Clarity

The summer season starts on June 20th but I feel the summer is in full swing already. I love the hot and sticky New York summers and I also like the cold and snowy winters and everything in between. Life like the seasons is varied and yet there is something constant. There is a beautiful verse that I came across from a book I am reading, the Parātrīśikā Vivaraṇa.

"I bow to that One Goddess in the form of Self-Consciousness,
in whom this universe that appears as an external objective existence
in the state of manifestation, shines,
on the disappearance of agitation,
in the state of the Unsurpassable Reality"

This verse reminds us that the Supreme Goddess projects this universe on Herself. Far from being esoteric, in a way this verse actually tells us that each one of us perceives this universe in our own consciousness. Each being has her or his own version of the universe. Since each one of us is a different point of view within Consciousness, there is confusion as to what then is real. What can we do in the midst of all this agitation, in the midst of all these seasons? This verse also tells us that when the agitation disappears the Goddess alone shines forth as the state beyond which there is no other, the Unsurpassable Reality, the one thing that remains constant always.

The yoga practices are the tools that we all use to move through the agitation that the different seasons in life bring. They remind us again and again of the one constant in the midst of it all, The Goddess. We are not culturally conditioned to recognize or describe this state in terms like Goddess or Unsurpassable Reality. We call it silence, being centered, being grounded, being content, being relaxed, being at ease, etc. For some reason we just leave it at that. Have you ever stayed in this state long enough to express what is the texture of your silence, how does centeredness feels, what is the flavor of your contentment, how do you experience your mind when you are relaxed and at ease and ultimately how do you experience your universe when you are in that state?

As we develop our relationship with this state, with the Goddess in the form of Self-Consciousness, we will at some point recognize it as the one constant, the sanctum sanctorum, the One Unsurpassable Reality.

Summer Blessings to you all

Jorge Nihal