For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

On the last Monday of śrāvana is an especially sacred day for contemplating the Absolute because it is a culmination four or six weeks of very intense Sādhanā (spiritual practice). As such, as a celebration and consummation, I’d like to discuss something quite poignant: the yoga of grief & fullness.I want to compare some transcendalist schools of Advaita to the Tāntrik approach which emphasizes fullness, especially with regard the full spectrum of flavors (rasa) that arise in Consciousness! We’ll offer some a touching and telling stories of Lord Śiva’s grief, Matsyendranātha's fall, and the pain and grief of Sarada Devi, Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda!Often I feel there can be nothing more important than presenting this profoundly humanizing portraits of our heroes because rather than subtracting from their spirituality , they only add to it. Essentially, I want to talk about an all embracing kind of spirituality that leaves no experience unexplored, no facet untasted: in short, the Advaita of Kālī!. Naturally, we’ll explore the 5 phases of the 12 Krama deities too and Abhinava Gupta’s nava-rasa theory to point to the philosophical complexity and poetry of this position!Many of you will find this lecture someone reminiscent of some our community favorites like: 1. Mā Kāli's Bowl of Blood | Turning Suffering Into Ecstasy2. Mā Kālī's Non Dual Aspect & Tantrik Sādhanās to Attain It3. What Does Kālī Really Want?4. and most especially How To Succeed At Tantra & The Worship of The TerribleYou'll notice that in a sense, this is the key teaching or rather the uttama-vāda, highest revelation of our Kālī tradition! This talk also contains elements from another one of my favorites: What Makes Art Spiritual? | Kashmir ShaivismAt the end we offer a very refined spiritual practice for transforming all our pain and grief into an experience of aesthetic rapture or poetic delight! On this auspicious Tuesday, on Mā's sacred day, I lay all of these words as so many flowers at your feet, you who are Mā incarnate! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

A deep dive into tantric goddess systems and how one consciousness appears as multiple divine forms. Historical context and key texts illuminate Kali and tantric practice. The talk maps sets of goddesses—four, three, twelve—and links them to mental faculties and ritual visualizations. Practical meditation methods show how everyday experience becomes spiritual practice.

A deep dive into external ritual practices and how lighting, incense, costume, and fire shape sacred atmosphere. Exploration of mental worship and visualization as a portable inner practice. Discussion of substituting transgressive offerings with symbolic items and performing them mentally. Practical tips on integrating mantra, gesture, and feeling to train imagination and cultivate inner sovereignty.

Almost all of us have so man hang-ups lurking in our psyche. Whether through religious indoctrination or societal conditioning of any sort, most of us carry around a strong sense of duality that distinguishes between pure & impure, holy & unholy, right & wrong, good & bad etc. Often we feel like we are dirty or sinful or broken and in need of growth, healing and liberation which we often think we can get through spirituality. And correspondingly, most spiritual traditions take up a kind dualistic vision of the universe which distinguishes the Transcendent principle (i.e God) from the Immanent principle (the world). According to these transcendentalist traditions, the former is the goal that we are practicing towards and the latter is often seen as a debased obstacle to be scorned, avoided and ultimately overcome.In stark contrast to this is the non-dual Tāntrik view which embraces everything as Divine. God is the world and the world is God for only God is. As such, there is no sense of pure or impure, right or wrong, holy or unholy, good or bad or any other kind of dichotomy in this view since everything is through and through God, or śiva (i.e a blessing). But this idea (what to say of the realization of this idea in your own experience) can often wreak havoc with our cherished notions of duality. Although many of us are fascinated by non-dual traditions, in truth, many of us are still scared of non-duality. And who could blame us? If we really understand what is being claimed here and if we were reality to follow through with our realization, we would naturally feel a bit reserved since all our familiar prisons of dualistic thought are destroyed! For a mind attached to judging others, for a mind hell-bent on duality and on abstract standards of purity, for a mind attached to rules and structures and institutions, non-duality is terrifying. And what mind isn't to some extent colored by judgement, duality and notions of purity? What mind doesn't crave structure? When Mā Kālī's sword flashes, aimed at our neck, we would be right to tremble at first, even if we ultimately know that it entails non-dual realization! It is only natural that we tremble. As such, here is a talk about that. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

