What makes direct realization traditions fearless, and how does this fearlessness impact students practicing in these traditions? A podcast from Satsang with Shambhavi
First Words from the Podcast
Tonight I want to talk about something that I wrote online today, and I came up with this little phrase that could be kind of a tagline for Jaya Kula. Right now, the state of the tagline is “Fearless wisdom for waking up hearts.” I wanted to talk about this word ‘fearless’ and why I put that word in there.
What is it about this tradition that’s fearless? We certainly aren’t fearless, so I’m not talking about us! We’re full of fears. But the tradition itself does have a kind of fearlessness. What does that mean? It’s a fearlessness that when we walk this path — if we walk it thoroughly — then we also become fearless. So we can come to embody the fearlessness of the tradition.
In fact, despite everybody’s fears that we express through our activities of body, energy and mind, I would say that the people who are most attracted to and suited to this tradition are a little more fearless — a little more courageous you could say. It’s kind of a necessity. Why? First of all, the tradition teaches that the tradition itself is temporary, provisional and impermanent. When you actually realize enough, or realize who you really are — that’s what realization means, so it’s called self-realization because you realize the self — then you don’t need any of the concepts or practices of the tradition.
One of the most often repeated kinds of paradoxes is one that you’ll hear from teachers not just in Trika Shaivism, but in all the other direct realization traditions like Dzogchen, Chan Buddhism, some forms of Daoism etc. They all say the same thing — I practiced and practiced using the View and the practices of the tradition, and then when I got to a certain point, I realized I didn’t need to have done all that.
