The Reality Sutras by Shambhavi Sarasvati

Author:Shambhavi Sarasvati [Sarasvati, Shambhavi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781732218307
Publisher: Jaya Kula Press
Published: 2018-11-03T05:00:00+00:00

20

Ignorance of your real nature is the cause of suffering

Suffering is the absence of access to wisdom, not the presence of sin or fault.

One of the names of Lord Shiva, reality itself, is “the Auspicious.” When you do a lot of spiritual practice, you discover the essential wisdom and goodness of existence. You discover that reality is flooded with and made of wisdom virtues. These wisdom virtues are capacities such as compassion, mercy, kindness, tenderness, clarity, curiosity, intelligence, creativity, generosity, and playfulness.

Because there is only wisdom, we cannot properly talk of evil or sin. All of the acts we might call evil, sinful, or simply disturbed arise from anavamala, our experience of separation. When you are mired in the experience of being a body with space around you, when your own energy and mind feel isolated, when you have the understanding that you were born and are going to die, you are embodying anavamala. You have temporarily forgotten your real circumstance, what you actually are.

Our experience of separation gives rise to all loneliness, defensiveness, aggression, and attachment. If you firmly believe that you are this single person, you are going to defend your territory. You are going to try to resolve the “problem” of your loneliness and fragility. We do this by fighting off perceived attacks and clinging to whatever it is we feel will ameliorate our condition: other people or animals, possessions, food, power, and acclaim. This is suffering.

Anavamala comes in degrees. If you were a rock, you would still be made of enlightened essence nature. But that reality, out of its own creative freedom, has fashioned you with a high degree of anavamala. You would be very, very ignorant of your real nature. By the time we get to the portion of the continuum of becoming that is inhabited by dogs and crows, we can clearly see the ability to self-reflect.

Human beings host an enormously varied range of capacities to self-reflect and become more aware. Some people have no inkling that there is any kind of experience outside of their own limited perspective. They feel extremely separate. Others have an unstoppable desire to find out about reality and to be of service.

The experience of suffering relates to a natural and temporary limitation in our capacity to connect with the larger Self. It is an aspect of dualistic karmic vision. Yet all limitation is also the play of the one Self. The light of consciousness shows up as both the play of ignorance and the play of waking up.

One time, a father came to satsang. He had two daughters. One daughter had been murdered, the other raped. He was so enraged and distraught, he had to be hospitalized for a time and remained heavily medicated. He lost interest in his work and lost his job. His life was in a shambles.

During the course of several satsangs, he asked many questions. He was sincerely looking for a way out of pain. Among many other exchanges, at one point I related to him that I had been raped by a stranger as a young teenager.

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