Shambhavi Mudra

The Shambhavi Mudra

Seeing Inside with your Senses Open

SRI SHAMBHAVANANDA TEACHES

“The Shambhavi Mudra is learning how to see inside with your eyes open. My name is Shambhavananda. It means to be immersed completely in your Inner Self while all five senses are working. You can’t close your eyes to the world and to the things that are of it. It is easy to close your eyes and daydream; it is more difficult to be present right here and now. You need to learn how you relate to the outer world. Being more in your heart won’t make you dysfunctional. It will make you more aware and more alert about what is going on around you. If you can learn how to keep your heart open and your eyes open, you will see a different world.”

THE SHAMBHAVI MUDRA IN OUR TRADITION

As Sri Shambhavananda taught, the Shambhavi Mudra is “learning how to see inside with your eyes open,” and when we are able to “keep our heart open and our eyes open,” we begin to see a different world. The root Guru of Shambhavananda Yoga, Bhagavan Nityananda, practiced the Shambhavi Mudra endlessly, and Swami Rudrananda not only taught every meditation with eyes open, but also emphasized that the fastest path to spiritual growth is when you apply your practice to the circumstances of your life—the essence of the Shambhavi Mudra. Sri Shambhavananda himself was even named for this special practice by Swami Muktananda. Shambhavananda’s name means “the bliss of the natural state,” and the Shambhavi Mudra also refers to the natural state of happiness that bubbles up when we are able to keep our attention inside while we move through our karma.

THE SHAMBHAVI MUDRA IN THE YOGIC TRADITION

For all these reasons, the Shambhavi Mudra is a core practice in our tradition, but even beyond these reasons, the Shambhavi Mudra is a foundational aspect of spiritual growth itself. You have probably seen a statue of the Buddha or Shiva with eyes half open, meant to symbolize this merging of inner and outer worlds. Patanjali teaches that “The state of yoga is a natural state and our true condition” (1.19), meaning that the union of inner and outer worlds is actually the most natural space for our awareness to reside. He also taught that “It is the natural function of the faculty of thinking to turn inside rather than to associate itself with outer objects” (2.54), meaning that eventually this inward gaze amidst the outer world becomes a state of being for us. This is known as the Shambhava Upaya, the highest practice of yoga, and represents a living state of meditative awareness.

SHAMBHAVI MUDRA IN VIJNANA BHAIRAVA

The Commentary to Dharana 3 in the Vijnana Bhairava teaches that through the practice of the Shambhavi Mudra, the mind calms on its own, and we experience the inner tranquility described here as “Nirvikalpa Bhava.”

“Nirvikalpa bhava [a calm mind] comes about by Shambhavi Mudra in which even when the senses are open outwards, the attention is turned inwards towards inner spanda or throb of creative consciousness which is the basis and support of all mental and sensuous activity, then all vikalpas or thought-constructs cease.”

RIDING THE WAVE

Why is the Shambhavi Mudra so effective? Specifically because it uses the ceaseless fluctuating circumstances of reality to help us find center. As the quote mentions, the yogic tradition sees all of reality as a “throb of creative consciousness,” a pulsation or wave of manifestation. This means that there is no place you can go that is free of these waves, especially when you are on the teaching mat. The Shambhavi Mudra embraces this fact, and teaches us how to use the wobbles of our karma to find our center from any and all angles. It is neither by accepting nor rejecting these waves of manifestation, but by learning to find our balance amidst them, that serves our growth.

THE SHAMBHAVI MUDRA AND YOU: ACCEPT, REJECT, OR WOBBLE

The yogic tradition teaches that the imbalance will always be within your capacity to work with, but also life will never be without the wobble. So what is the best use of our energy? We could succumb to the wobble—let the stick fall, a.k.a. fall into our patterns, biting into the stress we feel. We could reject the wobble—grab and hold the stick with the doership of our will, teaching solely from our memorized cues and ignoring the experience in front of us. Or we can try the third option—invest ourselves in the practice of finding our center amidst the wobbles. The stick never stops wobbling, but as we practice, we actually get better at balancing it—we use the wobble to get better at finding our center. Suddenly, the wobble becomes fuel for your growth, guiding you towards happiness, instead of a block to your happiness.

