In Tantra, the practitioner often finds a way to take what the general public avoids or recoils from and turns them around in such a way that it is used to liberate them, so that the divine may be found in it, that the most sought of state is discovered within it.
In some texts and practices, the Tantrika takes a force or response like anger, terror, despondency etc, an intense emotion that may stupefy others and possess them, and instead see the profound intelligence and vibrant energy in it….so that Bramha, or Shiva and Shakti, source appears in it.
We can see elements of this in the world around us when someone says that what initially seemed like a “negative” event, turmed out to be a blessing in disguise. However, sometimes it takes years to see this, the Tantric application is a little more instantaneous.
This is the Yoga practitioner turning things around, like an alchemist creating gold out of a base metal. We can perhaps understand that this comes from the practitioners understanding of all things being of the same base nature, and in a constant state of flux and thus taking multiple forms. Perhaps this allows us to understand the case of Sages, Siddhas and adepts who constantly remain happy, joyful, humourous as they perceive satchitananda, reality, being, bliss. manifest in different ways, moment after moment.
This is an inate quality for us human beings, we’ll all have encountered someone who remains in good form, unaffected etc, regardless of the circumstances. Last night I was listening to a talk where the speaker mentioned some of the happiest people he’d met being the street people in the Indian city he lives in, who despite having none of the trappings (perhaps they actually trap us) of success, remain joyful.
We could perhaps think of this as acting, we have some sort of idea of what the response to a situation might be and play that out….in this case we recognise the cue, but choose not to respond, we realise we can act in a different way, or simply just abide in and enjoy satchitananda, our nature as vibrant reality, consciousness, bliss.
Perhaps the next time circumstances conspire to place you in a situation where you may be acting out one of the aforementioned emotional states, you will recall your ability to practice alchemy in regard to your inner state. OM
