The Radiance Sutras. The Gateway to Wonder and Delight [a book]
The nature of attention will call you to return.
Again and again answer that call.
And be saturated with knowing: “I belong Here. I am at home”
Are you looking to reignite your spiritual practice?
Here is a book that may be just right for the job.
Last year I made “The Radiance Sutras. 112 Gateways to the Yoga of Wonder and Delight” a part of my daily practice. Every morning and evening I’d read just one page before meditation. It was a ritual in itself: candles, incense, door open to my quiet garden… And after days, weeks or months something clicked. Something fell into place.
One evening, when I was on a phone with a friend and she asked a difficult question, a question that probably meant to be rhetorical, I realized, this book offered a perfect answer. I wrote about it in my previous post.
With no goal other than “just” reading a page a day, I absorbed the teachings about the purpose of life, the importance of full engagement in all experiences, the light and the dark, non attachment, the power and the gifts of full presence. All this – underlined with incredible joy that comes from being alive (when done well, that is…)
There are some ideas, teachings, that we don’t just understand with our logical mind. We assimilate them on a different level. That’s what happened with me and The Radiance Sutras:
Through the way of effortless confluence…
I want to share with you few fragments, maybe you will connect with their positivity and intensity. And if you do, get the book. In addition to the poems, which I think have a lot to do with daily life, the second part contains 112 Yukti Practices that you can also use for the inner work.
But first, what is it?
It’s not the original Patanjali Sutras but contemporary rendering by a teacher, Lorin Roche, PhD
It’s a conversation between Shiva and Shakti, where they explore: “The divinity permeating our body NOW, the alchemical power of Sanskrit, the depths of our connection to all levels of life.”
[Shakti and Shiva are within everyone of us. Shakti – the Creative Power; also, the entire creation and mother of the Universe. Shiva – Pure Consciousness permeating everything.]
Now, some of my favorite poems, or fragments:
Every element in you loves the others:
Earth loves rain, sky loves sun,
Sun loves the space it shines through,
Space loves everyone equally.
In meditation luxuriate in knowing this deep
And simple truth.
Every cell is an organ of sense
Infused with majesty
…
The air I’m breathing was exhaled in ecstasy
by the ancient sun.
This earth I am standing on
Was born of cosmic fire.
[…]
This is my religion.
The attraction between suns
Is the same
As the love pulsating in my heart
…
All around you in every moment the world is offering a feast for your senses
Songs are playing, tasty food on the table, fragrances in the air…
You who long for the union
Attend this banquet with loving focus.
…
Honor the power of speech
and with every breath
bless the life that surrounds you.
…
Whenever any of the senses is impaired
It becomes a gateway to infinity
Whether by deprivation, injury or age
Obstruction of the senses
Invites awareness of Soul.
The mind can no longer take the world for granted
Attention spirals inward
And touches the glistening emptiness –
The reality behind appearance.
…
Position yourself safely at the edge of a cliff
Gaze into the abyss and see only depth
Immediately doubts dissolve.
Be steady as the mind dissolves itself into its natural freedom.
…
You will also read what is NOT meditation on pages 155-157
My biggest takeaway
When we are present in the eternal NOW, our awareness merges with the Divine and what we find in those moments of eternal Now, helps in the mundane. This way we practice the discovery of our true nature: the human and the divine.
In the moment of full engagement with the present moment, our human time and the divine time intersect.
One doesn’t exists fully without the other. Read a Related post
You can get this book here https://amzn.to/3SOp6n9