The Murti Within: Preface to the Vijnana Bhairava (7/8)
Though there are many forms of fire, from a cooking flame to a heating element, from lightening to the light of your room, all of these forms of fire belong to the same energy of fire— in the same way all the different forms of Shakti that we see around us are all forms of Shiva, they are non-different from Shiva. The analogy becomes even more profound, though, {text continued below]
when Shiva teaches that the purpose of all these different forms is to ‘enter into that state of fire’, or to enter into the state of Shiva. We use a cooking flame to heat a kettle, or a light to illuminate a room— we don’t just sit there and look at the flame or light on its own— in this same way, Shiva suggests, we use meditation techniques to enter into the state of our true nature, not to just look at it or think about it.
We took time at the end of class to consider times in our life when we simply don’t believe that ‘this too is Shiva’— when a crazy driver cuts you off, for instance, or when you are so tired in the morning and don’t have the energy to practice. Hopefully the study of this verse gave you the inspiration you needed to grow through that challenge— and perhaps you had an experience of discovering that ‘indeed, this too is Shiva.’
[Time for sharing and discussion]
The teachings of “this too is Shiva” continue with us into Verse 20 where we see a new analogy helping us to understand the non-dualistic possibility of “all this indeed being Shiva”…
Verse 20: “When in one who enters the state of Shakti (i.e. who is identi-
fied with Shakti), there ensues the feeling of non-distinction (bet-
ween Shakti and Shiva), then that yogi acquires the state of Shiva, (for) in
the agamas (iha), she (Sakti) is declared as the door of entrance
(into Shiva) (Lit., Shakti is like Shiva's face)’”
When we sit with a murti, we are practicing uniting Shakti and shiva. The murti is an external object, yet as practitioners we know it is also a doorway to an inner experience. So we look softly externally while feeling softly internally. It’s not automatic, it takes practice to see both, but as the text says, when you can feel shiva while perceiving Shakti, you acquire the state of your true nature.
To help visualize this we can consider the principles of Prakasha and vimarhsa, which are fundamental aspects of Kashmir Shaivism. As the intro do Kashmir Shaivism teaches, “Kashmir Shaivism constructs a pure monism which assumes a single Reality with two aspects, Prakasha (lit. light, the principle of self-revelation) and Vimarsha (lit. experience, the self-consciousness which brings about the world process).” p. 3
Prakasha is the light of awareness that emanates from us, like the light that emanates from the sun. Vimarsha is the reflection of that light off of an external object back to us— the power of self reflection. In physics we know that when we shine light on an object, it is the light that reflects back to us that we see. For example, when driving on a rainy night it can be hard to see the road in front of you because the light bounces forward on the shiney wet surface, instead of reflecting back to you— sometimes you even wonder if your headlights are even on at all. Shiva without Shakti is like that— light shining out without anything to reflect it back within. Shakti, Manifestation, is what makes it possible to recognize Shiva, our true nature. But only if you apply your practice, the practice of seeing shakti while feeling shiva.