na shivam vidyate kvachit
There is nothing that is not Shiva.
Svacchanda Tantra

[From Part II, Chapter One of the Book: HAPPY FOR NO GOOD REASON]

ONCE, TEN MEN went on a difficult and arduous pilgrimage to a holy city. At one point they had to make their way across a dangerous raging river. When they got to the other side they counted everyone to make sure they had all crossed safely. The leader counted first and discovered that only nine men had made it across. He then asked each of the other pilgrims to count. Sure enough each one counted only nine. They were plunged into grief at the thought of the one who had been lost.

A wise stranger came upon the scene and discreetly asked what had happened to elicit such an outpouring of grief. “We are pilgrims,” said the leader. “There were 10 of us when we began our journey. One of our brothers has been lost in the river.”

The stranger quickly noticed that by his count there were ten pilgrims. He asked: “Sir, would you please count everyone again just to make sure?”

“Yes,” replied the leader who began counting aloud, “one, two, three…eight, and nine! Oh alas, one is gone!”

“But sir,” said the stranger, “you have forgotten to count yourself!” And so, the tenth man was found.

Yoga philosophy says that we are in the same predicament. In our analysis of the world we look externally and leave out the key figure—ourselves. When we notice the Self and begin to explore it we become aware of the most powerful thing in the universe: Consciousness. We discover that in the most fundamental way, we are our own awareness.

In the process of my second education I made a study of every system of thought that inspired me. Particularly in the ancient philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism, I encountered ideas so powerful that they transformed my understanding. The essence can be given in a single sentence—“Everything is Consciousness.”

The elaboration: Western science takes the view that everything is matter. Darwinian evolution shows a history of material change. Science, however, has a problem in accounting for Consciousness. It is an embarrassment. How did Consciousness suddenly spring into being? No material solution satisfies. Would Darwin say that Consciousness was a mutation that proved useful? This seems far-fetched to me. Consciousness is not a detail like the opposable thumb. The presence of Consciousness utterly transforms reality. Reality is unthinkable without Consciousness. Let us look at the viewpoint of Kashmir Shaivism.

Kashmir Shaivism says that, far from being a by-product of a material process, Consciousness, or Chiti, is the primary stuff of the universe. Consciousness, characterized by iccha, will and emotion, jnana, knowledge and kriya, the power to act, pervades everywhere at all times. There is no place, no time or person where Consciousness is not. A religious person would call that Consciousness “God,” but according to Kashmir Shaivism, it is God without form that becomes all the forms in the universe. The name for God in this system is “Shiva”. However, here Shiva refers to Universal Consciousness. A Kashmir Shaivite would regard the specific depictions of Shiva to be symbols of Universal Consciousness.

How does Kashmir Shaivism account for matter? Quite elegantly: Shiva, Universal Consciousness, in exploring his own possibilities, creates the universe out of his own being. He does not go outside of himself for building materials. Therefore, Consciousness itself is the substratum of matter. Matter is simply a grosser vibration of Consciousness. Kashmir Shaivism defines 36 levels of creation, from pure Universal Consciousness at the top, down to the dullest, least conscious object in the universe: the stone.

Love, peace, wisdom, complete fulfillment, freedom, mastery and perfect relationship characterize Consciousness. It is everything in the universe. A stone is cold, isolated, dull, but even a stone has divine properties too—it is strong, content in itself, reliable and long lasting, to name a few. It is perhaps superior to human beings in these last named qualities. A Shaivite would argue that these attributes reflect the divine essence of a stone. A Shaivite author wrote, “The Self is the sweet core of everything.” Since a stone is the most inert object, every person, animal and object has Consciousness as its essence.

THERE IS NOTHING THAT IS NOT SHIVA

In this part of the book I will be describing a technique of Self-inquiry. We will investigate the blocks within our subtle body and try to understand how they came about. We will then release them by using tools I will describe.

Blocks appear because there are aspects of ourselves we have not examined or thought about with our conscious mind. We are in denial about them. Jung would say that we push them into our unconscious.

