Shiva can be encountered in many ways. We can encounter Shiva as the consummate yogi, as the lover, as unbroken awareness, as our own central channel, as groundlessness, as the ineffable Supreme State, or as a small, stone made in nature.

Shiva is called the destroyer. What does he destroy? He destroys attachment.

We sometimes think of detachment as not caring, or not responding, or even as a state of sensory withdrawal. These are erroneous conceptions. Shiva consciousness is a state of relaxed, natural, openness and composure.

Shiva is not in a state of denial. He is wide awake. More awake than most of us can comprehend. He is awakeness itself.

The state of Shiva is entirely without aggression. Having realized this state, we are not trying to get anything, accept anything, reject anything, or seek anything. We are just being awake.

To some of us, just being awake sounds stern, dry, boring, bland, or without emotion. We cannot imagine anything pleasurable outside of the aggressive activities of getting, accepting, rejecting, and seeking.

But as Paramahamsa Satyananda Saraswati wrote: We renounce and enjoy.

We can only fully and freely enjoy life when we are not enslaved by our attachments.

As we progress in sadhana, enjoyment expands and refines, until we rediscover enjoyment as rasa, the appreciation of all life just as it is.

However, words cannot describe the ultimate enjoyment which is not enjoyment of anything. The Tantras, philosophers, yogis, and other adepts use the word “bliss,” or the source of bliss, when talking about Shiva consciousness. We have such a crude idea of bliss, I hesitate to mention it at all. But since I have mentioned it. . .

We generally think of bliss as some kind of super-happiness or state of abnormal excitation. Or even a state of unawareness. As we say: blissfully unaware. These are not Shiva’s primordial bliss. Shiva’s bliss is a fundamental aspect of our world that derives from the eternal moment or juncture between manifestation and unmanifestation. If you have an inkling of what I’m talking about, great. If not, you will.

Humor, creativity, artfulness, and playfulness are all fundamental expressions of realized persons. When we relax and allow these expressions to arise, we are also discovering Shiva nature, our own essence.

The composure and enjoyment of Shiva are groundless. They do not depend on circumstance.

We find it frightening to encounter the groundlessness of life. It takes time before we fully recognize that this groundlessness is our real home. Our fear of life’s inherent groundlessness strongly shapes our experiences of spiritual opening.

Many people think that meditation or other practices should be always pleasant. But authentic spiritual practices help us to recognize our true condition, and this includes our fear, anger, sadness, aggression, and so on. Eventually we recognize that the incessant search for happiness and security is a hindrance to realization.

Every practitioner discovers the pulse between enjoyment of greater relaxation and knowledge, and varying levels of fear and other disturbing emotions, including numbness. For many people, this is quite a disappointment at first. And everyone finds it hard, even though we do come to see it as a necessary part of the process.

The famous “dark night of the soul” experienced at different stages of awakening is characterized by this pulse between tasting the sweet fruit of Self-recognition and sadness, or even terror. We are sad when we discover some aspects of our real condition. We often mourn the loss of our fixations even as we are invigorated by their passing. We may feel terror, or become temporarily overwhelmed, when the infinity, complexity, and precision of life reveals itself, layer by layer.

Throughout, we keep trying to relax and recognize our Shiva nature. We place moments of spaciousness and relaxation together like pearls on a string. At first there are only a few pearls. Eventually we have a whole strand.

The common metaphor of a strand of pearls is not an accident as Shiva is also our central channel. We can learn to access the all-encompassing, spacious, natural state and integrate this into our daily lives through certain central channel meditations.

The state of vastness and presence, or Shiva consciousness, is the ground and the center of our existence, while the circumstances of our lives are constantly changing. Some
circumstances feel easy and pleasurable, or even joyful, and others are
difficult.We learn to take refuge in Shiva consciousness no matter what life brings us. This is the meaning of equanimity.

When we hold to the center, when Shiva nature is our conscious, everyday, embodied base state, we do not become deadened or wooden. We are naturally, fluidly, and appropriately responsive and adaptable without drama. Our emotions arise and subside without fixation. We embody the primordial openness, like a mountain or a mirror or an ocean that abides, totally relaxed, even as life’s manifestations come and go.

OM Shanti,
Shambhavi

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