The one indubitable fact about my life is that I AM. Or rather, I am essentially consciousness because to be is to be aware and to be aware is to be. But what is the nature of that Consciousness? We argue in our tradition that this Conscious Self which I feel myself to be is really one and the same with God, Śiva and thatI am not at all merely localized to this contraction of limited body-mind-personality but that I am, in truth, all-pervasively present in all things as all things. And more than that, I am not only immanent in all things, I also transcend them all! I am full and empty, everything and nothing.What then do we make of insentience? If I, the sentient Self am all, then are all things sharing in my sentience? Are jugs and pieces of cloth sentient? Is the AI sentient? In fact, are cats and other people even sentient?! (i.e the problem of the philosophical zombie). And if I am all things, then why do I feel like only this one thing (namely this body and this mind)? How do you explain my jīva-tva (my littleness) when in fact I am śiva (the all-pervasive transcendent-immanent Absolute.) This is a really profound and beautiful question to ask because it takes us to the very heart of non-dual Śaivism! As such, on this third Monday of the sacred month of śrāvana, I present you with this discussion on the lofiest and most refined ideas of the Śaiva non-dual transmission, as part of our Paramārthasāra, Abhinava Gupta series. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Who or What is Kali?According to Abhinava Gupta , Kālī is: क्षेपो ज्ञानं च संख्यां गतिनाद इति क्रमात्। कल्लनां कुर्वती काली कर्षिणीत्यभिधीयते। She who projects, She who knows, She who delimits, She who vibrates, She who is resonance and She who is process She who imagines, She who acts, She who devours (i.e reabsorbs)....this is verily Kālī In other words, Kālī is that resonant, dynamic One from Whom the world is projected outward, articulated and known and into Whom it is reabsorbed in a constant simultaneity of unfolding! But what does that mean? And what does Kālī have to do with Śakti and what is Śakti to Śiva? Is there such a thing as a Śākta (worshipper of Devī) distinct from Śaivism? In trying to approach some of these questions, we discuss one of my favorite topics: yoginīs, mātrikās & cremation ground deities! As our śrāvana festivities and practices intensify with the passing weeks, there is a rising fervor and I am feeling rather inspired to explore the cremation ground roots of our Śaiva heritage, to make a few historical points about Ati Margins and about Kāpālikās and about what they discovered, understanding it all within the wider philosophical context of Somānanda's presentation of Śiva as primordial dynamic Consciousness, inseparable from Śakti, the pentadof powers! (cit, ānanda, icchā, jñāna, kriyā etc.) This union of Śiva + Powers (i.e puissance or latency or agency or dyanmism) is what we call Kālī and this is what I hope to explore with you a little bit today in class!According to Shiti Kanttha in Mahānāya Prakāśa: एवं आधौ एव शक्तिः स्पन्दनशीला बहिर्विषयोन्मुखी व्यापिनीभावेन सृष्ट्युपदेशभाजनम्...। एकैव चिन्नीलाधवाभासरूपा अस्थिरहठगवती कुलैव पश्चात्प्रतिसंहतस्वभावा अग्राग्रागमिप्रसरत्सहजरूपा लक्ष्यते, सोऽयं निरुपाधौ चित्स्फायादुपाधिकृतो भेदः। Verily is She is the Primordial Pulsation, inclined towards externality, the all-pervasive receptacle of emission and wisdom. She alone is the Pure Awareness in which shines experiences like the colour blue etc. Dyanmic and forcefully flowing into externality, She is verily "Kula" (the embodied universe) and yet afterwards, she withdraws it back into her nature. Her spotaneous nature is found at the very edge of arising experience. Duality arises in Her when there are limiting adjuncts but in truth She shines non-differently!Shiva = Kali, as in Shiti Kanttha:शिवस्वभावैव शक्तिः न वस्त्वन्तरम्,इत्येकम् एव शिवव्यपदेश्यं शक्तिव्यपदेश्यं च वस्तुतत्त्वं नापूर्वं किञ्चित्। The essential nature of Shiva is Shakti; they are is no seperate reality! That which is called "Shiva" and that which is called "Shakti" is the same thing! And this essential reality is wholly ordinary and not something bizzare! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Last week, on the first Monday of Śrāvana, the sacred month of Lord Śiva, we gave this exhaustive account of Śaiva Tantra in both theory and practice. It was indeed an exceedingly auspicious day for the worship and contemplation of that Absolute Consciousness which is our very own essence nature in which all things shine forth blissfully!As such, I present you with this discussion on c 3 Ways to Practice With The Pañcākshari (The 5 Syllable Mantra)! Since we've been discussing a lot of theory and philosophy recently in our gatherings, I felt it might be good to ground it all in some practice. And what better practice than this central practice of the tradition using the central mantra that appears in the middle of the Śrī Rudram of the Yajur Veda, arguable the central Veda of the Tāntrik tradition! ciddṛśātmani dṛṣṭveśaṁ tyaktvā vṛttimarīcikām |labdhvā śivapadacchāyāṁ dhyāyet pañcākṣarīṁ sudhīḥ (9)Having seen the Lord as one's own self through the eyes of Consciousness,Having abandoned all other modifications of the mirage-like mind &Having reflected upon the state of śiva (i.e having taken refuge in the cooling shade of śiva, i.e having received His grace)The wise one should meditate on the 5-syllable Mantra!Jai Shambho!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

