Logs into Light: Shiva Sutra 3.26

How do you turn a log into light? With Practice. 

The Shiva Sutras describe our daily practice as a sacred fire— the logs are the tasks of our daily life and the fire is the extra inner awareness we bring to those tasks. Using the task to stay present creates a fire that transmutes the log into light, merging you with Shiva, the sky above. All while performing an otherwise ordinary task. 

The Secret teaching of this practice is that you don’t need a secret teaching— you just need to practice. In fact, it is often our need for “special circumstances” that keeps us from ever realizing our innate inner potential.  As the Sutras teach: “What is virtuous behavior? For ordinary beings, virtuous behavior may involve special ways of acting and being… like fasting and performing special ceremonies during the eclipse of the moon.… But for such a yogī, behaving virtuously is just to remain in their body as it is… intent only on performing the supreme worship of Lord Śiva in each and every action of their life—while eating, while drinking, while talking, while taking tea, while eating lunch, and so forth. Although everyone around them experiences that they are acting just like an ordinary human being, they are not, they are somewhere else.”

So on the one hand the yogi appears to be cleaning their room, which they are, but they are not only with the log, they are also above the log— using that task to keep themselves present, repeating mantra and feeling their body as they spiral down to pick up a pair of socks. Sounds so simple, but if you try it you’ll see how much your mind wants to wander, to day dream, and how much inner awareness it takes to keep pulling your awareness back again and again to the present. And each time you do, you create a spark, a bit of friction, that turns that log into light.

So how do you turn a log into light? You pick a daily task today and apply yourself to the practice of staying present while doing it. You imagine every small part of the task as a little bit of kindling, and you allow this inner heat to naturally accumulate until it illuminates your life itself.