Mantra of Everyday Life: Shiva Sutra 3.27
When, through conscious preparation you are able to enter the arena of a conversation with a little more awareness than usual, you begin to see the energetic play that occurs during it. You can feel how the duration of a conversation, or perhaps the intensity of it, requires skillful inner work to navigate— and you can sense when you need to take a break— Stop talking and start breathing— in order to stay centered energetically. And this occurs many times during a conversation as you ride the wave of talking and listening. As Swami Muktananda always described it, it is a Play of Consciousness, a dance, and keeping your balance is all based on your own inner awareness of your inner state of being. (Scroll Down for Full Article)
Social interactions are complex algorithms— even something as simple as listening to someone else talk about their dog requires a sincere amount of focus and attention— we are processing thousands of things at once, from the words to the sentence structures to the facial expressions or intonations— conversation is actually a really complex phenomenon, and if you have even the smallest amount of social anxiety, which in this day and age a lot of us have by being out of habit, then the work doubles. Couple this with the fact that when we talk we are usually also grasping onto something we want to have or convey, which further propels us outside ourselves, and you have the energetic slippery slope of small talk— the seemingly impossible practice of maintaining inner focus while talking.
This is such an important topic for us all because Small talk might seem small, but can quickly become a Big Drain, right? There is nothing wrong with conversation, as the Sutra says its a part of all of our lives, even the enlightened practitioner has casual conversation. But for many we only realize the toll a small talk session has on us after the damage is done— we feel drained, and we are. In a way, its not going to bankrupt you, its more like spending small amounts of energy all the time and wondering why your energetic bank account doesn’t reflect the time you’ve put into your practice. Just like in life, if we spend our energy throughout our day with unconscious chatter, how can it ever accumulate? Just this simple level of recognition could be the teaching of the sutra for many of us. Conversations come at a cost.
Once you’ve opened up to this possibility, the Sutra can begin to unfold. Like in life, Saving money/energy doesn’t happen automatically, it requires a conscious effort. This kind of shift in awareness from spending to saving can’t occur amidst the complexities of conversations, but must be cultivated in the space between them. The moment of a conversation requires a lot of awareness, and if you are externalized going into it you will continue to be externalized during it. This is why the Sutra teaches that “This [practice] is very easy for those who are aware, and very difficult for those who are not” (Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, 156). When I started working with this Sutra I found it incredibly elusive— I would get carried away by a lunch conversatino, or the responsibility of teaching an anatomy lecture, and would wonder where my connection was afterwards. It was like conversation cast a spell over me, and not until I started doing more mantra in the space leading up to a meal, or a teaching opportunity, did I finally start to break the spell and begin to understand what was happening during the conversational energetic arena. For me, preparation meant everything in practicing this Sutra.
When, through conscious preparation you are able to enter the arena of a conversation with a little more awareness than usual, you begin to see the energetic play that occurs during it. You can feel how the duration of a conversation, or perhaps the intensity of it, requires skillful inner work to navigate— and you can sense when you need to take a break— Stop talking and start breathing— in order to stay centered energetically. And this occurs many times during a conversation as you ride the wave of talking and listening. As Swami Muktananda always described it, it is a Play of Consciousness, a dance, and keeping your balance is all based on your own inner awareness of your inner state of being.
Like any new practice, there is a learning curve, and one has to be open to the discomfort of having life look a little different while one adapts. You might talk less, or not always be as entertaining— that’s ok, one day you’ll be an even more effective communicator if you just keep applying your practice. As Babaji teaches, “At first your co-workers may wonder what you are doing, but eventu- ally you will be able to turn inward on the run. In my day-to-day life I deal with a number of people, some of whom are difficult, negative people. I do not approach these people unconsciously or ill-prepared because I know that the minute I do, they will throw me a zinger. Keeping our energy inside gradually allows us to become more and more balanced. Over time keeping our energy inside becomes our natural state rather than something we have to reach for” (SP, 33)
The Sutra teaches that the practice of Katha Japa is actually a subtle teaching of Mantra Japa. Japa, the recitation of sacred sounds, doesn’t depend on the words as much as it depends on our own inner focus. Repeating Om Namah Shivaya, or asking about the weather, can both come from the heart. As the Sutra teaches, “Establishing the state of awareness in the state of God consciousness repeatedly without break or pause is real recitation of mantra,” “This is the kind of subtle japa that the yogi should perform." Katha Japa, therefore, is yet another way inside to our true nature.
This silent backdrop of all conversations is essentially the Witness, the Turya state, as JDS’s commentary to Shiva Sutra 1.7 teaches, ”Turya consciousness always remains as the background of all we feel, think, and do, but we are unaware of it in our normal consciousness. It is always there” (JDS commentary to Shiva Sutra 1.7). Singh goes on to teach that the highest work Shambhva Uppaya is not to try and pull this background to the foreground, which is literally impossible and unnecessary, but to hold one’s attention in the background until “the turya emerges from its cryptic cell, so to speak, takes possession of our normal consciousness and becomes its active feature.” We just have to keep a portion of our awareness in this silent backdrop while we talk and move through our lives, and eventually it will rise up to become us.
As this practice is mastered, your words can become as powerful as mantras, because you are connected inside as you say them. As the Sutra teaches, “The daily conversations of the yogi, who is established in that unartificial awareness, which is self-generated and spontaneous, become the recitation of the real mantra of the Self” (LMJ). Which is to say if you ever have a chance to eat a meal with Babaji in the Shoshoni kitchen, the Eldo dining room, or the Konalani Lanai, don’t be fooled by the normalness of the words he might say— each of those words are a Shakti filled mantra if you are paying attention to your practice. As the Sutra tells us, “The [enlightened practitioner] recites mantra when they laugh with you, when they embrace you and talk to you, when they go with you to the theater. All of this is, for them, the real recitation of mantra.” LMJ 3.27.