As you approach Mā Kālī, you will likely encounter many transgressive (and for some people of a certain temperament, even disturbing) practices. Things like animal sacrifice (Bali) and offerings of meat, fish, liquor, intoxicants and sex (pañca-makāras) are featured quite strongly in some of the primary sources on Mā Kālī & Her worship and this has created a mixture of fascination and aversion, superstition and misunderstanding and in some cases, an obstacle to approaching Mā and ultimately realizing Her. As such, in this short exposition, we say a few things about these Kaula/Vāma mārga-type offerings, picking up the thread for our last two conversations on the subject from last week: Substituting the Pañcamakāras, Forbidden Offerings & Kaula Elements in the Vijñāna-Bhairava TantraJai Vāme! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Right now in our How To Do Tāntrik Pūjā lecture series, we're exploring the topic of Mānasa-pūjā, mental worship, the process of internalizing everything that we would otherwise be doing outwardly. This approach is of course very, very helpful when it comes to things like pañca-makāras or even bali (animal sacrifice) because although these things are very much part of Kālī pūjā, the external observance of these things might not be appropriate in some contexts and certainly won't suit the temperament of many practitioners! The solution for such practitioners? Omit it/substitute it or internalize it! In this talk, we discuss what the pañca-makāras (the 5 forbidden offerings) are and make a points about for whom this practice could be beneficial and for whom it could, perhaps potentially be ruinous! Given all the fascination (as well as superstition) around this topic and of course, given its centrality in the Kaula marga and the worship of deities like Mā Kālī, it's worth taking a swipe at in a mature and grounded way! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Today on the very sacred and auspicious day of Nāga Pañcami, the day when we honor serpents in the holy month of śrāvana, the sacred month of Lord Śiva, I felt it would be wonderful to contemplate Mā (śakti) as the all-pervasive enlivening/animating energy that is in all things and IS all things. This energy or life-force is inseparable from Consciousness, the all-pervasive reality that in this tradition we call Śiva. But what does it mean to say that? In this lecture, we point to how Śiva is not just quiescent, formless, impersonal Reality but that He is always endowed with ever-free and ever-blissful self-reflection (vimarśa) which in this tradition we call Śakti (i.e Mā Kālī) and that this self-reflection manifests as the eternal triad of the powers of willing (icchā-śakti), knowing (jñāna-śakti) and doing (kriyā-śakti) which is in effect what this entire universe is! This universe is God reflecting on Herself; it is the blazing forth of God's enlivened energy! For God IS Herself nothing but enlivened and enlivening Energy! We get this very radical Śakta view that everything is alive from Somānanda, the great Tāntrik master who might have been the first to articulate, in philosophical terms, this pantheistic pan-animism of Consciousness-Energy. In this lecture I argue that Somānanda's revelation in Śiva-drshti is the foundational philosophy of Śaktism, the view that everything is Mā, living, pulsating, throbbing Power! Also, in this talk, I share some insights from a conversation I had with Pujya Swami Bhajanananda Saraswati at the Kali Mandir in Laguna Beach regarding Animism and its link to Śakta theory and practice. Pujya Swamiji proposed a diachronic approach to understanding these traditions and in this view, Śaktism might be most universal of all traditions! So we attempt to argue for this also. Anyway since Nāga-pañcami is also a day to contemplate Kundalinī Śakti (or the "Serpent Power" as Arthur Avalonji beautifully called Her), this discussion on Power, Vitality and Śakti in the context of Śaiva Non-Duality seemed very fitting! Jai Nageśvarī Devī Ki Jai! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM