Explore the essence of non-dual Shaiva Tantra, where the alignment of view, practice, and goal shapes a transformative journey. Delve into the threefold objectives of awakening, liberation, and enjoyment, discovering how a clarified awareness fosters true freedom. Gain insights on integrating body, mind, and spirit to enhance practice and avoid common pitfalls. This exploration invites you to uncover reality's nature, emphasizing that true existence is a divine expression waiting to be recognized.
Effective tantric practice requires an alignment of view, methods, and goals to achieve true awakening, liberation, and enjoyment.
Awakening fosters a deep awareness of reality, which, when integrated with liberation, empowers individuals to fully embrace life.
Deep dives
The Nature of Consciousness and Suffering
All existence is rooted in an infinite divine consciousness that expresses itself through a multitude of differentiated subjects and objects. Each object represents a timeless potential inherent in the light of consciousness, while individuals are contracted forms of this awareness. When individuals identify with their limited circumstances rather than their true nature, they experience suffering. The spiritual journey aims to shift this misidentification, revealing that the divine powers of consciousness encompass their experience, leading to the recognition of one's true identity as part of the universal whole.
Goals of Tantric Practice
Tantric practice seeks to achieve three primary goals: awakening, liberation, and enjoyment. Awakening is an intensified awareness of reality, while liberation refers to freedom from mental constructs and suffering. Enjoyment signifies the capacity to embrace life fully, a concept often overlooked in other spiritual traditions. These goals are interconnected, where increasing awareness leads to greater freedom, and attaining freedom facilitates deeper awakening.
Alignment of View and Practice
For effective tantric practice, it's essential to ensure alignment between the view of reality, practice methods, and desired outcomes. The view provides a philosophical foundation that enhances the effectiveness of practices, making it crucial for practitioners to adopt an appropriate orientation towards their spiritual goals. Disparate philosophies and practices may not yield the intended awakening or liberation results. By engaging with a well-established tradition, practitioners can navigate their spiritual path informed by historical alignment and collective wisdom.
In this solo episode, we talk about one of the most fundamental aspects of tantric practice which is the alignment of view, practice, and goal in the non-dual Shaiva Tantra tradition. Our practice must be empowered by a view of reality that aligns with our ultimate goal, because without this alignment, even the most diligent practice may not lead to the desired outcome. Traditionally, the threefold goal of tantric practic is awakening (bodha), liberation (mokṣa or mukti), and enjoyment (bhōga). What we call awakening (bodha) is just really a form of clarified and intensified awareness of the nature of reality which begins with awakening to our true nature - to our own fundamental being. This process liberates ourselves from mental constructs, and egoic conditionings and limitations, and ultimately from suffering. The view of reality, as expressed and explained here, serves as a foundation that nurtures and sustains this transformative process. Only then, awakening can open the door to liberation, which means to freedom, and to the full enjoyment of life.
Discover a treasure trove of guided meditations, teachings, and courses at tantrailluminated.org.