Philosophy: The Current of Shiva: Shiva Sutra 3.18
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Shiva Sutra 3.18: “vidyā ‘vināśe janmavināśaḥ //
When his knowledge of the Self is permanently established, then birth (and death) are gone forever.”
We may not sail ships anymore, or paddle canoes down a river, but for today, let’s use our imagination to use those images as a metaphor.
Sailing Through our karma
There is a current running through our lives, a current below and a breeze above, a reality unfolding not only around us, but right along with us— in our very being. In the Yogic Tradition this current is known as Svatantrya Shakti, the ever cresting wave of Shiva that unfolds infinitely to form our reality. Through our practice we can learn to feel this current as we navigate our lives, a small shift that holds the key to transcending your karma for good.
Mapping the river: We often look at this flow in it’s diagrammatic form as the tattvic map, which shows this unfolding from one to many. In this form we can see the process of creation, which starts as an urge, becomes a thought, and manifests as an action, those actions takes infinite forms which you can see all around, and within you.
Urge becomes thought, thought becomes action, action becomes manifestation
“When Lord Śiva desires to manifest himself in this world, then svātantrya śakti is transformed into the energy of will (icchā śakti)…then that energy of will is transformed into the knowledge (jñānaśakti)…then that energy of knowledge becomes the energy of action (kriyā śakti)”
“(Mālinī Vijaya Tantra 3.8)”
Map is only half the picture: Seeing the map of the river, seeing it’s overall trajectory and shape, is knowledge that can help you navigate it. This is one half of what the Sutras call Pure Knowledge, Shuddha Vidya, knowledge of how to practice. But this knowledge is only one part instruction, and the rest of it is experiential.
Imagine trying to learn how to sail from looking at a picture of a river— it misses the actual experience of the river, the un-predictable quality of navigation itself.
Shiva is a moving target: This experiential knowledge takes into account the fact that, though we can map creation, we can never map Shiva themself.
Shiva's Shakti, manifestation, is never the same twice— Shiva is a moving target, an ever cresting wave we must learn to surf, or sail, or paddle— depending on your metaphor.
JDS went out of his way in the notes to this sutra to say that ‘Shiva is not an object”, meaning that we can’t let ourselves try to pin down the practice, it is a state of being.
Or as 500 BC Heraclitus put it, “NO man ever steps n the same river twice, for it not the same man, and it is not the same river. “
This is why the Sutra begins with “When knowledge of being is established in continuation,” meaning that we must stay in touch with the ‘being’ of our practice continually in order to be in touch with it at all— there is no way to simply ‘connect’ once and for all.
Lear
Learning to navigate the River: So to navigate the river’s of our lives, to sail through our Karma, we have to learn how to stay in touch with Shiva, the current below and the wind above, while we move towards our goals.
As Paul Reps put it, move with, not against, the harmony
Our time on the cushion is a way for us to get in touch with this inner current, so that we can keep this connection as we begin to move through our lives. Of course, there are many many times during everyday that we can reconnect with this current, and by doing so, connect our actions with Pure Knowledge, and start to free ourselves from repeated mistakes.
When we move against the current, what happens? For the most part, it’s just like swimming against a current— everything just seems to take longer, and when you get there you’re exhausted. Which is how one meditation teacher in our current training describes her students, she says they all talk about how tired they are, and of course they’re telling the truth, it takes tremendous energy to swim against the current.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that our lives are peachy just because we are doing our practice— karma is karma. Just because you are feeling the current on a raft doesn’t mean you aren’t going to work hard, it just means that your work will be more efficient, more effective.
So if we can feel the current while we steer our ship, we are staying focused on the reality of Shiva, and we find that our ship starts to come under our control. Which was the teaching of the Sutra, 3.13, “All elementary worlds, all individuals, all words and all sentences are absolutely dependent on and under the control of such a yogī, who is always intent on determining the reality of Śiva. Whatever he does and whatever he wills will do and undo. (Svacchanda Tantra 7.245)”
The Rewards of Proper Navigation: When we do this, we burn our karma, when we don’t do this, we create more karma, more re-births as the Sutra puts it.
“When this pure knowledge of consciousness is established in continuity, then birth (janma) is gone forever. For him, there is no more birth and there is also no more death. What is the cause of birth (janma)? Action attached with ignorance is the cause of birth. That action creates the organs, the body and all its limbs. Therefore, when that action which is the cause ends, then the effect, being created and being born, also ceases to exist.”
“When, through the successive teachings of the masters, one is established in one’s own consciousness, which is supreme and pure, then one becomes liberated (muktaḥ) and never again comes into this universe. (Svacchanda Tantra)”