your intuitive faculty,
Allowing the words to penetrate the essence of your being,
Whether you understand them or not.
The goal of this practice is to immerse yourself so deeply in the view that you break open to a new mode of experiencing yourself and reality.
Another way of saying it is that as you let go of trying to understand the words that are being said,
You open to the possibility of truly becoming intimate with yourself and reality through direct experience,
As opposed to engaging in yet another story about who you think you are.
So let's begin.
So just begin by getting settled.
You won't need to sit in any particular position for this contemplative meditation,
But just get settled.
And when you're ready,
You can close your eyes and gently bring your attention to your breath,
Noticing where your breath goes as you breathe in and where it goes as you breathe out.
And just becoming aware of all the ways in which your breath is like a bridge between your inner world and your outer world.
With each breath sensing,
Feeling or imagining that you can begin to draw inward into that quiet still place in your heart.
And as you come into this quiet still place in your heart,
Just noticing perhaps for the first time in a long time just how much this place is a part of you and how much you're a part of it.
And as you get settled here,
Just preparing yourself to fully receive the view and to become intimate with reality as you allow yourself to open up to the words of the masters,
Sages and wisdom teachers of ancient times.
Noticing and feeling the energy of each word infuse all levels of your being physically,
Mentally,
Emotionally and spiritually.
Now without trying to understand their meaning,
Focus on the felt experience that the following words are pointing you to and feel the energetic vibration of the words so that you can perhaps see and perceive what the original masters actually saw and perceived that caused them to write these words thousands of years ago.
All that exists through all time and beyond is one infinite divine consciousness,
Free from the world.
The one infinite divine consciousness which alone exists projects within the field of its awareness a vast multiplicity of apparently differentiated subjects and objects.
Each object that exists is an actualization of a timeless potentiality inherent in the light of consciousness.
Each subject,
You and I,
The same,
Plus a contracted locus of self-awareness.
This creation,
A divine play,
Is the result of the natural impulse within consciousness to express the totality of its self-knowledge in action,
An impulse arising from love.
The unbounded light of consciousness contracts into finite embodied loci of awareness out of its own free will.
When those finite subjects then identify with the limited and circumscribed cognitions and circumstances that make up this phase of their existence instead of identifying with the trans individual overarching pulsation of pure awareness that is their true nature,
They experience what they call suffering.
To rectify this,
Some feel an inner urge to take up the path of spiritual wisdom and yogic practice.
The purpose of the spiritual path is to undermine misidentification and directly reveal within the immediacy of awareness the fact that the divine powers of consciousness,
Bliss,
Willing,
Knowing and acting,
Comprise the totality of one's individual experience as well,
Thereby triggering a recognition that one's real identity is that of the highest divinity,
The whole in every part.
This experiential insight is repeated and reinforced through various means until it becomes the non-conceptual ground of every moment of one's experience.
Then one's contracted sense of self and separation from the whole is finally annihilated in the incandescent radiance of the complete expansion into perfect wholeness.
Then one's perception fully encompasses the reality of a universe dancing ecstatically in the animation of its completely perfect divinity.
Now just allowing yourself to marinate in the after effects of this view,
Allowing the power of this view to destabilize your misconceptions,
Your misunderstandings of the true nature of who you really are and the true nature of reality.
Maybe even sensing,
Feeling or imagining the dissolution of any mental constructs that aren't in alignment with the view and allow yourself to be broken open to a new mode of experiencing yourself and reality.
Feel this view shifting you at an energetic level,
Restructuring thought forms.
Now,
While you may not remember the exact words or words of the view,
What is the real thing that touched you most?
And where do you feel that in your being?
Now what would happen if for the rest of today you allowed yourself to see life from that perspective of reality?
How might it reshape your experiences?
And how might it bring you into closer alignment with the truth?
Now having heard the view,
You have a choice.
You have a choice to align with it or not.
You have the choice to align with the exact state of being that the masters,
Sages,
Wisdom teachers and saints were in when they wrote these words.
And by doing so,
You have the opportunity to completely change your experience of reality and therefore yourself.
And slowly now in your own timing,
Bringing your awareness back to your breath,
Allowing your breath to be the bridge between your inner world and your outer world.
And bringing with you the powerful effects of this practice with you into every aspect of your life physically,
Mentally,
Emotionally and spiritually as you begin to move closer to the surface.
Knowing that the effects of this practice will take place over the coming hours,
Days and even weeks ahead as you feel the surface underneath you once again.
Finding your own timing,
Finding your way back into the room and blinking your eyes open.
I invite you to take time to journal any insights that came up for you during this meditation and I also recommend that you return to this meditation on a regular basis until this view becomes anchored in your being.
I want to thank you so much for joining me in this practice and until next time,
Namaste.
