Contemplation, True Worship, and the Cycle of Consciousness

The Empowered Means: The Path of Contemplation

This is the discussion of the Empowered Means (shakta-upaya). When a person chooses to gradually refine and purify his understanding of reality in order to enter into an experiential realization of his true nature, he employs a process of contemplation (bhavana-krama) that presupposes sound reasoning and discernment (sat-tarka), access to authentic tradition (sad-agama), and instruction by a teacher of Reality (sad-guru).

Due solely to the power of conceptualization (vikalpa), living beings imagine themselves bound. This very egoic conception (abhimana) is the cause of the repeated bondage that is the cycle of suffering (samsara). Thus, when a thought-form that opposes that egoic conception has arisen and become stabilized, it crushes the thought-form that is the cause of samsara, and thereby indirectly causes success in one's practice -- that is, liberation.

The Liberating Insight

The one and only ultimate reality is pure unlimited Awareness -- transcending all the Principles (tattvas) that are by nature limited, up to and including Shiva. That is the ground upon which all things are established. That is the life-force of the universe. By That the universe lives and breathes, and That alone am I. Thus what I am is one with everything and yet transcends everything.

This understanding of the nature of reality does not arise amongst those blinded by maya, because they lack sound reasoning and discernment, authoritative scriptures, and a teacher of Reality. But those who are 'pierced' by a Descent of Power from Shiva, and who are thus able to refine and purify their conceptual understanding through authentic tradition and instruction by a teacher of Reality, 'enter' their own ultimate nature.

The Role of Contemplation

The function of a teacher is to explain the scriptures and traditional teachings; and the function of those teachings is to give rise to the kind of conceptual understanding that can serve as a foundation for the continuous unfolding of unimpeded and unswerving insight. It is just such a continuity of conceptual understandings that we define as 'sound reasoning and discernment' (sat-tarka).

And it is precisely this that is also called 'contemplation' (bhavana), for through it something that actually exists but appears not to -- because it is imperceptible -- is 'realized' or 'reified' by making it perceptible. Contemplation is the process by which the hidden truth of one's own nature is gradually made vivid and real in one's experience.

Why the Limbs of Yoga Are Not the Direct Means

In our way, none of the Aids to Yoga (the 'limbs of yoga') is a direct means to liberation apart from this sound reasoning and discernment that manifests Pure Wisdom. The Yamas, Niyamas, breath exercises, sense-withdrawal -- since all these relate only to specific objects of consciousness, what could be the possible use of them with regard to Consciousness itself?

Practice (abhyasa) cannot possibly be effective with regard to the supreme Reality that is one's divine essence-nature. For practice is taking a possibility arising in Consciousness and fixing it within the prana, mind, or body. But in Consciousness itself there is nothing that could be added to it nor removed from it. How, then, could there be any point to practice?

The 'scent' of duality is not a distinct actual entity, but is rather merely the lack of insight concerning one's own nature. When it is said that the removal of duality is accomplished through conceptual understanding, what is really meant is: one's ultimately real nature, illuminating itself, gradually forsaking its condition of ignorance -- which it freely took on of its own accord -- shines forth in three stages: turning towards expansion, then expanding, then expanded. It simply is the nature of the Highest Divinity to reveal itself in this way.

True Worship and Observance

Accurate discernment (sat-tarka) alone is a direct means to That. It alone is Pure Wisdom, and it is refined in many ways, such as worship (yaga), fire-offerings (homa), mantra-repetition (japa), disciplined observance (vrata), and yoga. But each of these is redefined at the level of the Empowered Means.

The Arising of the Cycle of Consciousness

In this system, the Highest Divinity has as its essence all-inclusive expanded Awareness, and its Power is this very inclusive wholeness (purnata), denoted in the scriptures by such terms as: the Totality (kula), Potency (samarthya), the Wave (urmi), the Heart (hridaya), the Essence (sara), Pulsation (spanda), Pervasive Power (vibhuti), the Goddess of the Three (Trishika), the Black One (Kali), She Who Devours Time (Kali Sankarshini), the Fierce One (Candi), the Word (vani), Experience (bhoga), Perception (drik), and the Constant One (nitya).

The whole of reality is encompassed by three primary Powers. She by whose power the Highest Divinity manifests, perceives, and supports all this, from Shiva to Earth, as pure undifferentiated Awareness, is his sacred Transcendent Power, Parashakti. She by whose power he manifests, perceives, and supports all this as diversity within unity -- like elephants and other creatures appearing in a single mirror -- is his sacred Intermediate Power, Paraparashakti. She by whose power he manifests, perceives, and supports all this as pure differentiation, characterized by mutual separation of subjects and objects, is his sacred Lower Power, Aparashakti.

Equipoise Beyond Injunctions

Of the five practices (yaga, homa, japa, vrata, and yoga), one should practice whichever makes natural sense, in exactly whichever mode presents itself as compelling and effective. One should not weary oneself with distinctions of what should and should not be eaten, what is pure and impure, and so on; for such distinctions are in reality only mental constructs that do not inhere in those things themselves.

It is established that whatever restriction, whether injunction or prohibition, that is taught in the Vedic texts, or even in the treatises of the Shaiva Siddhanta, the Bhairava-tantras, the Kula system, and so on, is entirely powerless on this level of practice.

Summary Verses

A bound soul who has any of these convictions -- 'I am dense, I am inert matter,' or 'I am completely bound by my karma,' or 'I am impure,' or 'I am a pawn of others' -- may seek to attain the steady conviction of the opposite of these views. If he succeeds in this, he immediately becomes the Lord whose body is the whole universe and whose soul is Awareness.

8 [4.1]

In whatever manner such a conviction may be attained, a superior yogi should cultivate it at all times. He should not allow his perspective to become divorced from the real nature of things and thus be led into doubt by the mass of foolish teachings in the world.

9 [4.2]

In the Heart-lotus of awareness that has blossomed due to an intense Descent of a ray of light from the sun of Supreme Shiva, the power of awakening pours forth the exquisite fragrance of the Self, revealing its secret nature: there the bee of self-awareness buzzes, cherishing its own radiant beauty, humming 'I am Lord Shiva, overflowing with the reality of all beings!'

[4.3a]