Climb, Sit, Slide
W e can begin to look at our presentations as a play of our practice. A way for us to explore it and unpack it to generate growth. It is easy to get sucked into the illusion that our presentation is something different than your practice, as we fill ourselves with anxiety and intensity in getting it done. But as we see from the yogic tradition, all of manifestation is a play of Universal Consciousness, a dance between Shiva and Shakti, that is only created for the sake of creating it. We create these presentations for the same reason shiva creates manifestation:
“The only plausible explanation for Paramashiva's self-concealment and self-limitation is that creation is a play or self-amusement on His part.”
-Intro to Kashmir Shaivism, p. 52
"The wise regard this universe as a play of Universal Consciousness, a vibration of Chiti.” -Swami Muktananda,
Intro to Kashmir Shaivism, p.44“As you progress in the practice, you will experience an internal state of freedom. You will see that the universe is a manifestation of the play of consciousness.” - Sri Shambhavananda, Spontaneous Recognition, P. 59
In that same light, we can look at our own work as a play, like a slide on a playground. You climb up only to slide back down— and that’s really all there is. But in that climb you grow, and in that slide you are free, so you might be standing in the same spot when you’re done, but inside you’re different. This is the play of presentations, a special gift that allows us to enjoy our practice in a new way, to play within it. And as we become better and better at this, we can take others on the slide as well. So let’s look at how we can play within our presentations even more effectively with a simple method: Climb, Sit, Slide. It’s something we all know how to do, now we can apply it to our work in teaching meditation.
The Climb is the work of your presentation, the effort you use to pull yourself to a new vantage point, or pramata in Sanskrit. This represents the ladder leading up to the slide. To begin this process we must feel our feet on the ground, which is to say, really connect with the topic through our experience of our practice. From the grounding perspective of your meditation seat, feel for your deepest relationship with your topic. Don’t limit yourself by defining it, or even visualizing it, just try to feel where it resonates within you. This is tremendously important, yet is so often overlooked— try to feel your connection to the topic from within your practice and experience.
From the realm of the tattvas, the yogic chart of manifestation, feeling is the highest form of manifestation— it precedes thought and action. Feeling is hard…feel… because we are always so caught in our heads, or in our actions, but it’s there if you really reach inside for it. This moment is something we can come back to again and again as we work towards our presentation— this feeling is really the goal of all our work. It is the experience we will eventually be giving our students, when we find the path to it through our actions and thoughts.
From here, we begin to climb. We reach for the rungs of the ladder that will lead us up to the top. What do you know about the topic? How would you define it? What is your experience of this topic on your cushion?, on your yoga mat?, in your relationships?, at work?, at play? and so on. Keep refocusing on the feeling of the topic in your heart as you put some of this into words on the paper. It’s easy to feel like your writing is the goal, it’s not, your writing is only a map towards this feeling that this topic opens up inside of you. Whenever possible, return to the feeling as you write.
Eventually you start to see the rungs on your ladder forming. How you encounter the topic in various settings. Some of those settings are probably more potent than others, which would mean that those would be great places to play with this topic in your life. Imagine ways that you could begin to work with this topic on your cushion and in your life. Set goals and reflect on your work. Find that feeling as you go.
As we begin to understand our own perspective on the topic, we begin make space to read more about it. How does the lineage discuss this topic? Has Shambhavananda talked about it? With a topic like surrender you can find numerous references, maybe even too many— search through them for the descriptions that truly inspire you, and support you, in your practice. When you practice surrender, for example, what are you basing it on? What teaching have you really absorbed that has defined your experience? Through our presentations we begin to re-understand these teachings in even more subtle ways, seeing that there is so much more than we initially perceived.
If possible, the same inquires can be made with other ashram texts— such as Baba Muktananda’s work, Swami Rudrananda’s work, the Shiva Sutras, the Vijnana Bhairava, and more. These can be more daunting, as they are from their own eras, and sometimes require alot of work to even find, or comprehend— but as your hunger for growth grows, you’ll find yourself reaching for these books in your spare time, and your internal catalog will begin to grow. These more subtle and ancient texts take time, but they also represent time— time you have invested in your practice.
All of this climbing brings you to a new level in your practice, but only if you are absorbing it as you go. That’s why there’s a place to sit on top of a slide, a place to take it all in, and allow yourself to arrive at this new vantage point. Our work to read, write and reflect is only there to bring us to a new level within ourself. As Babaji puts it, a place where we get out of the vehicle and simply exist in the state we are seeking.
I would picture this as a platform that you are coming upon at many points in your climb— like those big water slides that have alot of steps. We must always try to couple our work to learn with our work to surrender-- the state we seek is already within us, when our research pulls us into our minds it’s easy to forget this. All of the teachings, and your writing, should serve to simplify your practice, and point you even more clearly within— in a sense we are working in order to receive, not achieve. And re-connecting as we work is the only way to ensure that we will be ready when a new level arrives.
“We can’t make an astral experience happen. We can only surrender into it.”
-Sri Shambhavananda, Spiritual Practice, p.49“it is not reality that can be produced by our effort, by any Yogic discipline or technique….Then why all this pother about gaining the turya consciousness? What is the value of the upayas or Yogic disciplines mentioned in the Siva-Sutras? The answer is that though it remains as the background of all we are and do, we are unaware of it… The upayas are mentioned so that we may prepare ourselves for its reception.”
-Jai Deva Singh, Shiva Sutras, p.40
So if you feel yourself getting overwhelmed, stop, and reconnect with that feeling inside. That is the place you are seeking, and that is the place people will be nourished by. Be ready to receive a new level. Climb then sit. Climb then sit. Together these two qualities can take you far.
And eventually you arrive at the top, whether you feel like you’re done or not. Eventually your time is up, or you reach a threshold, and you have to begin to let it all go. This doesn’t mean stop, it just means bringing it all together in sweeping creative act.
This is the slide, a structured fall into your experience. When we write, we have to allow ourselves to really let go, to allow the shakti to work through us, and allow the words to write themselves. This is of course a tall task, but one we are capable of as meditators— it’s the Shambhava way— to have our eyes open but our attention within. Rudi always said that meditation is a creative act, it’s the process of consciously bringing our attention within, beyond the mind.
If we take time to connect before we write, and then stay connected while we write, our work can go beyond our limited capacities and become something beautiful and beyond us. Writing is a creative act, like painting or dance. Let it become something new for you through your internal work on the presentation, let your practice shine through in your writing.
Climb, sit, slide. These three simple practices can take you a long way. When the work is through, after you’ve climbed to a new perspective, sat with it and absorbed it, and then let it flow through you as you slid down it— after all this you are back on the ground relatively near where you started. But of course you are not the same, you’ve grown. Your level of awareness has expanded from the inside. Your feet may be on the ground, but your heart is in the sky. Hopefully you feel exhilarated by the experience, as kids do, and yearn to climb back up and start the whole process over again. That’s why we teach, it gives us a reason to keep climbing, keep sitting and keep sliding.