The Six Powers of Shakti to Overcome Obstacles
THE OBSTACLE.
An impasse arises. Your path is blocked. Momentum lurches to a halt. The vast expanse of possibility becomes consumed by the shadow of a mountain.
Injury, disease, handicap, disappointment, failure, resistance, diminishing returns, hopelessness, loneliness and more come to mind when I think of obstacles. It’s easy to get mired by the feeling of defeat leading us to settle, blame, give up and stay small.
What if these very obstacles were in fact energetic projections manifested by your own soul’s desire to reveal an aspect of yourself that you have yet to discover, and is asking to be known?
What if obstacles are guideposts from beyond appearing as obstinate and uncomfortable circumstances that may or may not lead us to our deepest experience of life and self depending on our willingness?
Herein lies the holy juncture. We can fight it until we fossilize, staying stubborn, resistant and small, or, dilate towards this challenge, and call in ways of being that were previously resisted?
These underlying forces of resistance could very well be in cahoots with the “deities'“ or God/dess, who are desiring to be felt and known through us. And by investigation and curiosity into the source of our suffering, we may, in fact, expand in the face of adversity, just as your highest self would want.
The “power of the deity” or “Shakti”, then appears as the impulse to overcome, make peace with, soften, investigate, evolve, create or transcend.
The “asura” or shadow, is our avoidance, resistance, denial and repulsion.
Obstacles have a way of softening their grip if we are courageous enough to embrace them, feeling into the blockage with our whole being and becoming inquisitive. Harnessing the impulse of Shakti to overcome and recognize the call for creativity or adaptability will allow us to continue on over the mountain and well onto our dharmic path.
Our greatest fears lie in our imagination after all, and it seems our greatest misery lies in our lack of willingness to be with what is.
“The difference between misery and happiness depends on what we do with our attention.”
Becoming rooted in truth by aligning with the five powers of Shakti delivers an expansive state of possibility and loosens the bind of limitation.
The Five Powers of Shakti:
Chit Sakti - The Power of Awareness through observation and dissolving ideas, thoughts, and expectations.
Shifting our attention from the object of our awareness (thought, pain, pleasure, ego identifications) to becoming aware of awareness itself. This practice leads us to experience the heightened, extra-sensory reality. i.e-becoming wide open spacious awareness, non-reactive.
Ananda Sakti- The Power of Bliss. Relinquishing the need to control, and even understand, by moving into acceptance. Dropping into “hrdayam”, the heart centered awareness which reveals the taste of true joy. Not a joy reliant on any external experience or object, but the bliss of perfect awareness. Bliss becomes the connection to pure possibility of life itself within you.
Iccha Sakti- The power of DIVINE will. As we slip out of the ego-centric focus and the limitations of perception (by letting go of our need to define and categorize the moment) then we begin to experience a desire, an impulse of natural self-expression, an inspiration that naturally surges forth only in a desire for self-expression. This desire does not come from knowing about an object but is “a precognitive urge toward self-expression. This is when we feel moved by the mover. This is the difference between force of individual desire and the uprising of inspiration that moves through you. To experience iccha sakti, you must let yourself repose in Self-awareness.
i.e. - Genius, brilliance, inspiration.
Jnaña Sakti- The power of knowing. Jnana sakti is the framework for understanding how energy organizes and moves itself. It is the discipline to learn, question and employ natural design as it has shown itself to move. It is understanding and investigating the pathways for knowledge.
i.e. - Learning the framework for teaching yoga through patterns of sequencing, such as initiating, sustaining, transforming, cooling and sealing a practice.) Aligning with the auspicious current for expansion. “Mastering the knowledge of form and structure.” Discernment (tarka) leads us to bliss and freedom.
Kriya Sakti- The Power of Action. When the divine movement or flow of consciousness presents itself for Note the difference: karma as action that is bound by the ego. Grasping, need for results, it is conditioned and conditional. kriya is “spontaneously arising that expresses our natural being.” pure, self-less, no agenda.Enjoying the action for its own sake.
Ultimately: Svatantrya Sakti- The power of Freedom. “The Divine exercising the five powers as an expression of innate freedom and autonomy.”
These six powers define what the Divine is- a framework to recognize pure energy sourced from the subtle wave of potentiality. If our power opposes this, then we can be sure that we are bound in the karmic wheel of conditioned existence called “Samsara”.
The karma that creates the samsara is the myopic attention to the object of our awareness: thought, pain, pleasure.
THE SHIFT: Become aware instead of your awareness.
As your awareness expands, the surroundings become more vivid, real, or even dream-like. This is a hint of our inner potency and an experience of Reality as we strengthen our ability to cultivate awareness.
Ritual for grounded presence:
Invocation Mantra to Ganesha:
Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha (3-108x’s)
Gratitude- Offer deep appreciation for all the things that are going right in your life.
Shraddha- Have faith that you are divinely held and supported in ways that cannot be seen.
Practice presence. Make sure you are comfortable but upright. Sit and breathe six deeply focused breaths. Become aware of your awareness. Seek wide open spaciousness in your awareness. Drop your awareness into the cradle of your heart and let go of your need to control. Rest in the soft, yet alert state of being for 108 moments.
As you come out of your meditation, take one moment at a time. Go slowly.
Visualize the best outcome, take steps to cultivate this outcome. Let curiosity, exploration, R & D (research and development) become your allies.
Become absorbed in the question.
Continue to re-visit, and with patience and loving attention, allow ALL to unfold in its own time.
There is a Hindu deity by the name of Ganesha who is revered as the “dissolver of obstacles.” His specialty is melting away the hinderances that keep us from realizing the splendor and potency of our true self.
Ganesha can also be held responsible for putting obstacles in our path to get our attention. A way of waking us out of a complacent slumber. A way of guiding us closer to Self or a god of our own understanding.
May the blessing of this obstacle bring new and unexpected ways of relating to self and others.
May your life expand in beauty and grace.
Photo Credit: ©Joanie Schwarz