As my study of yoga deepens, I come to discover there are a great number of very logical truths and simple observations, made by humans from many lifetimes ago, that stand on their own legs today. It is for these reasons that I continue to allocate time each day to understanding and capturing this ancient wisdom within a modern context. This is why I love to write about them - it helps me to assimilate and integrate the depth and richness of such profound revelations into an embodiment. One that is alive in me.
Why does it seem that as I develop further knowledge around these ideas that I can actually embody them further? Through the embodiment of them, it seems that I have a little more influence over what actually takes place in my life. It seems that as I strive to align myself with the universal principles of existence, I not only have access to more existential bliss, I also seem to "see" where my desires in life align with a Bigger Pattern. It is inevitable that when this overlap occurs, where my individual will and the Will of Universe join, there is an indescribable level of joy, peace, and contentment arising from within me and channeling forth into the world around me.
How is such a profound level of joy accessible? What does this utter contentment look like, and what is life that IS in perfect alignment with the cosmos? I don't believe there is any one, specific answer. However, I do believe that there have been men and women who've gone before us, great teachers and masters of their own paths, who've answered these questions in various ways. All information that we have access to, is and should be considered carefully as we mine through the history of humanity for the well-kept secrets that seem to be hidden in plain sight for each sincere seeker. The old saying "the teacher appears when the student is ready" is so frustratingly accurate, because it simply represents what happens when we open our mind again as a student willing to learn, and suddenly the 'teaching' is right in front of our face as an obvious truth.
We have just got to practice courage towards the answers we aren't willing to face.
In order to understand anything, we've got to really consider how we come to understand in the first place. We must consider how it is that we can come to any conclusion at all, and what concepts or ideas can be used to build a framework around which we can navigate reality effectively.
We can reason, then, that the first place to start here, is existence itself. I am very grateful for the wise sages who've passed down highly rational and simplified ways of viewing this starting place, and will do my best to honor their teachings as we continue to unpack such a dense subject.
This leads us to discussion around the Powers of Creation, of which there are five. When we observe how the Universe appears to come into form and function, there are some basic principles which can help us understand this process of Creation. It will be interesting to note that these concepts also apply to the creative process in our own lives. You might find your head nodding in appreciation for the simplicity of these messages, or it might fly over your head. Either way, it is important not to be caught up in purely intellectualizing this information, but rather try to 'connect the dots' so to speak, and feel more into the patterns and rhythms that are at play here.
With a simple thought experiment, let's place ourselves at the beginning of the Big Bang. The start of the Universe. What came before? Impossible to know, impossible to conceive. It is both unknown and unknowable. Yet, through our best scientific evidence, we can deduce that the Universe started to rapidly expand and make manifest everything that we now see. What properties and physical laws allowed such an ordered event to take place? Physics and other branches of science are the modern man's attempt to rationally explain the unfolding of the natural world. They make sense and satisfy our urge to know 'what', but they fail to answer the deeper questions. With a dive into yogic mythology, Samkhya philosophy, and Tantrik literature, we can begin to assign meaning to these questions. Perhaps we never answer them fully, but we initiate ourselves into the ultimately fulfilling process, of answering the deepest question of all: why?
To answer simply : the Universe wanted to know Itself. The Creator wants to experience Creation. Consider this logically - if you were the Creator (which, to be clear, You ARE!) and you had infinite powers at your fingertips, existed in a state of pure and indescribable bliss and joy and there was nothing other than your own Being. What would You do? You might rest here, for a very, very long time - fully intoxicated off of the infinite love of your own Self. Yet, due to your own power, you decide you want to create something! What is created? The Universe, of course - your very own playground. If there was nothing at all at one point in time, except for your own Being as boundless and infinite light and Presence, could you have conceived of a more beautiful place? This question is very important, because depending on your answer here, it can point you in the direction of where to take specific action in your life!
Consider this thought experiment carefully, as this is the basis for the Universe coming into form, with You as the Creator of it. Most important to realize here is that this is the basis of Self that is required for ANYTHING AT ALL to take place in your life! Before you do anything, you are bored with WHAT IS (your own Being), and you decide you must act in accordance to a wish that must be fulfilled. Suddenly, you move in the direction of creating the conditions for fulfillment of that wish/desire. So, with You as the Universe, wanting to experience Itself as complete, it fragments into a state that is incomplete in order to now move in the direction that which it perceives will complete It. A state that is incomplete is a state of having an unfulfilled wish or desire. If you are totally complete and whole already, there is nothing that needs to be done. You are resting in Your own Being - the beginningless stage of the Universe Itself. Life, and the Universe as we know it, is therefore the result of infinite iterations of desires and wishes being made manifest and fulfilled. In essence, the Universe is a wish-fulfilling machine, without which we would never be able to know what it feels like to be complete, for we would never have a reference point that is incomplete.
I think I will leave this discussion for now and resume tomorrow. This was a lot for today. It will help to journal on this, practice with it in mind, or in some way connect to it beyond the intellect. Think of an example in daily life that represents this analogously. Then consider a bigger example. Ultimately, we are going to take these ideas all the way. There is a spontaneous joy pouring through me in the expression of this information. It is a form of art - expression for the sake of expression. I can look back, read, reflect and be thankful for the gifts that this wisdom has offered me, for it really is not my own. It is all of ours. And it becomes more 'ours', collectively, as I continue to share it and distribute it without any selfishness. The teachings are alive in all of us, and I'm discovering more and more that they just want to be expressed through the dance of our own existence. This dance happens to take many different forms, and in this body writing about it, teaching it, and sharing are just a few of those dances.
When we realize that we ARE the Universe, manifesting Itself to see what it Loves, what dance wants to take place? When we realize our own completion, what deeper levels of expression want to come forth? If there really was nothing more to do in the world other than experience the joy of our own Being, what does this look like? Dream about this!
Dream.... dream, because the Universe is One. This is what 'waking up' actually represents. We awaken from our own illusion, into the Dream that is Who We Are.