This interview took place on a gray January day in Portland, Oregon.

What is Self-realization?

Shambhavi: The term is pretty literal. It means realizing your Self in the largest sense. Every day we realize our ’small I’ self. We embody ’small I’ all the time with our basic defensiveness toward life. ‘Small I’ stays small by hanging onto fears, habits of separation and conceptual knowing. When we break out of the prison of our defensive “I pod,” we can begin to recognize and embody a more spontaneous, wise and pervasive Self. This larger Self is called Shiva nature or Buddha nature, or whatever. It includes the entire cosmos.

“The entire cosmos” sounds like a tall order. Is anyone ever that realized?

Shambhavi: I’ll let you know soon. (grin) Seriously though, I often hear people say, “So and so is totally realized.” I suspect that ‘totally realized’ where human beings are concerned is a story for people seeking a savior, or some conceptual relief from uncertainty. My Satguru was the most realized and least dogmatic human being I have ever encountered. And she said, “Even Rishi is only a stage.” But we humans can definitely discover and embody more of the continuity of consciousness, more of the unbroken, wide-awakeness of the creation. That is incontrovertible. And wondrous.

We seem to have largely lost touch with a sense of wonder. How can we regain that?

Shambhavi: Manifest life is a total, playful, startling, inventive, no-holds-barred conversation. But many human lives are  structured around one kind of conversation: commercial exchange. I pay you for information, and then I go out and resell that. We buy and sell the right to pollute the planet. We even strike deals in our relationships. I’m supposed to meet your needs in exchange for you meeting my needs. Our experience is actually quite impoverished when we are only participating at this one, rather flat level. Nature’s conversation is multi-dimensional and infinite.

Ritual is a way we can begin to have a more multi-dimensional and direct conversation with wisdom. Just like I am talking to you now. Of course, if you are cut off from life, ritual, or even simple prayer, can seem empty and artificial. This is ignorance of Reality. Spiritual practice renders us more porous to the many languages with which Reality converses.

We can only regain wonder when we find the desire and the courage to step out into openness, out of our “I pod,” and experience ourselves and the world in a fresh and new way. Sometimes this can be as simple as saying “yes” when opportunities arise to try something new, or to do something in a new way.

You often say “Everything is fine.” So why do you bother teaching?

Shambhavi: Teaching is not fixing a problem. We don’t feel that a plant taking in water is fixing something. It’s just being a plant. Teaching is just part of nature. As is ignorance. Ignorance is just as much an expression of Shiva nature as teaching or wisdom. So there is an ongoing teaching aspect that is part of the natural expression of life moving toward Self-recognition or realization. It just is.

One of the long-standing karmic fixations of this expression of Shiva nature – I mean myself – is a sense of urgency. I’ve always been a bit of a banner waver. I look at my teacher, Anandamayi Ma. She exhorted everyone to practice, practice, practice – to turn toward Self-realization in whatever way they could. But there was no sense of personal urgency attached. She had total confidence in life. Her exhortations were just what was naturally happening. Nothing more or less. I look forward to relaxing more deeply and embodying that more fully.

You see, something always tells people to practice, to realize! It’s kind of funny, but also incredibly moving.

Posted by Shambhavi on January 6th, 2010 | Explore More! Tags: materialism, Self-realization