Transmission from teacher to student is central to nondual traditions. Transmission happens through touch (shaktipat), voice, glance, visions and dreams. These formal methods for giving transmission are the sign-posted gateways that help students who are still largely bound to dualistic experience find their way into the expanded state of knowledge enjoyed by the teacher.

Whether we talk about “getting” shaktipat, receiving an empowerment, or seeing our original face (the ultimate transmission), all transmission is an opportunity to enter into an expanded state of participation in Reality.

The important thing here is to recognize that feeling all swirly whirly or buzzed when your teacher lays a hand on your head, or receiving a mantra or other practice, is NOT the transmission.

The transmission is you entering, for an instant or longer, the state that the teacher inhabits as a result of her or his practice.

Transmission is an embodied state of knowledge revealed, generally through the medium of a teacher.

So, you likely have at least two more questions.

How does transmission work?

And: What is transmission for?

Well, I can’t tell you how transmission works. Surprise, surprise… It just does. On the one hand, the entire world is “transmitting” the natural state. On the other hand, most of us aren’t conscious of this due to heavy conditioning. Revealing the state of Self-knowledge is a World capacity that uses particular people and situations as gateways for our benefit.

Why transmission is so important is easier to explain. All spiritual practice is about recognition and remembering. We must be able to recognize and remember the natural state in order to progress in sadhana.

Through transmission, our teachers give us “tastes” of the fruit of sadhana so that we can recognize and work toward that. We must begin practice with a moment of embodied understanding, not just conceptual knowledge. Through sadhana and perhaps through repeated transmissions, the moments add up. Sooner or later, we inevitably find our way home.

OM Shanti,
Shambhavi

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