Such a state of affairs is intolerable for a meditator. He is determined to make the unconscious conscious, to bring everything into the light. Nonetheless, even for an experienced meditator, such an undertaking is fraught with danger. After all, who but us has created the situation? Inevitably there is an emotional reaction to changing it.

When window washers work dangerously high up on the outside of a building, they wear safety belts. People who perform the trapeze act in the circus have a safety net under them. Our net, our safety belt, will be the contemplation and understanding drawn from Kashmir Shaivism -- “Everything is Consciousness.”

I learned to meditate with this awareness. My teacher’s instructions are filled with the spirit of this attitude. One example:

The Svacchanda Tantra says, na shivam vidyate kvachit, “nothing that is not Shiva exists anywhere”. When we look at the world from a material point of view we see it wrongly.

Once a man was walking along a road. Suddenly he screamed out in terror at the sight of what he thought was a large snake coiled on the side of the road. He had a powerful fear reaction. His breath came in gasps, his blood pressure went up, and his heart palpitated. When he looked again he saw that it was not a snake at all, but a coiled piece of rope. Nonetheless his reaction, based on his mistaken belief, had been the same as if it were a snake.

All of us see a snake in a rope when we think that the universe is far from God or Consciousness. We react in fear. We fear the future. We fear other people and situations. We feel alone. We feel a lack. We despair. We have the snake-in-a-rope reaction when we think the Universe is material, limited and indifferent. But is our reaction appropriate?

When the man looked again he realized his mistake. His fear left him. He laughed. His blood pressure and heart rate decreased. Exactly thus, when true understanding of our real situation dawns, we feel intense relief. We understand that there is nothing to fear and that the Universe is the play of Consciousness.

Kashmir Shaivism says that everything is linked to everything else by supreme intelligence. Nothing is separate or alone because the same Consciousness underlies everything. There are links and correspondences everywhere. The well-known saying “as above, so below” indicates these correspondences. Kashmir Shaivism similarly says, “as here, so elsewhere”. When we evolve spiritually, we move towards oneness. This can show up as uncanny coincidences that affirm that a higher power is running things.

Many years ago, I experienced a particularly dramatic coincidence. Before going to India in l970, I taught English literature. Later, my literary tastes changed and I became an avid admirer of the poet-saints, especially the 16th Century poet-saint Tukaram. I was thrilled by his extraordinary expressions of love for God. I was teaching at the Ann Arbor, Michigan ashram at the time and I planned to teach a course on his life and writings. We set a date and announced it. I looked forward to it with anticipation. The ashram community was also excited.

On the day I was to start the course I received an envelope in the mail, postmarked Dehu, India, Tukaram’s hometown. Dehu is an obscure and dusty little hamlet in the state of Maharashtra. Inside the envelope was prasad, blessed offerings from Tukaram’s temple. I was stunned. To appreciate this you must understand that, in my whole life, I had never before, nor since, received a letter from Dehu. Moreover, it arrived on the day I was to start the course! I felt that Tukaram was speaking to me across the centuries. That experience was, for me, a powerful confirmation of a higher intelligence that unites us all.

Of course, there was also a mundane explanation for what had happened. An acquaintance of mine was on pilgrimage to holy sites in Maharashtra. When he arrived in Dehu, he thought of my expressed admiration for Tukaram. He put some prasad into an envelope and sent it off. He had no idea I was teaching a course. It did not diminish the “Chiti-ness” of the experience for me. Chiti had surely orchestrated the timing.

When we meditate on supreme Chiti, we honor the playful, interconnected, harmonious and benevolent power that underlies everything, including our minds. When we perceive the mind as Chiti, it merges in the Self.

The sage Vasugupta said that in the inner world, “There is no word, no thought, no image, no idea, no state which is not Shiva.” That is the core understanding of our Self-inquiry. With this understanding as our “safety-belt”, we can easily inquire into our blocks.

Do this contemplation a few times until you get a feel for it. Then incorporate this attitude into your daily meditation.