Learn to Grow, Grow to Learn: Shiva Sutra 3.30, Part 1
"Great acts are made up of small deeds," Lao Tzu.
If you want to understand cooking, you have to learn many small recipes. If you want to understand anatomy, you have to learn many small bones and muscles. If you want to understand the Universe, you have to learn how to use your practice during the many "small" moments of your life...
Rough Notes from Class:
Shiva Sutra 3.30
śvaśaktipracayo’sya viśvam // “For the yogi, this universe is the embodiment of their collective energies”
In common terminology you could say, “For the yogi, everything is Shiva.” But as we remember from LMJ’s commentary on Sutra 3.14, “Some yogīs permeate their thinking with thoughts such as “I am independent” or “I am Śiva.” To possess unartificial independence, they must actually be independent, they must be Śiva, not just imagine they are.”
So just saying, ‘everything is Shiva’ isn’t what we’re after in this Sutra. We are seeking the real understanding that everything is Shiva, which takes effort over time. So how do we get to that level of real understanding? The same way we get to real understanding in any topic, practice.
If you want to really understand cooking, you have to learn recipes. If you want to really understand anatomy, you have to learn about how the body moves and the muscles, bones and tissue that encompass it. And by learning these individual parts we gradually learn about the whole. The same can be said of learning about our own true nature by learning how to meditate. When you apply your practice to your life, on and off the cushion, you learn about yourself and your Universe.
In our everyday life we might learn about a topic through a podcast or masterclass, other times we might learn valuable skills ‘on the job’, by being a problem solver. My brother Ben was never fond of school, but boy is he a great problem solver at his job. Learning in any shape or form is a valuable and healthy pursuit, and completely natural,— By Saying “everything is Shiva,” this Sutra is not saying we don’t have to learn about our jobs, to become better at what we do. Rather, it is saying that we shouldn’t limit our experience of learning to the individual topic or subject we are learning about.
Instead, we should use our practice while learning in order to use that experience to inspire our spiritual growth. And as always, this practice does not make you a slower learner, but rather, a more natural learner.
And what’s more, when we are able to extract the spiritual growth from the learning process, we are able to learn and grow spiritually from anything and everything. This means you can learn from a podcast or masterclass while your driving to work, or you could just simply drive to work consciously and learn about the Universe and your place in it.
“This Lord Śiva is filled with knowledge and that knowledge is the innumerable knowledge found in the universe. Real knowledge is universal knowledge. The knowledge that frees you from the limited knowledge of the universe is called netra. By holding and possessing only one class of this limitless universe of knowledge, and by not possessing universal knowledge, you are bound with limitation. When your master reveals the universal truth to you, then you emerge from limitation and the whole universe becomes your possession. To possess the whole universe as your own self is real knowledge and that is netra and that is liberation. (Netra Tantra 9.12)
innumerable knowledge versus universal knowledge,
knowledge of the parts versus knowledge of the whole.
Knowledge of a recipe versus knowledge of cooking
You can hold onto one recipe and only learn that, or you can keep cooking and keep growing as a cook and eventually learn about the whole.
Learning to cook is harder than learning a recipe, but when you really learn to cook the whole world of cooking opens up for you.
Universal knowledge must be revealed to you by a teacher, its hard to do this alone.
“This knowledge is found everywhere, inside and outside, because without knowledge, an object cannot exist. This entire universe is, therefore, filled with that knowledge. And that knowledge, which may be objective knowledge, is, in fact, knowledge of God consciousness.
God knowledge is found everywhere, inside and out. Because without God Knowledge, object knowledge cannot exist. The entire universe is, therefore, filled with God Knowledge. And that God knowledge, which may be perceived as object knowledge, is in fact still knowledge of God.
“No one has ever perceived an object without that knowledge. That knowledge, which is the real knowledge of God consciousness, has taken the form of the object. Objective knowledge is not separate from that knowledge of God consciousness. It is by that knowledge of God consciousness that this knowledge of objects takes place.”
Learning to cook a recipe makes you a better cook. You can’t cook a recipe without becoming a better cook. The art of cooking has taken the shape of this particular recipe. Becoming a better cook is not different from cooking this recipe. It is precisely the art of cooking that you are learning by cooking this particular recipe.