Become a Sky Dancer
In our sādhana there are times when we must make a concerted effort to work harder, to open a greater depth in ourselves. At other times, if we can easily make contact with an expanded inner awareness, we can simply remain at ease in that place and allow it to open and reveal itself in stillness. Both approaches are correct, but we must use our discrimination to know which is appropriate at any given time.
If we feel contracted — perhaps because we have projected our energy and attention outside of ourselves — we must first connect back into a place of openness. Once we make that effort, we can simply let that inner state show itself.
We can best understand this by looking at what Tantric tradition calls the upāyas, the triadic means to liberation. They are āṇavopāya, the path of effort; śāktopāya, the path of energy; and śāmbhavopāya, the path of awareness.
The Three Upāyas
The effort in āṇavopāya is to direct our awareness inside, which is best summed up by the basic instruction: Open your heart and feel the flow. We can practice this with every dynamic we encounter, whether during meditation or as we move through the day. The double-breath exercise is our primary tool for internalizing our energy and putting it back into flow.
When we engage the world, it’s important to not get caught in what is happening. We must often make an effort to let go of whatever mental and emotional content we experience, and refrain from acting on any impulse that arises that might project our awareness further out from our center. When we can pull that energy back inside and put it into flow, it fuels our growth by clearing out the blocks in the central channel, creating more openness inside.
The word khecarī means sky farer. In this image, Śiva, the Self, is the one who dances. The sky is His attire and the flight of light is surrender. In śāktopāya there is no need to dance on the solid ground of the security of our possessions or our fixed perceptions and conditions. Śāktopāya is called the path of energy because it is the energy that dances.
Our individual effort becomes the absolute surrender to that energy so that we become one with the śakti. We are surrendering to the śakti that is seeking its path home to Consciousness, truly allowing the energy that has been awakened in us to free us of all limitations. In that state, as in the image, pure Consciousness, the true source of the sky, illuminates all of life.
The power of śakti may uncover all of our misperceptions and misunderstanding of what reality is. Surrendering to the śakti is allowing everything — thoughts, emotions, experiences — to show us how we misunderstand those very things. Then, as in āṇavopāya, we must let go of our reactions to whatever is happening, but now the focus is on the act of surrendering to the energy that is showing us our life.
The progression of the upāyas is moving us from noise into stillness. In śāmbhavopāya we have made contact with our true Self and the sky is our attire. We no longer hold on to the perception that we are the doer, which had perpetuated that veil of duality. It is now the energy, the dance of Consciousness, that is doing – and Śiva is the dancer who is manifesting and expressing the joy of His own being in all form, including form that has no substance.
The progression we travel in our sadhana is from misunderstanding to understanding, from separation to unity. Ultimately, the “I” that starts as an individual becomes “I” that is pure Consciousness: “I am.”
Become a Sky Farer
We all go through cycles in our sādhana. We want to develop a sensitivity to what is happening and what the energy is doing. The light of vimarśa — the capacity of Consciousness to know Itself as Itself — is also our means of perceiving when to make an effort and when to surrender, when to work deeper inside and when to simply be still. This God-given capacity to know our state is the essence of sādhana because it also gives us the ability to penetrate through any state that is concealing the pure light of Consciousness. During those times when we do need to make more of an effort to reach inside, we may accomplish that by sitting longer in meditation.
If the energy is flowing through you, don’t try to push it in a certain direction. Just get out of the way. Let it reveal what it’s going to reveal. The ultimate revelation is that Śiva is the dancer. This is what it means to be a sky farer and learn to the sky dance.
Whenever you’re unsure, sit down and get quiet. When you make contact with pure Consciousness, things become clear. This is where self-inquiry takes place. Your self-reflective capacity is God’s capacity to know Himself in you, as you. It is what allows you to see the sky as light, in its full spectrum of color. We can only see it because we look for it, and we see its full glory when we look through God’s eyes.