(Circa June or July 2014)

Guruji gives short talks on Wednesday night before we break into groups for Shiva Process. Many include his thoughts and teachings on Kashmir Shaivism.

I thought I’d do a sutra or two and then we can break up. Sutras are aphorisms from Kashmir Shaivism and particularly, these are from the Shiva Sutras, a mysterious text from the 8^th or 9^th century. The Shiva Sutras is the foundation text of Kashmir Shaivism. It begins with the first sutra, chaitanyam atman which means the ‘Self is Consciousness’. The meaning, of all the other Shaivite philosophies that came afterward, is contained in this sutra. If you want to know the essence of Shaivism, which is who you are, Shaivism says, ‘you are Consciousness, you are your Consciousness’.

One of my favourite states:

The forces or tattvas in the body should be dissolved backwards into the Source.

Shiva Sutras 3.4

This sutra is very mysterious. It describes Self-inquiry, the Shiva Process. It says that if you take everything that arises within the mind, and turn within, take it back on itself, you will return to the core of your being. You connect with the Self; you return to the Source. You can dissolve each mental construct, each thought, until you come to That, which has no construction, Consciousness itself.

Shaivism is saying that in the realm of Consciousness, you can begin anywhere, investigate anything, and discover the one truth, Consciousness. This is a profound and bold statement. 

In Shiva Process we begin with a story, a situation, and then we reflect inwardly. We don’t express negativity outwardly. For example, when we’re carrying a negative feeling, we might say, ‘I have a terrible feeling of jealousy and rage.’ What we normally do is dump that emotion on others because somebody hurt us, or somebody caused us a lot of grief. We spread that negativity around. We abuse everyone, we go after them, and attack them and become irrational and say angry things.

Do you understand what I’m talking about?  Are we on the same page? Your poison comes out of the box, you proliferate ignorance. Now, if you were in a good space, if you were coming out of a pure space, a space of love or truth, then you’d be uplifting everyone. However, when there is an impure seed in our speech and being we create misery everywhere.  So, what to do?

Self-inquiry says that trying to get satisfaction from where you can’t get satisfaction, by beating and pounding someone hoping to convince them that they’re wrong and you’re right, you should instead take that feeling to yourself.

The mind has plummeted into matter and become dense with heavy hurtful thoughts. It is then we can return them to the source. Bring them inside, process them inside, inquire about them inside, with the faith that by doing so the pain will resolve into a more true, more real, and ultimately more peaceful thoughts that lay at your core.

Shift your awareness back to the Self. 

All your ignorance, your attack thoughts, your tearing thoughts, and jealous thoughts are turned inward and resolved, one into the other. All the tattvas, all the different levels of pain and difficulty in life can be dissolved one at a time, into more uplifting levels of Consciousness. At the end what you have is presto, a joyous discovery that underneath the whole catastrophe of negative emotion there is something beautiful.

This is the faith of inquiry, of Shiva Process and this is the meaning of this sutra. We face the force of the tattvas working in the body and say, ‘Whenever ignorance arises it is time to process.’

If you follow your ignorance, you get ignorance squared. If you keep travelling the road of ignorance, the ‘she said, he said, they said, they did this, they did that’ all you get is more and more ignorance. Have you found that? Or, you get your tearing thoughts, ‘I’m no good, I’m worthless.’ If you pursue ignorance to the end, you just get more of the same. Ignorance multiples and gets worse and worse. So instead take it inside, resolve it into a deeper reality.

This is one of the great underlying sutras about Self-inquiry:

Remember–the forces or tattvas in the body should be dissolved backwards into the Source. SS.3.4

When you follow your thoughts backwards into the source you can then contact the great teaching, the great masters and understand this teaching. Because our focus is usually external, it doesn’t occur to us to practice this technique. However, some people know that they can dissolve difficulty by sleep. They know that if they go to sleep that when they wake up it will be dissolved. Are you that type of person? You’re very lucky if you are. Some people can’t sleep when it’s like that. But if you do go to sleep to recover, sleeping is practicing this sutra. You’re dissolving difficulty into the source.

The mind creates vrittis, disturbing thoughts and feelings, but in sleep you turn the mind inward into the state of sleep where there is nivritti (without thought), no vrittis. When you wake up you are refreshed, a different thought constructs come up because you’re no longer caught in that negative construct. 

When we do Shiva Process, we share this perspective and understanding—that by taking the contraction inside, by taking the story and resolving it within we will return to peace. Freudian psychology and other kinds of psychology have the same effect. They say there’s more here than meets the eye. You must take it inside, go deeper and deeper, look for what lies underneath. Freudians will say that karma and everything that disturbs us is underneath in the unconscious. Shaivism says that the Self lies underneath everything. Underneath the trauma, underneath the hurt, underneath the scars, and lies there is something very beautiful and all pervasive.

Now let’s look at another sutra:

Through the natural unfoldment of pure knowledge, khecari, the state of Shiva, is obtained.

Shiva Sutra 2.5

What is the pay off on this game?  Not lots of money, not lots of fame, not the big house or great relationship. It’s Sivavastha, the state of Shiva. You know that can’t be bad. It means we attain the state of Shiva: pure love, pure wisdom, pure peace, pure insight, and pure luminosity. How does that happen? It happens through the natural unfoldment of pure knowledge. 

What is that knowledge that must unfold to give us the state of Shiva? It is not conventional knowledge; it’s another kind of knowledge. It’s a profound knowledge, knowledge of the Self, yogic knowledge, mysterious, mystical knowledge. That is the knowledge that inquiry gives us, that meditation gives us and that satsang gives us. This is the natural unfoldment.

Baba said the highest kechari is to flow in Consciousness, to soar in the ‘sky of consciousness’, the inner sky. 

That state naturally unfolds as we pursue meditation and Self-inquiry. The grace of the lineage, the grace of the Guru, naturally unfolds our inner knowledge. We may not be That as it is happening. We contemplate these teachings and knowledge gradually unfolds, and slowly we get closer and closer to that sivavastha, the source in which all things lie. 

When you do Shiva Process you are promoting that process and soon inquiry becomes alive in you. No matter what you are doing, bring your consciousness back to the Source. Whenever negativity comes up rewind it back to the Self. Then you will see that your other strategies of exploding it into the outer world won’t work. Remember, resolve it into the Self. This is the goal and the nectar of Self-inquiry.

That’s all I want to say tonight.

To find out more about Shiva Process you can purchase Guruji’s book, ‘Self-inquiry–Using Your Awareness to Unblock Your Life at www.theashram.com.au/books-by-swami-shankarananda/