Connecting to the Heart, physically and psychologically, is not just a spiritual nice to do, but a practical healing practice, for it brings about a child-like quality, of curiosity, of something that cannot be shown, of surrender, and of vibration and a quivering that releases the purity of our Heart, our supreme joyousness.
Daniel Odier quotes his teacher, Lalita Devi, in his book Crazy Wisdom of the Yoginis, “Abhinavagupta said the teaching is transmitted first of all by touch, then by the eyes, and only in third place by words. In fact, it is transmitted from heart to heart, directly.”
This quote illustrates a couple of things, first, that the Kaula Path is the way of the Heart, and secondly, that the teaching of the Mahamudra is the direct path. This makes things sound all relatively easy. Indeed, as Niguma (Tilopa’s sister) says “Don’t do anything whatsoever with the mind. Abide in an authentic, natural state.” And the great poet Lalla echoes by writing “Nothing to contemplate! Not you, not me. No goal, no method.”
I can’t be the only one to have noticed how difficult it is to do nothing. Indeed, with the emphasis on connecting to the body and our sensations, it is difficult for me to see how we can do this and yet do nothing at the same time.
And yet, Odier gives us a clue. He talks of the three key obstacles for the tantrika (tantra student). Those being identification with the Ego, not recognising our completeness and identity with the Divine (Shiva/Shakti), and when pleasure of the senses becomes a distraction unconnected to the cosmic body.
So, all we need do is connect to our body and sensations as a way to recognise our divinity dis-attached from the Ego. This is when we truly dissolve into the practice, when our minds flicker out for a while and our vibration, our quivering (Spanda) takes hold. This can only happen when we truly surrender to the practice.
Too often I have found myself worrying about the sexual aspect of much of our practices. But this is a mind induced worry. Abhinavagupta says getting caught up in the pleasure of the senses (when linked to the Ego) depletes the Heart, while practices integral to raising vibration fills the Heart ceaselessly.
The sexual aspects of our practices then is not the issue, but how to stop them from becoming compulsive distractions. One of the things that helps us when meditating is concentration on one repetitive word or phrase (mantra). Another is the repetition of the breath (through pranayama). These are recognised ways to bypass the mind. Allowing ourselves then to fall into the repetition of the self-pleasuring action, as a meditative practice, brings the focus inwards (a useful tool here is to wear a blindfold so you don’t get distracted by the other men in the group).
Tilopa wrote “He who engages in karma-mudra (ritual of sexual union) raises the primordial knowledge of the happiness-void … If there is no attachment, primordial knowledge will rise up from the happiness-void.” Lalla puts it “When the mind that differentiates fell asleep I brought this reality into my Heart and I began to dance, naked!”
Bringing it all together
Connecting to the Heart, physically and psychologically, is not just a spiritual nice to do, but a practical healing practice, for the nakedness Lalla refers to is a child-like quality, of curiosity, of something that cannot be shown, of surrender, and of vibration and a quivering that releases the purity of our Heart, our supreme joyousness, as Daniel Odier would say.
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See my personal development / personality profiling book DISCover the Power of You published through John Hunt Publishing Ltd, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-78535-591-2
And for a bit of light reading, see my first historical fictional novel Fermented Spirits published through Austin Macauley Publishers, 2022. ISBN-13: 978-1398437159