Shambhavi riffs on the destructive nature of spiritual practice and the process of ripping away the blinders that keep our hearts closed and in darkness. A podcast from Satsang with Shambhavi.
FIRST WORDS FROM THE PODCAST
Most of you probably know that the word Guru means “heavy.” We can think about the five functions of reality, or the five modes of activity of reality in this tradition: Creation, Destruction, Maintenance, Withdrawal and Emission. The quality of heavy, of the Guru, relates most to Destruction.
In order to be released from our tensions, we have to be willing to undergo a process of destruction. Something has been built up over many lifetimes perhaps. You’ve built up certain attachments and identifications. You’ve cobbled together some sort of vaguely workable life, very vaguely in some cases. You’ve cobbled together, stitched together, polished, and preened a pseudo workable personality. You have some cherished ideas about yourself. They’re like the tchotchkes sitting in the cabinet at your Grandmom’s.
You know, how you go to your Grandmom’s, and there’s this hideous little piece of china. It looks like some sort of gnome. It’s probably got a pink nose and a green hat or something. And you say, “Grandmom, you should really get rid of that stuff.” And Grandmom’s like “Nooooo, I love that thing!”
All of these things that you’ve cobbled together, all these habits of body, energy, and mind, that you’ve cobbled together over all these lifetimes, are in the way of you experiencing your own essence nature and the fecundity vast communicative aspect of life. It’s not like they say in yoga classes “you have to open your heart chakra”. You actually have to have this thing that you’ve cobbled together taken away. It’s actually much more destructive than just opening something.
