In tantric philosophy, God has two attributes or aspects to its being. They are inseparable like light and heat are two aspects of a flame. They are called Shiva and Shakti, one representing the masculine energy and the other it's feminine. Shiva is the essence, the substance of God, and Shakti, the power to do anything. One is serene and ever tranquil, the other is dynamic and in eternal pulsation, dancing with ecstasy. It is well represented by the statute of Shiva Nataraja or the dancing Lord. Here God is dancing the Tandava Kala Shakti, the dance of creation, maintenance, and reabsorption of the Universe. It is a dance that comes forth out of its own ecstatic bliss of being. God creates out of ecstasy, sustains everything in ecstasy, and destroys inanimate and animate beings in ecstasy. They all arise as artistic expressions of its own being to be reabsorbed in time. You and I are such creations and as such, we also hold the two aspects, Shiva and Shakti, essence, and power within what we are. Our essence is Shiva, the primordial, unchanging Self, and our Shakti is manifesting as the unique body and persona that we are expressing as. In this precise moment, there is a play of Shiva and Shakti in our own being. Shiva is the eternal witness of all phenomena and Shakti the phenomena that we are witnessing. In our own mind, Shakti is our thoughts and Shiva the awareness from where they arise.
Why do I ask, God is wild and serene at the same time, can you?
Because for me, that is the invitation that life offers us. Can we take the intensity and wildness of life, heck of our own being! with a serene gaze. Can we embrace our deepest desires and fears with a gentle smile? Can we be intimate with the horror, can we be at peace with loss. Is not about being insensitive, is not about not caring, on the contrary, it is to love so deeply and fully what our personal life is, in all its complexity, confusion, and uncertainty, that we can take the highs and lows of its drama and appreciate the beauty of it all. Can we see the beauty and possibility in our struggles, in fear, even in bereavement? Easier said than done, right? it sounds so beautiful and poetic, yet in reality, to be able to love life as it is, to take all its intensity, it requires a deep process of inner transformation and constant conscious engagement with the present moment. And that process is called yoga. Yoga is to become like shiva, spacious enough to hold the intensity of human experience and not shy away, not react, not run away but actually be intimate with it.
That is the purpose of meditation practice, each day that we sit to meditate we are cultivating our capacity to be intimate with our body, feelings, emotions, and thoughts. We are learning to embrace ourselves as we are and we are also learning to embrace our life as it is. We are honing our internal capacities of Shiva and Shakti, inner steadiness, peace, and spaciousness as well as creativity, transformation, and joyful expression of our being.
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