Direct realization traditions ask us to hold both the relative and the absolute together in each moment. Shambhavi breaks it down. A podcast from Satsang with Shambhavi
Podcast First Words
Tonight I want to talk about walking on the earth while touching the sky. It’s a way of talking about some of the main aspects of our practice and our View. We have the understanding that the nature of reality is continuity. There really are no objects or breaks between things. We have this understanding as View, and then eventually we have that experience due to our practice.
At the same time, we have the experience of there being a multiplicity, of there being objects, of there being separate people, of there being worlds. We understand that that experience is not degraded. It’s not something that we’re trying to transcend, avoid, or push away.
One of the meanings of the word tantra is continuity. So when we’re only having the experience of separation, when we don’t yet have consistent access to the experience of continuity, then we suffer from separation. But when we do have access to it, when that’s our new ground, and when we’re immersed in it, then the multiplicity becomes enjoyable. We understand that it’s a display of that base state. That it’s an ornament. And that it’s magical, it has a magical quality.
Now, here’s where the misunderstanding happens. That experience of the multiplicity—of duality, if you want to use the fancy philosophical term—is something that’s very misunderstood.
