Just be attentive to one-pointedness, that is all! ~Swami Lakshmanjoo

Excerpt from The Mystery of Vibrationless-Vibration in Kashmir Shaivism: Vasugupta’s Spanda Kārikā & Kṣemarāja’s Spanda Sandoha, with a simple but profound message by Swami Lakshmanjoo (Spanda Karika verse 19).

“Just be attentive to one-pointedness, that is all!” ~Swami Lakshmanjoo, Kashmir Shaivism

Audio 3 – 01:00:17

यदा त्वेकत्र संरूढस्तदा तस्य लयोदयौ ।

नियच्छन्भोक्तृतामेति ततश्चक्रेश्वरो भवेत् ॥१९॥

yadā tvekatra saṁrūḍhastadā tasya layodayau /

niyacchanbhoktṛtāmeti tataścakreśvaro bhavet //19//

Just be attentive to one-pointedness, that is all (yada ekatra saṁrūḍha). Tadā tasya pralayodayau niyacchan, bas, see that it is not destroyed–don’t give rise to it, don’t let it fall.

JOHN: In other words, don’t pay attention to it at all, don’t care for it to come up or . . .

SWAMIJI: No, no. For instance, there is one-pointedness, develop one-pointedness. You have not to develop it again and again. Just see that it does not fall [and that] it does not rise.

ERNIE: Not rise?

SWAMIJI: It must remain in one level, one level without any flickering state. Bhoktṛtām eti, then he becomes bhoktā, then he becomes . . .

JOHN: Real enjoyer.

SWAMIJI: . . . the enjoyer. Tataḥ cakreśvaraḥ, he becomes, he governs, the cycle of the numberless energies of Lord Śiva. So the numberless energies, those [very energies] who had done so much mischief before, they become [his] slaves.

ERNIE: Not rise?

SWAMIJI: Don’t give it to rise. Rise will also make you disturbed, make your one-pointedness disturbed. Don’t give it rise. Be attentive, bas!

JOHN: So “attentive” means?

SWAMIJI: Hastam hastena saṁrūddhya, just squeeze your hands, squeeze your fingers, squeeze your body, and . . .

JOHN: . . . clench your teeth.

SWAMIJI: Yes, that I have told you.

JOHN: But get that at all costs.

SWAMIJI: Bas, put your mind in one-pointedness.

JOHN: So, this verse refers to that other earlier verse where it gave those two kinds of meditation–one where you hold the thought and you don’t lose it, and one where you lose it and you go to those divine tanmātras. So, he is talking about here [that] “holding this without rise and fall” means, just having it in one point.

SWAMIJI: One point. This is the first . . . this is the first . . . this is the first.