Contemplations from
the 16th lesson on the Shiva Sutras.
Sutra 15:
VIDYASAMHARE TADUTTHASVAPNADASANAM
Where knowledge of
our True Self is forgotten; at that
very point, dreaming begins.
What is The True Teacher all about with this Sutra? Shiva is
saying that we should become alert to the fact that when we forget our True
nature, from there we will start to daydream. He urges us to realise that at
the point when we lose connection with our Truth, there arises a necessity to
start creating a false alternative; a fantasy or daydream to occupy the ever
voracious imagination. Shiva says that when we understand this we should break
the spell and WAKE UP!
We must understand
this process and take back the energy being lost in these vapid, impotent,
mental meanderings. Stop daydreaming along the way through life and snap back
to reality, to what is, here and now.
Lazy daydreaming has become habitual, but it’s empty and it’s a waste of our
precious time and energy. Be wakeful, Shiva entreats us wisely, be awake you’re
missing it! We’re missing life as we saunter about in a dream state like some
existential somnambulist, just living a half-life instead of being fully
present and engaged in this remarkable, wondrous experience which is unfolding
all around us (see Sutra 7 VISMAYO YOGABUMIHI).
Mahadev’s caveat is that this awakening and staying awake is
effortful though, it does require some degree of wilful exertion on our part,
and so we are likely to encounter some internal resistance at first because
we’re so used to the easy entertainment of wishful thinking or aimless planning
or hollow stocktaking or whatever form the dream may take. If we can learn to
break the habit by continually pulling ourselves back from the dream state as
soon as we know we’ve dozed off, then our ‘wake up muscles’ get stronger, our ‘immediate
action on snoozing drills’ get slicker and sharper and, by necessity therefore,
our connection to Self becomes firmer and more durable as a consequence. When
we’re better and more regularly established in our true nature, then inevitably
life flows with more Zing and our actions within it carry more Oomph, being as
they are, rooted in reality not some uninspired fantasy which has been
regurgitated and reheated for the umpteenth time.
Shiva says, make the effort to learn where and when the
dream begins and then keep snapping back, because when we can take these
further steps to Self-Mastery then our speed and surety along the path to
illumined living will increase in harmonious accordance.
Where knowledge of
our True Self is forgotten; at that
very point, dreaming begins…
Know this and break the somnolent cycle of reverie…
Do that and Liberation shall be yours.
~ By Elliot Donnelly
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