As Sri Shambhavananda teaches:

“Having unrealistic expectations is the source of a lot of our unhappiness. We want someone to be a certain way so that we can feel happy. That never works—at least it hasn’t for me. Maybe it has for you. Our expectations often go way beyond reality. One of my favorite sayings lately is that you should always take a look at yourself and the situation you are in to see what is possible instead of what you want…Then you will be continually surprised.” (SP, 44)

AGAIN AND AGAIN

Expecting the world to stop wobbling doesn’t work, but when we start to work with the wobble, and see what’s possible, we are continually surprised by the experience. Working with the wobble, bringing our attention inside amidst the circumstances of our life, is not about stopping the wobble, but about participating in it. As you stand at the front of the class and teach, you can quite literally feel yourself balancing your awareness just like you balanced your stick. In fact, one tactile practice we will leave you with here is to bring your fingertip to your heart as you teach, just like balancing the stick on your finger. As you do this, let your eyes relax, let your breath flow, and allow the wobbles to guide you towards your heart, again and again and again.

EXERCISE • STICK BALANCING

GAME BREAK

Before we go any further with this concept, we need to stop and take a game break that will bring

this philosophy into focus. Take a moment to read through the next section for a little guidance on

the practice, as well as focal points to consider while you do it.

SETTING UP THE GAME

Go outside and find a stick, at least 2 feet long, or longer, not too heavy, but not too light. Before

we go too far, try to balance the stick on your finger, or in the palm of your hand— it will be

challenging but it shouldn’t be really hard. If it is really hard, try a longer or heavier stick, or one

with less branches. Read through the focal points and then try to do this practice for 5 minutes, not

worrying how many times you drop the stick and pick it back up.

FOCAL POINTS TO CONSIDER WHILE YOU BALANCE THE STICK

SURRENDER

As you try to balance the stick on your finger, notice that the wobbles are inevitable— there is simply

no way that you can have the experience of balancing the stick without the wobble. Similarly, in life,

there is no scenario that we can be in that doesn’t have a wobble, an imbalance, that we have to work

with consciously. We have the choice of whether we want accept or reject the wobble— buy into the

stress and let ourselves teach from a worried place, or grip the stick with doership and just teach from

what we have memorized— but as we know these tactics rarely work, and in the long run don’t teach

us how to balance overall. So as always, we have a third option— neither accepting, nor rejecting, but

surrendering. And what does surrender look like? It looks like what you’re doing— trying your best to

balance the stick. That’s it! Surrender is simply applying your practice while you live your life.

EFFORTLESS EFFORT

Once we have committed to balancing the stick beyond one or two drops, we can begin to

experience the subtle level of energy that we exert when balancing it. It is a form of effortless

effort, the work of balancing the stick is not filled with strong doership, nor is it accomplished by

lying down on the floor in shavasana, its somewhere in between. Try to pay attention to the quality

of your effort when balancing, and remember that this is the kind of effort we seek to exert during

our postures, and inspire our student’s to use in their postuers. When you move with effortless

effort, you will feel the inner and outer worlds of the Shambhavi Mudra at work.

WOBBLING TOWARDS CENTER

And finally, notice that it is the very act of being thrown off center that is allowing you to find

and re-find your center. Without the wobble, you would have no way of finding this next level of

centeredness. In our lives too, our karma exists to aid our growth— the wobbles we feel in our lives

are here to help us find center in those situations. So don’t just work against the wobble as you

balance the stick, but feel how the wobble is helping you find center— notice your heart and your

breath as you balance, and when you are finished practicing, notice if you feel more centered than

you did before it.

OKAY - NOW GO PLAY WITH BALANCING A STICK FOR 5 MINUTES!