In response to a student, Shambhavi talks about spiritual warriorship. The most difficult work is dropping our cherished concepts and convictions. While warriorship is often thought of as solo heroism, in reality, we are collaborating with wisdom to wake up. A podcast from Satsang with Shambhavi
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In the earlier stages of practice—which could last lifetimes—we think of warriorship as putting in a lot of effort.
But really the most courage comes when we have to give up our cherished ideas about ourselves and about other people. It comes when we realize that the things we’ve claimed as our own are actually holding us back. And that we have to give up living through concepts and living through convictions. This is when everything becomes completely fluid. Even structure is something we understand very deeply as being completely provisional, and something that could change in an instant.
That is very hard for us. We can maybe do it to a certain point. But then all of us are going to get to various red lines that we want to draw in the sand. I’m not going any further. This is who I am. This is what I believe. This is where I stake my claim. We’re all going to get to those places.
Those who have a really deep intuitive understanding of the nature of reality are going to move past those red lines. Those who don’t yet are going to stay there for a while until the sand shifts underneath their feet. So really you can’t imagine how thoroughgoing that relinquishment is in the end, the relinquishment of one’s sign posts, one’s things that you grab onto.
