Shunya

“space” by fleskw is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Shunya is the yogic term for abyss. This condition is the part of a natural cycle that is between the completion of a cycle, and the beginning of a new one.

This place has no characteristics. It lacks characteristics and can be experienced as a void, an infinite space or a dark depth. This is what the term shunya denotes.

This time feels like a time of great transformation and change. This is also something Vedic astrology, jyotish, points towards right now.

In these kinds of times we can meet just that part of the life process that is shunya.

As I said, this condition can be perceived as a void, like being in something formless and infinite without direction or purpose.

This phase can be very frightening if you do not have access to a feeling of being held and loved. We may then have to turn to contexts or others where we can be held, or trust, as we get through. This is particularly important because the transformation process that we are facing is great.

For this phase we can only allow ourselves to be carried through. We cannot get through it with our own efforts.

One can liken this part of the life process to the darkness in which the new seed begins to come to life. And it seems that this part of the life process can convey the new precisely because of the total annihilation of the old, in the void of what arises thereafter.

Perhaps the most challenging thing about this process is that, if the transformation is great, it takes us to a place of nothingness so great that even .m. our ability to reflect on the fact that we are in such a process disappears.

The reason why this has to happen is probably because in order for a total transformation to take place, all control over the situation must be lost. All previous patterns of dealing with situations must be obliterated, and cannot be part of the shaping of the new.

Music: Mantra lounge vol 1

Similar Posts

  • Ma!

    The Navaratri of spring is approaching. The 9 nights of Navaratri are sometimes divided into three parts. Three nights for the invocation of Durga, three for the invocation of Lakshmi and three for the invocation of Saraswati.  Durga is the aspect of the Goddess in its entirety; Mahadevi, who is summoned to fight Mahishasura in…

  • Trust-Vasanta Navaratri

    25 / 3-3 / 4 is Vasanta (spring) Navaratri. The 9 nights when you celebrate the Goddess, also called Shakti and Kundalini.  The goddess is the energy aspect of consciousness. In its entirety, she is the energy behind everything that exists. She is then called Mahadevi or Maha Durga. In this form she is also…

  • Sri Yantra

    What happens when contraction and expansion take place at the same time? Perhaps it is these circumstances that can create something truly new. A contraction to a nothing/ a small still point of concentrated energy, and then an explosion into a new creation. The Tantric tradition speaks of prakasha and vimarsha. Prakasha is the unmanifest…

  • Being with truth

    One student asked me after the last post, this appropriate question: So if you want to go through the process of Yoga, of facing truth more and more, how do you do it? Last time, we talked about Yoga as a truth-seeking tradition, and about unveiling layers of untruth and faulty knowledge. We also talked…

  • Together in love

    It is said in the Tantric tradition that “The Source” contains all the potentiality possible. It is also said that the purpose of the manifestation is to make the great consciousness aware of itself. In other words, a self-reflective process. Consciousness is referred to here as prakasha (the great light) and the reflection process as…